Eden Wild Goose Nature
Nature notes from the Focus Magazine May 2021

Blossoms
 

Last year, in that incredible Spring when we were all stunned by what had hit us with Covid and lockdown biting into our lives, we were forced to look for our own ways of redemption or, at least, coping with the strangeness and even scariness of it all.
 
Who can forget that unseasonably dry and sunny April when blue skies and warmth beckoned us outside, just as that became a hard place to get to. For myself, those days entailed hours of sitting in the garden watching, listening and being. One thing that is most memorable for me from those garden times was the extraordinarily abundant covering of blossom on the apple tree that stands, rather bowed and untended, in the back garden. The ancient tree for a while at least, was dressed as exuberantly as a carnival dancer shimmying around the streets in Rio or Notting Hill. Unhindered by any inhibitions about dressing inappropriately for her age, the old girl threw everything she had at it, wearing her frothy pink and white blossom as if there was no tomorrow, and it was now or never. She did indeed appear to be a tree ‘singing for joy’ and ‘clapping her hands’, as a couple of Bible verses put it.
 
Around her, the air thrummed and buzzed with the sounds of insects, eagerly scouting for pollen and nectar. And the branches were alive with small birds, searching for all manner of bugs to feed on and take home to their hungry nestlings. A whole, wonderful, connected ecosystem of inexpressible joy.
 
What a Spring season she had, and since her days must be numbered, perhaps her final fling. Certainly, the apple crop when it matured in late September and through October was overwhelming. Give them away, cook them or simply crunch them, there was no way for us to consume them all, but we can only guess how much pleasure they gave to the blackbirds, thrushes, hedgehogs and others as we lobbed them by the hundred into the woods.
 
The National Trust has recently inaugurated a blossom season watch for us all to participate in and enjoy, and what a good thing that is. Anything that helps us to connect with the seasons more deeply, to observe, notice and enjoy is so positive. We know we are blessed to be living in a beautiful area here with access to trees all round us, but so many don’t. A recent report has identified 295 neighbourhoods, affecting 440,000 people, where there is no reasonable access to green spaces or trees. Imagine that- opening your curtains or your front door and seeing nothing but concrete and tarmac… grey, grey, grey.
 
I am so grateful that perhaps one positive outcome of this difficult time has been the more clearly articulated need for green access for all of us. While we enjoy our own apple trees or equivalent this year, we can also join in with groups of many flavours who are campaigning and working for our environment and our vital connection with it.
 
Philippa Skinner