Remember, remember ...

Remember, remember By Adrian Leighton

Sitting outside Marks & Spencer’s in Nantwich, enjoying a cup of coffee and iced bun, the other Thursday, I was caught up in a scene of Autumnal life. The continual falling of the golden leaves from the trees in the soft seasonal light absorbed me into a timeless sense of being. In the background the muffled bells of St Mary’s called all to remembrance of the fallen in another time.

Later that day, I was captured in the same sense of unity with the natural world as I walked across the Turnpike Fields. The stillness of the vegetation deceptively whispered to me “Just resting!”. To my human eye there was little to catch the eye. Yet the seasonal cycle life is still continuing a pace. I have always found this period of human “remembrance”, with All Saints Day, All Hallow’s Eve and Remembrance Day all following in swift succession as profoundly synchronised with nature’s season. Our human remembering is part of a much larger remembering. In nature “remembrance” is allowing the memory of the past to give life to the future – perhaps a very fitting picture for us as well. In nature nothing is wasted even that which seems worn and decayed. Unlike us, nature is not so hasty to clear away the remnants of yesterdays life. The leftover brown stalks will in time, over winter, break down and feed next year’s growing.

Already, perhaps due to the unseasonal mild weather, the hints of next Spring are already showing. Among the brown stalks can be seen the small blue flowers of Green Alkanet, defying the threat of winter’s frost. The several fruits of fungi tell us that there is more entangled life underground than we can imagine. A poke around the base of our vintage Oak near the entrance on Whitchurch Road, reveals three or four different species, like children gathered round a much-loved grandparent. The delicate fragility of the fungi fruit next to the solidity and agelessness of the tree.

Over in our newly planted woodland, the young trees are shedding their leaves, to put all their energy into forming symbiotic friendship with the organisms of the earth. Whilst those we planted in May exude the happy confidence of school children in their second year, now well grounded in their place for years to come.

The pond, in the summer busy with dragonflies and damselflies, which seem to have found it a very compatible home, now lies silent and still to our eyes and ears, hiding untold life beneath the clear water. Yes, beneath the surface cover of algae lies crystal clear water giving evidence to the oxygenating plants that have colonised the pond in the year and half of its existence. Interestingly, both ponds are developing in different way, no doubt due to their positioning. The pond in the top field affected by run-off from the “improved grassland” above it and the second pond which never seems to fill with water but is a haven for water beetles of all kinds.

When the weather turns and finally drives us in doors, I hope that you will continue enjoy remembering. My new book “Audlem Wildlife Diaries” may well be a useful help to do that. It is available from Williams Newsagents or Audlem Mill Shop and priced at £8-95p. All profits from the sale of the book will be used for wildlife projects in Audlem.