Having been born and raised in Yorkshire, I’ve grown up within these beautiful landscapes but it is only now within my adult years I realise what a privilege this has been.

Walking is how I most enjoy experiencing nature, however, sometimes we take this simple activity for granted. Many more people have turned to it as a way of coping through the last 12 months and it has been wonderful to see so many people benefitting from it.

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During the past year, I have been forced to slow down and nature, in particular trees, have been where I have found solace. I found that If I started the day outside in nature, I felt much calmer and happier. Whenever I could, I went for a walk in the nearby woods. I noticed how still the trees were on some days when there was little breeze to move them and how much their branches moved in the wind on other days, but their trunks stayed still, anchored into the earth by their roots. Just sitting in the woods for 10 minutes and noticing the beauty around me, my mind became still and the busy thoughts that were circling in my head began to subside. Being still has helped me to think more clearly, make better decisions and feel less stressed and overwhelmed by small things as my brain isn’t busy all of the time. So my first lesson from trees is to be still and slow down rather than rushing around all the time. (more…)

If you stop to think about clouds, they are phenomenal; huge, ever changing and floating above us, regulating temperature and light down here on earth.  Yet most of the time, we take clouds for granted, barely pausing to notice them.  Watching clouds is a wonderful way to learn about weather, or just let your mind wander, contemplating Big Ideas.  And no matter where you live, you can’t miss them.  The brilliant Cloud Appreciation Society sums it up in its own manifesto;

We think that clouds are Nature’s poetry, and the most egalitarian of her displays, since everyone can have a fantastic view of them. (more…)

“Robin” by pauljeffery59

‘A crow in a crowd is a rook and a rook on its own is a crow’

After many conversations in our house about why the birds weren’t frequenting the bird feeders in our garden, this past week has allowed us to get back on ‘bird track’.  There has been a lot to notice.  Tuesday saw the first visitor to the feeder – a robin.  It was strange to see its cautious movements around the garden before it dared to make a dash for one rushed mouthful of seeds; hardly even stilling its wings before flying off again to the safety of the hedge.

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Ivy is one of the ‘Lost Words’; everyday nature words removed from a children’s dictionary, that inspired Robert Macfarlane’s book of poems.  In our final blog for this series, each member of staff has written a short piece exploring what ivy means to us, with themes of resilience, sustenance and renewal recurring throughout our writing.  ‘Clingy, luscious and misunderstood’, we hope you can see this enduring evergreen in a new light too.

Dear Ivy,

In the past, people called you Bindwood and Lovestone.  You still find a way to stick to everything, not letting go easily. You aren’t afraid to keep climbing high, the top branches are within easy reach.  (more…)

I’ve been telling my children bedtime stories of adventures in magical woods since before they could understand the words. We are lucky enough to live under the shadow of Otley Chevin and often go exploring amongst its enchanting trees.  At this time of the year they like nothing better than stuffing their pockets with the most precious of all treasures, the tiny acorn… (more…)

Conkers to me always symbolise new beginnings. There is a huge horse chestnut tree in the grounds of my children’s school, and every year as the new term starts in September, so begins the daily hunt for any fallen conkers, and the challenge of breaking them open to see how big they are! When the Get Out More team agreed in September last year that our theme of the year would be a tribute to the wonderful Lost Words book, never could we have imagined what lay ahead of us, and how much more important nature would become over the coming months. Suddenly it’s autumn and we are at conker time again. Someone seems to have put the world in fast forward! (more…)

This month’s Lost Word is ‘Bramble’. For me, it conjures images of hands covered in dark purple stains; Tupperware full of juicy blackberries; family walks to find piles of spiky fortresses, tumbling over walls lining familiar country paths. Some years hot and hazy, a tribute to the long, warm days of summer. Some years losing heat well before they should, meaning jackets were needed to go hunting for the round, purple, plump treasures.

“Bramble is on the march again. Rolling and arching along the hedges, into parks on the city edges”. Robert Macfarlane once again perfectly capturing their essence, bullies of abandoned spaces, no care as to where they grow or how they look, intent on ever-growing and protecting as many juicy blackberries as they possibly can. (more…)

The purple moors are the backdrop to high summer.  I have always lived near moorland and when the dark heather blooms brightly it signals to me those brief weeks when the summer holidays are in full swing and the countryside is in playful mode.  It reminds me of picnics in the Pennines, days out at Dales agricultural shows and bilberry picking on the North York Moors with my grandparents, the inviting sea twinkling in the distance. (more…)

Do you suffer from fern fever?  I have come close a few times.  This fever or craze for ferns began in the Victorian era when fern forays to find rare ferns and even fern stealing were very real! Pteridomania, as it was known, meant people were mad about ferns; collecting them and using their recognisable shape in their homes, artwork and even on their biscuits.  Have you ever noticed the fern pattern on a custard cream? Me neither!  We have the Victorians and their fern fever to thank for this legacy. (more…)