Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott in our little tiny wildflower meadow here in the village where I live.
I've just walked down from my house and it's a cool day today,
Very cool.
Yesterday was lovely and warm,
Today it's got a sense that there's rain in the air,
It's overcast and grey and I've paused in this little meadow,
It's I think it's about a third of an acre and I feel really thrilled because I'm right beside some red sorrel which is growing up from the grasses which are starting now to shoot up,
There are buttercups I can see,
There's dock leaves which I know are a bit of a menace so we might need to come as volunteers and take up some of the dock leaves.
I can see the cuckoo flower which is a beautiful little white flower,
A very delicate looking flower and I've looked it up and realized it's edible,
The leaves and the flowers are edible which is interesting information for me.
The bluebells are spotted around the place,
They are looking like they're going over now and there's a whiteness of plantain which is a tall plant and then it flowers with this very feathery white flower that actually looks rather pretty although I know for some people they don't like the plantain at all,
They think it's just a weed and today I've come down to the wildflower meadow with some information in hand.
I've got to give thanks to one of our listeners here on Insight Timer,
Richard,
Who shared with me an infographic that he had created about plants that he's interested in and I just thought you had to get designers to do that sort of thing these days but actually with the help of the computer and what feels to me like a lot of magic I've created an infographic sharing what to look out for in our wildflower meadow in the month of May and I've come down and I've just stuck it up on the gate in the hopes that the people that don't like this wildflower meadow in our village will start to get interested in why we're doing it.
There's a small group of volunteers on one of them that are taking part in keeping this as a wildflower meadow and one of the common complaints we get is that it's messy well nature isn't tidy nature doesn't like straight edges and flat grass nature is by its nature wild it provides habitats it gives food I can see right beside me here there's a molehill obviously the moles are enjoying the worms that are in the soil which means the soil is nice and healthy so what people see is mess I see as beautiful and I realized from recent comments that were on the village forum that people don't see it like I do for me this looks so beautiful I can't see why anybody wouldn't love it but people don't so with the help of the computer I've created a little infographic and I've put it on the gate my sense is that if people start to build a relationship with the meadow they start to look out for the plants and the insects and the birds that they can spot at this time of year maybe that relationship will help people realize how beautiful it actually is that's my that's my experiment that I'm running and so I'm going to produce a little graphic each month and if I'm able to also create some plants of the week or plant of the month graphics as well to get people engaged in our meadow and what I realized is that when we as people are in relationship to something it shifts when I'm in relationship with my neighbors I have a sense of connection which I don't get when I just read about things on our online forum on the village or when I watch the news for example and I see horrible things happening to people overseas well when I've got a relationship with somebody who is being impacted by those horrible things that are happening overseas and suddenly it becomes more real in my world it becomes more alive I have a real connection to it so today is all about building relationship being in communication being in touch with being connected to other people and to the natural world I feel it's really important and I would love to know your reflections on this as well so please do leave me a comment and don't forget I'll be back again tomorrow with another five minutes in nature
