Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me,
Liz Scott,
Out and about on a morning walk just outside the campsite at Kendal where I've been staying and there's a lovely little stroll which I can take from the campsite.
It follows the River Kent over a wooden bridge and I follow the bank of that River Kent then back on the other side and I'm on a footpath that is a very distinct muddy footpath.
It's dry,
We've had hot weather so it's like dust,
The mud,
And either side of this path is absolutely high as anything with meadow sweet these sort of little white flowers I'm just touching them now and they're sprinkling away like confetti the grass is a tall I mean this grass here I'm just standing beside it must be four foot high with their seed heads on the top of them everything looks lush and heavy and thick in the hedgerows it's really beautiful and I had the most wonderful experience beside the the river because I just paused to look over it and there was this flash of blue on the riverbank and it was a kingfisher and I don't know if you've ever seen a kingfisher before but I've never seen one stationary I only ever see like this flash of blue it flickers past so quickly and it's almost like you blink and think did I really see that you wait and you wait wait of course it doesn't come back again but it was just ah my heart just started beating so quickly with delight at having seen it.
And today's reflection is messages from those who have passed.
I don't know about you,
But I am really intrigued about the connection,
Even if somebody has died,
That ongoing connection I still feel with them.
Just as I was leaving to come on this camping journey,
There were a couple of things that happened.
One is there was a peacock butterfly that landed right beside me as I was packing the campervan and just stayed there for quite a while and for me in my world when I see a butterfly I'm reminded of my dad and so that brought my dad to mind and I had a little chat with my dear departed dad and I just said hope he's okay and told him that I was going on a camping trip and I just had a little bit of a moment of connection so that was one thing I always when I see butterflies particularly the peacock I think of my dad And the other thing that happened,
And it's something that's been sort of nudging me for a while,
When my husband's mum died,
And she's Scottish,
So when my husband's mum died,
She lived locally,
Moved down from Scotland,
And she had this beautiful climbing rose in the garden that she and her late husband loved.
And I just took cutting from that rose bush for siblings each a cutting and we had two cuttings that survived so I've always had one additional cutting that I've had in a pot not quite knowing what to do with it.
And I then knew that it was right that this cutting that was in a pot I wanted to bring up to Scotland and we're going to go and see my husband's aunt which was his mum's younger sister who's still alive in Scotland and we're going to give her this cutting so if you can imagine it packing up a tiny little camper van with bikes and bags and food and everything else you need and a rose in a pot so we're traveling with a rose And the night before we came on our camping trip,
I dreamt of Stuart's mum.
I can't even remember what it was about,
But that kind of cemented this,
Yes,
I'm definitely going to take this rose.
I really want to take this rose to her sister.
So that's the second thing.
And then the third thing yesterday was as I was unpacking the camper van and we were getting in and out,
Putting the table and chairs out.
And we'd been to this campsite before and the last time I came was with my dear old dog who died a year ago,
Pretty much exactly a year ago today.
And as I was coming in and out of the camper van,
I came out of the van and right in front of me was a tennis ball.
And I looked around because there were no dogs passing it was obviously and I couldn't quite understand it like I literally had been 30 seconds in the van out the van in the van out the van came out again and there was his tennis ball right in front of me.
And I just had a few little words for my dear old dog Buzz who we did bring to this very campsite and I've got some very fond memories of walking with him from this site and I just took that as a little message from my old dog.
Messages from those who've passed.
I just wonder if that makes sense to you and if you have anything that resonates for you around that.
Do you sometimes feel that you're getting a little reminder from someone who's passed on?
I'd love your reflections and of course don't forget to join me again tomorrow for another five minutes in nature.
