Under a Paynes Grey sky
walking thoughts in rain and sun
“Summer on the high plateau can be delectable as honey; it can also be a roaring scourge. To those who love the place, both are good, since both are part of its essential nature. And it is to know its essential nature that I am seeking here. Nan Shepherd’s opening lines to The Living Mountain
A wet, very wet, and windy, very windy, walk over Fairsnape on a recent Sunday morning.
Whilst it is always good to be out and experience all kinds of weather, yet to be donned in winter walking clothing and buffed by 40 mph wind in June is something else. Oh for the shorts and T-shirts trainers rather than gaiters and boots of previous summers. Indeed this time last year, temperatures were around 30° C, today the ‘feels like’ temperature struggle to 3°C.
Yet storms are participatory. Standing at the cliff-top I do not simply watch a storm, I am interacting. I do not merely feel its power; there is an energy exchange, an almost recognisable communication between the storm and me. We are made of the same stuff. Together we are emotional, physical, chemical, and fundamental. ( (Windswept, Life, Nature and Deep Time, Annie Worsley))
On the Fairsnape plateau, clearly audible about the sound of the wind and rain, were the very distinct calls of the sky lark or meadow pippit.
Fairsnape Fell (fell of the ‘level meadow’) at 520m is the highest point in the south western Forest of Bowland Fells, and a name I took for my consultancy over 20 years ago. At that time I knew somehow I wanted my fledging business to be be connected with place and nature. To bring my experiences of a life outdoors, mostly at that time in, around and under mountains, and inportantly to be inspired by and learn from nature and changing seasons. This is an ongoing journey, and the frequent walks over Fairsnape over the years, in all weathers has give time and space for reflection on what I do and who I am.
All too often we identify the call of the Lark with the famous and beautiful Lark Ascending tune by Vaughn Williams and of the joy in summer evening meadows. Yet maybe today that call of the skylark was something else completely, a distress, a complaint against us, a protest at temperatures, at the unseasonal summer weather, trying to tell us something. How often do we take time to listen to the calls of nature, of the land, of ecosystems, and then all too readily impose our assumptions?
Walking thoughts resonate with our biophilia group conversation over the weekend, about how we understand both the pain and the joy of nature. Can we be truly regenerative, understand our ecological self and practice biophilic design if we do not feel in our hearts what is happening around us to climate, biodiversity and ecosystems?
“as your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal’
As I shared in my short talk at our recent biophilia summit (before leading into an imagine nature meditation from Lil Jon), our regenerative, biophilic and ecological self is, in the words of Joanna Macy, “the story inside of us, the story of deep kinship”. As she writes in her ‘Greening of the Self’ book / chapter; “As your heart breaks open, there will be room for the world to heal’.
My current interest as a new hobby, related to finding a better presence and connection with place and nature, is learning watercolour sketching and painting. This is a fascinating learning journey, with much to learn and practice. Rather than just taking another phone picture that will reside amongst thousands of others, creativity through watercolour will forge deeper connections and understanding. Hence the title here of Paynes Grey, a colour used often as a sky, blue-grey shade,to depict stormy skies. (Watercolour colours and pigments have great historical and significant names - but more on that in a future post.)
A couple of days later, in better sunshine, I had taken a flask and sandwiches, cycled up to Beacon Fell, to a lunchtime bench to read but also absorb a little of the nature around, to feel that happy space, to listen and spend lunchtime just to be.
I was treated to a lunchtime diverse bird symphony, initially identifying the birds through the Merlin app but then as I got my eye on visuals on Blackcaps and others amongst the birch trees. The bird song was brighter, no Skylarks, but a trill of sunshine. The Birch tree is very much a pioneer species here, some self-seeded, some planted, all regaining the ground once dominated by conifers (wrong tree, wrong place) that recent winter storms and high winds had felled, like matchwood dominoes, to reveal very shallow root plates.
See also Storms and Skylight (Regen/Notes 2021) where I introduced Walden Zone’s - the place where we go to disconnect from stress, social media buzz, the noise of current life, to be quiet, be mindful, to be in nature, to be grounded.
And Weather Patterns the tonic of wildness (Regen/Notes Jan 2024)
Biophilia Camp and Barcamp September
Hosted by Living Future Europe once again in the Italian Sud Tyrol region in late September, a week of emersion into all things biophilia, place and nature. There will be biophilia walks and Disconnection Reconnection experiences
Biophilia Society
Become a member of the Biophilic Society, be part of a thriving network that beilves reconnection with nature will save our society and enjoy monthy inspirational biophilia and nature-connecting related sessions.