As a child I tuned into magpie warbling, their songs adding joy to my day, no matter where my family were living in Australia at the time. I still love waking up to the sound of birds, only now I listen to the songs of native birds surrounding my home in the Eastern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea.
Nature is all around me and I want to share some of it with you. Though I’m pleased to say that there are less nasty bugs and beasties where I currently live, than in Australia. There are no redback or white-tail spiders as far as I’m aware, only the rather large but kindlier banana variety and the Christmas spider which shimmers like a tiny ornament in the sun.
It’s the simple things which do it for me. I find that nature’s sensory experiences create a sense of wonder at creation and support my mental health. I like to walk amongst the seventy-year-old trees in my garden and around the compound where I live. I stop to take in the scent of pines, to hold their rutted cones and observe the earthy shades and textures of tree bark, marvelling that nothing in nature is identical, even amongst the same varieties. Strange mosses and lichens cover tree trunks and branches which seem to move when closely watched. Then there are my favourite critters; large, lacy butterflies which are everywhere, cheerily fluttering past me.
I’ll never take nature for granted where ever I am in the world. Even in the city I’ve spotted some weird bug inside a building on a windowsill trying to escape, and relished the first drops of rain on my face before a downpour. How do you connect with nature?