... leading on from 'ignorance'
I didn't walk until the age of 2.
From the age lf 3.5 Dad took me for walks. I had to walk behind him and when he stopped, I had to stop, remaining quiet and still. I was taught listen and look. I adored my Daddy then, so listened and looked. He would then show me what he had seen: often a red squirrel, a fox or a roe deer. He was raised in a shooting, fishing, hunger-gather environment and went wild-fowling on the foreshore so was very alert to Nature.
So I absorbed what he taught me. He was an avid gardener and educator. My maternal aunt grew dahlia - huge, brightly coloured flowers. She would walk with me the 2 miles to the river to watch for the kingfisher. She cycled across the bridge regularly and saw the bird daily. My maternal Granny took me for walks, we would go together and pick from the banks the first primroses for my Mum. We learned the names of wild flowers from an early age. She would tell me that the wood pigeons were saying 'there there Betty, there there'. We waited at 4.00 p.m. to watch the cows being taken from the field to the milking parlour oh the smell
. But she spent time with me. She had a toad under the stone near the house and a lizard in the damp grass. I learnt to sit and watch for both ........ as an only child for many years I could sit for hours.
I spent time with this Granny shelling peas and podding broad beans for our meals, sitting on that stone. Chatting. Or she would be knitting - something I never got to grips with
Dad allowed me a little part of garden but got cross if I don't 'do it right'; hindsight says it was Mum's attitude that caused his frustration at me
. He taught me how to prune roses correctly, a task I carry on at Mum's now that she is in care and the house remains unsold.
Gardening has been hit and miss. I buy what I like, put it in: we garden on clay so things take 2-3 years to bed in B4 their thrive. I shove plants in where they apparently shouldn't grow but they do
. We have ponds which has given me an insight into frogs, dragonflies etc.. Many things we learn by osmosis.
