A Spring in my Step

“Behold, I saw Spring in all its new seasonal beauty by the contrast of the blue sky, laced with the white-friendly cloud of the cumulus. The blue flowers joined in with the heavenly colour, welcoming with equal vibrant gladness the glory of this Easter Monday. 

This first day of April saw me striding out of Winter’s tunnel. How long it had been. I had tried to smile through it but sometimes the winter walls of thickness bored down on me, however much I rose to push it away. I was never good with Winter, and even though I manage it better now, nothing lifts my step with a spring more than spring itself.”

Extract from Helen’s nature notes ( 1/04/2024)

Reading about the countryside, walking in it, observing, and then writing about it in my nature journals has transformed my ability to manage my winter feelings and my attitude to this season. The increasingly typical English winter, dull, dark, cold and dismal, and this year of an exceptionally wet February and March bears testimony to this description.

I wish to make known here my past dread of winter and why. How it reminded me of grey feelings, fog and depression. This was just more than Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). The increased appreciation of nature and the effect it had of lifting my mood, along with walking (known to improve your mental health) had a positive compound effect. The more I savoured each month and looked at what it had to offer, the more I could feel joy. This led to a gradual shift towards appreciation of every climate, rather than the dread of the clocks going back each year in October.

When we were in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, I started to walk every day within our restrictions of movement. I started to photograph what I saw on my housing estate, a bud, a tree, a clump of colour. One evening I photographed how many cats I saw. I posted them on my FB page, and I was so surprised at how many people enjoyed seeing my 30-minute walk-in pictures. When I stopped, I found out later how much people missed these posts.

Now Spring has arrived. Nothing pleases me more than to step outside and to still find hidden delights of nature on what is the outskirts of both a town and a housing estate. My walks start on what used to be a World War Two airfield- a runway strip of dust and uneven concrete, nothing romantic about this ramble. The newly built mound of earth to my right houses a water supply. An artificial spot of green, like a giant carbuncle that shouldn’t be there.

 Further along, trees had been cut away for the MacDonalds just on the roundabout. I walk past to my left, next to scaffolds and barriers. A new housing estate where a field was. I look back to my right and hear the Chiff Chaff by the farmer’s field still left which can be seen out of my third-floor bedroom window. You can find beauty even with bricks around you in an urban area if you look hard enough.

 Nature will not be silent or defeated and it still feels victorious to me. I photograph the flowers still growing on this circular route that I walk so often. I eagerly looked out for the Snowdrops in February and there they were.

 All my walks represent expression and freedom. These two words are what I value most, the expression to be who I want to be and the freedom to execute this in action.

Yes, I still prefer spring over Winter, but I now have a tool kit of mental health support I give to myself when late November/December greets me, and I shall write about this more in the autumn.

For now, we have longer nights and warming days. I am grateful to be here, to be alive, to see and hear the Chiff-Chaff by the wide-open fields still left and breathe in a new day.

Originally published for Wednesday’s walk on 17th April. Republished today after accidental deletion.

I am still learning to navigate this site and whilst trying to prepare my next blog I hit the wrong button. The main message here is, it’s OK to make mistakes, we can correct and re-trace our steps. The important thing is to keep going.