Dear Readers, earlier this week a very dear friend of mine died – I will no doubt write more about her in the days to come, but for now I’m feeling heavy and sad. She was a very special person, and her death, though not unexpected, has been a blow for all of those who knew and loved her. And yet, outside the world continues to wear its autumn colours against an azure sky, and there is some cheer in that, as there always was for her.
There is a really wonderful ivy hedge at the top of Summerlee Avenue, and if anybody doubted how valuable this plant is to late summer pollinators, just look at the pollen baskets on these honey bees, they’re absolutely full to busting. No ivy bees yet, let me know if you’ve seen any where you are!
In Cherry Tree Wood, this squirrel was very conflicted – his waving, shaking tail said that he was nervous at us being so close, but clearly he thought we might have food.
And on the corner of Durham Road and Fortis Green, this house is trying to do its bit for our wild creatures. My friend would have approved, for sure.
I do hope that nature is consoling for you at this time.
Sometimes I imagine that losing beloved ones in autumn is the most painful. I hope you have solace.
Here in Frome, Somerset, the ivy bees have been and gone I’m afraid. I did wonder whether they had survived the hard cracked ground but they appeared very suddenly about a week into September and were gone within about two weeks. I’m sure I read somewhere recently that they are amongst many other relatively recent imports from hotter climes which would explain their resilience to the hot summer. I always wonder at the lives of these insects that live the vast majority of their time underground or underwater and just come to our attention for a few weeks or even days every now and again. Cicadas, Stag Beetles, Dragonflies and so many others. We think we know (and love?) them for the time we see them but that reproductive part of their lives is over in a flash as far as they are concerned.
I too have lost a friend suddenly in the last week. She was our Creative Writing group leader amongst other things – so much more than the sum of her parts. She died the day before her 80th birthday and so her family have decided to ‘convert’ her birthday party this coming weekend into a celebration of her life party.