Heroes Not Zombies

My garden is full of birdsong. There are many small birds, robins (two of them!), blue tits, several species of small birds I don’t recognise, as well as some blackbirds and pigeons. I guess these are all the regular inhabitants here and now I’ve arrived we are checking each other out, making connections.

I frequently notice a bird just sitting on a branch looking at me. We eyeball each other and I feel the connection.

The robin pops down pretty close to wherever I’m working to check out what I’m up to, and hops around the wheelbarrow and bags of cuttings once I’m done.

The garden here hasn’t been tended for many years and there are large areas of dense thickets of brambles, ivy, seedling trees and astonishingly vast “Old Man’s Beard” creepers with stems as thick as your wrist shooting straight up high into the tallest trees. As we clear them away the sunlight gets in between the trees lighting up the neglected hidden spaces. It feels like the trees are beginning to breathe more easily and the birds are finding new routes through the garden.

This phase of garden recovery is full of discovery, and fills the day with noticing and connecting…….noticing what is here and now, connecting to the present moment.