Carabus auronitens - a ground beetle.
Perhaps it’s an age thing, but most days I carry a series of lists in my head: jobs to do, people to call, articles to write... I juggle calendars too: appointments, holiday plans, who in the family is where and when… And because I live by the sea, awareness of the tides is a constant, not least for walking the whippet.
So, you’d think that when I’m away in the hills I might give up all this mental note taking. ‘Live in the moment,’ is what my wife Jane likes to advise me. She’s right of course, for one of the chief virtues of the outdoors is its ability to shift our focus from the stresses of the everyday.
But that doesn’t mean I stop making lists.
This summer, like many before, I’ve recorded all the wildlife I’ve encountered, from insects to birds and mammals. Unsurprisingly, the list gets longer the more time I spent in the Alps. In part, that’s because of the greater bio diversity here, but I sense it’s also something to do with a landscape that encourages us to look, and not just at the view.
It strikes me too, that my alpine lists are different from those I compile at home. And that’s because, at root, they are founded on place rather than a pressure to complete or comply. Indeed, the word I used in the paragraph above is their defining feature – they are a ‘record’ of lived experience rather than a tick list to be completed.
Looking at my logs for this year, I’ve a few firsts, many old favourites and number of uncertainties to check - largely beetles! Not that precise identification matters. For as I turn the pages of my journals I remember the moments of seeing, the flashes of colour, the shadows on the shifting grass…
Sometimes, with all our daily distractions, it’s easy to overlook what a magical world we live in.
That is a stunning beetle! I suppose my blog acts as my wildlife record. Anything unusual I see winds up being mentioned there!
ReplyDeleteI make lists too, but only so I can tick things off and feel a sense of accomplishment. For me, writing things down helps me to remember, but more importantly, increases the likelihood of me performing the task. Writing something down is a promise to myself I guess.
ReplyDeleteThat beetle is a beautiful colour.
Hari Om
ReplyDeleteThe minutiae of nature are so very often overlooked. To stop and record them, spend time remembering their details, is as much about meditation as focusing on a fact and feature. YAM xx
Shiny beetles are magical
ReplyDeleteThat's a very beetly beetle. I wouldnt want to meet it!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful colours on this beetle 🪲
ReplyDeleteI always remember the large 'may bug' beetle the cat brought in once. Then looking out for it each year in May. I make shopping lists but also I jot down words in the my journal each day to remind me of whatever.
ReplyDeleteNoticing the tiny details around us is 'mindfulness', a way to step away from the horrors of these days. I once saw a video of a city in Ukraine being relentlessly bombed. The noise. The flashes. It was awful. And then when it finally stopped, the silence itself was almost deafening. Then there was a cricket chirp. And another. in the matter of minutes, once again, it seemed like a blessedly ordinary night.
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