Nature Notes

If you go down to the woods today…

After spending a wonderful weekend at Wood Festival in the beautiful Chilterns, the idea of heading back inside to the office didn’t appeal at all! For me, being outside amongst nature (channelling my inner hippy!) is an eternal source of inspiration, uplifting peace and beautiful natural design and colour palettes. I use the seasonality of the garden and the surrounding countryside for photographic inspiration on my website as well as influencing which pieces I buy in. I love the yellow of the Rapeseed fields and golden Buttercup meadows and have reflected this in my summer scarf collection.

The space and tranquillity of a countryside walk also helps me to focus on my priorities and think through new ideas and plans, as well as helping with writers block too! Furthermore, there is also something enormously motivating and positive about being outdoors. Whether it’s the endorphins from the exercise or the space to contemplate, it really does help to lift your mood. This is really important to me, as owning my own business has lots of twists and turns, and peaks and troughs along the way, and it’s great to have some ways of combatting the lows as well as celebrating the highs. Going from awesome weekends, like Wood, meeting lots of lovely people and getting some fantastic feedback about the shop, to being back in the office on my own with a pile of paper work, can, sometimes, be a bit of a buzz kill to say the least.

So, fuelled by the natural beauty of Wood Festival, I headed for Earth Trust, Little Wittenham. Earth Trust is a great charity that helps individuals and communities reconnect with the natural world to work to a more sustainable way of living, and appreciating the natural beauty of the world around us. They are currently working to create a rich wetland habitat at Little Wittenham, nestled between Wittenham Clumps and the River Thames, which will hopefully attract a plethora of birds, animals and invertebrates. On my visit we saw a beautiful blue Kingfisher, Sand Martins, Willow Warblers, Red Kites, Kestrels, Peacock Butterflies and iridescent Damselflies.

The work the Earth Trust does is hugely inspiring, not only protecting local habitats, but also educating people, young and old, through courses and activities, on how to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle that can be both fun and fulfilling as well as benefitting the environment. It’s a win win situation for us all! The long term view is not only to create a sustainable environment regionally, but also nationally and internationally.

‘The world around us is changing hugely.  This is an incredibly exciting time to be involved with the natural environment as people are far more aware of the issues than they were ten years ago.’ Jayne Manley, Chief Executive, Earth Trust

So if you’re looking for inspiration, motivation and fulfilment head to Earth Trust’s flagship location at Little Wittenham. Take a walk to de-stress and take in the awesome view from the top of Wittenham Clumps, join a course for ecological creativity, or volunteer and be part of the natural sustainable world Earth Trust are endeavouring to achieve.

Much love,