healingwords: poetry for the soul

The first month of our Spring lockdown passed in a mist of cloud and gentle rain. Day after day we looked out over a mountain shrouded in grey and wondered when the sun would ever shine again. At the time it had the useful effect of making staying indoors less arduous whilst the longing for sunshine grew day by day. Now I am thankful for that rain, the campo and countryside is still green as July ticks by, a time when normally everything is looking parched and brown. The hills are still dotted by myriad colours as flowers survive the summer heat. 

It rained for weeks this Spring during the early lockdown,  gentle, good rain, not the torrential downpours which strip the land and damage the roads. It has resulted in a glorious greening of the campo, grass is growing under trees, shrubs and herbs are verdant and glowing. The heat has suddenly struck and within days we will see the grass wilting and browning but for a little while longer the campo is a verdant and beautiful as I have ever seen it. 

Forest bathing is now prescribed as a treatment for stress and anxiety and general good health. I find walking a path through trees has a meditative quality that brings me peace. Problems are paced out step by step and calm restored. 

This is the discarded root from the tree chopped into logs on the hillside. It was one that was leaning dangerously from the crumbling bank and I guess it was no longer safe for people using the track but it still hurt to see the roots discarded. 

This beautiful holm oak is in the centre of a hidden grove of trees, protected by smaller oaks and brambles. Entering the grove feels like walking into the rarefied atmosphere of a great Cathedral, a sacred space of stillness.  I feel calmed and renewed leaning on the strong trunk, looking upwards through the canopy to the sky. 

Today is a big day in Spain, children are allowed outside for the first time in 6 weeks, my grandson is on his bike and the baby feeling the sunshine for his first outing since birth. I am counting down the days, the Government plan is for people to be allowed out for exercise and walks from May 2nd if all goes well this week. The strict lockdown has worked and the out of control rise in virus cases is now reducing. However we will need caution in the days and weeks ahead, things will change and we are changing already in our expectations. Today is just for rejoicing that our children have the freedom to run again. 

Today is Earth Day, an annual event celebrated throughout the world since 1970 to show support for environmental protection of our Earth, its habitat, flora and animals. The news, internet and areas not under lockdown are full of messages and events calling for more resources and action to be taken to protect our world. The corona virus crisis and the slowdown in economic activity and travel has reminded us how polluted our normal lifestyle is for the planet and how quickly change can be affected. Whilst we hope that lessons can be learned as the dreadful pandemic hits countries across the world, in one small wood in Warwickshire nothing has changed. Under Government instruction, taking advantage of the lockdown and lack of news coverage, HS2 contractors are continuing to fell trees and destroy ancient woodlands during the nesting season. They appear to not even be following the agreed environmental protection for soil recovery and bird and wildlife preservation and there is growing ev...

Whilst I try to stay positive about the strange situation we are living through my calm has been broken by news from England. The HS2 rail works are going ahead despite the lock down and trees are being felled in Warwickshire woods. One of these woods is especially important to me and my family and I am both enraged and heartbroken at the loss of ancient oaks and other trees in these and other woods. The protesters who have been working for months to protect these woods have been dispersed under the emergency rules, some arrested and others still trying to drum up press coverage of the continued work whilst it seems the contractors are taking advantage of the quiet to go ahead with the controversial tree felling. I hope it is not too late for all the trees threatened by this work but for some, it is already too late. 

This winter I planted a number of acorns I picked up in the woods where they littered the ground around the holm oak trees. I followed instructions and put them in a moist bag in the fridge for a few weeks, then with my grandsons help, planted them in the long pot where my mint grows. Months past and we were delighted to see tiny oak plants spouting, with the familiar spiked holly leaves of the holm oak. Some weeks later I decided to transplant them to their own pots and was amazed to find that the inch high oak had a root at least 10 times as long, wrapping around the planter. I worried that moving such a long root would damage the plant but so far they are still alive and hopefully getting used to their new pots.  In the wild where the earth is often baked hard and dry, it takes rain and the passing of an animal to squelch an acorn into the soil. Baby oaks grow very slowly, shadowed out by the faster growing, invasive pine. I hope one day to take my little oak plants and find a g...

I am missing my walks on the hills, thankful I can still see the trees from my roof terrace window. When the sun shines after the recent rains the flowers will burst out and I remember last year how each week the colour of the different flowers would change. One day I counted 8 different yellow, gold flowers, another week the trail would be covered in blue or pink flowers. This is a photograph from this time last year, I can only imagine these beautiful flowers covering the woods.  © 2020 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

This is where I love to walk, a path through the trees on the hillside near my village. When restrictions were first placed on our movement I imagined we would still be able to go out for a walk and not being able to is difficult to deal with. I do understand that what seems safe for us in a country village would not be so in the towns and cities and if families living in blocks of flats are not allowed to walk in the park we also have to suffer this restriction. I am fortunate.  I can still see the trees from my roof terrace and bedroom window and can walk there in my mind. Meanwhile, the path will return to nature, left only to the wild animals.  © 2020 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

It is often said that the sense of smell is a major trigger for memory. When walking in woods in Spain the scent of pine on the air often takes me back to a treasured time I spent in Canada, living in a cabin in the woods near Kootenay Lake. The combination of pine on the breeze and the tranquility of this reservoir at Planes took me back to that special place.  © 2020 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

The changing seasons reminds me of what lies ahead, the unknown path, the adventures to come. It feels like a time for looking forward and walking through new doors.  © 2020 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

These winter months can be dull even in Spain, however when the sun shines the light transforms the countryside. This image would not be admired by real photographers as the light is too strong and bleaching, but I love how it illuminates the clover leaves in the shape of hearts. When I was young I could spend hours lying on grass, looking for a lucky four leaf clover. I think I would have found a few here.  © 2020 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

Even in the midst of winter nature brings colour and sustenance. These berries glowed in the sunlight, a beacon for hungry birds at the marshes near Pego.  © 2020 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

I have been reading about the folklore around the use of rosemary at this time of year. It is a culinary herb flavouring stuffings but is also brought into the house for remembrance or lit to smudge away the negative before the New Year. I am lucky to live near hillsides covered in wild rosemary. They grow into head height woody bushes and even in December are in flower. Today I saw tiny blue butterflies and larger speckled red and black butterflies on the bushes, flitting too fast too capture.  © 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

This image captured on Christmas Eve when we were picking the green for our house reminded me of the tenacity of nature and the hope of new life and new beginnings.  © 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

The dew drops on this finger size shoot of new pine reminded me of the hidden world beneath us, where microscopic creatures colonise the soil and bugs and beetles scuttle out of sight. Who knows who might dance around this tiny Christmas tree.  © 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

The hillside was bright today with warming sun. I walked a little nervously as the evidence of wild boar was everywhere, overturned soil, splattered shrubs and broken down stone walls marking their path. This beautiful leaf sprang out from the plant looking like a discarded sword on the forest floor.  © 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

Walking on the Carrascal hillsides this vision of a stag reared up at me from the branches of an old Algaroba tree. The ground was littered with the gnarled, black fruit of the carob, a tree once planted for its crop but now left to grow wild on abandoned terraces that have become wooded with fast growing pine and the slower growing bushes of native holm oak. December bites with cold winds whirling down the valley whilst the midday sun still warms. © 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.