Photograph by Chris Gomersall/Natural England on flickr
But why should I make a list? It serves no purpose, and they are all in the books. But they are not in the books for me-they are in living encounters, moments of their life that have crossed moments of mine.
Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain
Transplanted here to the south I struggle to learn the bird and plant species around me. It is a conscious, old-school-style process of seeing a plant, looking for it in the books, and trying to remember its name. As a child, however, I was fortunate to see a wildflower and be given its name immediately. My mum taught Botany at A-level and knew the names of most, if not all, wildflowers we saw.
When I was 9 or 10 I made a pressed flower album as a Brownie badge project, collecting and pressing flowers throughout a full year. During this project I got to know all the wildflowers around me with her help. There was one specimen that I dearly wanted but was never able to collect – the Ragged Robin. I saw it once, but since there was only one I could not collect it according to the rules I had set. I have never seen that flower again and the pressed flower album itself has disappeared. I hope one day I will find a mysterious box in the attic and pull out the album.
I want to get better at learning these new lifeforms, plants especially. I want to know who and what crosses my path. I have decided to follow the route Nan Shepherd took, starting with “the bodily experience of being in the world” and then making my own notes, lists, and herbarium. There is nothing for it but to do the hard, conscious work of learning, and then to pass that on to others as my mum did to me.