Learning from nature

How can I express what this great Ash means to me? This English language I share with so much of the world has lost the animacy that once suffused its vocabulary. In my mother tongue, Cymraeg, words survive that honour interbeing and the delicate sensations of our connection with all life; by using them, like spells, they bind us anew.

Wrens - they may be small, but they are mighty! In these Isles they are mythically ‘king of the birds’. Traditionally, in Pembrokeshire, one was caught and placed in a wren house and paraded around field perimeters to bless the land with fertility on Boxing Day - also known as Wren Day - such a wealth of ‘lore’ surrounding these feisty pot-bellied, loud voiced little beings! The other day I was sitting at the top of the hill here and noticed three wrens flitting and hopping b