Guest Post: Walking Wedholme Flow by Avril Hemsley

I went for a stroll on Wedholme Flow
and found myself walking under a chorus of skylarks,
I met a tiger of a green beetle and followed a hairy caterpillar.
Fluorescent blue damselflies flickered past, and birds fluttered around my feet.
Water pools shined with sky, and cotton grass whispered in the breeze.
A cuckoo called in the near distance and a deer launched off right in front of me.
The curlew trilled and the lapwings a pee-wit, a pee-wit.
I embraced the expanse,
sat on spongy resting peat,
listened to an orchestra of birds and insects on surround sound, but nothing else
and then I ate my scrummy sandwich, in Heaven.

Wedholme Flow and me 1/6/22 – © Avril Hemsley

About this poem

My friend Avril went for a walk on the beautiful Solway Mosses last summer, and had this wonderful encounter with the natural world. This poem offers a glimmer of hope for the earth, I believe, as the Solway Mosses are being restored and reclaimed for nature after centuries of industrial peat extraction. Here, you are unlikely to encounter another human soul, but only birds, insects and rare plants in abundance. Below you will find more of Avril’s stunning photographs from that day. Thank you, Avril, for sharing your words and images! Also sharing with earthweal’s Open Link Weekend.

Avril has always had a love of nature and of being outdoors, a love which she makes use of in her practice as a gardener. An excellent way to help nature this weekend, if you live in the UK, is to take part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. At the time of writing, there is still time to sign up!

Ingrid