A sceptic's take on being human – or should that be virtuous?
Reaching for a century
You may call it a filed – I call it a pollen machine!
This is going to be a short one. With internet speeds in the dizzy 2Mb region, even with a good router and aerial; not to mention raging hayfever – see those trees above – it’s been a struggle to carry a chair down the garden. I’m wondering if searching for wildflowers in the open is the best occupation for me at the moment. Anyway, nothing daunted and looking like a man who’s just been told his dog has died – eyes and nose running with snot – we’ve ventured out each day in the warm sun and found a blessing in every verge. So far we’re up to 92 species with a couple more botanising days to go. This is paradise! Luckily the place we’re staying at on the Lizard is – as it were – at the hub of a series of wonderful spokes, each comprising a footpath, bridleway or hidden lane. We walk down one and come back up another. It’s more than enough for us since Madame is about to have knee replacement surgery next week in any case.
Botanising like this isn’t all about wandering through bosky dells in a tweed jacket and smoking a pipe. I photograph anything and then spend hours checking ID’s using AI apps, books and very very slow internet searches. If I’m on form I can securely name about ten species an hour. Then when we get home I’ll have to spend yet more time recording everything on the big spreadsheet/database – often even slower than stage two. Here’s my favourite find so far – a pencilled cranesbill- absolute stunner, growing with half a dozen other naturalized neophytes
As an occasional and not very good botanical artist I marvel at the subtlety and complexity of the flower and would struggle to paint it.
I've spent my life doing a lot of things, all of them interesting and many of them great fun.
When most people see my CV they probably think I'm making things up because it includes being a rather bad welder and engineering dogsbody, a potter, a groundsman and bus driver. I taught in a prison and in one of those ghastly old mental institutions as an art therapist and I spent ten years as a community artist. I was one of the founding members of Spike Island, which began life as Artspace Bristol. ! wrote a column for Bristol Evening Post (I got sacked three times, in which I take some pride) and I worked in local and network radio and then finally became an Anglican parish priest for 25 years, retiring at 68 when I realised that the institutional church and me were on different paths.
What interests me? It would be easier to list what doesn't, but I love cooking and baking with our home grown ingredients. I'm fascinated by botany and wildlife in general, and botanical illustration. We have a camper van that takes us to the wild places, we love walking, especially in the hills, and we take too many photographs.
But what really animates me is the question "what does it mean to be human?". I've spent my life exploring it in every possible way and the answer is ..... well, today it's sitting in the van in the rain and looking across Ramsey Sound towards Ramsey Island. But it might as easily be digging potatoes or making pickle, singing or finding an orchid or just sitting. But it sure as hell doesn't mean getting a promotion, beasting your co-workers or being obsequious to power, which ensured that my rise to greatness in the Church of England flatlined 30 years ago after about 2 days. But I'm still here and still searching for that elusive sweet spot, and I don't have to please anyone any more.
Over the last 50 or so years we've had a succession of gardens, some more like wildernesses when we were both working full-time, but now we're back in the game with our two allotments in Bath.
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