A good few years ago I wrote a poem called, Nature Study. It was, in part, a tribute to my primary school teacher, Miss Walker who instilled in me a love of nature and the lovely names for things in the natural world. This year the poem was included in the Poetry Jukebox curation, Forage and the jukebox is in the Lime Kiln at Castle Espie bird reserve.

Last night I was at an event when a woman approached me and said that she had been in a poetry reading group, on zoom, during covid lockdown and someone had shared Nature Study to the group. She told me that she was Miss Walker’s niece and had recognised her aunt in the poem. I told her about the jukebox in Castle Espie and that I’d recently read the poem for a BBC 3 morning programme coming from Castle Espie. I showed her a photo of my granddaughter listening to the poem on the jukebox. She then told me that Castle Espie was one of her aunt’s favourite places and even when she was in her 90s and confined to a wheelchair she loved to go there to be surrounded by birds and nature.

Isn’t it wonderful how the threads of experience and time sometimes connect so beautifully and unexpectedly.