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Human Ecologist's avatar

"Perhaps we all hunger for colour." I've been haunted this week by the story of an American held hostage in Iran starting in 1979. He was kept alone only outside once for 15 minutes in 444 days. He spoke about how he stooped and broke off a blade of grass and hid it in his pocket. That single blade of colour and smell was instrumental to his survival - he could take it out and conjure summer and imagine laying in a field of it. Even the most tenuous connection to the natural world can be a lifeline.

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Susie Mawhinney's avatar

I am enchanted Rebecca, magpies and lichens and treasure hunts... your worlds are like a sweet song in my ears.

I am so lucky to live in a part fo the world where the air is clean (enough) for lichen to grow in abundance. There is a walk I take with my daughter in winter, down a steep path towards a gushing stream where both sides are lined with blackthorn covered entirely in lichen. It is almost luminous at this time of year... the palest of greens imaginable.

Thank you for your beautiful golden and slated variety! 💛

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