To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your  hand,
And eternity in an hour.

William Blake -'Augeries of Innocence'

Back in my distant childhood when children could roam the countryside with reasonable safety, ‘Our Gang’ would cycle and walk the lanes and fields of Lichfield for hours during our school holidays.

While we cycled and walked we learned about nature around us, wild flowers, birds, trees, insects and other creepy crawlies.  All became known and familiar to us.

We collected frogspawn, took it home and watched it as it turned into tadpoles and eventually into small frogs.  We discovered newts in ‘Noddy’s Pond’ and knew which fields the skylarks nested.  We picked and ate blackberries in autumn and rubbed husks off wheat to eat the hard grains, scrumped  apples and damsons and rubbed dock leaves on our nettle stings.

I can remember trying to make ink from soaked oak apples ~ it didn’t work and made rose water from crushed wild rose petals ~ partial success there.

I pressed wild flowers in books then stuck them in an exercise book and searched my copy of ‘The Observer’s Book of Wild Flowers’ to identify them, always learning along the way

Noddy’s Pond has long gone, so have the newts, I have never seen one since those days.

But nowadays when ever I can , I still roam the countryside, taking in all it has to offer.  Nature’s beauty still amazes me no matter the weather, and of course I always have my camera at hand to record my journeys and what I may encounter.

I have other interests which  also enjoy, all of which make up-

‘My World’