Making a website is an adventure for me.  I have learned a lot from knowledgeable and generous people online who have made websites, or blogs, or contribute to forums of interest to me.  I am so grateful for the whole internet phenomenon - the opening up of information and connections for people around the world. 

Of course, the more I know the more I know I don't know.  But that's fine - it just means there is always a lot more for me to discover.  Most of all I just plain love the miracle of plants and the environments they create, the wonder of the soil that supports their growth, the colours and textures of the environments around us - natural and human made, the excitement of the elements of weather and season, the extraordinary range of life forms, the mysteries of being human and how we tick, recognising how complex it is, seeing our interconnectedness - all of it is, as they say, awesome.

My grandfather, a survivor of the first World War - of the trauma of Gallipoli, the Somme, and Ypres/ Passchendaele - had a beautiful garden and encouraged my early efforts at growing plants.  It is only recently that I learned that Grandad's gardening was in part his therapy and comfort when he was being plagued by the memories of what he went through - his generation did not have many other outlets for their pain.

Gardening seems to be too noble a term for my pottering with plants, but mostly they survive and always they give me great pleasure.  Tending plants and making compost and developing/improving soil has been my most direct connection with the natural world - I am not a biological scientist, an outdoors adventurer, or a farmer.  But through my senses and the use of my camera I try to focus, pay attention, and absorb the many aspects of experiencing being part of life.

So how are we to live well on this earth, to respect and protect as well as to enjoy and benefit from nature?

I reckon that thoughtful awareness is a necessary foundation - noticing and learning about what we are doing with the natural world - the impact we have on it and it has on us.  Doing so, we can enjoy the ways that knowing and connecting with the natural world can enrich our lives.  And we can discover the ways that we might nurture and help sustain it too - and truly fulfil our role as caretakers of the future.  What an adventure!