Nature Watch (Linda Turnbull

Like many of you, I have been more attentive to nature. Soon after the rst Lockdown came into force, I discovered that we have two families of badgers in our garden. They love to devour the seeds and peanuts that have fallen to the ground from our bird feeders. To supplement this, we put out a few extra peanuts and some fruit. They love homegrown plums from our tree but they don't like “bought” plums from the supermarkets. Peanuts are their favourite food it seems. Badgers are very delicate eaters. They chew each peanut carefully before selecting another. One family comes out at about 9.30pm and they are a joy to watch. The other family comes out at about 10.30pm. This family had two baby badgers. I have never seen such tiny badger cubs before. To begin with they were the size of a small puppy and it was lovely to see them grow both in size and independence.

We have a number of bird boxes in our garden, many of which were occupied last spring. To ensure there was plenty food for the birds to feed their offspring, we kept the feeders full and put out food for the ground feeders. It was lovely to see all the different types of birds feed, such as blue tits, chafnches, robins, sparrows, blackbirds, jays, baby rooks and extremely fat wood pigeons. One of the bird boxes had a different inhabitant: bees! During the recent cold weather I have noticed quite a few birds investigating the bird boxes. Hopefully they will decide to nest there this Spring.

Embracing Technology!

Prior to Lockdown, the very thought of FaceTime or Skype made me panic. To me, my mobile phone was just for phone calls and my computer was for searching the internet or typing documents. Why on earth would I want anyone to actually see me during a conversation? How my life has changed since Lockdown and I now thank heaven for technology. It is hard to imagine what life would be like if we had not embraced the digital age. All of my work now is done remotely, via video platforms. Technology has enabled me to “attend” all my usual meetings. It has also enabled me to keep in touch with friends via Zoom, which has been great. LIVErNORTH currently hold their meetings online, which is wonderful. This means that regardless of where you live, you can “attend” the meetings, listen to really interesting talks by medical professionals and have the opportunity to ask questions. Why don't you “attend” our next meeting?

Stay safe everyone, Linda x