Strong as the Heather, lasting as the Pine.

Hello Friends.

‘Strong as the Heather, Lasting as the Pine’

After a very busy March, the early offset Easter holiday provided some respite and reset. We took the opportunity to spend a few days with friends up in Darwin Forest, which forms part of the Matlock Forest Plan – seven adjoining coniferous woodlands covering over 450 hectares.

The forest is home. It is a place of deep connection, a childhood spent wandering through the Caledonian Pines, a landscape that shaped me and fostered so many of the sensibilities that have returned in later adulthood like an embrace from an old friend.

My return to self. Darwin Forest in particular, comprised almost entirely of the mighty Scots Pine, a place of safety and reassurance.

The pine bed held on to the rains a little longer, and the Petrichor remained as we wandered through the forest. An invisible mist. Dapples of white wood anemones bursting through a carpet of soft brown needles, shafts of oblique light crossing our path, pushing through clouds of Giuthas scented green. The children ran and played and stuffed their pockets full of mini pine cones and I too was eight years old again, in wonder at the structures around me. Protected by them. Comforted. Grounded.

I emerged from the forest with the old Gaelic proverb running through my mind, “Strong as the Heather, lasting as the Pine”. Words I felt compelled to share, words I plan to carry with me through the rest of the month.

Have a lovely week and as always, “Bringing the Outdoors In”.

Thank you.

Nicola