Late summer impressions - from the heart and from a city

From the heart...

Back from a "Friends' Working Weekend" at Embercombe last night.

Feeling dreamy and strangely emotional today. It feels like Embercombe and the experiences surrounding it have stoked that fire in me again, and perhaps putting pen to paper (I am now copying this from handwritten notes - the keyboard feels strangely uncomfortable after the pen gliding across the paper) is making me admit it to myself. I feel shy and vulnerable in front of myself. Perhaps that is why I am prone to tears while writing and re-reading this.

Concrete jungles and nature - a match made in heaven?

I am a proud first time urban
vegetable grower! But slugs and snails
were difficult to keep away...
(Photo added summer 2012)

Starting with a quote again: 

"Has there ever been a time when we in the West have been so out of touch with the natural world? We live in towns or cities flooded by street lighting, blinded to the stars in the night sky, unable to tell a waxing from a waning moon, let alone recognise the constellations. Who wakes with the dawn chorus of birdsong these days, rather than an alarm clock? Most city dwellers can't even hear the dawn chorus any more. [...]