Thoughts in Darrick Wood - Covid 19

Thoughts in Darrick Wood by Trevor Morgan 31 March 2020 (traduction française ci-dessous) Of course, Darrick Wood is a microcosm of the world in general. It is managed by people to achieve a form of dynamic equilibrium. In recent years doing nothing for a while has become a tactic to improve the incidence of wildlife. The meadows have been left to grow and are now only cut late in the season. The meadows do not look so manicured, but the insects are multiplying and providing more food for the birds and small mammals. Constant human intervention is not always the best way to manage a natural environment. My thoughts turn to James Lovelock’s Gaia theory. Unproven, yet, but it intrigues me. Lovelock’s view is that the Earth is a gigantic living and ecological system which constantly maintains itself in a state of dynamic equilibrium. It does this without forethought, intention, kindness or malice. The geologic and ecologic systems interact with one another to hold the system in ...

Thoughts in Darrick Wood by Trevor Morgan 30 March 2020 (traduction française ci-dessous) I am nearly always pensive when I go to Darrick Wood. I nearly always think in words. I hardly ever see a picture in my head. I also can hear music in my head especially after hearing a song thrush or a blackbird. I find it difficult to see anything in my imagination except for Bernadette and my close family. Sometimes, I can see important places such as Newgale beach in Pembrokeshire where I let my some of my father’s ashes fly into to the South Westerly wind. Sometimes, I turn off my thoughts in Darrick Wood, so there are no words, just my breathe , the sound of the birds and the wind, and then the view of somewhere else. Pensées dans Darrick Wood par Trevor Morgan 30 mars 2020 Je suis presque toujours pensif quand je vais à Darrick Wood.   Je pense presque toujours en mots.   Je ne vois presque jamais une image dans ma tête.   Je peux aussi entendre de...

Thoughts in Darrick Wood by Trevor Morgan 29 March 2020 (traduction française ci-dessous) Most of the time when I walk or run through Darrick Wood, I only get positive thoughts but sometimes I have a vision of something dark. Our species is an animal and just like other animals we are motivated by the need to survive and reproduce. We are an animal which has been gifted with self-awareness, rationality and intelligence. How we use these attributes will be crucial to the well being of the planet and our own success. In my opinion, we are misusing our attributes because we do not consider the implications of our actions. Climate change is a case in point. We have failed to heed the warnings of science and have taken a “business as usual approach”. We believe that we can always engineer a solution. At the moment science is investigating the use of fusion-energy which can be engineered to produce unlimited and free energy. Fossil fuels will no longer be required. Eventually, engine...

Thoughts in Darrick Wood by Trevor Morgan 28 March 2020 (traduction française ci-dessous) We have a huge variety of insects in our woods and meadows. They do a tremendous job of pollinating the flowers, and to help the soil productivity of the nature reserve. They add beauty to our lives. Without them the woods and their meadows would die. When I was a youngster in the 1950’s and 60’s a field such as Tubbenden Meadow would have been teeming with insects. In the summer there would have been a haze of insects flying over the grass and in between the trees. This is not so now. I have certainly observed a reduction in the number of our invertebrate neighbours. It is quite possible that the rapid extinction of insects and other invertebrates could seriously affect soil productivity and food production. In fact, the depletion of insects could be more dangerous than climate change, but of course global warming is a major contributor to the demise of wildlife everywhere. Humanity...

Thoughts in Darrick Wood by Trevor Morgan 27 March 2020 (traduction française ci-dessous) A few years ago, we were in the garden on a clear night trying to find the Andromeda Galaxy, it was impossible to find it because of the light pollution as we did not know exactly where it was.  When I was a lad growing up in Pembrokeshire, we had really dark skies, and I could find it when my father pointed it out to me. To the naked eye the galaxy is like a nebulous haze in the sky, near the Great Square of Pegasus asterism. It is larger than the moon, if you can see it. The galaxy is more than 2 million light years away. The light that you can see from the galaxy started travelling towards us well before modern man appeared on the scene. We went up to Darrick wood, where the skies were considerably darker, with a pair of binoculars. In the meadow we looked up into the sky and we were easily able to pick out the asterism of the Great Square of Pegasus and “star-hop” from there...

Thoughts in Darrick Wood by Trevor Morgan 26 March 2020 (traduction française ci-dessous) Spring in Darrick Wood is gaining speed; the flowers are starting to bloom, and the trees and shrubs are starting to bud. The birds are starting to nest. I have already seen the first brimstone and peacock butterflies! Very soon warblers will arrive to nest and produce next season’s young. We have three types of warbler in our woods: blackcaps, chiffchaffs and garden warblers. They arrive from southern Europe and Africa in April and fly away after the summer.  The climate is changing, however, and our warblers are starting to decide to stay rather than migrate. We have not observed this happening in Darrick Wood yet. Our migratory birds add diversity, colour and song to our bird population, and make our woods a better place to behold.   But, if we make life difficult for them, then they will fail to reproduce, and fail to return. It is amazing how migratory birds travel by i...

Thoughts in Darrick Wood by Trevor Morgan 25 March 2020 (traduction française ci-dessous) Usually, I do not think of everyday things when I walk through the woods, that is why I go there. One day I thought about our trip to Australia. We had hired a car and were going off to see some ancient works of art. Our hosts insisted that we told them where we were going to as these were remote locations. I didn’t think that this was so important as we had a portable phone, a GPS and a map. We found the first piece of cave art deep in the countryside of Victoria state. It was amazing. There were handprints in red ochre painted on cave walls. It is possible that these works of art were 60,000 years old. The people who had produced them were probably in Australia before modern humans had migrated to Europe. We were completely alone here and the whole environment around the caves felt special to us. Off we went to the next cave art. As I drove, I was thinking how brave, adventurous an...

Thoughts in Darrick Wood by Trevor Morgan 24 March 2020 (traduction française ci-dessous) I went for a run in Darrick Wood. When I approached the run down to the meadow to get home the clouds parted, and I was bathed in sunshine. Usually I do not stop but today the light was very calming. I sat on a bench and closed my eyes. I was dreaming. I went to work somewhere else. I needed a car and a flat. I spoke to a colleague about my predicament. “I have got a car for sale and a flat to rent. You can have them right now”, he said. I handed over the money and he gave me the keys. Afterwards, I could have kicked myself, as normally I am so careful. The flat was miles away from the office. My wife joined me; she was at the wheel and I had a map. We had a friend in the back. The flat was miles away in a big city. I looked for landmarks and short cuts. We arrived at the apartment block. There were cars parked everywhere. I soon found out why. To get down to the carpark there was a ra...