Spring Watch Begins

The new Spring Watch began as May ended.  Great to see Chris Packham and Co again. This Spring he is joined by Michaela, Iolo, and Megan.   The venues are: Wild Ken Hill, the Isle of Mull, and for Meghan, the Kielder Forest, which is apparently part of her road trip across the North of England - the beautiful North where quite a big part of me would still want to be living.

Apparently viewers have been wondering, as I have, why it has come on so late in Spring.  However, I am just glad to see it back.  And the chicks in all the nests under observation are sturdier and fluffier than usual.   It could of course be that the Covid problem is still causing scheduling difficulties.

Much as I love the Watches - Spring, Autumn, Winter - the full horror of nature now being "red in tooth and claw" is there too.  You don't need lions hunting on the plains of the Serengeti to see it.  We see one nest of cute fluffy fledges being fed another cut fluffy fledge, taken from its nest.

We - the whole creation - are still living in the post-Eden tragedy.  As the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament) tell us: "All creation keeps on groaning together and being in pain together".

We must not let ourselves be persuaded by the world that this is natural. It is not.  The natural state of things is love - loving kindness, unselfish love, loyal love.  And we can see glimpses of that everywhere too.   

And that is the state of things that will be restored when the Kingdom of God is ruling over us.   Nature will no longer be "red in tooth and claw".  The animal creation too will have the peace and security it deserves and so badly needs.

Oh and talking of the plains of the Serengeti, Captain Moth-Butterfly is back into his detecting routine - he left early on Thursday morning - very early - 4 o'clock alarm call - for the plains of Wiltshire, which are lion-free, so far.  At any rate, he returned home safe, well, and unchewed.

I made a banana bread on Wednesday, simply to use up a load of over-ripe bananas.  It has turned out OK - but it is an odd recipe. Sometimes it is really special, really lovely - sometimes it is just OK.  It seems to depend on the quality and ripeness of the bananas.