Only Connect #1 - Fernilee Reservoir Greys order (unframed)

Towards the end of 2019, I had the urge to make some prints as a kind of testament to Mother Nature and the fact that, for me at least, when everything's going tits up she is what I turn to for solace. I take myself off for a walk in hills or a wood and often will sit by, touch, sometimes talk to and invariably hug a tree. I don't have to explain, nothing is asked of me, I just have to 'be' and I always feel better. The therapist in me (that's what I do when I'm not making prints or hugging trees!) feels held - really held emotionally as one might in the presence of a wise, wonderful human. My belief, for as long as I can recall, is that trees are wise beings and they watch us humans going about our busy, self-important little lives and they know. Maybe not in the dualistic, rationalistic way that most humans know, but nevertheless they possess a kind of knowing and luckily for us, they emanate a wonderful, healing energy. Maybe I just have a vivid imagination and I'm sure that my mum reading Enid Blyton's The Enchanted Wood to me at a very impressionable age may have had a profound impact! However, it comes as absolutely no surprise to me that scientists have apparently 'discovered' that the ancient Japanese art of Forest Bathing can bring about measurable reduction in cortisol levels order, greater heart coherence, better quality sleep amongst other things. Who knew? Well, anyone with enough wit and a preparedness to allow the space and time to tune in has known for millennia! So, this is a print made just before Lockdown in 2020. I had finished it by February and was busy working on my subsequent print, Only Connect #2 (I know, imaginative, but there is a theme developing!). By that time we were moving towards social distancing and I went for what turned out to be the last 'proper' walk in the hills just before Lockdown and came to a small copse of birch trees up above Padley Gorge. It was so quiet that I could hear the trees whispering to themselves and I had a powerful urge to be in the middle of the copse. Once inside I stood in front of this one particularly beautiful birch and just started crying and hugged this tree for all I was worth. All I can say is that I felt a huge grief for the mess we as humans are making of the planet and I made a promise to Mother Nature that I would try to do better in looking after her. It was only when I got home that I realised that I had exactly, without realising it, replicated the image I'd made a few months previously.