Wednesday 14th April 2021 – Being At Home

Hello again. I hope you're all well. I hope you're remembering to drink water, eat substantial meals, and getting enough rest. 

Today's blog post is for my mum. She's made a special request. So, here goes. 

Last year, I was studying in Kingston Upon Thames for my Master's degree. In March, like a lot of people, I decided to go home, so that I could be with my parents and my sister. No one liked the idea of my sister and me being in a different country if everything was locked down. So, on March 18th, I got on a flight home and spent most of the next year at home with my family. 

My mum took me out for a walk each day, she still does, so that I could get some fresh air and some exercise. I wasn't able to do any of the dancing that I had been doing. We'd walk down to the lake every day, and very quickly, we noticed little ducklings. (A year later, my mum and I have found out that ducks form their bonds during the winter months, and only have seasonal bonds.) We watched as the ducklings grew from teeny-tiny little fluffballs to the bigger and less fluffy ducks that you'll usually see on the lake in Geneva. And then, just like that, they'd grown up and we couldn't recognise them anymore. It's weird... I think we both got emotionally attached to the ducklings. 

My mum also decided to take a picture of the lake every day, so that she could make a compilation, or a collage, and see how the world can change in a year. She took the photo from the same spot, sometimes including me, and grew this collection of photos. I don't know if she'll ever make this little collage, but she came back from her walk last week and showed me a picture she'd taken. 

"Can you tell what's different?"

At first glance, I couldn't. But, I looked through the other photos she had taken from that same spot and noticed that the shade from the tree was missing. And so were its branches. I didn't say anything, partly because I was hoping I was wrong, but partly because I wanted my mum to be able to tell me the news that she clearly wanted to share herself. 

"The tree's gone."

I cannot put into words how angry and annoyed this made me. It was not only the one tree, but two others too, that they'd taken away. I could not understand why trees were being uprooted. WHY. Trees should never be moved. We're killing our planet. And the village that I grew up in seemed to determined to kill the planet even more. These trees are essential for us to breathe, for animals to enjoy. It feels so hopeless.

My mum thinks that they've taken the trees away so that they can do their work on the port/beach/whatever it is they're building. But this is where I want it to stop. We shouldn't need to destroy the planet because people want more places to park their boat, or want a better restaurant, or a nicer beach. Let the planet breathe. And stop wanting more. That is the reason the Earth cannot keep up. Because we always want more.

Moving on from the lack of trees, my mum and I had started to make a new friend who we nicknamed 'Poorly Swan'. As you can guess, Poorly Swan is poorly. We think it has a broken wing and a very thin neck, but we were happy to see it every day down by the lake. It always seemed to be on land, rather than in the water, but it was often surrounded by two cygnets. (Almost swans.) I tried to get in touch with many people about the swan, but I got to a dead end when I tried to contact some people in Genthod. I left it, as we didn't think Poorly Swan was too ill. But, we didn't see him/her for a while. We saw other swans who were not Poorly Swan, and we saw ducks come and go, but Poorly Swan disappeared. And then, Poorly Swan re-appeared and my mum and I were relieved. Again, we've grown fond of Poorly Swan. 

Within the last month, my mum and I have been preparing ourselves to see the little ducklings again. We knew that last year we'd seen them around March/April, so we were very eager to see them. But, what with global warming and the very temperate weather, everything seems to be a bit delayed this year. (It even snowed in England on Monday!) Anyway, on Friday I went for a walk with a friend of mine, and we made our way down to the lake and I said to him: 'this time last year there were baby ducks, but we haven't seen any yet'. We walked right to the edge of the port's wall, and there, unpredictably, were three tiny baby ducks and a Mummy duck. I quickly sent a few photos and a video to my mum and she told me that she hadn't seen them that morning. I was the first to see the little babies, and I was very excited and happy. My mum and I would now be able to become attached to more ducklings. 

This is all to say that every other species has had to adapt to us having an impact on the world. If we could just stop, let the Earth recover, and live in ways that are not harmful to the planet, then we would be able to see the beauty that the planet has to offer. Sir David Attenborough continuously shows us how beautiful it is, but we need to take action now. 

Life can get hectic, stressful and we can sit inside our heads all day. Please go outside, get some fresh air, and appreciate what you have around. Ducks and swans are beautiful. And so is the world.