I have to admit, I'm somewhat addicted to Springwatch.

If you've never seen it (it's on every night on BBC 2), it's basically Bill Oddie getting excited over mating birds, and some guy in Scotland dressed like a yeti stalking wildcats.

But it's so good!  They have cameras in several nestboxes of different birds so you can see when the birds lay their eggs, the eggs hatch, and the fledgelings grow and leave the nest.  (Bill Oddie is also a living legend. )

It was funny watching it tonight actually because I was chatting online to Other Half at the same time.  He wasn't as impressed by it as I was.  When a pine marten was filmed snatching an egg from a nest box, and the bloke was getting rather excited about it because pine marten footage is pretty rare, Other Half typed "lol that was not amazing".  I said "you're not easily impressed, are you" to which he replied "well first he said they run and chase birds and cool stuff then he raids a nest and gets an egg".  I suppose when he puts it like that, I can see his point...   But I did not agree with him about the baby woodlice.  I said I thought they were cool, but his response was "u think lol I thought they was ugly."  *sigh*

Anyway, I just find it fascinating because the Pagan in me adores nature, and also because it's amazing to me to think that all of this is going on all around us.  Even where I live in London, I'm pretty sure there's a pair of blackbirds nesting somewhere, but I suppose I never really gave it so much thought.  They are busy full-time parents raising their little families all around us - and doing a much better job than some people.  This morning, Ziggy (my little black cat) brought in a toad.  Where he got it from, I have no idea.  And as well as the usual rats, mice and occasional pigeon, Smokey (my crazy half-siamese, half-panther) once brought in a bat.  It just shows the variety of life that lives alongside me, and I don't even notice it (until it's dragged half-dead and bedraggled through the cat flap).

I suppose it's made me realise that Nature is bigger than me.  Nature fights against people and continues its circle of life (cue Lion King song).  I used to spend a lot more time out in the woods near where I live, even walking in the park, places that are quiet and full of green and life, listening to the bird song and the insects and the wind in the trees.  I used to be a happier person then, I think, and I was a lot more inspired to write my novels than I am now, sat in front of a pc all the time.  My head was so full of ideas that I didn't have any space for worry.

So today's message to myself is, get out more!!

V