The ospreys are back!

Art, like life, takes its own time. This morning I spent at least 3 hours looking closely at a piece of silk, dyed grey and rust. I looked, placed it, turned it and re-placed it in relationship to another piece of silk until, it felt 'just right'. Last night I worked on a piece of tapestry, each thread and colour closely woven, building up a fabric that has a little 'life' of strands, the whole thing somehow a record of many tiny moments of decision, all existing in relationship to each other. 

Last school term ended hectically, with staff off ill, and the children and teachers I saw looking worn out, frayed, faded. So it was that the Forest visit planned at the end of March could not happen because a key staff member was off exhausted. The time wasn't right. Term starts again on Monday 20th April.

Meanwhile, out there in the Forest, there is a meeting of many story journeys and the weaving of a mad crazy beautiful tapestry of LIFE! When I go out at dawn now to do bird counts, my ears have to untangle the sycopated song of chiffchaff, fresh from Africa, from wheezing siskin, tinkling goldfinch, the tiny whinny of the crested tit, the rattle of redpoll and the rest. 

Most exciting of all, after a tense wait of at least two weeks since they were first expected, the Osprey are back at both nest sites! Their journey traces a thread over 5500 miles long from the coastal swamps of the Gambia, across the sand of the Sahara, the Atlas, Spain, the Pyrenees, the Low Countries, Essex tarmac, Peak District gritstone and on up, and up and up, to that very special branch on that particular tree, the one that felt just 'right'... All in their own time. But how many stories they could tell!

So I think the Project Wild Millbuie can take its chance too. 24th April is the new day we hope will work. The new time means adaptations to the plan. We will have to take a new route to avoid disturbing nesting osprey and red kite, but the children stand a good chance of seeing them too.

Another development is that I have booked the local storyteller into the school for 1 May to tell tales of the Millbuie. He's sure to weave a bit of magic into the mix. 

On a more serious note, I have had a positive response from the Forestry Commission. I will be meeting the FCS ecologist and community outreach person so I can start to match up what I am doing in the Forest with the Resolis children with what might happen with other Black Isle schools, and talk about how we might use this chance to make sure that all that rich web of Forest wildlife is protected and made richer. 

It is all about the creative imagination, making new stories. And time...