Just Noticing ~ Faces in the Trees and the Things We See When We Slow Down

Recently, I've been noticing faces in trees.

It started because I began looking for them. And now, once you start looking, they seem to be everywhere.

I've been sharing them with a friend too, and she's started looking for them where she lives overseas. So we're both sending each other photographs of our tree faces from opposite sides of the world.

And they're so cool.

Different trees, different faces, different personalities. Some look wise, some grumpy, some quite funny ~ all beautiful.

It has made me look at trees differently somehow ~ as though I'm noticing them as individuals rather than simply seeing a tree.

Perhaps that's what happens when we really start to look.

We notice more.

You can't get too much tree

A yogi mentioned a book to me after class this week that she thought I might like. She'd seen the books I'd been reading on holiday and thought of me when she came across a book about trees.

It made me smile.

I do sometimes wonder if I talk about trees too much in my yoga classes.

And then I think ~ perhaps you can't get too much tree. 🌳

Hopefully someone would tell me if I was?!

Trees are such an easy way for me to bring people into a sense of connection with nature. They're always there, changing with the seasons but also somehow remaining themselves.

And perhaps that's why I keep noticing them.

After the rain

I've also been noticing what the rain has brought back.

After all that dryness, you can practically see the grass going green again. Although many of the pools and streams are still dry, there are a few ponds around here that still have water in them ~ sustaining the wildlife and providing somewhere for the dogs to splash about and have some fun too.

Nature doing its thing, for everyone.

The hedgerows are full of colour ~ the purple of blackberries and sloes, damsons, the red of the hawthorn, holly berries just starting to turn and rosehips glowing amongst the leaves.

And around the corner from me is a little secret tree of wild Mirabelles.

I've been watching its leaves through the seasons, and now they're beginning to turn, moving through different shades of yellow and russet.

There is something lovely about seeing the season change gradually like this.

Not with a great announcement, but in little details.

A leaf here.

A berry there.

A different quality of light.

The grass responding to rain.

Listening too

It's not just what I'm seeing.

I've been noticing the sounds around me too.

A buzzard has been crying over the fields around me all summer. I've heard it since spring, almost every day, and somehow that familiar sound has become part of the landscape.

And this week, as I bimbled through the woods, I heard a sound I didn't recognise.

Out came the Merlin app, and I discovered I'd been listening to a raven.

Then, almost as if on cue, a perfect formation of geese flew overhead in their great V shape.

I wonder how many sounds I walk past every day without really hearing them.

Candlelight, sunset and moonlight

And this week in Aroma Flow Yoga, there was another kind of noticing.

Candlelit yoga, the room glowing softly with candlelight.

The previous week during savasana, there had been a beautiful sunset outside and, as we stepped outside to leave, the moon was there on the other side of the sky.

This week it was different.

Already, the daylight was sliding away, and the candlelight was just what we needed.

I love these little moments in yoga when something outside the practice becomes part of it ~ the changing light, the sounds beyond the room, the feeling of the season.

You don't have to do anything with them.

Just notice.

What happens when we pay attention?

I think there is something quite powerful about noticing.

Noticing doesn't have to mean going for a long woodland walk or making time for a grand nature experience.

It can be looking up as you walk somewhere you've walked a hundred times before.

It can be noticing the colour of the leaves.

Hearing a bird you don't recognise.

Watching the grass change after rain.

Stopping to look at a tree trunk and suddenly seeing a face looking back at you.

It can even be noticing the light in a room as the evening draws in.

The world hasn't suddenly become more interesting.

I've just become more attentive to it.

And perhaps that's one of the gifts of spending time in nature.

It gives us so much to notice.

We just need to slow down enough to see it.

So, next time you're out walking, I wonder what you'll notice?

Maybe you'll find a face in a tree.

Maybe you'll hear a bird you've never heard before.

Maybe you'll spot the first few leaves beginning to turn.

Or perhaps you'll simply stop for a moment and look.

Because once you start noticing, there seems to be more and more to see. 🌿

Camomile Lawn ✨🌿💚

Nature-led wellness for body, mind & soul

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