Trying Again

I started this blog 3 years ago with the intention to link the city world with wildlife, it was called The Wilderness City. I got off to a blazing start blogging daily, and then it all stopped. I hadn't quite got it right, the city is too narrow a subject matter for me. i hope now i have got closer to what it is i want to be blogging about. It is a subject that relates to what went before but is much bigger. It is Accidental Nature. What does that mean. Quite simply it is the social history of our natural history. It is the appreciation of how we humans shape the landscape and wildlife makes use of that. We don't plan to have that wildlife in our lives, but it is. It is accidental nature.

Think of motorway embankments, think of canals, think of railway networks, think of grouse moors, think of traditional farmland, think of landfill sites, think of gardens, think of abandoned quarries, think of golf courses, think of pretty much anything. Whatever it is, after the initial human disturbance, nature finds a way to make use of it. We create spaces for nature whether we like it of not. Many of us then seem to adopt the widllife that moves into our world and become accidental naturalists. Through my work making natural history TV programs I've met many of them, green keepers, pier masters, grave diggers. All developed an interest in the wildlife that came into their world by accident rather than by design. It shows me that wildlife is not the preserve of the scientist or the conservation worker, but of everyday people.

So, from the city to the world it is.....everywhere i look i see accidental nature, a reminder that life on earth is so much more powerful than us human types, it will trump us everytime, in the immortal words of Jurrasic Park - "life will find a way". I think that is a positive thing to celebrate, and as much as we harm this world, we also play our part in its continual evolution. The life that finds a way, will continue to do so, and i want this blog to explore that thought and see where it might take us. I may look at big pictures stuff, how humans landscape the world or simple stories like how accidental wildlife crosses into our everyday lives, just like my son and the fox poo on his shoes in the last blog post 3 years ago. Anyway, it all starts here.....