Judith Russenberger

31 Days Wild: 24th May 2025

Working in the garden this afternoon I caught sight of a fox. He (or maybe she) between the raspberry canes, his (or her) sharp pointed nose peering round, eyes following and then seeing no danger, he (or she) lept onto the top of the compost heap, curled up and slept. Is the urban fox a wild animal? Or a byproduct of a human settlement?

This morning as I ran past Ham House I saw a healthy looking rat run across the track. I saw the same (or maybe a similar) one last Saturday. Is the urban rat a wild animal? Or another byproduct of a human settlement?

Thinking about it, many wild animals have and do adapts their behaviour to maximise the benefit they can gain from humans – eg birds that daily frequent our bird feeders, deer that choose to stay within the confines of Park rather than moving out into the streets of suburbia, peregrine falcons that nest on high rise buildings etc. Rather than denigrating some of the wild creatures that share our neighbourhoods, we should not celebrate their adaptability and take it as an encouragement that we should also be sufficiently adaptable to alongside others.

Weave a web of care

24th May 2025

“Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last 200 years. We are not God. The Earth was here before us and was given to us. The exploitation of the planet has already exceeded acceptable limits and we still have not solved the problem of poverty. We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it.” Pope Francis, Laudate Si

When I am tempted to meanness,

Show me your ways, O God,

and teach me your paths.

When I fail to care for your creation,

Show me your ways, O God,

and teach me your paths.

When I am too busy to stand and stare,

Show me your ways, O God,

and teach me your paths.

Rhythms of Remembering, Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, with permission

Pause for reflection.

A reading Job 12:7-11

“But ask the animals what they think—let them teach you;
    let the birds tell you what’s going on.
Put your ear to the earth—learn the basics.
    Listen—the fish in the ocean will tell you their stories.
Isn’t it clear that they all know and agree
    that God is sovereign, that he holds all things in his hand—
Every living soul, yes,
    every breathing creature?
Isn’t this all just common sense,
    as common as the sense of taste?

Response:

To know you in all things

Weave a web of your presence around us today.

Be with our hands as they work.

Be with our eyes as they see.

Be with our ears as they hear.

Be with our tongue as it speaks.

Be with our feelings and our thoughts.

Be with the people we meet.

Be with the trees we pass by and the grass we walk upon.

Be with the birds we hear and the creatures we see.

Be with the things we fashion and the things we take.

Be with the decisions we make.

Be in and through, over and under all,

that doing and hearing and seeing, speaking and making and being,

may we glimpse your glory, hear your voice

and joyfully work with you

to create a new heaven and a new earth.

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

and the love of God,

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit

be with us all,

amen.

31 Days Wild: 23rd May 2025

Some days seem so busy I feel I fail to engage with anything wild. Today was such a day which took me – late afternoon – to Guildford Cathedral for a Christian Climate Action vigil, praying that both cathedral and diocese would pursue the path of financial integrity and switch to an ethical bank aligned with the principles of social justice and care for the environment.

As we prayed I saw a couple of tiny red creatures scurrying back and forth on the steps – money spiders! Or at least that’s what we called them as children: they were good luck creatures. Checking on the web, they are a red velvet mite or Trombidiidae, and having eight legs (but no feelers – instead they use their front pair of legs) are classified as arachnids. However it is another group of spiders – Linyphiidae – that are noted as being called money spiders.

Either way, who we bank with can have a big impact on whether or not we are promoting care of the wild aspects of the environment.

31 Days Wild: 22nd May 2025

Yesterday it rained for the first time in weeks and the smells were amazing – wet ground and the strong smell of eucalyptus from the leaves that had fallen from a neighbour’s tree. Walking along the streets I am also struck by the perfume of flowering plants – roses and mock orange in particular.

Counting on … day 69

23rd May 2025

Community Energy

Adverse weather can cut the grid supply of electricity on which our lifestyles are so reliant. Having a locally based unit producing electricity would seem advantageous – for the individual householder this could be solar panels – but communities might also want to have a locally owned wind turbine or hydro plant. Community projects can also secure better energy security by ensuring individual homes are well insulated and that households have access to energy at affordable prices.

“Community energy is about people working together to generate electricity locally using renewable technologies that both reduce carbon emissions and save money.” (1)

“Community energy’ is when citizens work together to build renewables or support households in reducing their consumption. It often refers to community-led generation projects, for example a wind farm or solar panel project which members of the community part or fully own.” (2)

Counting on … day 68

22nd May 2025

Depending where you live, you may have easy access to a library of things meaning if you need a power drill, or a sewing machine, a wood plane or a fish kettle, you can borrow one for a small fee. And thus avoiding spending far more on something you may only use once. That is good for sustainability and potentially increases resilience in the event of a crisis. It can also nurture structures and habits that makes for a resilient community – a community that can look after each other.

https://www.cagoxfordshire.org.uk/library-of-things

https://www.libraryofthings.co.uk/

31 Days Wild: 21st May 2025

If wildness can exist even when there is a degree of human intervention, then gardens too can, to some degree, be wild. ie gardens can be cultivated in such as way as to create or support areas of wildness. These could be corners that are left to run wild, or lawns managed as meadows (although they are likely to be cut by hand rather than by grazing animals). But even when gardens are more formally cultivated they can still support wildlife with flowering plants that benefit pollinators, log piles that benefit insects and beetles, ponds that benefit frogs and dragonflies, and in the absence of pesticides, aphids and caterpillars that benefit birds.

31 Days Wild: 20th May 2025

Wild is a word that can mean natural, untamed, or uncultivated. It can also mean free. Most of fauna in Richmond Park is wild with the exception of the deer. They were artificially introduced and their health and numbers are artificially maintained but with quite a low key touch (ie providing some winter feed and culling weaker animals to maintain herds appropriate to the size of the Park). The flora too is largely wild with the exception of the areas of p planted flower gardens and the Isabella Planation where the plants are purposefully cultivated. Equally there is a degree to which the trees are cultivated in so far as dangerous branches are removed and new trees are planted to create new areas of woodland. Nevertheless these interventions do enable wildlife to thrive. Richmond Park is London’s largest designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). According to Natural England “Richmond Park has been managed as a royal deer park since the seventeenth century, producing a range of habitats of value to wildlife. In particular, Richmond Park is of importance for its diverse deadwood beetle fauna associated with the ancient trees found throughout the parkland. In addition the park supports the most extensive area of dry acid grassland in Greater London.”

Counting on … day 67

21st May 2025

Food security even in the UK is tenuous. The action group Sustain observes that “the 2023 National Risk Register only conceives of one direct food impact, that of food supply contamination. In terms of other potential disruption, the current advice to the public is to store 3 days’ worth of food at home. While there are already 7.2 million people experiencing food insecurity in the UK, with people unable to afford to feed themselves for one day let alone to stockpile, we need to be leaning toward community-scale food storage and systems over a “preppers” mentality.”

In the UK most of our food comes via supermarket chains and their large scale distribution networks which makes us all vulnerable if just one part of that system fails – flood, fire, illness etc. We don’t have a local network of food supplies that could provide us with emergency food. More locally based – and therefore likely smaller – farms, and community gardens, allotments and orchards etc would help improve local resilience. Do read this item from Sustain detailing how local authorities etc could achieve this.

https://www.sustainweb.org/blogs/mar25-building-food-resilience/

Counting on … day 66

20th May 2025

Community gardens both foster communities and increase community resilience.

The Community Gardens website lists the following benefits as a starting point:

Community gardens reduce carbon emissions by promoting local food production and minimising transportation needs.
They improve air quality and support biodiversity, creating habitats for various species.
These gardens enhance soil health, which is crucial for carbon sequestration and water filtration.
Community engagement in gardening fosters social connections and builds sustainable communities.
Urban heat islands are mitigated through the cooling effects of greenery, improving city liveability.

How Community Gardens Are Transforming Our Fight Against Climate Change: 15 Powerful Ways to Make a Difference! 🌍 [2024]