Mental health awareness week was 13-19th May this year. I didn’t get round to writing a piece for it then; better late than never.
I think it is important to talk about mental health and I am open about my own experiences when the subject is mentioned.
I have dealt with Social anxiety and Seasonal Affective Disorder for a long time, although my mental health has improved over the years. Through medication, Cognitive behavioural therapy, healthy eating, exercise, mindfulness, along with getting outdoors and immersing myself in nature I manage these conditions. I started this blog to help give me focus too.
Thankfully I am at a stage where I can manage these conditions without them causing much disruption to my life. However some days are more difficult to deal with than others, Tuesday started out as one of those days. For some reason my anxiety level was high first thing. After forcing myself to open the curtains I noticed a Great Tit (Parus major) fledgling, with an adult, in the Rowan tree (Sorbus). They were feeding on insects before they flew onto a neighboring Rowan tree. This start to the day reminded me to be in the moment and enabled me to work on my thoughts and face the day ahead.
As the day continued, my anxiety wained. Being outdoors with nature helps.
In the afternoon I noticed a mature male Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula). I was able to identify it as male due to the red shoulder strips (they are yellow in immature males) and lack of yellow stripes on the segments of the abdomen, which the females exhibit. Plus the black legs identifies it as the Large Red Damselfly rather than the Small Red Damselfly (Ceriagrion tenellum) which has brown legs. The differences between a Damselfly and Dragonfly is the latter is larger, has thicker bodies and the wings are outstretched when they are resting. The Large Red Damselfly regularly visits garden ponds. However this one seemed happy on the window sill chomping on the insects in the cobweb.
On Wednesday I saw some
Cut-leaved Crane’s-bill (Geranium dissectum) in the lawn.
Then on Thursday I noticed this Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) on a Salvia (Salvia X sylvestris) plant.
Friday was quite muggy and rain was threatening to fall in the morning. However a Small Blood-vein moth (Scopula imitaria) was flying around as I worked.
I also saw some Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans) flowering on the verge on my way home.
Astronomically summer starts on the summer solstice (21st June) however today (1st June) is the first day of summer meteorologically, as the calendar months are grouped into seasons (therefore summer is June, July and August). Whichever date you prefer to go with we are certainly experiencing summery temperatures this weekend and I was helping to water the garden. Unfortunately a few insects weren’t happy with the shower they suddenly experienced. One insect was a photo shy Hoverfly. I did capture a few insects though,
– a Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) resting.
-a White-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lucorum) on Purple toadflax (Linaria purpurea).
– and a Yellow-faced Bell moth (Notocelia cynosbatella).
Bee in the Moment 