Category: being and becoming
-
Time travellers to Nowhere (3)
We are in Nowhere Wood, about 300 million years ago, staring at a forest of tree ferns, watching them make oxygen. Over the years, these tree ferns have made so much oxygen that its concentration in the air has risen to about 35%, (compare that with the 21% found in the 21st century). There is…
-
What is a frog?
It is late February, the cold weather has moved away and the frogs have moved back in. It’s been a couple of years since they were last here, but here are their newly-laid eggs and the female is hiding beneath the leaf in the top left corner of the photograph. What is a frog and…
-
A year in the life of a sugar factory
The leaves of plants are everywhere in Nowhere Wood, helping to keep the wood alive. Leaves are organs: collections of living tissues and cells, having adventures in time and space. This is the story of a year in the life of an oak leaf. Leaves are factories for making sugar from sunlight, water and carbon…
-
All change!
When you next look into a mirror ask yourself if you are the same person as you were yesterday. Well, of course you are. Even people who last met you ten years ago can still recognise you and call you by your name. Although they might add, “My, how you have grown!” And yet, if we…
-
Moving things on
The weather is warm and wet in Nowhere Wood. These are perfect conditions for growing the fungi that spread everywhere throughout the soil of Nowhere Wood. Fungi are Nature’s recyclers, feeding on the fallen leaves, fruits and wood. Fungi feed on the wood of the dead oak trees, turning it into nutrients that provide energy and…
-
Squirrel wars
One hundred and fifty years ago, the oak woods near Nowhere would have been home to red squirrels. Now they have all disappeared. The red squirrels have been replaced by grey squirrels that were introduced into the UK from the United States in the 1870s. Grey squirrels spread to nearly all parts of the UK,…
-
Being and becoming in Nowhere Wood
All living organisms are doing two things at the same time. They are: Being (they are keeping themselves alive) and Becoming (they are moving towards the next stage of their lives). The butterfly is being and becoming at each stage of its life. All of the animals and plants in Nowhere Wood are also…