Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 27/09/2026I have river water in my fridge that has been there for weeks. To my eyes it looks almost empty, yet beneath the microscope tiny animals are still moving through it, living lives I cannot ordinarily see. The Lives Beneath the Rock: nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/09/27/t... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 14/09/2026What does it mean to own a river? We put our names on deeds, while the water and the lives within it continue through boundaries they have never recognised. The river is not passing through our lives; we are passing through the life of the river. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/09/14/w...nature-speaks.co.ukWhat Does It Mean to Own a River? - Nature SpeaksNot long ago, when I mentioned on LinkedIn that I owned a little stretch of the River Ceiriog, Keith, whose conversations there have often made me stop and reconsider something I thought I understood,... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Sometimes we discover what we think by speaking, and what we see by drawing. Attentive Wondering begins with that possibility: we can give something our attention before we know what it will mean, and allow the encounter to change us. 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 10/09/2026When images and words can be generated in seconds, the slow uncertainty of making matters more than ever. My Faded Rose was drawn and coloured by hand, and deciding where the colour should stop changed how I saw.What are you making that is also quietly making you? nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/09/10/w... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Who chose the path? We worry about what AI might know. I wonder if we should also ask what it teaches us to notice. When popularity reproduces itself, the world can widen on the screen while our passage through it grows narrower. AI, nature & the digital herd. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/09/08/w... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 05/09/2026A place may be beautiful and still leave part of us hungry. After days among Cardiff’s trees, museums, buildings and café conversations, I’ve been thinking about Meredith Sabini’s dream of nature on one side and culture on the other, “in balance and accessible.” nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/09/05/t... 010
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 29/08/2026This week, a young badger died on the road a few yards from my house. I had probably never seen it alive, yet its death felt like news from a neighbouring community—one that moves through the same valley while I sleep. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/29/a...nature-speaks.co.ukA Neighbouring Community - Nature SpeaksThis week, a young badger died on the road a few yards from my house. I had probably never seen this particular animal alive, yet its death felt less like the discovery of an unknown creature than new... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 28/08/2026AI may lead us back to nature—but what if we bring the screen’s habits with us? It can guide and inform us, but it cannot make us attend. Are we recording what we noticed, or noticing only what we can record? nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/28/w... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 27/08/2026How much of what we call confidence is really the memory of having once been listened to? We inherit ways of speaking—and silences. But we can listen again, choose differently and find words for what others could not say. New essay: nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/27/t... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 27/08/2026We’re taught to understand life through competition: survival of the fittest, scarcity, winners and losers. Look at the living world for long enough and another story appears—partnership, reciprocity and interdependence. Competition is real, but it is not the whole story. 030
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 25/08/2026I drove down a road I thought I knew and discovered a whole network of lives that had always been there, just beyond my view. Perhaps our lives are made of worlds within worlds — most of them invisible until something makes us notice. Worlds Within Worlds nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/25/w... 010
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 24/08/2026My father, a draughtsman, taught me to draw: look carefully, control the line, get it right. It took me much longer to learn when to let go. It makes me wonder how many other things — art, writing, even our encounters with nature — we try too hard to control. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/24/i... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 23/08/2026We’re told to walk among trees to lower stress, listen to birdsong to lift our mood. But are we turning nature into another intervention? Instead of harvesting timber or fuel, do we now harvest wellbeing? The Attention That Does Not Grasp nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/23/t...nature-speaks.co.ukThe Attention That Does Not Grasp - Nature SpeaksWhat happens when we stop looking for something and simply look? There are moments when we realise that we have been looking at the world without quite seeing it, walking the same path every morning, ... 010
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 21/08/2026After rain, familiar places seem briefly rearranged. Leaves shine, colours deepen, sounds sharpen. Nothing fundamental has changed. Perhaps we don’t always need something new. Sometimes we need a new way of encountering what is already familiar. 010
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Two ravens watched me move into this house. Years later they still call from the roof each morning until I feed them — and I've started to wonder who was really doing the noticing. New piece: nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/18/p... #AttentiveWondering #TheWildRemembers 010
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 17/08/2026We often assume familiarity makes things less interesting. Yet the more closely we know a place, the more we see — the changing light, gathering water, the returning bird. Perhaps knowing something deeply doesn’t diminish wonder. Perhaps it gives wonder somewhere to take root. 021
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 16/08/2026There is a moment in late summer when the season seems to hesitate; the days still belong to summer, yet here and there a leaf has begun to turn. Perhaps change is often like this — already happening before we notice it. 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 16/08/2026Yesterday, familiar bracken became yellow amongst green, fronds fading almost to bone, and a speckled wood I had nearly missed. Perhaps attentive wondering isn’t about seeing more things, but seeing more in the same things. What If We Don’t Need to See More? nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/15/w... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Today, beside the river alongside the old tramway, I sat on a rock while Digby wandered through the shallows. Beside me lay two heart-shaped stones, and for a little while there was nowhere else to be, nothing to achieve — only a dog in the water and the quiet happiness of being exactly where I was. 010
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 11/08/2026One creature is harmless but looks armed. The other is armed but need not be harmful. A hoverfly, a wasp, and the small act of looking beyond a first impression. “Look Again” — my new Nature Speaks post: nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/11/l... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 09/08/2026“Ah! would we could at once paint with the eyes! In the long way from the eye, through the arm to the pencil, how much is lost!” Drawing may not remove that distance, but it can shorten it. As the hand follows the eye, the eye learns to see. — Harry Watson, Figure Drawing 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 08/08/2026A flower does not hide its colour until someone asks to see it. For years, I quietly did my best and waited to be noticed. I’m learning that bringing our work into the light is not neediness or vanity. It is simply giving it the chance to be found. 010
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 08/08/2026Years apart, I noticed two snails on exactly the same part of an old tramway bridge. The first carried my thoughts towards galaxies; the second brought me back to the small life carrying the spiral. Sometimes returning lets us see what was waiting there all along nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/08/r... 061
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 06/08/2026Pay attention to what is here, because nothing remains exactly as we find it. Love it while it is living beside you, and when it changes or disappears, let your remembering become another way of holding it. — Jane Maye, Nature Speaks 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 05/08/2026I have always preferred writing longhand, but especially outdoors. Indoors it's easy to believe writing comes purely from the mind. Outside, a leaf turns, a bird calls, the wind lifts the page… New piece on longhand writing and Abyssus nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/05/w...nature-speaks.co.ukWriting Outdoors - Nature SpeaksI have always preferred writing longhand, but especially outdoors. There is something about taking a notebook outside that changes the nature of the work. Indoors, it is easy to believe that writing c... 010
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 03/08/2026I cut the rose to draw it. Only later did I notice the web threaded through one hollow petal — the spider long gone. A home I hadn't known was a home, taken without asking. Attentive wondering didn't stop me causing harm. New post: nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/03/before-i-could-read-it/ 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 02/08/2026When does a flower stop being beautiful? This fading rose made me realise that perhaps flowers do not lose their beauty. They simply become quieter, asking a little more patience from the person willing to stop and look. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/08/02/w... 021
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 30/07/2026These hydrangeas looked beyond saving after weeks of drought, but two weeks later tiny green shoots began to appear. It reminded me that we usually look for nature at its most beautiful, yet some of its deepest stories begin when we think the beauty has gone. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/30/e... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 29/07/2026I used to think creativity began with making. Now I think it begins with paying attention. The drawing, print or essay is often just the visible trace of a much quieter process: noticing. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/29/w... #NatureWriting #Creativity #Attention #Nature 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 26/07/2026I thought I was looking at destruction. I realised I was watching transformation. The leaves were becoming part of another life, while their hidden architecture emerged in beauty. Sometimes nature changes the story by asking us to stay a little longer. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/26/w... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 21/07/2026The trees look early-autumn. It's really a summer that asked too much, not a season changing. We do this too — mistake stress for a change of character. Better question: not what season is this, but what it's responding to. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/21/i... 020
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 20/07/2026Some landscapes ask us to look further. Woodland asks us to look deeper. Perhaps the richest way through life isn’t to see further than everyone else, but simply to notice more deeply where we already stand. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/20/t... #NatureSpeaks #AttentiveWondering 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 18/07/2026Hidden beneath the trees at Pandy are the remains of the old rock works, where stone was once blasted with gunpowder before travelling by tramway through the valley. The woodland hasn’t erased that history. It has become part of it. New Nature Speaks essay: nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/18/w...nature-speaks.co.ukWhat the Woodland Chose to Keep - Nature SpeaksHidden among the trees at Pandy, the remains of the old rock works reveal a deeper story about industry, memory and the enduring relationship between people and the living landscape. 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Perhaps attentive wondering isn’t choosing between myth and knowledge, but allowing both to deepen our relationship with the natural world. Sometimes we find only the empty cradle and are left to imagine the life that swam away. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/17/a... #NatureSpeaks #AttentiveWondering 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 15/07/2026I thought it was a dead leaf. Then it breathed. A Large Yellow Underwing, wings folded over flashes of gold, hidden until it moved. We carry our brightest colours the same way — quietly, folded away, shown only to those who stay long enough to look twice. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/15/t... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 14/07/2026I spent this afternoon chasing a tiny drifting seed down the road. As a child I called these little parachutists fairies and believed that catching one meant good luck. Perhaps the world is still enchanted if we pay enough attention. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/14/c... 020
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 13/07/2026“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.” — William Blake The difference is not in the tree. It is in the quality of our attention. Attentive Wondering is an invitation to pause long enough for the world to become alive again. 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 13/07/2026A feather in the leaf litter — pale, small, easy to miss. Trees let go of leaves. Flowers let go of petals. Birds shed feathers they no longer need. Nothing in nature clings to what has already done its work. New on Nature Speaks nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/13/a... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 11/07/2026At Brantwood, Ruskin's desk still holds his stones and shells. He wrote: the greatest thing a soul does is to see, and tell what it saw plainly. His drawing master Harding taught the same lesson with a pencil. Look first. The rest follows. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/11/a... #AttentiveWondering 000
Reposted by Jane Mayesimmcewen.bsky.social @simmcewen.bsky.social · 06/07/2026Delicate mushroom in moss on the forest floor #MushroomMonday #FungiFriends #mycology #PNW #nature #photography 3919
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Mistook a sheep for a rock this morning - until it lifted its head. A small reminder that seeing isn't the same as looking. The world gets richer the longer we stay with it. #AttentiveWondering #SlowLooking 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 07/07/2026Small, perfect circles in a leaf. I let the not-knowing sit a while before reaching for a name. Turns out it's shot-hole disease - the leaf quietly sealing off and releasing what it can no longer hold. The wild remembers. So do you. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/07/s... #NatureWriting 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 06/07/2026A fallen damson, marked by small teeth. I did not see who came. I let the not-knowing stay a little longer, gently, before reaching for a name. The wild remembers. So do you. nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/06/t... 000
Reposted by Jane MayeBadger Trust @badgertrust.bsky.social · 05/07/2026You have to keep an eye on those cheeky cubs 🦡💚 📷 @lewisnewgram 0102
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 05/07/2026Each morning, a pair of ravens arrives on the fence. This summer, their young too. New Attentive Wondering piece, on ravens and a way of seeing we may have forgotten nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/05/r... The wild remembers. So do you. 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 04/07/2026A beetle on a fallen tree, red as a cardinal's robe, antennae reaching forward as if tasting the air - the brief visible end of years spent hidden under bark. Painted it after, in ink, on an old page of sheet music. The earth has music for those who listen. 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 04/07/2026Mary Oliver made room for readers who thought poetry wasn't for them. That's the work, isn't it - making the door wider, not the room smaller. 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 04/07/2026Dappled light, low water, stones. Digby watching the river do nothing in particular - which is to say, everything it always does. Some mornings the practice is just this: stopping. The wild remembers. So do you. 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 03/07/2026You bend to reach it - low branches, five steps down, a bench above the river. Look up and you're always seeing the underside of the leaves. Then the breeze brings it closer, and you notice: not empty. Small dark bodies, there every year, whether you look or not nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/03/w... 000
Jane Maye @janemaye.bsky.social · 02/07/2026Petals gone. Stamens curling brown. Green beads pushing through beneath - same stem, same moment. Decay isn't beside growth here. It's making it. The wild remembers. So do you. #NatureWriting #AttentiveWondering nature-speaks.co.uk/2026/07/02/w...nature-speaks.co.ukWhat the Petals Leave Behind - Nature SpeaksA blackberry flower is not one flower, not really, not if you look as closely as the small creatures already living inside its cluster are looking. The white petals are already gone from this one, dro... 000