Country diary: The recipe for life is simple – just add water

The Guardian

2 days ago

It's a dove-soft, pigeon-grey Sunday morning, the like of which my friends in India insist I'm just making up. Not a whisper of breeze and borderline chilly at 17C. I am sitting on the edge of my friend Flip's wildlife pond, listening to the sound of church bells from across the valley.
This was a plain old lawn until a few years ago, when Flip decided to hire a mini-digger and a create a pond. It was winter, raining non‑stop, and the result was a massive crater of mud. It looked like a meteor had hit.
It's hard to imagine that now. The pond lies peaceful, dotted with lily pads, lined with flag irises, sedge and water milfoil. Iris stems lean over the water, weighed down by green seedpods, plump as Zeppelins. Bumblebees make their way up spikes of purple loosestrife, checking each floret in case it's been missed.
After this year's long, dry summer, the grass is as crisp as biscuits, and down in his wonderful garden some of the trees have suffered. The old oak is furred with mildew, the silver birches prematurely autumnal. Flip and I pick mulberries from the ancient tree in the middle. The berries are so juicy and ripe, you drink rather than eat them: a gorgeous sweet burst of dark wine on the tongue. Soon our hands are stained, our hair full of lichen and twigs. We've been praying for rain, and here, in the mulberry cathedral, comes the answer. At first a smattering crackle that bounces off the leaves, then a drizzle, then a downpour, and we are forced inside.
All gardeners know that the single most effective way to make your plot more wildlife‑friendly is to put in a pond. Flip's wildlife camera reveals foxes, deer, even badgers trekking across at night from the sett on the adjacent hill, and bats galore at twilight. We sip our coffee and look out across the hillside as the bells ring out, the rain pours down and the dry earth drinks it up. The recipe for life, it turns out, is simple: just add water.
Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian's Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at guardianbookshop.com and get a 15% discount