“Once upon a time, words began to vanish from the language of children. They disappeared so quietly that at first almost no one noticed – fading away like water on a stone…’.
I can’t leave writing the willow blogs without introducing you to the book ‘The Lost Words’. I came in contact with the book through Liz at Caldecott Primary. The school had recently used the book across the classes on world book day. I have told a few other adults about it and most have never heard of it. The book came about as certain words, nature and plant related words were being removed from the Oxford Chidlren’s Dictionary as there were no longer deemed to have merit as they were in use less. Horrified by this and also the decline in the natural world around us, Author Robert Macfarlane and Artist Jackie Morris came up with a book of songs/spells meant to be read out loud to summon up the plants and animals.
One of the words in the book is “Willow” hence the inspiration to talk to you about it here, that and the fact I recently turned 40 and received the book as a gift from my eldest sister Jules…(previously written about in earlier blogs here…)
The other words are things like “acorn, bluebell, kingfisher and wren”…yes, I know, I was pretty shocked about this too! It is well worth a read as the illustrations are beautiful and the message is about something that is incredibly close to all our hearts here at Green Art. As the author Robert explains…
“We’ve got more than 50% of species in decline. And names, good names, well used can help us see and they help us care. We find it hard to love what we cannot give a name to. And what we do not love we will not save.”
I would really recommend the book, it is a great book to use to introduce these words and their importance to your children, (and a lovely gift for adults, trust me ?).
We at GreenArt can provide help at any level
From planning a wildlife garden, building hides, constructing ponds and streams, creating paths and planting trees and shrubs.
