Living Together

Living Together

So far this Autumn we have been enjoying some wonderful warm dry sunny days so naturally the weather is all we are talking about. This past weekend visitors were able to take lovely mild walks in the gardens but with my gardening hat on, or with Simon the Farm Manager’s hat on, the reality is that we do need some nice steady rain. It is the warmest and driest October on record so far and the crops need water.
One of the many joys of Highclere is the setting - deeply inspirational and full of light filled views. The building is framed by majestic ancient trees, sloping amber coloured woodland, undulating hills and green parkland dotted with fluffy white balls on thin legs – our sheep.

Walking through a natural landscape underneath the canopy of trees grounds us and reconnects us with nature. For far too much of our time we are more connected to screens and chairs than anything else. AI is apparently the way forward, but I wonder if that really is the best direction for humankind. It is all about boosting productivity but ultimately what are we being so productive for? Like sheep we seem to be following a trail one after another, but many of us seem to have forgotten the difference between need and want. Does it all add to happiness or community, to enjoying a glass of wine whilst sitting outside in a beautiful landscape or planting a tree?

Despite this, here I am writing a blog to be posted out on the internet and, I am beginning think about what I am going to post on Instagram this evening. I really do love to share the natural world around me and I have always thought that part of the value of Highclere is in its age and continuity of ownership which has been written in the landscape for a millennium. So much of my work here involves the question of how do we sustain and conserve this landscape for the future?
One of the foremost voices of conservation, Jane Goodall, has just left us. She was a pioneer, a primatologist who through quiet observation transformed humanity’s understanding of chimpanzees. With a notebook, binoculars, and calm patience, she listened, documented and detailed patterns of behaviour.

Jane sought to understand how these animals related to each other and the world around them. Knowledge and understanding would lead to improvements in the lives of people, animals and the environment by respecting how we are all connected. Caring for each other would lead to better actions. Her voice carried moral authority because it was grounded in experience. In her later years, global respect gave her a place on the world stage, travelling for much of each year, sharing her message of hope and responsibility to audiences from schoolchildren to world leaders.
“Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference,” she repeated, always seeking to inspire the next generation to care and to be curious, whatever the starting point. She always said she was inspired and fascinated by stories form Dr Doolittle to Tarzan.

She was very softly spoken but nevertheless an unyielding advocate for hope and has recorded and left these messages for all of us. She believed that hope was not just wishful idle thinking but almost a moral duty: it was the resolve to act despite despair. She considered pessimism to be self-indulgent and insisted that even small efforts, multiplied, could shift the course of the planet.
She argued that lasting conservation depends on those who live closest to the land and that indigenous communities embody an ethic of respect and reciprocity that modern systems ignore at their peril. Every life leaves an imprint. Humanity’s task, she said, is to decide what kind of difference it wishes to make—guided by intellect, humility, and hope that is practiced, not presumed.
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” Three small words, three words to change life, whatever order you prefer.

4 Comments
Lovely thought provoking blog, thank you. Alice
Lovely the pictures living together did you and lord Carnarvon have a wonderful weekend lam fan of Downton Abbey and highcelere castle
Wise words, this week and just seeing the beautiful photos is encouragement enough to venture out in the Autumn Sun.
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The difference we can make by planting native plants from where we live makes such a positive difference. Rejecting toxic chemicals and embracing organic methods is best for our water supply, all visiting wildlife, and the pollinators we must save to grow healthy food. Having had the pleasure of visiting your home two years ago, your caring truly is clearly evident!