Guest blog from Ali Rowland
It’s fantastic to be able to contribute to this website from the point of view of someone who often finds myself observing the river, usually while waiting for my husband and the dog to return from their adventures. Usually I’m watching from a particular viewpoint: across the Coquet from the Braid, or on the path to the hermitage in Walkworth, at the confluence of sea and river at Little Shore, opposite the ‘Coquet road’ at Hauxley beach, and occasionally as far as Rothbury.
It’s never dull watching the wildlife responding to the gentle flowing and filling of the river from the estuary. One day, the fish are jumping, another day the ducks, swan and goosanders are busy regimenting their young. The herons patrol, and seem to fly off offended when their efforts are unrewarded. The cormorants pretend to be statues with their wings extended while the starlings practise mini-murmurations. The birds are in an almost constant rearrangement of themselves in which nobody ever tells them to sit still or to stop fidgeting.
The trees and bushes and river side flora change more slowly, reflecting the seasons. Just now there’s a fine crop of fruits at the Braid. Orange sea buckthorn berries look stunning against the plant’s own silver foliage. Bell-shaped rose hips swell to bursting point. The hawthorn remembers how early and well it flowered and produces hundreds of what look like cherry red beads. Elderberries hang, apparently too heavy for their stems, like pea-sized grapes, starting green, then ripening through dusky plum to inky black. Blackberries try to last long enough to do the same, although the birds seem to take most of the fruit before they become ripe.
And, of course, there are the people, who also change with the seasons. Families are now giving over to the late holidaymakers, often with backpacks and binoculars. The dog walkers are the constants here. Some of them found quieter paths during the high season, but they are now returning to their usual haunts like migrating birds. Everyone loves to follow the river.
You’ve probably gathered already that my reflections are not based on a strong understanding of nature. I have no grounding in science, and I was brought up and worked exclusively in big cities. If I’d been born a few years earlier, I would have been a farmer’s daughter, but that’s another story. Mine are amateur appreciations, the ramblings of an enthusiastic convert. All mistakes have been carefully curated in my own head, and are definitely not to be attributed to CRAG.
People often inspire my writing, providing small vignettes for poems that are essentially moving paintings in words, or ideas for stories. As we interact with our environment, it shapes our behaviours, our thoughts, and our actions. Sometimes I get inspiration from overheard snippets of conversation, or my stories consider how humans mimic things in the natural world, or how things we do might look from the point of view of other animals.
It’s often difficult to be positive about climate change but the work of groups like CRAG show that individuals can make small differences, and work together to preserve what is most meaningful in the ‘wild’ side of our lives. The numbers of visitors to the Coquet and surrounding areas demonstrate how universal the love of natural beauty is, a common thread that unites us all. Many of us started as tourists here, then responded to the pull of this place, and now want to help preserve it. Making the transition from being a visitor to living here feels a little bit like becoming part of the wildlife or the scenery, and gives you a unique view of those who come and go here. I hope my occasional reflections can give a quirky slant on more traditional nature notes.
***
Ali Rowland won the Hexham Poetry Competition in 2023, and has been nominated for Best of the Net 2025. Her first poetry collection Rooted (Maplestreet Press, 2024) was the result of working with Dovecote Street Arts. Her latest pamphlet For the Love of Dogs with line drawings by local artists is available from the SHAK, Alexa’s Canine Trust and Northumberland Dog Rescue shops in Amble. You can follow her work at Musings of a Mad Woman on Substack.
CRAG 