Hello, and welcome to the Nature Notice Board newsletter. I’m Zabby, a nature enthusiast and forager-in-training from South East London who wants to help you notice nature in a new way.

I believe that connecting with nature starts with noticing just one thing. By paying attention to that one thing, you will inevitably notice more things about the world around you. The more you notice, the more you begin to care. The more you care, the more you might want to do something to protect your patch of nature, to do your bit for the planet.

Along the way, you’ll discover just how beneficial noticing nature is for your own mental and physical health too. There’s a whole world out there to discover, so I started this newsletter to help you notice nature and connect with it on a deeper level.

“No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced.” – David Attenborough

What will I get if I subscribe?

Each week I’ll be sharing something I’ve noticed in nature alongside prompts to help you notice things too. The thing I am inviting you to notice may even lead you to notice other things… A chain reaction of nature joy! 

I’ll also be sharing the occasional creative prompt, foraging tip-off, positive news story or guest post.

Depending on where you live, you may not be able to seek out everything I prompt you to, or things may look slightly different where you are. Use what I send you as inspiration, rather than something you have to follow verbatim.

“In every walk in nature one receives far more than he seeks.” - John Muir

Join a community of nature enthusiasts

I want this to be a collaborative space, and one where you feel part of a community of nature enthusiasts. I’ll be starting regular chats so we can all report on our findings and - if you provide them - sharing regular guest posts. Please get in touch if you’d like to work on something together! 

I started this newsletter as a way to document what I find, and the things I’m learning, in the hope it might help me remember them. I’d love it if you could chip in, even if it’s to let me know I got something wrong!

For now, why not introduce yourself in the comments of one of my posts. Perhaps you can share where you live and one thing you are most interested in right now or want to learn more about. Here’s some more about me…

About me

I’m Zabby Allen, a freelance designer and editor from South East London. I now live near the River Medway in Kent, so most of the things I will be writing about will be based on things I’ve seen and found in those areas while out walking my rescue dog, Noushi. Here she is, standing on a tree stump in Beckenham Place Park, one of my favourite places in London…

I have always been a nature lover, but during lockdowns the natural world became more important to me than ever. I became obsessed with a pair of kestrels in my local park. Noticing those beautiful birds led me to notice many more things, and I made it my mission to learn all I could about the living things around me. I became a London National Park City volunteer ranger and started a (now heavily neglected) nature journal. In 2023 I helped set up a local biodiversity group called Wild South London, to help people in my hometown and beyond connect with nature.

I am not an expert in birds, plants, fungi… or anything else really, but I am an enthusiast. I’m passionate about the natural world and I am teaching myself all I can about it, studying a diploma in foraging and taking a course in nature connection. In this newsletter I am very much learning along with you.

The best thing about nature though, is that I will never know it all. There’s SO much out there to take notice of that I can (and will) keep noticing and discovering new things forever.

"I’d be really scared of finding that I’d got somewhere. Because for me art is about searching, and if you come to a place where you think you’ve made a discovery, god, that could be really demoralising. I think the search is the thing.” - David Bowie

I hope that we can all learn from each other in this space, so please do leave comments, DM me on Instagram, or email me to let me know what you’re noticing in nature (or if I’ve got something wrong). I am really excited to be sharing this space with you.

Follow me

You can find me on Instagram, if you’re so inclined, though I much prefer it here on Substack nowadays!

Photos: