AFON
Advent Calendar: Southampton Common by Lucia Watts
Welcome to our AFON Advent Calendar! Each day leading up to Christmas you will find a wonderful new post by a different member. This years theme is your favourite nature reserve; where do you go to escape from the world and connect with nature? Enjoy!
© Lucia Watts
After yet another busy and confusing day at university, a walk to Southampton common can cure everything from an impossibly complicated lecture to a disastrous piece of coursework. I love going to the common, be it for an afternoon run, weekend walk or a great procrastination excuse, looking at nature totally counts towards an Environmental Science degree right?! While the common isn’t the most diverse area, at visit to the ducks and resident swan family is always a highlight, and there is the occasional jay sighting along the infamous Lovers Walk. What’s best about the common is the people that go there, it’s so lovely to see people enjoying nature without even realising what they’re doing. I think that’s so important to have that connection to the outdoors, to enjoy where you are just for the sake of it. We can’t forget what we have out there, otherwise we won’t notice when it disappears. Even at its most soggy or completely dried out and scorched, the common is one of my favourite parts of the city. It’s an escape from all the noise to nature, to reconnect with what can felt to be lost in the middle of the concrete and crowds.