We humans are such arrogant twits! We fancy ourselves the keepers of this planet, but in truth we are not in charge here. We need this planet. It doesn’t need us. In fact, we are probably a bit of a nuisance, a cause of minor irritation to Mother Nature. We’re sort of her prodigal children and, boy, didn’t we earn ourselves a good hiding!

It was interesting to see how the natural world bounced back when we were all locked in. Wild animals emerged from their hidey holes, greenery cut through the concrete slabs of unused car parks and nibbled away at rusty old structure we’d left unattended for months. Give Mother Nature another couple of years without our interference and she will have fully recovered.

Her spectacular resurrection during the lockdowns happened spontaneously. We weren’t needed to give her a helping hand. We weren’t required to plough, sow or harvest. She did it all by herself. All we had to do was just to stay the fuck away.

I watch the Chelsea Flower Show and other such heights of our gardening efforts with bemusement. What’s that all about? Creating artificial waterfalls, flowerbeds, floating islands and garden benches tucked away in well-balanced patches of greenery is all good fun, I’m sure, but it is nothing to what Mother Nature can do by herself, without much fuss. Just take a look at these humble splutters of wilderness and I dare you to tell me that we could even dream of bettering that.