On April 29th Wednesday, Tristan Gooley visited Guernsey to talk about his book, The Hidden Seasons, for the Guernsey Literary Festival. During the event, which was sponsored by the Bank of Butterfield, the natural navigator and writer explored the poetic beauty of nature and its signs. Kindly hosted by St Pierre Park Hotel and chaired by Toby Lichtig from the Times Literary Supplement, about 200 people came to listen to the presentation.

Tristan explained how small observations can provide a whole new perspective on how the world works and how nature has its own calendar. “It’s like reading a clock. Once you understand how to read the signs it becomes effortless,” he told us. It’s not rocket science… you’re observing something most people won't bother to pause on.”  His words reminded me of when I take the bus, music on, observing my surroundings. I feel exhilarated every time I see something new and to hear how such an extraordinary explorer really discovered nature and how he made me feel seen.

Tristan described how he discovered navigation in the wild and it became the route out for him, a counter to his rebellion. 

“The first 25 years of my life were very rebellious… What I did spot was I really enjoyed journeys and the rebellious part of it, meant that I really liked shaping my own journeys… I particularly liked the idea that the structure and the discipline of it was logical and reasonable.” 

He related the process of discovering nature and falling in love with it in a powerful way which clearly resonated with the audience. He found poetry in it, but then the poetry left, returning after he disconnected himself from what took the poetry away - the organisation and day-to-dayness which drew him away from nature . This inspires us to not stop what you love doing just because something took the poetry out of it. Instead, we need to find a way to bring it back.

Through volunteering and shadowing Claire Allen, Director of Guernsey LitFest, I got the chance to ask Tristan a few questions before the event started.

“The closer to the sea you are, the earlier spring comes, and the later autumn will kick in normally. The reason being that one of the ways nature reads its own calendar is temperature, so the closer to the sea you are the more kind of moderating effect it has… that's why it is not snowing that often in the Channel Islands. But at the same time, it doesn't go cold as quickly in the autumn, so you get that kind of early spring, late autumn effect typically. Not every year, every year is a bit different, but that's the general pattern.” 

Tristan outlined how he enjoyed watching the sunset in Jersey:

 “I really enjoyed watching the low sun bouncing off the sea. It creates a pattern called the glitter path which tells us quite a lot about what the water is doing… I was looking at the way the sun was shaping what was laid down, so in that case, the sea.” 

I had the pleasure to volunteer for this event and shadow Claire Allen, which really gave me a close look at how the behind the scenes of these extraordinary events really work and the talk itself was enlightening, Tristan talked about how nature is poetic but I found out that how the team brought the event to life was poetic. As someone who enjoys organizing events and hosting events myself, seeing something of such scale being organized and carried out with such grace and absolute perfection ignited a spark to create something just as poetic myself. For this reason, I will volunteer for the event again next year. Along with volunteering for the event, I've had the opportunity to write an article about that fascinating talk.