Okay, so it’s not the Amazon basin or Madagascar, or even the denuded hills of Caledonia – but I’m happy with the new addition to my garden. It may only be a plum tree, but I reckon it just about clips the end off the big toe nail on my carbon footprint.

There’s something about planting trees that lifts the spirit (I know: Get a grip, it’s one tree). We spend so much of our lives taking from the environment that when we give something back a seed becomes planted somewhere within our inner being. I suppose it’s what being a part of nature is, something we’ve become more and more removed from in the modern world.

Anyone for a plum?

Today I’ve given a little bit back, but I wish I could do more: something along the lines of what Paul Lister is doing with his estate in Alladale, Scotland. For as long as I can remember I’ve walked, or driven, through fragmented landscapes and imagined joining them together,of returning agricultural wastelands to thriving habitats. I was deprived of my chance to become a footballer’s WAG at birth (extreme surgery excluded) and had to rely on other means of making the gazillion dollars required to put my plans into action (just for the record, I’m about 99.99999999 billion short of a gazillion, so watch out for a donate button – coming soon!).

I don’t know if it’s nature that drives my writing ambitions, or writing that leads me in search of the spiritual fulfilment that nature provides – the two are inextricably linked. I’ll just carry on my path doing what I’m doing, comforted in the knowledge there are already people out there with greater means, putting their visions into practice, and that maybe one day my contribution will be greater.

In the mean time – anyone for a plum?