My Story...
Resting on the sofa, I hear a churp-churp coming from just outside the lounge window. It is a blackbird – feathers immaculate, just that tiny hook at the tip of her beak that identifies her to me. She is wanting food. I reach out and put some suet pellets on the windowsill, watching from my window - as I have done almost every day of being housebound.
I was seventeen when I became severely unwell with myalgic encephalomyelitis (shortened to M.E.). M.E. is a multi-system disease, which severely affects the cells of the body, limiting mobility, energy and stamina, and for eighteen months I was completely stuck at home. My health did improve, but in 2018 another health complication caused me to relapse. For the last two years I have had to stay at home.
Being housebound and being so unwell is incredibly hard. I had always loved nature, but when I was at my most ill, I couldn’t get outside - and the wildlife I saw from my window was my only connection to the outside world. Then, watching nature from indoors was my anchor, my solace, my way to escape. For a time, it was the only way I could maintain my interest in natural history.
