VERITY LUSH: Water '“ a force of nature which we should respect

Until seeing the footage, nothing that I had said could bring home to them just how destructive a force water can be.

The sight of water, something they associate with paddling pools, hydration, taps and hygiene, gushing down behind the village and pulverising all in its path, was an obvious shock to them.

It’s never until we see nature at work that we comprehend what a powerful force it is.

We only exist because of nature, and we take it completely for granted most of the time.

There is beauty in nature, but there is also sheer destruction and terror.

Events such as the tsunami of December 2004, bring this knowledge home to us.

It ensures that, every so often, we are given a little reminder of what lurks, menacingly, behind the beauty of the natural world.

It is easy to forget that we live in a continual cycle of natural dependency.

Everything around us is affected by and existing because of a million other tiny butterfly effects.

Our reliance on nature for survival, and nature’s reliance on us to protect it in order for our environment to be maintained, keeps us within the bubble of biodiversity.

This serves only to highlight the dangers of people such as President Trump and his denial of global warming.

It doesn’t seem to be a matter of opinion that global warming exists.

But even if it doesn’t, how on earth can pumping pollution out into our seas and skies ever be considered a good thing, by anyone?

Our bodies are products of what we put into them – how we use and treat them, and the environment we live in.

It can be frightening as a parent to see exactly what your children are growing up in.

We have only to refer back to the glorious Coverack and its unpolluted, and therefore star-spangled, skies at night, to witness the very real pollution of our city air first-hand.

HORRIFIC CRY OF THE FOX AS IT KILLS IS PART OF NATURE’S CYCLE

I’ve heard from several people recently about foxes in the city.

Such brazen little creatures!

I never cease to be amazed at how they patrol our gardens not under cover of darkness, but merry sunlight.

We have lost several chickens to the daytime fox offenders over the years and have given up keeping them now because you’d just have to lock the poor feathered friends away day and night.

The cry of foxes in the night is also horrific – particularly when they’re killing something.

We’ve been woken many times by this and it’s a true pillow-over- ears moment.

As I’ve already mentioned here, nature is a continual cycle, and a real foxy food chain around these here parts.

THERE HAS BEEN NOBODY SINCE DIANA TO HAVE HAD SUCH IMPACT

The fact that it is two decades years since the death of Princess Diana, is testament to how very quickly time passes.

You’ll know what I mean when I say I am still at the stage where I think 1997 was a couple of years back.

I find it very odd that my own daughters have grown up during a period of time where they have had no concept of Diana, other than as an historical figure.

There’s been nobody since then, really, to have had such an impact.

But then the entirety of 1997 was a stand-out year, from Cool Britannia to Mother Theresa.

There was also an increased sense of national pride and we have lost much of that in recent times.

Brexit has certainly done nothing for it, as yet.