Lucy traverses meadows and hedgerows with her fellow nature enthusiasts, where she digs down into our relationship with the natural world.

Most of us love nature; it’s a great source of fascination, comfort and awe. But we’re living in a time of great loss, witnessing decline of biodiversity all around us.

In her talk, Lucy will explore this two sided coin, exploring our relationship with the natural world, along with plenty of nerdy wildlife encounters.

Love is a Toad

Nature makes us feel things. It sparks awe, curiosity and a sense of beauty and community. But as wildlife around us declines and disappears, murkier feelings rise up: guilt, detachment and fear for nature's plight. For many years, Lucy Lapwing wrestled with these tangled emotions. So, in an attempt to make sense of this dance between joy and grief, she decided to go on a journey.

In Love Is a Toad, Lucy traverses meadows, bogs and hedgerows with her fellow nature enthusiasts, where she digs down into our relationship with the natural world. Over the course of a year, she meets bucketfuls of wildlife - Blackbird and Oak, slugs and puffballs, waterlilies, Dung Beetles and toads - as she roams across the UK.

From a river swim to wanders through woodlands, with every journey, Lucy explores how nature makes us feel, from wild grief and anger through to soaring joy and indefatigable hope. At once a celebration and an invitation to reflect, Love Is a Toad prods and pokes at our connection to the natural world, exploring its complexity in all its muddiness, messiness and wonder.

Lucy Lapwing

Lucy is a self-described nature nerd, naturalist and writer. Working in conservation, wildlife campaigning and behind the scenes on BBC’s Springwatch, her passion for nature and her occupation meld as one. Outside of - and indeed inside of - work, you’re likely to spot her rootling in the mud, climbing trees barefoot or whispering compliments to spiders. Lucy determined to fight the biodiversity crisis with a sense of humour, and is a big advocate of green prescriptions following a cancer diagnosis in her early 20s.

Description supplied by the event organiser.