When balancing time between learning, building careers and working towards goals, many young people find themselves struggling to find enough time to enjoy their local nature. On the other hand, activities organised in nature tend to be aimed towards young people of school age or older adults, meaning younger people who find themselves in between not feeling that they have a way in to get involved with nature activities.

Eden reflects on these points through a photo story captured walking around one of London's nature reserves.

Ageism is a problem in the [environmental] industry, especially with knowledge. Organisations need to make time for us.

Don't dawdle, use time as told.

Life has expectations and deadlines, some that we are expected to follow which makes it harder to create our own path to our goals. Each step is planned and precise, but mistakes can be made. Sometimes you trip and it teaches you a lesson for the next set of steps, it could be a shortcut, or you could trip over and over again going in the same cycle trying to rush, until you stop, slow down, change, and then you can continue.

Rushing

Being wrapped up in the city life of rushing and everything else rushing around you so you can be pushed along with the crowd and not notice what you're missing. So much scenery can be missed, it's subtle time passing.

Breaking through the barriers of time, or trying to fill it with nature.

This is the hole of time that needs to be filled, the vortex of time that can be lost, or breaking through the barriers of time and doing what you want to do without constraint

Time in the past

Mud prints to show people have been rushing and doing the same thing for a long time.

This piece was created by Eden Plummer on the Keeping It Wild Traineeship with London Wildlife Trust. The traineeship is one strand of the Keeping It Wild Project. This project is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and this particular activity strand was supported by Tallow Chandlers.

Banner image taken by Eden Plummer