Seas are often perceived as what stands in between places, a barrier, and what makes an island an island. In Galicia (northern Spain) old land registry certificates used to describe the limits of coastal land property as "bordering England to the North, sea in between". That surprising description in a legal document, that almost reads like poetry,...
What is nature? And why do we need the term? Throughout history, nature has been perceived as the "Other," a counterforce to culture, all that is devoid of humanity, and a looming menace. But today we have to acknowledge that we are intertwined with nature. That we are indeed responsible for a New Nature that needs a new definition.
Wytham Woods was donated to the University of Oxford in 1942 by Raymond and Hope Ffennell. They wanted the woodland to be dedicated to education and research, and to be named after their late daughter who had died a few years earlier: The Woods of Hazel.