© The Harbron Family
The Last Flower: A family affair
Nigel and Lois Harbron have been very active members of Cumbria Wildlife Trust for a quarter of a century. They have been honorary managers of two nature reserves; they have joined in many projects over the years, but are probably best known for their work on nature reserves in the Kirkby Stephen area, particularly Smardale Nature Reserve.
During the first national lockdown, they came up with the idea of producing a short video (just 4 minutes long) to show why our native flora is disappearing at a worrying rate. It all started in 2019 when Nigel composed a tune he called The Last Flower after seeing yet another species-rich verge being turned into a lawn. In 2020, he asked his son Rob (a professional musician) to arrange and record the tune. After this, Lois and daughter Jo (and her husband Seb) started gathering photographs and short video clips to be shown as the tune played.
After a gentle start showing some stunning pictures of wild flowers (many on Cumbria Wildlife Trust nature reserves), the video moves into contrasting vein, with a series of positive and then negative illustrations paired with each other so the viewer can see very clearly why our wild flowers are under threat. Most of the positive pictures were taken in Cumbria; sadly, all but one of the negative pictures were taken in the ‘unspoilt’ Eden Valley.
The video has been developed ‘virtually’ as the family hasn’t met up since last Christmas, and was edited by Liz Morley, formerly of Orton, who has produced videos in the past for the Trust.
© The Harbron family