My grandfather also loved to walk with us as at dusk as the light faded, at that time of day when the animals that inhabit the daytime hours seek shelter just as the nocturnal ones start to stir. And so we discovered an ever more fascinating universe, our senses heightened by the feeling of mystery of the night.

I had a wonderful time in forests and fields, whatever the time of year. I always loved nature just as much in winter as in summer and, for as long as I can remember I felt the passing of the seasons and time very intensely. What’s more, our grandparents taught us about the cycles of nature: what time of year the fields were sown, when the first shoots appeared, when they were harvested, when they withered… We knew the taste and colour of butter changed with the seasons, depending on what the cows had been eating, that baby animals aren’t born just whenever, that you can cook some types of mushroom but not others, that bees may sting but we need them for pollination … All that knowledge that city kids don’t learn till later. When I went back to the city I had a library of sensations and images that ensured I never saw looked at the objects of day-to-day life in the same way again.