Here’s a link to a Wildlife Trusts blog which featured the writings of Abi Elphinstone.
“It was the holly tree in my garden that taught me to be brave. I’d climbed all the others – the wellingtonia, the beech and the sycamore – through the maze of jutting branches until I emerged into a world of buzzards and owls. But the holly was my nemesis – all prickled leaves and branches just beyond my reach. I remember the failed attempts – the bruised shins and grass-stained trousers – but I also recall the feeling of forcing back the nerves, of steadying my weight and hoisting my body up through the branches, and as I gazed down at the garden having made that climb, I felt invincible. I felt, at nine years old, as if I could climb anything. Years later, when I faced 96 rejections from literary agents on the books I wrote before The Dreamsnatcher, I thought back to that time, to the many failed attempts at scaling the holly tree – of the fear and frustration – and I kept on writing, just as I’d kept on climbing.”
Maybe that’s what an environmental education really does for you …