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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Getting outside, all weather, everyday
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
Several things have come up recently that encourage me to think of (a) getting outside (b) doing mild to moderate physical activity outside.
Macleans Magazine (most popular weekly news mag in Canada) suggested on their cover that we're becoming "winter wussies". I saw this short video about "prescription strength Nature", and one of my adult children is doing a literature review about mental health and nature. Here's a link to walking in nature and mental health.
Do you do anything in your own life about this? (I'm a nature and physical activity nut, and promoter of same, so hardly objective myself. )
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I bike to work (it is only 7 miles). It is always a question, whether to do it on a day like today, when it is coming on to snow. I already know that ice is impossible. My cycle shop has offered to sell me snow tires...
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
This 'outside' place/thingie - where is it exactly? Oh I know there is stuff past the front door - streets predominantly. Though if I go for about 20 minutes in that direction I do come to some grass and trees. And then more streets.
I remember one hot summer a couple of years ago feeling maddened into taking a bus to the seaside - my choice of destination obviously being restricted to parts of the coast served by transport links. But standing on Portobello strand watching the lapping waves deposit the wavering line of particulates on the sand wasn't just the communion with nature I'd hoped for.
So yes, I would like to have daily contact with the natural world, observe the minutiae of the changing seasons, but if you live in a city, it's not exactly handy is it?
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
quote:
I bike to work (it is only 7 miles)
Hey, well done, that's a fair stretch. I do the same, but only 3.5.
And to Firenze - that 3.5 for me is through the middle of Manchester, and if I took my driving route it would be really shite. But I can do side streets (a park, interesting hardware shop, churches, railway arches, the odd fly tip(!) to look at), then a stretch along the ship canal (comorants, swans, ducks, twice a kingfisher, fish!), then another nice bit of urban dereliction with budleias, crumbling brickwork, canal basins.
It's not as good now redevelopment has started to pick up speed, but there is still a good bit of nature to see, and even a little peace. Where, near you, is abandoned?
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
So yes, I would like to have daily contact with the natural world, observe the minutiae of the changing seasons, but if you live in a city, it's not exactly handy is it?
This actually turned out to be one of the main reasons for my turning down a well-paid job in the City of London some years ago. Walking round the vicinity before the interview I was struck by how grey and stony it was. There were no trees, no birds, nothing green, not even a pond or fountain, just grey streets and office blocks and a gritty wind blowing the length of them. It was almost impossible to tell what season it was other than by the temperature. There would be no getting away from the built-upness of it.
I hadn't realized how much that meant to me until I had to consider it. Years of living in Oxford meant being used to a city where you were never far from water or green spaces, birds and the chance to glimpse other wildlife.
At present I'm able to go out at lunchtime as well as weekends and explore the wilds for a bit - over the years I've seen deer, pheasants, rabbits, as well as the usual livestock, and seen the seasons change. It may be much the same old routes but there's usually something different to see each time as the land changes with the seasons and so do the wild creatures.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
When people ask "where is it" re nature, it makes me think both how blessed we here in North America, and how built up things are in some other places. We also have massive public ownership of land by default.
As a 60ish crock, my physical activity includes cycling 12 km each way to work, mostly on trails built for the purpose, and in winter and summer (-21°C today), taking the dog out for ramble before breakfast, once a week playing co-ed rec soccer (over 35 years, this may be my last year) and curling, plus skiing every week or two in winter.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I appreciate the urban wildlife thing - hereabouts it's mainly grey squirrels and the occasional fox - but it's not exactly wilderness is it?
Scotland is better than England though. In the days when we were young and fit we could take a train and get to actual mountain and flood. Whereas I remember us trying to find a bit of rural solitude in Herefordshire and getting shouted at by the farmer for being on his fields.
In a place so intensively settled as the UK you have, ISTM, to adjust your expectations of experiencing the natural world. Like Ariel and MinM I am adept at appreciating the bits that manage to coexist with urbanisation. I realise that I would need to relocate to get anything more immersive. And recognise that what with age and medical needs that's not really practical (plus my dear it's absolute death to any skincare regime).
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
Here in England, I cycle around 2 miles to w*rk. Whatever you may think about Milton Keynes, it's a great place for cycling.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
I can be the only person within 10 km in however long it takes to walk about 6 km. I did notice when in London that there were many small (by our standards) parks within the busy city. My daughter is now in Greenwich, where it is much greener. I like. The rivers in many places in the UK and Europe, being embanked, seem rather canal like and often not at all natural. Where my cousins live in Nordrhein Westfallen (near currently infamous Cologne), despite lots of people, it is very green and many schools build nature into the lives of the children, which carries into their adulthood.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
I walk the dog and find the time of day makes a big difference. When we go out by 7 or 7:30 we encounter a lot more wildlife then if we wait until 8. Deer and wild turkey and such often cross our path. Early also means more fog and and interesting skies. If we wait until 8 the wild life has moved on, the skies are clearer and we encounter the school children waiting for the bus, which is always fun.
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
In my neighborhood, it is better to avoid the wildlife. We have a coyote or two that wander about, and no matter how much I dissuade my dog, she wants to go for them, which leads to quite the tug of war on the leash.
I have recently discovered that the best workout available to me is a dog walk with the baby in the baby carrying backpack. Three miles with thirty pounds (between the kid and the frame) on your back and you can say yes to dessert.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
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Posted
If I wander out of my back garden it's 5 miles before the next building. There's deer, kestrels, brown hares, badgers, foxes, etc. On the other hand the wind comes screaming across the open fields and onto the back wall of my house at a rate of knots.
I love living in the back of beyond*, but you really have to make your own entertainment.
*Well, 280 hardy souls clinging to the side of a hill in the Cherwell valley.
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And is it true? For if it is....
Posts: 1481 | From: behind the dreaming spires | Registered: Mar 2013
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