FfFfFfFF 58,412 Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 During lockdown, I’ve come to know my nearest green spaces – my favourite a wild but urban cemetery – more deeply and gratefully. Instead of becoming bored, as I imagined I might, I’ve found that my local natural areas feel like new destinations each day, even by the hour, for nature is in constant flux. Bird songs are richest at dawn and dusk. The wild garlic smells stronger when the soil is warm. The nettles glow Kermit-green when the sun is low in the sky. The scarlet pimpernel shows itself when light and humidity are just so. Our lives are made from the things we pay attention to. Slowing down and observing – these are radical things to do in our accelerated age. If you’re sheltering inside, houseplants, bird feeders outside a window, or a view of sunlight filtering through the leaves of a tree (the Japanese word for this is komorebi) can be therapeutic – and suggests that in resilient and fair societies everyone should be able to see nature from their windows, especially those without gardens. We have lost our connection with the rest of the living world that we are part of. The vast majority of us can’t recognise the leaves of an oak tree. Around 80% of adults never, or infrequently, smell wild flowers. More than 60% don’t listen to birdsong (the statistics are higher for children). But now, many of us are spending more time in the natural world than ever before, and our environments may be as new and undiscovered as a holiday destination on the other side of the world. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/16/nature-lockdown-summer-holidays Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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