The healing qualities of nature

Today my husband and I visited a village nearby that was participating in 'The Open Gardens Scheme. (The N.G.S. do them as well).
We managed to visit 15 gardens all different, with their owners willing to share their plant knowledge and advice.
There was also afternoon teas and plant sales in the village hall.
The weather was lovely and it was a really pleasant and therapeutic way to spend a few hours.

Swanny we've stayed at Forest Holidays several times with our grandchildren and dog . It's wonderful. Very quiet, the lodges are beautiful and very comfortable. We love the hot tub too.

I can really recommend it.

Evening folks,
I, too, love the therapeutic benefits of nature: by my little 'sun trap', there is a bees' nest.
I have taken to noting down the flight paths, both in and out, of these tiny beings,(pardon the pun!)
It is quite relaxing to watch them going in and out every two or three minutes; going about their daily business.

In the big picture nature will cure everything we manage to do to this planet, it mat take a million years or two, but nature will overcome.

NanKate I am so pleased you have found the healing powers of nature, and the Springwatch programmes are helpful for you.

Several years ago I suffered a Stroke which left me feeling depressed and anxious. I too found solace in nature which I find is a great healer. I remember watching the Johnny Kingdom programmes which were based in the West Country, they brought me so much comfort. Slowly but surely I got stronger and more confident.

Nature has been the best medicine for me over the years as I hope it will be for you, and may you continue to grow stronger. ?

So glad that nature has helped you feel better. I have found that the sound of wind in the trees is so soothing - better than all the tranquilisers. Watching the birds is also calming, and as for long, waving grasses in the garden - I could nod off quite easily. Have a good weekend.

Re tobacco plants - they are all the same family. Think they're nightshades?

LIke DanniRae, I also use (mainly old) rubber gloves. I wash them as Gagagran does and pop them on the line to dry. They last longer than the latex and survive my prickly plants pretty well. I have very dry hands and find that if I don't use gloves of some sort I suffer afterwards.
Do have a go in your garden. I'm sure you will feel so much better even for a few minutes at a time.

ANYA
Have you tried tobacco plants in your haven they really wonderful their fragrance comes out in the evening not during the day. Can't understand why they call them tobacco plants though. ??

There is nothing like gardening to lift the spirits, apart from feeding the birds. I get packs of gloves from £1 shop and throw them away when they split as my nails are very fragile. If you can't get out plants can be bought on line which are very reliable. Just ask for a replacement if the plants aren't any good. Hope you feel better soon.

Skweek1 try contacting your local Age UK, they usually have a list of recommended people able to undertake all sorts of small jobs that we are no longer agile enough to do ourselves. Alternatively, see if you have a local drop-in centre such as the one Anniebach mentioned earlier in this thread. Someone there may be happy to help.

Sufjansgranny there is a uk company that provides woodland chalet holidays that sound fantastic. I'm trying to persuade my DS and family to book one, and take me with them!

Hi NanKate, I do hope you feel better soon, we take our health for granted till something goes wrong, don't we. I love Springwatch, it encourages youngsters to take an interest in nature. If you can take a gentle stroll round your neighbourhood it gives you a chance to be proper nosy and see what others have in their garden, sometimes it gives you ideas, also the fresh air and a change of scenery is helpful, good luck with whatever you do.

I've just read this article about 'forest bathing' - a Japanese approach to healing through walking through forests. Sounds like pure heaven ... www.betterbones.com/blog/post/Forest-bathing-healing-in-nature.aspx?

A couple of weeks ago I went for a walk with a friend in the pouring rain. We were pretty miserable until we noticed that a grass verge, which had been mown only a week or two before, was covered in bee orchids. It lifted the spirits and made my day! The next week they has all disappeared

Wishing you a speedy and complete recovery, Nankate. I love gardens and really want to lick my relatively compact council house garden into shape, but because of 3 disabled people in household, we need someone do initial heavy digging/rotivation to clear more or less virgin soil, so we can get to work, which we just can't afford at the moment. I know we could put down plastic sheet and spread gravel, but that is not the look I want. Anyone got any ideas?

Mildred no the window stays poo free. If it rains really heavily we sometimes get some food splashes as we feed the robin these red suet type pellets that they seem to love yet do not seem to attract any other birds.

Thanks NanKate all our little ones do too and the robins seem to know they are safe so the little ones can get with in a foot or so of the window. Our littlest one can be heard yelling ' Bobbin' as he hurtles across the room to watch. We're working on the pronunciation ....and the hurtling !!

Nankate, so good to hear that you are beginning to feel better. Long may it continue, and it's so comforting to know that all the Gransnetters are wishing you well. Have a gentle, happy weekend. . and {{hugs}}

TriciaF I was interested to see your damsel fly - I've never seen one like that. There are plenty of the common blue ones on our local reservoir. They're very pretty, and for some strange reason, if you have a fly line floating on the water, they will settle along its length. When you pick the line up and cast it out again, they come back and settle again. I don't know what the attraction is. Trout don't care for the adults but will take the nymphs in great numbers as they swim up and then hatch. Sorry, not a very interesting aside!!

I too find the outdoors very useful if I feel a bit low, and we are lucky because we can just open a door and the garden is there, I know a lot of you are the same, but I always pity people who live in flats and do not have access to an "out door" door; just to walk round our small garden lifts the spirits, and ours is nothing special.

I'll look for those, NanKate! We went for a walk yesterday just to get out of the house between the downpours. I wasn't particularly up for it as I felt rather down yesterday, but once we were out it lifted my mood considerably. And there were surprises. We have a reed bed about half a mile from our house which was established about two or three years ago, as part of a small nature reserve, and yesterday we actually heard, and caught a fleeting glimpse of, a reed warbler. I had always hoped this would happen - I've never seen or heard one outside the Norfolk Marshes, and now they are on my doorstep. I hope it has a mate. Then we saw a woodpecker, a pair of swans with four cygnets, and a family of ducklings.

I love your robin feeder Nana

Yes Greyduster the I spy books are still available published by Michelin I bought my grandsons the book on animals for them to identify animals in the Zoo last weekend. There is also one for car journeys which I will get for them. You can get them in WHSmith. I found them by the Atlas books in a little box and you just sort through to find the topic you want. They cost £2.50 so it won't break the bank.

Thanks for the suggestions on the gloves which I will buy this week.

Anya your haven sounds idyllic just the place to sit and contemplate. I fancy getting a small Buddha to plonk by our sunny garden room but DH would think I had totally lost it if one appeared. One of our neighbours has got a life size Buddha in his garden, he looks very serene, the Buddha not the neighbour.

DannieRae that's me as well.

I can understand this being with nature thing, sometimes it just being outside on a fine day or admiring one of myfavourite garden plants when they come into flower. Our lovely lush early summers in the UK summer. Lovely landscapes.

It does appear that there seems to be a good effect of this but to get real testable evidence is difficult with regard to proof.

www.fph.org.uk/uploads/bs_great_outdoors.pdf

My reaction is that does not have to be provable if people report feeling better.
I suspect in our distant ancestors there were genes for enjoying pretty things and striving to improve our envoronment, which have been handed down to us.

We live in the country and I take great pleasure in walking around the area every day to see what's new. I think I'm more interested in the plant life than the animal life, though my best find yesterday was a beautiful damselfly. Navyblue wings and bright turquoise body.
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calopteryx_splendens
I saw it (a male) flying over a stream.
I wonder if it's because it's new life every spring/ summer?