#nature fix

[artichokefartichoke]

Summer flowers

[live-love-plant]

I'm a little obsessed with this ivy lately. ♡

[live-love-plant]

The neon pothos is getting an upgrade today, mind you I feel like it will need another upgrade shorly after that, however my pot selection is limited at the moment!

[rjzimmerman]

New book: Nature Fix, by Florence Williams

Sort of a review and an interview of the author by Mother Jones (and here’s the link to the rest):

Getting out into the wild is restorative. Fresh air, natural sounds and settings, a spot of exercise: It tends to free our mind, bring down our stress levels, and, with any luck, give us a break from work. The converse is also true. Excessive urban noise, for example, stresses us out and can wreak havoc on our psyches. These are things we know just based on everyday experience.

Author and journalist Florence Williams, whose last book was Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History, takes this knowledge way further in a new book that focuses on the science behind the health-wilderness link. For The Nature Fix, which hits bookstores this week, Williams bounced around the planet talking to naturalists, scientists, and government workers to get to the bottom of our complex relationship with our environment, which turns out to be both intensely physical and psychological.

[wanderlust-kasio]

NEW 20′s diary vlog where I catch up & share what I’ve been up to~

[lichenloglichenblog]

A stream moment from the McDonald Dunn forest. A nature fix for the deskbound.

Lichen on!

[enviromatters]

FILM review: A father-daughter bond strenghtened by nature

Inspired by a true story and the book My Abandonment by Peter Rock, this beautiful and raw film - Leave no trace - is set in the U.S, and takes us on  the journey of an unlikely duo, a father and his teenage daughter, as they strive to live quasi-independently off-grid in the suburban mature forests. 

Until they become evicted (it is illegal to live on public lands), we see how organized and happy they live, despite obvious challenges imposed by the weather, amongst other factors. The young girl partakes in foraging, harvesting rainwater and basically learning survival skills, while maintaining a good level of education (probably higher than most kids her age busying themselves with other occupations). 

While the intermittent placement in ‘society’ of these forest-refugees places too much strain on the father - a war veteran who has lost faith in most of today’s consumerist attitudes it seems - the daughters’ innocence and openness brings about hope. Hope to live in a world where it appears possible for pockets of society to retain a love for nature while still engaging with it humanely. Hope to create social links with ‘invisible’ to most people, attached to their primeval desire to live as outcasts in nature. 

This film highlights how nature makes us grow by teaching us how precious resources are, and how easily overcome and lost we can be if we don’t look after it or ourselves within it. As Florence Williams’ wonderful book The Nature Fix explains, it is no surprise that veterans may find solace in nature, to heal their PTSD wounds, thanks to the many ways in which the natural environment can help save us in various ways by (re-)connecting us to nature. 

I argue, it is no surprise we feel all the more strenghtened to go out into forests after seeing this film, armed with a fresh set of eyes to appreciate that we, in North America, still have access to rich, diverse forest resources that we could very happily live in. 

[humanityloverrr-blog]

Exploring this beautiful world makes me sane