Ecopsychology and the Garden

I have been reminding myself of my interest in ecopsychology that seems have been placed on the back burner for too long. This is idea that humans, over the course of a good few thousand years, have gradually distanced themselves from the natural world. Where once the tribal hunter gatherer societies had an intimate connection with the plants, animals and landscape around them, we have now progressed (in a broad generalisation) to a digital society whereby all our food, clothing, consumer items and culture can be obtained via a single internet connection. Why sould we pay any attention to the earth around us? As long as someone else can get their hands dirty, grow crops, work in unsavoury conditions and keep the supply chain going then we are quite happy.

This spring, for me, has been a time of focussing on the garden. This is the only thing I can do at the moment that works with the natural world. Here I can aid the earth in doing what it does best: growing plants. I am working with the soil, using natural materials were possible and providing a new place in which I can allow beauty to develop. It takes time and effort but eventually it evolves. It is a reflection of me in that I am being the creator of the garden. Plants will inevitable do their own thing, but I am trying to provide a framework within which the garden can develop. It is like painting a picture, it isn't always possible to see what will appear until it is finished, but in some ways this is easier and a more healthy and natural way to be creative.

Points of View

As the world of social media and the internet takes over more and more of the way I gather information, I begin to observe more and more that I find myself struggling to have an opinion on things. My father was quite an opinionated person in that he always had a view on the government, politics and things that were happening in the world. Even as a teenager I remember listening to him and having a sinking feeling in my stomach that I really couldn't engage in a meaningful conversation with him. Perhaps some of it was due to him being a farmer and being surrounded by other very strong minded people. I just never seemed to develop an ability to talk about the sort of things that keep conversation lively, interesting, contemporary and challenging. My mind just wants to go blank and seems just unable to know what to say next.

I was catching up with something on Facebook the other day that had been circulating last year - as often happens I feel part of my being ambles on at a rather leisurely pace. I'm not going to expand on it here because it is all covered elsewhere on the web but it revolved around some Christians trying to break down some stereotypical assumptions of how they thought they were viewed by others. For example: "I'm a Christian but I am not homophobic". Great I thought. Then, as I delved deeper, I again realised how easy it is for people nowadays to come down on simple statements like a ton of bricks and either wholeheartedly support something or completely shred it to bits.

For my father, whatever opinions he had he could really think what he liked because there was freedom to do so without everyone else feeling they had a duty to chip in and say what they think too. Today it seems as though even simple comments can suddenly turn the media spotlight on someone and out comes a deluge of support or hate.

Perhaps I am getting old, but sometimes I don't even quite follow what it is that people are on about on the web or in the news. I wonder if the increasing speed of being able to present information is meaning it's clarity is being lost. I can't quite give an example but often it is related to the above - about what people say. I find myself thinking 'what was wrong with that...?'.

As I have an interest in art, perhaps that has become my coping mechanism. I am free to explore and express myself in ways that don't require a spoken explanation. My art frames the way I feel comfortable communicating. Perhaps I should recognise that more. I do though, get very frustrated at not doing deep and meaningful conversations... but then perhaps I haven't got the appropriate people around me with whom I would naturally build a rapport with or share like-minded interests with - like my father had.

Blue Dress

Man on train

A day trip to Brighton could have been a good opportunity to do some sketching but I didn't do much. The sun was too bright to use the iPad and it wasn't until the end of the day that I found a place in which I would have felt comfortable. Enjoyed time looking in shops and walking along the beach instead. Managed a few sketches in the train but they were not really of value to show, except this one.

Spring in the Garden

Unusually for me, I have hardly been out walking in any countryside this spring. I have only caught fleeting moments of the smell of oilseed rape flowers whilst driving along the motorway with my window open and it has been my family that has gone exploring bluebell woods and not me.

Most if my weekends over the past few months have been occupied in rearranging our garden. Flower beds and vegetable patches have been reshaped, paths realigned or created and wooden structures like an arch and pergola built. Sometimes I feel as though I have a tinge of OCD in that I always seem to find something to do. For instance: yesterday's only task was to spend the morning planting a few salad seeds and then spend a restful afternoon enjoying the garden in the spring warmth and sunshine (a rare occurrence so far this year). However, by the time I was ready for an afternoon cup of tea, I had also tidied up all the path and lawn edges, mowed the lawn and created a new wooden rustic fence up by the summerhouse. Once I get going I can't stop. I think I have now completed all the hard landscaping tasks and now just have a few plants to get.

I have tried to do as much work as possible without spending anything. I had to buy some wood from which I could make an arch and get plants. Otherwise I made use of paving blocks and woodchip being discarded by some builders and used some wood left over from when I cut down some conifers a couple of years ago. I had a supply of nails left over from my father and just planned simple things that needed just a bit of will power and muscle to complete.

The garden now 'flows' better and feels more like ours. Walking up to the top is a much easier and more enjoyable experience. There is more height and more interest. It just needs some planting to bring it to life.

For the first time this year I am sitting writing in the garden shed. So far it has been too cold to entice me out in the evenings but now things may be on the turn as warmer weather is forcast.

Industrial Archaeology 2

Following on from yesterday's notes, I spent some time thinking about the actual places in the landscape that had interested me. Often they would be overgrown quarries, tumbled down watermills beside streams, tree covered disused railway lines and other places that would be hidden in the countryside. Here, the relics of our industrial past would lie in ruins with nature taking over and reclaiming such places with new habitats. In farmland it is often places like old quarries that remain uncultivated as a small clump of trees in the middle of a cornfield. Industrial buildings that have fallen into disuse and uneconomical to demolish or renovate become hidden gems deep in woods or beside rivers. It is almost as if there is a message in the fact that natural places that were once at the mercy of industrial activity have been returned to their natural way of being. The force of nature's recolonisation is so strong and seems to be the ultimate intention behind the evolution of the earth.

Although we tend to think of conserving the wildest parts of the countryside as the richest natural habitats, I wonder how many of our truly vibrant ecological sites were once places where human activity radically disturbed the landscape? I would imagine it would be quite a significant proportion. It is almost as if nature thrives more in places where is takes over from mankind's efforts to dominate it.

Industrial Archaeology

Throughout my life I have always been aware of the changes that have been imposed upon the landscape in this country since the industrial revolution. I have always had a a curious side to me that has sought to hunt out disused railway lines and roads, old quarries and mines, lime kilns, derelict watermills, old farms, barns and much more. I have also always been interested in vintage machinery which always looked fascinating without all the safety guards that now cover up all the cogs, wheels and drive belts. Perhaps I should have been an industrial archaeologist - I'd never though about that before now.

It may just be a sense of nostalgia but recently I have been acutely aware of just how much of our countryside changed as industry has developed and altered the course of our urban and rural history. Over the past half a year or so there have been significant changes to our mining and manufacturing industries with the closure of the last deep coal mine and several steel works closing or facing closure. There has been a huge shift over years away from the hard manufacturing that changed much of our countryside with the advent of railways, canals, coal mining and agricultural improvements. For the environment and the quality of our air it may well be good news, but I feel a loss of many things that built up close communities and the sense of what made this country and countryside what it is today.

Modern industry seems so uncreative when compared to that of Victorian times. On my drive to work I pass huge box like warehouses and acres of land awaiting a perfectly flat floor of concrete. We just do things so differently now and I wonder how industrial archaeologists will view us in a hundred years time? What can be deduced from a flat bed of concrete? It just isn't as interesting.

Of course we have to move on as a developed country. What I feel I am missing is the fact that so many jobs nowadays seem far removed from being outdoors and, like mine, are just office based and require hours stuck in front of a computer screen. I know I could change things but somehow my journey as yet has't taken me that way.