Time in nature helps to refresh bodies & minds – Candy Sully at Maidenbrook Country Park
By Candy Sully, volunteer coordinator at Maidenbrook Country Park & The Somerset Wood
When the winter is at its wettest and flooding fails to entice a flurry of hedge planting, I take the opportunity to check on the trees, fences, leaky dams, ponds, and hedges, writes Candy Sully, volunteer coordinator at Maidenbrook Country Park & The Somerset Wood.
It’s a time for observing; looking for damage but also noticing change, and at times like this it’s simple and obvious to notice the interconnectedness of it all.
A historical tour down our living memorial walkway distils the relationship between past and present.
Our woodlands offer respite from the deluge of our own pasts and instead show how we can use this connectivity with nature to still our minds and find peace.
Our natural world demonstrates renewal, regrowth, natural beauty, and adaptability, and offers us the opportunity to share in this mindset of affirmation.
Our modern lifestyles may separate us from nature, but our fundamental needs are shared with all living things.
So might we find it within ourselves to recognise the needs of our natural world, taking a ‘leaf’ from King Charles’ recent documentary in which he highlights our interrelation with nature, and how we are a part of it, rather than apart from it?
But how can we live as part of nature when our lives are so busy?
Well, we’ve been focusing lately on traditional skills for woodland management; reducing the race to get the job done and instead revelling in our contact with nature.
The volunteer group has happily picked up on this trend and we’re enjoying the opportunity to learn scything – a sensory adventure, feeling the whisk of the scythe, hearing the ‘sssssshhhhh’ in the grass and noting the new growth beneath, along with dead hedging and coppicing.
Our planting opportunities get us back to more than grassroots level, with a sense of satisfaction in seeing new plants bedded in and watching them almost daily for signs of growth.
The work is mindful, yet not mindless, allowing us a rejuvenation of both energy and spirit as we focus fully on the tasks at hand.
As a site for supporting physical and mental wellbeing, there can be nothing better than a day working outdoors.
The MCP is a haven, a green space to move and refresh yourself, a lung for local communities hemmed in by busy roads, work, and lives.
So come and rediscover yourself in the great outdoors – it may just do you good!”
https://maidenbrookcountrypark.org.uk/