Trust in Nature

Came across this quotation on location in Morden Hall, South London this sunny afternoon. Olivia Hill was the Victorian social reformer who co-founded the National Trust (whose first building was  acquired in 1896 in Alfriston, Sussex). It acquired Morden Hall (built in 1765) in 1941. Hill was a friend of Henrietta Barnett, the fellow social reformer behind Hampstead Garden Suburb, the model for planned green suburban developments. 

Tranquility, fresh air, accessible and unhindered views of Nature remain key to mental health and contentment. In these screen-based, digital  times immersing yourself in 3Dness and natural variation with living complexity is more vital than ever.

Morden Hall Park

Valuing the Wild(e)

Today I stumbled across this quotation in the environment – on board Word on the Water, the London book barge moored between King’s Cross and Islington. One of London’s treasures with its open fire and brilliant playlist providing a cool, laid-back soundtrack to this wintery, watery corner of the city.

I recently saw a rather overwrought production of Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ in St Martin’s Lane, featuring Stephen Fry, who played Wilde in the eponymous 1997 movie. It slightly dented my love of Oscar but this quote reverses that to some degree. Appreciating Beauty in the world is one of life’s great pleasures. I do believe Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so a work of graffiti along the canal is as good a source as the refined architecture in the back streets of Islington or a delightful tall, thin beer glass.

Finding beautiful meanings in such sights and objects is particularly the realm of artists and the artistically minded. Much though I appreciate such cultivated tastes and sensibilities I also value the wild and the raw. Both Art and Nature are vital Simple Pleasures and fortunately in this country we have free access to both in abundance.

The healing Earth 2

Picking up from the first set of these meme images I made in lockdown, here’s the follow-ups to date…

20/20 Vision

Here’s a thought for 2020 and the new decade…

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. [People] to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, [are] as good as dead: [their] eyes are closed.”

Albert Einstein

Surfeit of Humanity

I learnt an amazing thing today. (It was on Start the Week on BBC Radio 4.) They had a dolphin expert on the show and he told about how a dolphin had been trained in American sign language – pretty amazing in itself.

But this was the mindblower: when the dolphin saw a swan for the first time it signed the words: Water Bird

 

Medicine Chest

There was a rather jolly illustrated piece in yesterday’s Independent derived from my latest project, Medicine Chest.

The online version sadly has none of the colourful visuals but you still get the idea…

When Nature Knows Best

The aim is to gather and preserve for the benefit of future generations traditional remedies and folk know-how in the realm of health and healing. I’m doing the project with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, where my old compadre Mike Saunders is now Director of Digital Media (we first worked together back in 1996 on MindGym in the red ant infested HQ of NoHo Digital).