it's so good for my brain to be in a context where I get out of my lil tent in the morning and then I'm just surrounded by the Natural World all day until bedtime. staring into trees. watching water. noticing every little wildflower.
and the BIRDS, there are always birds around, going about their business in visible and invisible ways
and the fishes splashing along the protected shoreline in the early morning, and I interrupt a fat mammal as it emerges from under a bank, and insects everywhere, each one entirely different from the last and all a mystery to me, and it is an ECOSYSTEM, thriving!
back in my city life it's mostly pesticided lawns interrupted by regularly spaced Norway maples, and it feels so different
I love my city life where I can get to so many things by bicycle, but can we not be a little more integrated? humans as a part of the natural world, rather than trying to barricade it from our presence
@soph_sol i feel you on this! it’s so frustrating to me, when people design nearly plastic-perfect lawns instead of trying for something a little more ecologically friendly
the good news is even really tiny improvements like mowing the grass a little taller/less often & switching to a turf mix thats got some wildflowers in with the grass ( eg. https://extension.umn.edu/landscape-design/planting-and-maintaining-bee-lawn ) can have dramatic effects in how much ecological diversity an area can support! So even if you can’t convince the city (or people/groups that maintain individual green-spaces within the city) to completely switch approaches, the small changes are still worth fighting for
@Satsuma yes absolutely! Every little step in the right direction makes a huge difference!