Nature and its role in your mental health

Helllllloooo. I agree with u totally. I think whatever we find that works to help us with the emotional part of living with this chronic disease, can be even more important than eating healthy and exercise. For me, taking walks at the cottage, and being one with nature, calms the nerves, as well as exercise and trying to eat healthy✌️

I used to really like backpacking when we lived in California and I was a gazillion years younger. My favorite hiking area was the Sierras in Kern county. Since my legs keep me from doing much walking I’ve found a friend in my outside window in my computer room. I set up a couple of bird feeders and am always reminded of how beautiful nature can be and at the same time how some of God’s little creatures struggle just as much and maybe more than we do. One particular day I was feeling a little down and looked out the window and saw a squirrel with a bot fly tumor on his neck. It was winter and I threw extra sunflower seeds for him under the feeder since I added a guard to keep him off. And it’s an extra joy for me when I see a pleated wood pecker.

John

Beautifully said✌️

@johnbishop I am a green person and now I am really green...a Pileated outside your window. Oh, you are truly blessed. Old timers (pre oldies, but goodies) called these Lord God Woodpeckers because of their size. WOW!!! Thanks for sharing from an avid birder.

a morning glory or a hummingbird shows the miracles that come with nature. they all belong together for without the other they cannot exist. we belong somewhere in the picture all needing each other. humans must stop ruining this planet or we destroy the glory, the beauty and all we are so lucky to have. appreciate nature and humanity. with love peach

Hi @parus, thank you for that tidbit of information. I had not heard they were called Lord God Woodpeckers by the old timers. They are most definitely impressive when you see them up close. I have seen them 2 or 3 times in the past month but I’m usually not ready with my camera setup to get a picture. I’m trying out a new feeder specifically for the pileated woodpecker so hopefully it will bring one in closer.

John

yes, i am still holding my breath after seeing a pair of pillated woodpeckers from 15 years ago. i am lucky to have a small forest as my backyard. the variety of birds at my bird feeders, the squirrels, the owls, lizards and sometimes bunnies, etc. beautiful, the imagination begins the smile takes over and you want to remember these scenes forever putting it in your memory box of a mind. a tree is a living thing and we should never take all of this for granted.

I absolutely love the woods. Just the smell, the little plants people usually don't take the time to look at, walks for enjoyment. The house my now X and I built, which we've been out of for 15 years and sold when we split up, was located in what they call a climactic forest which means the trees had never been cut. We had some oak trees that were enormous around and tall, tall, tall. We built a screened porch on the back and I just savored the time I could sit out there at night, smell the night air, hear the birds going to bed, and watch the bats come out swooping around. I loved it. Sitting on a log, reading a good book is heaven ..... of course I'd also need a glass of sweet tea.
abby

John @johnbishop - it must have been painful to see the squirrel's tumor and not be able to do anything about it - except give it extra seeds. I see you have a kind heart.

My wife grew up on a farm out of Chowchilla, and we lived in Merced for a number of years before moving to Oregon. My parents retired in Fresno, to be close to one of my sisters, who lived there.

My wife is the bird expert in our home. She knows what they are, while I just enjoy watching them. I think we have a white barn owl in one of the elms in the backyard. We have lots of red tailed hawks and bald eagles helping me keep the ground squirrel population down on our ten acres.

When we moved here 12 years ago, the landscaping around the house had pretty much been ignored and allowed to die, so I basically had a blank slate. I've enjoyed putting in a combination vegetable/perennial garden, an orchard, and plantings all around the acre or so of yard. It's my spring/summer/fall mental health therapy. Until the pain of pn took hold, I spent 6+ hours a day outside. For now, I have to make do with 3 hours of puttering.

I enjoyed hiking, as well, John. Yosemite, the east side of the Sierra Nevada, local bike and walking trails, and in Oregon, the Cascades, including the John Muir trail. My favorite backpack trip was to the top of Mt. Whitney. What a view!

Enough about my travels.

Jim

Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos of the squirrel and pileated woodpecker. It is touching and so kind of you to give that lovely squirrel extra seeds.