The Touch of Nature............

 
Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better.
Albert Einstein.


"Children must go out in Nature",  says the Danish brain scientist and physician Kjeld Fredens. He is not wrapping up his message when he's talking about the consequences of that children of today so obviously   rarely go out and feel nature at first hand.

According to a new survey children of today go out in nature only half as much as their grandparents when they were children. Compared with today's children nature was far more used as an everyday pastime or playground when the generation of grandparents were children. Back then children often moved about on their own. 

Kjeld Fredens says that the children's senses are being under stimulated - the creativity in the right brain hemisphere is only rarely awaken and the learning has got difficult conditions.


"If we are alienated to nature we lose it and therefore we lose ourselves. " But when the children are out in nature they sense the shades in the autumn forest,  they listen to the richness of bird species or to the silence, they feel the rough and wet bark, when they climb the trees and they notice and smell the moist earth after rain. Children are learning through experience, action and understanding. Nature promotes children's curiosity because it constantly amazes them. 



" Without sensuality we lose the closeness with our environments", Kjeld Fredens says and continues. "When we are indoors or walk in a city, everything we see are of linear structures. This stimulates only the left brain hemisphere, where our analytical abilities are - and then we get too focused on details and not on the wholeness. We'll be easy to manipulate, and we'll have a large need of being in control. In nature we are part of a large whole, and it is important to the children to be aware of this and to be humble towards it".


Kjeld Fredens is worried about how much children are occupied by fx mobiles and computer games. He calls it focused attention. This constant focus is burning off glucose in the brain so the child gets tired and uneasy. The nature in all its unpredictability calls upon the open or involuntary attention of the children, and this is the place where they should go out to recharge their batteries and relax.

New survey: Through the latest years four big Danish hospitals have experienced an increase of between 10 and 30 % in the number of children who were so sick of stress that they had to be hospitalized.  

"Last Child in the Woods".
Richard Louv, an American author and journalist, published in 2005 a book "Last Child in the Woods". He says among many things that parents of today overlook that children's play in nature is vital to their mental and intellectual development. He tells them that if they want their children to go to Harvard University one day, then they'll have to send them out in nature now. He links the deficit of nature in today's children to something like the obesity epidemic, behavioral disorders and depression. Richard Louv is not against the technology. He wants to promote a larger balance and a new environmental movement. The more technology we are surrounded by, the more we need a destressing nature. We'll have to use our creativity to create still more nature, a still better world, which increases our Quality of life . "Someone says we'll have to go back to nature," says Richard Louv. "Instead we'll have to go ahead with nature".


More Nature for more Children.
A leader of Dansk Naturfrednings school service, Ole Laursen, is working professionally with creating and inspiring nature experiences for children and adults. He points to the importance of nature coming to the children, since the study shows that few children are going out in nature. First of all the parents, the teachers, the educators, the politicans and the grandparents must start realizing that nature is the basis of our lives.

If it is difficult to go come out in nature, then nature must be invited closer to us  - and the everyday nature in gardens, parks and around schools and institutions must be utilized. The parents have often got a lack of time, this can be a problem, says Ole Laursen. But it might partly be solved by watching less TV or making less updates to Facebook. Something has to be deselected in order to give the children the best childhood and at the same time help nature in the long run. It is not possible to abolish TV and computer games, but it is possible in between to give the children a free space in nature, where they are disconnected from the world , where they enjoy peace for thought, motion and to use all their senses.

If the parents watch too much out for the children and if they make too many schedules, then they remove the children's possibility of meeting the challenges themselves and in this way develope their self confidence. Ole Laursen suggests that there might be a way in which the mobile or the GPS could give the children a possibility to be in places, where the parents else won't allow them to be for a short or longer time.


Source: Theme: Children in Nature, by Maria Lykke Andersen, Natur og Miljø, nr. 6, December 2011, Danmarks Naturfredningsforening.  

photos, children: grethe bachmann

But the Days grow short when you reach September.........

A Taste of Denmark

September is my month. I was born in September. I love the bright colours and the fresh cool air in September. It is also a month, where the signs of decay are gradually growing more visible. And it is a month where you might have a beautiful Indian summer which reaches all the way into the month of October if you're lucky.

The first sight of the park was rather lightgreen, almost spring like. It was like May! It must be the rain and the mist which soften the colours. Here is a white Hortensia. I had one like this in my garden once, but there are many Hortensias in the parks and the gardens now, mostly the blue and the pink with giant round heads. Very decorative, but I'm not sure they are the best flowers for insects! Sorry!  They are very lovely, but although they want much water ,they cannot endure all the heavy rain, which has been pouring down lately. It is the second-wettest summer since the weather-folks began counting the rain-millimeters.

The park is not a place to find and pluck berries; there are some blackberries close to the forest and rowanberries in the park. The black berries are not ripe yet, and there are better places to pluck them if I want to make some jelly. I decide each year to gather berries, but time flies and I fly across both blackberry and elderberry and rowanberry and suddenly it's too late. Next year I'll have to pull myself together.  (I have said that for some years now!) I once made a fine rowanjelly with brandy. It was so popular among my friends that it disappeared like hot cakes! And hip is so healthy, now claimed to be one of the most healthy berries of all. So I bought some hip-jelly in the super market!


It was Sunday and the park is a stamping ground for families. Here is an excellent play-ground for children and some new training-apparatus along the upper hedge for their parents and other adults, who might want to improve their fitness! (apparatus!! I really don't know if the word is right here, the Oxford dict tells me so. Do you have another word. Training-tools ? Equipment? )  When it's high-summer the big lawn is swarming with people in week-ends, and a new custom has been introduced. The new-Danes bring grills, and there is a scent of grill-food all over! It's cosy and I think it might be a common habit. There are also big arrangements with tents and lots of people and cars, and the lawns are completely destroyed and muddy and have to be repaired afterwards. This I don't like!!! He-Hem!  There is a place by the beach where they have prepared the grass for circus and markets. They might use that instead of spoiling the pretty park! Okay, I'll stop quarrelling now.

A bright red color along the edge of the forest belongs to the Red Elderberry. It's not edible like the common Elderberry with the black berries. The red berries are tempting for children, but they are poisonous. Many parts of this plant are poisonous and have been used as a traditional emetic. The fruits are reportedly safe to eat when cooked. The bush achieves very fine autumn-colours, and the berries stay on the bush long after defoliation. The flowers are fragrant and visited by hummingbirds and butterflies.This shrub is very important in providing food for several birds, who distribute the seeds. 

Another red colour among the green. This is also a plant with poisonous red berries, the wild Arum, in Denmark called Dansk ingefær (Danish ginger).  The English names are many like Adam and Eve, Cows and Bulls, Devils and Angels, Lords and Ladies, Wake Robin. Almost all parts of the plant are poisonous, but especially the pretty red berries are the cause of poisoning among children. The root was used in folk medicine.


please click to enlarge some of the photos






















I went to the herbaceous border in the section called the Rømerhaven. It was so beautiful last year, the flowers were like a symphony of colours, and there were lots of pretty butterflies, but I was too late this year - and you can easily see the decay.  There are still some beautiful flowers, but they have begun to wither and the bees were gone. Only one White butterfly visited the flowers. Summer has ended. There were some fine paradise apples though. Also fine for jelly! And the last rose of summer. Well , a beautiful white rose in the corner by the trellis. Not the last. There are still roses in October! Always something to look forward to....


Close to the park along the beach way are some lovely villas. I like this one. Looks cosy. Another one on top of the hill. The queen's summer house. Too big!! Many paths were filled with small ravines from the rain. You had to tread carefully not to break the ankle! I passed the ice house without buying an ice cream! What a strong character! I knew I had an ice cream back home in my freezer!  I hadn't visited the park for a long time, and this tour was a little sad. I feel it's too early to prepare the mind for winter, isn't it?     ...













The last place to visit as usual - when I walk up the tough hill - are the Races.

hello, come on....

And this hill is one of the toughest I know for bikers and walkers, although it doesn't look like it. The rise kills me every time. But in the middle of the hill are the Races and the horses, and I'll have to go and say hello to those beautiful creatures.

waiting

A sceptic eye

One of the horses was running to and fro. Very temperamented. A nervous thorughbred!

It seemed to be waiting.for someone, and a few minutes later came a guy and took the horse with him. The horse must have known that someone was on his way.

Stayed a little by the other horses, but it was beginning to rain, and I had to go home. My flat is only five minutes away from there....

Soon there will be a great display of autumn colours in the park -and I'll forget all about dark winter feelings!  

See you soon!  

Photo September in the Park 2011: grethe bachmann