“#NoticingNature”

Digital photography
Published on Mastodon from 26 September to 10 October 2023

I enjoy listening to the Science of Happiness podcast for the stories.

Each week the host interviews a happiness guinea pig, trying out and reporting back on one of the happiness practices, and sometimes going quite deep into their back histories. It’s often moving and always interesting, much more about well-being, mental health and connection than the shallow pleasure that often passes as happiness.

I don’t typically listen to the podcast in order to find an exercise to try myself. But a couple of weeks ago I heard one on Noticing Nature. It doesn’t take much time, it’s a nice prompt, and thought I may as well give it a go!

All it asks is 5-15 minutes per day for two weeks (with the suggestion of incorporating it into the daily routine). There’s more detail on the website, but the headline steps are simply:

1. Be mindful of nature.
2. Take a photo.
3. Save, share, and describe your photo.
4. Repeat.

Coincidentally, 10 October is World Mental Health Day, which aims to “raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilize efforts in support of mental health.” I recommend both the podcast and the practices, and simply noticing nature, great and small.

And a note re Mastodon: It’s big on alt text for images, to make them more accessible and include a wide a range of people as possible.

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Noticing Nature Day 1

I bought these gladioli yesterday. This morning I noticed that one flower had bloomed fresh and new amid the tight red buds, and in the sudden opening out I was surprised by joy.

#NoticingNature #Nature #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness #StartToday

26 September 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 2

This small dove or pigeon feather just landed on my patio. It captivated me with its whiteness and near symmetry, transparency and fragility. So light, blown hither and yon by the wind. And contrasting with the textured concrete, solid long-term host for slow-growing lichen.

#NoticingNature #Nature #Birds #LichenSubscribe #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

27 September 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 3

Near me is a lane that was once a rat-run, but was closed to through traffic in lockdown and has become a lovely route for running, walking and cycling. Today I noticed this ivy at the side, dark green shading to lighter new growth encroaching on the tarmac. Some day it will need clearing. But for the moment I am celebrating a small reclamation of life from the dominion of the car.

#NoticingNature #Nature #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

28 September 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 4

A lovely Michaelmas day, enjoying the blue sky and sunshine over al fresco coffee, lunch and tea.

#NoticingNature #Nature #Blue #Clouds #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

29 September 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 5

It was impossible not to notice nature on a 9-mile walk on The Archangel Way and Dartmoor today. So I chose to go small and photograph a tormentil. For me, although it grows in plenty of other places, this tiny flower is emblematic of Dartmoor.

#NoticingNature #Nature #BloomScrolling #Pilgrimage #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

30 September 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 6

The leaves are starting to turn, and this maple is showing off. It’s by the side of the road in a business park, and provides some much-needed variegated beauty.

#NoticingNature #Nature #Trees #Autumn #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

1 October 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 7

A morning of mist and mizzle, and pearly droplets resting on grass and weeds. My eye delights in the collected light on this dandelion leaf, orbiting the twin daisy suns.

#NoticingNature #Nature #Nebel #Nieselregen #BloomScrolling #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

2 October 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 8

The oxygenating starwort in my mini-pond is thriving, perhaps too much! Hopefully I’ll be able to share some in my local community or in the Exeter Seed Swap.

#NoticingNature #Nature #Pondlife #Sharing #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

3 October 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 9

It is the season to notice nature inside the house: the creepy crawlies that make their way in as it cools outside; the fly currently buzzing around the room, which will be dead on the floor in the morning; and the guest(s) scrabbling above my head in the evenings. Today these humane mouse traps arrived in the post… to remove them before they chew through something important!

#NoticingNature #Nature #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

4 October 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 10

Beautiful borlotti, runner and french beans; sugar snap peas; and I think some nasturtium seeds in amongst. Looking forward to eating these, or sowing them next year. Nature is bountiful.

#NoticingNature #Nature #Harvest #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

5 October 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 11

I love the ‘daisies’ under my front doorstep, greeting me cheerily when I venture out into the world and welcoming me when I return home. And because I have to step over it, I can’t not look at it and appreciate it.

(actually Erigeron karvinskianus, Mexican fleabane)

#NoticingNature #Nature #BloomScrolling #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

6 October 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 12

Great walk today in the autumn sun circumambulating Burrator Reservoir. Love the combinations of blues, greens, browns, greys. So not quite all nature. There’s plenty of human intervention too. But I feel incredibly grateful to live in such a beautiful part of the world.

#NoticingNature #Nature #Dartmoor #Devon #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

7 October 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 13

Lying in the hammock (in October!), listening to the starlings whooping and chuckling, and gazing vacantly up at the rose growing over the pergola. Feeling content and happy in the moment, despite cause for concern. It seems it is a good year for hips and haws.

#NoticingNature #Nature #ClimateBreakdown #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

8 October 2023

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Noticing Nature Day 14

A peek into my nearly ready compost exposed these extraordinary red tiger worms (picture hidden, as I know people with a worm phobia). Together with a colony of huge pale-green slugs, they’ve chomped through pounds and pounds of grass, peel, eggshells, receipts, etc etc etc.

Left to itself, non-human nature is completely circular… nothing wasted, nothing over-exploited. Human beings are part of nature. Be like non-human nature.

#NoticingNature #Nature #Composting #CircularEconomy #MentalHealth #ScienceOfHappiness

9 October 2023

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Concluding thoughts

I’m not sure I have many concluding thoughts. I didn’t feel the exercise enhanced my happiness, but that it was a bit of a chore to find something to photograph every day. I’m also not very keen on the small rectangle of black glass that intrudes between the thing being seen and really seeing it. I already notice and reflect on small things, and take joy in the common. Perhaps I could always do it more, and make more conscious effort to get out and about in my local green space each day.

In any case, I encourage anyone to take a look at the Greater Good in Action website, and consider whether any of the practices there – Awe, Compassion, Connection, Empathy, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Happiness, Kindness, Mindfulness, Optimism, Parenting, Purpose, Resilience to Stress, Self-Compassion – would be helpful in your own situation.

I am signing off with two more photos from Day 12: a wall needing a haircut, and a group of moss-covered rocks.

#NoticingNature #Nature #Mosstodon #Dartmoor #WorldMentalHealthDay #ScienceOfHappiness

10 October 2023