If we want to be happy, should we all move to the country?

"Ecopsychology – the study of the effects of greenery on your mental health - has an answer for this. Not only does being surrounded by trees and fields make you happier, it lengthens concentration spans, reduces procrastination and makes you better at managing “major life challenges”."

Great article by Martha Gill at The New Statesman.

Friday play

Happy Friday!

Here are some articles worth reading over the weekend:

New Zealand school bans playground rules and sees less bullying and vandalism
  
Lack of play hurting child development, especially in poor countries
  
The Transformative Power Of Play And Its Link To Creativity

How to raise a grounded, creative child

"I believe that schools should be places not only for academic learning, but also where young people build confidence, a sense of self, and learn to become responsible citizens. It is one of the great tragedies of our day that our schools, excessively driven by data and standardized tests, have no time for activities that can't be tested. No time for the arts and play and the social and emotional learning that will help children handle what life has in store."

By Nancy Carlsson-Paige, professor emerita of early childhood education at Lesley University in Massachusetts. From an article over at CNN.

NASA - Six Decades of a Warming Earth

That's some scary stuff......

Via Inhabitat.

ReDane

ReDane from Elk Film on Vimeo.

Living in Denmark, this really resonates with me.

Timelapse Earth

Stunning. Especially love the lightning...

Courtesy of the International Space Station. Found it here.

Golden Age of Insect Aviation: The Great Grasshoppers

Wow.

Link.

SEA OTTERS

Why am I shouting? ...... because........ I LOVE SEA OTTERS.

"..........animals like sea otters are providing another solution by helping to keep forests growing."

BBC Future's Power of Nature film series focuses on SEA OTTERS this week! SEA OTTERS!!!!!! \0/

Camp Chaser

Camp Chaser is a collaborative platform for sharing camping information. Head over there if you have information to add, it's free.... Only based in America, I'm afraid.

Image above is more glamping than camping but you get the idea.

Freedom is something to use or lose

"When children are housebound, we cannot expect them to develop an instinct for freedom that is intimately associated with being outdoors. We cannot expect them to reach for more challenging freedoms if they have no experience of fear and cold and hunger and exhaustion. Perhaps freedom from want has paradoxically deprived us of other freedoms. The freedom which makes so many new pleasures available vitiates the desire to enjoy them."

George Monbiot over at The Guardian.

Mike Hollingshead

Mike Hollingshead is a storm chaser and takes the most amazing photos. This one is in South Dakota and is of Mammatus Clouds.

Monday, Macklemore and an excellent flashmob

Love Macklemore, love flashmobs and it's Monday..... Enjoy.

Elena Shumilova

It was hard to pick just one photo from Elena Shumilova's beautiful work with children and animals, the cat won me over..... Stunning.

Via Bored Panda.

Elephants: Mega gardeners of the forest

Check out this short film over at BBC Future about why elephants are important in the rain forest and how they contribute to creating rain.

Why we thought we could ever do without these wonderful creatures....

Trees accelerate growth as they get older and bigger, study finds

"But our findings do suggest that while they are alive, large old trees play a disproportionately important role in a forest's carbon dynamics. It is as if the star players on your favourite sports team were a bunch of 90-year-olds."

Excellent news. Maybe now we will treasure our trees a little more...

Via The Guardian.

Logan Laplante

This is just brilliant.

The open spaces where we played are cruelly lost to today's children

"So many places, from city squares to airports, have dispensed altogether with the concept of people with arms and legs that swing and stride, with bodies that need to move, and eyes that want to look, and souls that yearn for a horizon, or even for a mature tree."

Sobering article by Rachel Cooke over at The Guardian.

Hamburg’s Plan to Eliminate Cars in 20 Years

 

"About 40% of the area of Hamburg, the second largest city in Germany, is made up of green areas, cemeteries, sports facilities, gardens, parks and squares. For the first time ever, the city has decided to unite them together via pedestrian and cycle routes. It’s all part of the “Green Network Plan,” which aims to eliminate the need for vehicles in Hamburg over the next 20 years........

.......The city will also construct new green spaces that should help absorb CO2 and regulate the city’s climate (Hamburg’s average temperature has risen about 9ºC in the last 60 years). These spaces will also help to prevent flooding: in the same 60 year time period, Hamburg’s sea level has risen about 20 centimeters and is expected to rise another 30 centimeters by 2100."

Wonderful.

Via Archdaily.

Dansk Legeplads Selskab

I wrote an article for the Danish Playground Society (Dansk Legeplads Selskab), who do great work for supporting play and play culture conditions. The article was about the Nordic Conference I attended in September.

Here is the danish version that appeared in the magazine in December:

Legepladsen.pdf

The english version is here.

The lovely hidey hole and firepit above is from a fantastic forest school just outside Malmo.

Big Garden Birdwatch

 This weekend the RSPB is calling on the British public to spend an hour spotting and recording birds in local gardens and parks for its annual Big Garden Birdwatch.

Also at The Guardian is a great little interactive way to learn to identify the birds by their song as well as their appearance. I'm going to swat up......

Wild Me

Wild me.  \0/

Edward Abbey's advice

"Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here."

Via Redefine the mind.

Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast…a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. - See more at: http://www.refinethemind.com/edward-abbeys-advice-to-environmentalist/#sthash.LeSs8FPw.dpuf

Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast…a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. - See more at: http://www.refinethemind.com/edward-abbeys-advice-to-environmentalist/#sthash.LeSs8FPw.dpuf

“Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast…a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it.” - See more at: http://www.refinethemind.com/edward-abbeys-advice-to-environmentalist/#sthash.LeSs8FPw.dpuf

“Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast…a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it.” - See more at: http://www.refinethemind.com/edward-abbeys-advice-to-environmentalist/#sthash.LeSs8FPw.dpuf