Becoming Winter

"Autumn gradually becomes winter in November." so begins the November chapter in Miles Richardson's new book "The Blackbird's Song & Other Wonders of Nature" that was published last month. A year-round guide to connecting with the natural world, each month combines notes from his own nature journal with a range of activities to help us rediscover our connection with nature, backed up by the science to confirm why it works. For those of you not familiar with Miles Richardson, he's Professor of Human Factors and Nature Connectedness at the University of Derby and leads the Nature Connectedness Research Group, focusing on understanding and improving our connection with nature, because of the well-being and environmental benefits. The activities in the book are based around the five pathways to nature connection, the last of which is compassion for nature; there is one prompt each month that encourages us to take action to protect nature, in November it suggests cleaning out any nestboxes you have for birds, preparing them for next year - or perhaps adding one to your Christmas list if there isn't one in your garden already.

My colleagues and I have been out and about promoting our Nature Prescriptions a lot recently and find ourselves regularly reminding people that nature connection isn't about the time you spend in nature or the places you visit, but rather the quality of your engagement with nature. It's rather a relief to see Miles confirm this definition in the book, unsurprisingly really since the RSPB nature prescription project is built on the research from the University of Derby. Using the five pathways to connect with nature regularly in a variety of different ways, helps to build an emotional connection where you see yourself as part of nature, rather than a visitor to it.

There is a fascinating interview with Miles on the the Country Life podcast this month, exploring everything from how even looking at a picture of a flower on a computer for a few seconds (that's just the flower - nae leaves) has measurable positive effects on humans to how even in the city, looking for 3 good things in nature every day leads to sustained and clinically significant improvements in mental health through increasing nature connectedness. When I first read this research I started noting down what I saw in nature every day. Whereas I had always really struggled to sustain keeping a gratitude journal, I am now about to complete four years of my 3 good things notebook. After the first year I moved it into a 5 year diary and now I can look back and see what was happening in previous years, from the weather to the first woodpecker in the park - which almost always occurs in the same week!

To that end, the first activity in The Blackbird's Song is the encouragement to start a nature journal; it was when Miles started taking daily walks as an antidote to office life noting down the things he noticed as he walked that his journey back to nature connection started, and from there his research followed.

If you're not convinced that you'll be able to write daily, then there is another newly published book about nature doing the rounds this month that might just help. Melissa Harrison, novelist, nature writer and children's author has just published a practical book to help us connect to nature, Homecoming - a guided journal to lead you back to nature. In the introduction, she quotes Miles' research which "has shown that powerful and long-lasting increases in nature connectedness come from the act of reflective writing – even if it’s only a few words." She then goes on to encourage us to write in the actual book, which I am not sure I am capable of. She is no stranger to the writing about nature, having turned her covid-times podcast - essentially an audio nature diary, The Stubborn Light of Things into a book, as well as being a regular contributor to the Nature Notebook column in The Times. She is also soon to launch her new nature noticing app Encounter. Aware that whilst so many of us are disconnected from nature, we are almost all very much connected to our telephones, she has bravely delved into the world of tech to bring us an app "To transform ordinary people’s connection to nature by putting in their pockets a free, personalised guide to their nearby wild, and a means to record, remember, and deepen their encounters with it." To read more about her journey from author to tech entrepreneur check out this article on Caught by the River (who send a wonderful weekly newsletter, including all things nature). We can't wait to try it out!

It seems to be a book review sort of blog this month, perhaps representative of the fact that this is a good time of year to curl up with a book, something that has to be on the nice things about winter list. Our favourite winter expert Kari Leibowitz has just published her first book How to Winter the subtitle of which is "harnessing your mindset to thrive in cold, dark or difficult times". There has been a lot of chat about mindsets, particularly growth mindsets, in recent times, what Kari discovered on her first trip to Norway was that Norwegians tend to have a positive winter mindset which is at least partially responsible for the fact that in winter, Norwegians don't just sit about being depressed. In fact the further north, the more positively winter is welcomed. Following her experiences in Norway, she travelled to other locations where people winter well, and noticed three general strategies they had in common: to appreciate winter, to make it special and to get outside. The book offers practical techniques for transforming your experience of winter with research about cultivating the mindsets to serve you best. That can increase our ability to cope positively with winter but also any difficult season of life. I am looking forward to delving into it more. No time to read the whole book? Then sign up for Wintry Mix her newsletter delivered to your inbox fortnightly during the darker months.

Finally, I am ashamed to say that all this book buying (I had to, it was for work, honest!) is not terribly in line with the Buy Nothing New Month campaign which runs during November, but I am happy to commit to Buy Nothing New Day on 25th November an ethical alternative to Black Friday. That's the day that the Lanarkshire Climate Hub are launching their campaign for a merry and sustainable Christmas. Did you know that we use 227,000 miles of wrapping paper each Christmas, most of which goes to landfill? The environmental impact of the festive season really adds up. The hub want to highlight the actions your group/organisation taking this year to limit the impact you have on the environment. Perhaps you have changed your light bulbs to LED and set a timer on your Christmas lights? Maybe you are running a workshop on how to create a sustainable Christmas wreath? They are keen to bring attention to the great work local groups and organisations are doing. Send them information on the actions you are taking, and get your organisation in the spotlight to inspire others to follow suit. To have your organisation highlighted, please email pernille.soeholm@climateactionlanarkshire.net

Thanks for reading, we hope you are inspired to commit to noticing a bit more of nature this winter, as well as taking some actions to help protect her.