I AM standing at the foot of a towering eucalyptus tree, watching light dart and flutter as the breeze moves through the leaves. The scent that wafts on the wind reminds me of massage rooms in luxury resorts, but I am more relaxed than I have ever been on a massage table and I am doing nothing more than paying close attention to the trees and flowers, birds and insects of the wood I find myself in. I am ‘forest bathing’.
The concept was first developed in Japan as an attempt to revive burnt-out townies. People were brought to the forest to recuperate and studies were made to assess the impact on heart rate, cortisol levels and mental health. The positive results saw the trend taking off in neighbouring Korea, then spreading across the western world and eventually reaching Jersey’s shores.
Even on this peaceful island, life can get hectic, particularly for those that work in the busy financial industries, and Amanda Bond, a trained eco-therapist who leads monthly forest-bathing walks, has no shortage of people keen to experience the restorative nature of the forest for themselves.
The arboretum that surrounds St Peter’s Val de la Mare reservoir is a fitting location to take in Nature. The trees here, including giant American redwoods, Japanese cypresses and Australian bottlebrushes, were donated by the Moores family in the 1970s and planted in memory of their son Nigel, who had died in a car accident. After several years, the trees had been allowed to grow to full size, without any human interference, and they now cohabit and interconnect in a peaceful wilderness that unites all corners of the globe.
Denne historien er fra July 14, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra July 14, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
