Juneathon 2012 Day 29 - The built environment

Juneathon 2012 Day 29 - The built environment

Cycle -14 miles, Time 1hr 10min, Weather - bright and sunny but strong gusty wind

The photo today was taken somewhere between Hemel Hempstead and St Albans but the location was arbitrary: almost any point along my route would have done as well. All I wanted was to give an indication of the countryside I cycle through and how empty and rural the landscape can be, even though I am only 30 miles from the centre of London, beside two major motorways and close to a number of towns of varying size. This is quite a densely inhabited part of the world but a few pedal strokes and I am here: in the open, overlooking fields and woods.

I wanted to show this because it relates to something quite surprising I read in Mark Easton's blog about how much of the UK was built on (including roads and railways as well as buildings). Before you guess remember that 80% of us live in towns and cities and have eyelines full of concrete, bricks and tarmac. Before you guess also remember that we humans are not equipped with an instinctive feel for statistics and tend to jump to conclusions based on easily available images (in this case houses, streets and people). So with those provisos and the picture in mind you all should have lowered your initial guess but so I am willing to bet you will still be surprised at the answer: in England 2.3% of the land is built on, in Scotland 0.4%, Wales 0.9%, and Northern Ireland 0.8%, giving an overall figure for the UK of 1.5%.

Even though I spend some of my time cycling round country lanes and am aware of how much open landscape there is, I am still surprised. My guess, for what it is worth, was 10%.

Juneathon 2012 Day 22 -Linking landscape and tax

Juneathon 2012 Day 22 -Linking landscape and tax

Walk 1 mile, Time - 20min, Weather - very, very blowy

Today was my last day by the coast and I did the bare minimum. It was blowing a gale and I preferred to watch from a place of shelter. Going out had a moment of "Wow this is so windy, isn't it fun just trying to stand upright!" but after a time the pleasure palled. It was so windy in one spot I couldn't take a photo because I couldn't keep my camera still: "that's it" I thought "I give up".

Nevertheless I managed to take some pictures of these white chalk cliffs,which are, to me, emblematic of England.  When I see them, either first hand or in some representation I think of a rich landscape and culture. It is small wonder that many writers and artists have chosen to live here. Two days ago I was thinking of this when talking of Frank Bridge and the effect the landscape had on his music. Today I was also reminded of it when reading something JK Rowling said about tax:

I chose to remain a domiciled tax payer for a couple of reasons. The main one was that I wanted my children to grow up where I grew up, to have proper roots in a culture as old and magnificent as Britain's; to be citizens, with everything that implies, of a real country, not free-floating expats, living in the limbo of some tax haven and associating only with the children of similarly greedy tax exiles. A second reason was that I am indebted to the welfare state... When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net, threadbare though it had become under John Major, was there to break the fall."

Having roots in an old and magnificent culture is an important part of any individual's identity. Looking at this landscape you can see how this works.

P.S. my respect for JK Rowling, which was already quite high, went up a couple of notches on reading that quote.

A Feeling of Space

A postscript to my last post about the restorative powers of landscape: you do not need imposing natural grandeur for it to be refreshing, sometimes the domesticated views of the Home Counties can work their magic just as well. The view does not even have to be of natural features, small picturesque villages can also lift the spirits.

Today I went for an meandering cycle ride, with the only plan being to loop around some nearby villages. In every case I found something pleasing, whether it was a pond, a green, a cricket pitch on the green, or just a churchyard. The heart of each village had open space, old buildings, a human scale and felt restful.

The picture comes from the churchyard in Flamstead, a village listed in the Domesday Book. All was quiet and it was hard to believe that only a short distance away was the M1, heavy with traffic. A neat contrast as one space invites you to wander and contemplate and is thus refreshing, whilst the other demands concentration and has constant pressure from people in all the other vehicles.

This started me wondering whether one of the key issues for mental recuperation , as well as the beauty of natural landscapes, is the feeling of space and not being crowded or rushed. Sometimes in urban areas one can be hemmed by all the other people, wrapped-up in their own worlds, not interacting but intruding. One can be deprived of clear sight lines and subconsciously this feels pressurised. In such circumstances it is difficult to clear the mind

Today I had no problem with crowds as it was on small lanes and it always surprises me how it takes only a short step away from the beaten track for crowds to disappear. I find this when I run. Around Ashridge the parking spaces can be full and there can be quite a few people on nearby paths, strolling, walking their dogs or just messing about but a short distance further in people melt away and you feel you have the woods to yourself. Selfishly I'm actually quite pleased that many people do not want to move far from their cars.

Looking at nature

Most of the pictures on this blog are of canals and trees, in other words natural surroundings (even if canals are man made). It is the way I think of my runs - chugging along looking at trees and water, passing people who are outside to enjoy themselves. I think of my standard run as 1 hour along the canal but in reality less than half the time is spent on the towpath as I have to get there and it is 16 minutes away. But the streets on the way tend to pass in a blur and I think of them as a preamble (word chosen carefully to reflect my running speed) that has to be got through. It is a bit odd as it is all running and everything should be of equal value.

Now I find there might be a good reason for this: nature is better for your state of mind.

"Attention restoration theory" is the current rebranding of the idea that a walk in the woods can help refocus your thoughts. Think of the Romantics tramping the Lake District or Thoreau at Walden and know the idea has been around for a long time but to be contemporary it has to have a three letter acronym so it is now ART. ART hypothesises that nature engages our attention and our sense of beauty in a way that places no load on the prefrontal cortex. In other words the mind can freewheel and give our directed-attention faculties a chance to recuperate. In contrast a walk in an urban environment is full of stimuli that require immediate attention and is therefore not so restful.

Last year this was tested in an experiment at the University of Michigan. A group of people were given some backwards number tasks that required a deal of concentration. After the first session they took an hour walk either in an arboretum or along the streets of Ann Arbor, after which they took more tests. Whilst everyone's scores improved those of the nature walkers improved significantly more than those who had gone downtown. A second experiment cut the walking, instead the participants looked at pictures of either nature or urban scenes in their break. Again those who had looked at the nature scenes improved more.

So there you have it. If you want your run to have the maximum restorative effect you should search out routes containing natural beauty. Any run is obviously good but some places just make you feel that little bit better.

Scientifically proved!

Appreciating the landscape

My sister lives in the Fraser Valley. It is flat, rich agricultural land in the huge flood plain but wherever you look you see mountains. On clear days the light is crisp and clean with blue skies over an open landscape. There is a beauty and grandeur here.

Although this is a running blog I often talk about landscapes. This is because being somewhere stimulating, noticing new things on familiar routes, seeing how everything looks different in different light, being aware of changes in the seasons is an important part of the experience. It is a necessary counterbalance to a tendency to be too absorbed by your own body: how you are doing, how you are feeling, whether you are flying or struggling. You have to look out as well as in.

My sister has a wonderful landscape to run in. The mountains never look the same; the light and shadows are always changing and the pattern of clouds is always shifting. The picture at the top is a bit of a cheat because it is not from a run (it was taken a few miles away, looking over the Fraser at Mission) but it shows how sometimes, on a clear day, strata of clouds can make the view a peep show.

You can never tire of such sights or take for granted your ability to enjoy them.

Rediscovering Childhood and John Ruskin

I have recently come back from a weeks holiday in the Lake District. It rained most of the time and I did not do quite as much running as intended - but that did not matter. Being by waters, surrounded by fells, is enough to lift the spirits. We were in Grasmere, the heart of the romantic lakes, and everything felt cleaner and fresher. Pleasure came from just being outdoors and active - even if it was wet.

I did sufficient running, and even managed to fit in a long run, but that is not the point. For a running blog I have a rather a subversive message - "sometimes you do not need to run". Sometimes it is better to go searching for waterfalls and recover the sense of surprise you had as a nine year old city boy who saw mountains and fast running streams for the first time; who wandered over the open landscape to find a river, hidden by trees, and watched in wonder as your father skimmed stones on the water, whilst you could only make them sink with a great plop.

I don't really know the full reasons for spending so much of my time running. Part of it could be some futile attempt to recapture a little of the feelings I had when younger - when I could run, cycle or move with ease, without thinking. I know that all my effort really achieves is an understanding of how much stiffer I am and how much longer it takes to recover but all the same there is a linger sense of continuity.

However I can make that link far more directly by visiting places and seeing again the sights with fresh eyes, skipping around without any great purpose. In other words just being on holiday, or finding some other way to free up my thinking.

Running is good but there are other things as well.

During the week we also visited one of my favourite houses in England - Brantwood. It was the home of John Ruskin and displays the range and depth of his work as well as where he lived and worked. The views over Coniston Water are stunning and endlessly change with the weather and just add to the sense of contemplation.

I am always in awe of the achievements of Ruskin, the scope of his ideas and how many of them still seem current. His views had tremendous sway on the public opinion, with his books, with those of Thomas Carlyle, forming part of the library of people of all social classes. Try as I might I cannot think of any present day figure of comparable stature.

I look at Ruskin's study, his collected works and the engagement in important issues and think -

Running is good but there are other things as well.

However I then look at the pictures of Ruskin in his later years and see a shell of a man beset by health problems. I then think -

Running is good it helps with all of those other things.