Just as Nature Intended: 2020

The images here are more or less as nature intended – nothing over-thought or over-analysed. They start with one from Christmas Day 2019 and then, for the first three months, I added something new every 10 days or so. Then, of course, Covid-19 intervened but I resumed again in June.

Read more about this 'Active Gallery' HERE …

About This Active Gallery of Images

They're Just as Nature Intended

I don’t believe everything I read on the internet – particularly “research” which seems to be commissioned by ‘invested’ [sic] parties. But I was downloading the photos which I took yesterday on our walk at Swinsty Reservoir, and the idea that photographs of nature are almost as good as the real thing seemed to play out before me. Yesterday, we had the wellbeing benefits of a ‘bit of a blow’ (!!); today I re-experienced those same feelings – with the added bonus of warm surroundings (windchill was wicked yesterday) and coffee to hand!

Inspired by chatting with a close friend who also felt better after getting out for a bit of a blow yesterday (after chemotherapy last week) I've decided to create an ‘active’ wellbeing gallery – it's ‘active’ in the sense that I’m intending to add a photo to the gallery every 10 days or so (well, I’m going to try – so no need to remind me about good intentions and the roads to hell).

The aim is for the image to look more or less as nature intended; nothing ‘clever’ i.e. nothing over-thought, over-analysed or over-processed; just something which made me feel good at the time and continues to do so when I look at it again, back at home.

And, the last criterion is for it to be ‘accessible nature’ – not Snowdonia or the Cairngorms, but our local, urban parks and favourite places nearby (i.e. within about 25 miles – Fountains/Bolton Abbeys, Swinsty/Fewston Reservoirs, the Chevin and the Cow and Calf etc.)

I hope that ‘Just as Nature Intended’ works its magic for you just as well as it does for me.

Note for clarification: I did mean to use the word 'invested' in the first paragraph. It was not, as Ian suggested, a typo for interested!

I used it to mean "interested-parties-who-have-a-financial-investment-in-the-outcome-of-the-research" – but thought 'invested' would be quicker for us all to read!

Take care of yourself

Paddy