Forests and family, and foliage, oh my!
by Brienne Dubh
28/12/2020
Colour of Nature’s Seasons
This is my favourite time of year. Yes, the days are grey and the long dark nights are here, but with the shorter days, and colder nights, comes a myriad of vibrant colours. Sometimes without even noticing it, most of us naturally begin to introduce more colours into our lives.
It’s like we value the colour we can find even more – the same could be said for exploring the outdoors.
As a I writer I tend to find happiness in my comfy chair, with my laptop in hand, writing about mystical creatures or complicated romances – I’m not great for going out and getting a lot of exercise. But as soon as autumn comes around, I look forward to the evenings and weekends when I can get out walking with my husband and kids, to see nature’s gallery and view the wonderful spectrum of colours on display.
Our favourite place to walk is a road not far from us, which winds around in a loop. There are high hedgerows and oak, ash, silver-birch, and willow trees on either side of the road, over hang. They meet at the top, forming a long leafy tunnel in different shades of red, purple, green, yellow and orange. When approaching the road, you feel as though you’re entering a painting, and on rare days when the sky is blue instead of grey, the view is all the more spectacular.
I think that the reason we feel so happy there and enjoy these walks, is because this is nature’s version of colour therapy.
Colour therapy itself fascinates me. It’s an alternative holistic healing therapy which is said to stimulate our energy and senses helping to improve our physical and mental health. An article in the Scientific American talks of how back in the early 1900’s, colour was used as part of a cure for depression and melancholy. Patients would stay in rooms painted in the colours that helped calm their minds. Other theories attach to varied colours and shades in between, an impact on how we think and what we feel.
Red to inspire passion, power and energy; purple for spirituality and creativity; blues and greens, are meant to be calming and orange and yellows that stimulate the appetite, (which might explain why I can never stop at just one slice of a chocolate orange). Maybe this doesn’t hold true for everyone, and could be dismissed as mumbo jumbo, but most of these are colours that my family and I see every day on our walks, and being out and about in nature, surrounded by these colours, I do find myself feeling inspired, which especially helps if I’m suffering from writer’s block.
There is a wooded wonderland near where we live that is one of these kinds of wondrous colourful places. There are two different paths you can take in a loop. We love it because at this time of year, you really see the bright green overcoat of moss which has grown over the trees. The green moss is so vivid and rich that in the background, with the autumn and winter- coloured leaves above, and spread out below like a multicoloured carpet, it looks as though someone has gone around painting the trees this vibrant green. I can’t explain the sense of calm and happiness we get while walking there.
We recently decided to draw on the inspiration of our surrounds and add colour to the outside of our home itself.
As a family we thought of the colours which made us all feel happy, and we decided on a rich crimson red for the sills and doors, to add vibrancy to the stark white walls. The effect was immediate and our cottage feels like a new home.
Red as the colour of energy seemed to hold true for us, in both the rejuvenating feel of our home now – but also in the Christmas dress up ritual which my youngest daughter delights in. Every year she looks forward to wearing a bright red beret for the festive season. She tells me the colour makes her feel good.
On these grey days, we all could use such colours of joy in our lives. So when the cold windchill creeps up your coat sleeves, flutters across your neck, then wanders down your back, and you feel it’s time to reach for that woolly hat, be sure to take the chance to be bold and bright and add colour to your life too.
Recommondations
Good Day Cork suggests you get in touch with Niche Garden or Humanature to create your own experience with nature – if you know of more, kindly let us know – let others know.
