Author Topic: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing  (Read 9122 times)

Rob Goes Walking

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #30 on: 22:42:30, 15/04/19 »

Do you have any tips for getting sheep out through the window?


Use a Border Collie and a jar of mint sauce. They'll find a way.

Mel

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #31 on: 22:46:46, 15/04/19 »
Are you Welsh?  :D

Rob Goes Walking

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #32 on: 22:53:18, 15/04/19 »
Which one of us? The guy asking for tips on getting sheep out of the window or the one supplying?

Lived there for a short while, not what I expected.

Mel

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #33 on: 22:57:29, 15/04/19 »
Bwuaaahhh, not sure if that's made my thought process better or worse  ;D

hongkongphooey

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #34 on: 07:45:41, 17/04/19 »
Which one of us? The guy asking for tips on getting sheep out of the window or the one supplying?

Lived there for a short while, not what I expected.

Care to elaborate?

North Wales is one of my top UK locations, but I rarely feel welcome....

37 427

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #35 on: 11:59:44, 17/04/19 »
I currently work in retail and when I have a day off I just have to isolate myself from humans, daily we are usually the brunt of the public's bad temper.


For my mental health I need to surround myself with nature, and avoid as much human contact as possible....


I am fortunate living in Mid Wales I can find places to escape where I wont see a soul and those I do are usually the local farmers. 

Rob Goes Walking

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #36 on: 18:49:36, 17/04/19 »
Care to elaborate?

Only a little bit and it's got not nothing to do with North Wales. I lived in South Wales not North. My experience with Welsh people had been very positive so I moved there. Once there I fell in with a bad crowd. One guy especially, who happened to be my neighbour, was more than a bit of a sociopath. I decided I didn't like being part of his crowd or being his neighbour so I left. End of elaboration :)

phil1960

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #37 on: 20:57:35, 23/04/19 »
I can’t help but wonder why some say they have not felt welcome  ???
Touching from a distance, further all the time.

barewirewalker

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #38 on: 12:24:27, 24/04/19 »
I can’t help but wonder why some say they have not felt welcome  ???
It is this quandary that I was trying to analyse in a recent TR, where I was much criticized for not posting photos, on that walk 3 lengthy conversations with local people revealed a level of hidden animosity to visitors. We were fortunate to fall in with friendly encounters, but were told of 3 farms where we would not have been welcome. This was in mid-Wales not North Wales, but he underlying cause is probably similar.

An interesting conversation with the landlady of a favourite pub, revealed some insight into the circumstances of one of the hostile occupants and I would hazard a guess, that the cause is loneliness. Whereas the substance of the OP's original link was the benefit of reaching out to nature for pastoral care of the stressed psyche, the very people living in that environment are being brainwashed into thinking that visitors to the countryside are a threat.

It was only the recent incomer to the area, who happily watched us arrive off the right of way, who did not feel outraged that we should walk the riverside to improve our experience of a beautiful area. Whereas embedded locals have their very personalities embittered by their sense of territory.
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

phil1960

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #39 on: 12:44:50, 24/04/19 »
Hmm! So a general countryside thing then not a Welsh thing. I have to say only once have I come across any animosity while walking, this was near Crickhowell and I have no idea of the nationality of the female farmer/landowner. I’m not sure I agree 100% BWW but a perceived “threat” is certainly a possibility, but of what?
Touching from a distance, further all the time.

ninthace

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #40 on: 12:55:37, 24/04/19 »
I can’t help but wonder why some say they have not felt welcome  ???
When we lived in N Wales (Anglesey) the people in the village where we lived were friendly enough but I was warned not to admit to being English in any pub in Caernavon, especially on a Saturday night.
In Devon we get a lot of visitors who are essential to the local economy, allowing the local pub to earn enough money to stay viable all the year round and it is nice to see a new face to talk to.  For that they are welcome - even if it takes ages to get served.  Now if we could convince them that the pub menu is not an opening point for designing a menu of their own (it takes ages and stops other folk getting some ale), and if only they could learn how to drive on our roads, that would be great!
Solvitur Ambulando

phil1960

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #41 on: 13:07:57, 24/04/19 »
When we lived in N Wales (Anglesey) the people in the village where we lived were friendly enough but I was warned not to admit to being English in any pub in Caernavon, especially on a Saturday night.
In Devon we get a lot of visitors who are essential to the local economy, allowing the local pub to earn enough money to stay viable all the year round and it is nice to see a new face to talk to.  For that they are welcome - even if it takes ages to get served.  Now if we could convince them that the pub menu is not an opening point for designing a menu of their own (it takes ages and stops other folk getting some ale), and if only they could learn how to drive on our roads, that would be great!
I guess in some areas it’s an old legacy of a colonial past, although maybe somewhat exaggerated possibly these days, not forgetting that tolerance works both ways of course. I was born and bred in the Welsh valleys, but lived and worked in Chester for 18 months, made some lifelong friends and put up with the sheep jokes, but all in all it was generally a good experience.
Touching from a distance, further all the time.

barewirewalker

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #42 on: 15:15:58, 24/04/19 »
Hmm! So a general countryside thing then not a Welsh thing. I have to say only once have I come across any animosity while walking, this was near Crickhowell and I have no idea of the nationality of the female farmer/landowner. I’m not sure I agree 100% BWW but a perceived “threat” is certainly a possibility, but of what?
The perceived threat is the stymied position of the access network advancing and becoming the national asset originally perceived by the 'founders', those postwar politicians, who created the definitive map. A willingness of the producers of our food to welcome their customers into the countryside and share the 'bounties of nature' is being influenced by the attitude to property that is actively encouraged. As a one time farmer, I suppose I may sense more of 'what could be done' and balance that with 'what is not done'.
I suspect in the last but one walk we did in that area I could have walked into a nasty situation, by staying on the right of way. We strayed off the RoW and avoided walking through a farm where we were told we could have had a bit of a barny. The next farm we had to pass through we were harassed by the dog all the way, it was quite obvious that the owner was in the house. When we reached the third farm and had a chat all the my suspicions fell into place by the info we picked up in conversation. Now that farmer, though friendly, was the one, who told us that the old path used by the postman, had been shut off. His farmwork was more diligent and I expect that the boundary fencing was better maintained by him. Trouble was that there was no point to cross the boundary, although the field gates fell into place along the line of the right of way within both holdings.

As we were trying to make a circular walk out of a stretch of riverside, largely A+ rated footpath, I suspect that the outreach part to close the circle was C- as far as the Powys CC were concerned. There were no waymarks nor any voluntary recognition by the incumbent occupiers, which points to a negative attitude.


This is fine walking countryside, offering a different experience to more popular areas, the local economy would benefit from a wider visitor use. The farmer's wife opened up as soon as she knew more of my background, we learnt that her children had used the local pubs as first learning jobs before going on to university, but they are encouraged by their CLA reps to support a negative access attitude, so allowing a really interesting footpath fall below par without fully understanding the connection between tourism in their own community.
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

phil1960

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #43 on: 15:46:21, 24/04/19 »
Yes a bit long winded but I do understand, it’s a countrywide issue. The farmer who had a go at us clearly disliked not just walkers, but anyone who came near her land uninvited, it didn’t help that the prow on her land ended at a river with no crossing to gain access to the road. I personally tend not to stray from paths other than on open access land when it’s fair game. The CLA it seems to me, actively encourage farmers and landowners to keep the riff raff out of the countryside for their own elitist purposes, but for me it’s important to recognise this as a countrywide and not a regional problem.
Touching from a distance, further all the time.

37 427

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Re: Daily 20 minute walk outdoors boosts wellbeing
« Reply #44 on: 17:40:22, 24/04/19 »
I'm in north Powys/Gwynedd and find the local farmers friendly my first language is Welsh so naturally speak to them in the mother tongue.




Last year sat in a cafe in Betws Y Coed with a friend we as normal talked to each other in Welsh, we became aware of an elderly couple next to us, looking rather annoyed and on leaving turned to us and proceeded to shout 'you polish lot should go home if you cannot speak English'...cafe owner apologised but I was not offended I found it hilarious.

 

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