Why do I love nature now I'm getting older?

[ssd]

I'm over 50 and when I was young I'd no time for nature, it bored me silly. I wanted the city, pubs, clubs etc, the countryside bored me to tears.
Now I love a walk in the country, I could sit and look at the trees blowing in the wind for ages.
Am I just getting old??

It’s like country file, it’s the highlight of my week I bloody love it.
No way would I have watched that in my yoof.
Gardening, pitting plants, rivers and the beach are all a constant source of calm for me.
Weird and yes, old.

Yes that's it, a source of calm. I love country file too but I usually turn it on just as I'm eating dinner and there's a cow giving birth on telly....

Yep I’m with you. I have an urge to up sticks and move out somewhere more rural. Take the kids somewhere less crowded to grow up in a relaxed area. Love looking at nature. We live in a green area but is still Greater London still busy. I’m 43. I don’t know if o would miss the husstle and bustle.

Same here

I love walking. I love the changing seasons. My walking boots calm me as I lace them up...and they are the most expensive footwear I own.

Yep, getting old

I thought it was just me! I used to love skiing for the apres, now I love it for the great outdoors! I love cycling outside, living in the countryside, etc etc.

It's quiet. I hear you sister.

Walking boots???!!!
Will look those up, I trudge about in my old trainers..

When I hit 50 I started listening to the birds

I bloody love nature. I took loads of photos of trees on a walk yesterday. I could happily live near a beach in a titchy cottage.

I've downloaded a bird ID poster, and bird song link.

Me too, I’m obsessed with watching the birds in my garden and worrying about the declining hedgehog population, does not seem that long ago all I was concerned about was topping up my tan and hitting the town on a night out, shudder at the thought now.

It's time plus age for me. I never had time to sit and look I always had more important things o r obligations.
Now I have time and a case of the fuckits.
The best thing for me these days is early AM birds wake me up and I sit and watch them in the back yard with a ciggie and a coffee.

Me too. It happened at around 39/40.

It’s the bird song, bees, draggonflies, foxes, bats, hooting owls, wind rustling through the leaves, the blossom on the trees, watching the clouds glide by, and the ever changing seasons. It’s pure beauty and it makes me glad to be alive.

My walking boots are my most expensive footwear too and I never thought I’d spend thousands a year on my garden but I do.

I think it’s the letting go of the worries and self-consciousness which, when you were younger seemed so important that they drowned everything else out. When you get to the stage of not giving a shit, your focus expands and you start to appreciate the world around you.

Old and happy!

I'm never happier than when I'm out in my walking boots with my camera and binoculars slung round my neck, started doing this when I turned 40 three years ago now.

Get BirdUp app - it will listen to tweeting and help identify.

I like having my window open at night when I'm in bed, my bed is just under the window and I like lying and hearing the little birds when dh is sleeping and feeling the cool breeze coming in.

Will get Birdup app, thanks

Same. I got binoculars and British bird guides for Christmas last year. I’m 38 😁

Ooh that bird app sounds fab!

Perhaps we could make people state their ages on the gardening threads, might be in for some confirmation 😁

Funnily enough, I don't like gardening as I hate worms..

We are human animals. Nature is our true habitat.

When you’re alone in the country nothing else exists. No stresses, no pressure, just being.

I think as you get older that all starts to matter more.

I wonder if it is our sense of mortality encroaching...

Make the most of it while you can sort of thing. I reckon, barring unexpected serious illness, I have another two decades of being able to get out into nature

The last two have disappeared in the blink of an eye. Gulp !

I think it's about the human need to feel grounded; an appreciation of the cyclical quality of life; that time to just sit still and watch is precious because we're not long on this earth. Not sure these concerns hit home in your 20s, typically. I think as you age you appreciate this more and nature and its cyclical quality is comforting. New life is very reassuring because there's comfort in knowing that the next generation is alive and thriving.

When my parents died, the one thing I found comfort in was that it was part of a cycle and that their grandchildren were thriving. I'm not sure what those who don't have kids rely on to find some kind of logic to parental death. I'd be interested in knowing. What anchored you when in the throes of grief? I'm not saying it's necessary to resolve grief in this way - appealing to nature and its cyclical quality. It's a construct like any other but I'm curious as to what other constructs are drawn upon as we age to come to terms with the finiteness of life.

Oh dear - all this sounds far deeper than I intended but I an curious now how others make sense of ageing and death if they don't look to nature.

I got an allotment when I was 42. It’s my happy place.

To be fair, I’ve always loved being out in nature, which is weird since I grew up on a council estate in Hull...