Japan has special therapy forests where people go to get closer to nature

[Bayard]

"Forest bathing". I like that.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Forest bathing is a thing here now, too.

The U. of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum has a program: https://www.arboretum.umn.edu/ShinrinYoku.aspx

[MineralMan]

3. We're very fortunate in Minnesota. If someone wants to walk

in a forest, they are everywhere here. Just a short drive will take to one.

[ismnotwasm]

2. I go visit my oldest daughter

She lives VERY rurally on the Olympic Peninsula

[Captain Zero]

4. sounds like a park

nt

[Bayard]

5. I have my own here

But you have to put on boots, and wade thru the blackberry brambles.

[Duppers]

7. I love blackberries!! Yummy.

Especially baked in a cobbler. I remember trips into fields of blackberry bushes as a kid, carefully picking buckets of them with gloved hands and long sleeves to protect from the briars. Those sweet juicy cobblers were worth all the trouble, don't ya think?

[Bayard]

10. Ehhh.... not so much on these ones

The first few years, I picked tons of them to try to make something. They are hard, seedy, small, and sour, even when fully ripe.

We need to take a machete to them.

[Duppers]

6. Must have trees! 🌲

I know the desert can be beautiful but I need trees, the more the better.

My son, otoh, is happy in his NYC concrete jungle but he still takes a walk every day to the big park 2 blocks from his apt. Not me, I don't even wanna see another house. I must've been a squirrel in another life because I'd be happiest living in a tree-house. We're doing the next best thing - building our next home smack on the border of a national park forest. I pray it never burns.

🌲🌲🌲🌲

[Duppers]

8. TOP 22 BENEFITS OF TREES

https://www.treepeople.org/tree-benefits

[smirkymonkey]

11. I have always felt that trees have had magical healing powers, both mentally and

physically, for me anyway. I actually feel depressed when I am in an area or a neighborhood where there are no trees or greenery and I hate arid, dry landscapes. I grew up in a beautiful part of upstate New York where we were surrounded by lush green hills and thousands of beautiful old trees.

No matter where I have lived in my life, I have always picked out the leafiest neighborhood to reside in. Trees make me feel serene, peaceful and safe. I moved in June from a newer neighborhood that overlooked a highway and had very few trees (although it did have a little landscaped park and foot path, which were lovely) but I moved to a neighborhood not too far away that is all tree lined streets, shrubs and other plants and the difference in my mood and outlook is just amazing. I felt like a new person. I am so sensitive to my surroundings, and there is nothing I would rather look out on than a park or a courtyard filled with trees and plants. I also have a river view from the building entrance and the roof deck.

I could never understand why anyone would want to live on a high floor in a high rise building looking down on buildings and concrete. I would even prefer to look out on trees rather than the ocean or other bodies of water.