This week we have my wifes Slovenian cousin and her friend staying with us, these girls are in their late twenties and early thirties, live in a fair sized town and work in a local goverment office.
At their request we went for a walk through a local wood, as we were walking along they wanted to know the english names for various plants and trees. O.k. I'm no expert, but I'm O.K. on trees and fungi, plants I have my top 20 and working on it. I named a few plants, told them of any uses the plant had etc.they then went on to tell me what they use the plant for i.e food, medical etc.
As time went on and I was running out of skill, they took over, identifying plants, fungi etc.
It struck me that these people who do not 'practice bushcraft' embrace nature in a far wider sense than we do, this stuff is everyday life incorperated into the culture of the people.
How nice would that be in this country, to have the whole community enjoying and understanding nature, to have families harvesting natures bounty without getting funny looks, and have a closer relationship with the earth.
At their request we went for a walk through a local wood, as we were walking along they wanted to know the english names for various plants and trees. O.k. I'm no expert, but I'm O.K. on trees and fungi, plants I have my top 20 and working on it. I named a few plants, told them of any uses the plant had etc.they then went on to tell me what they use the plant for i.e food, medical etc.
As time went on and I was running out of skill, they took over, identifying plants, fungi etc.
It struck me that these people who do not 'practice bushcraft' embrace nature in a far wider sense than we do, this stuff is everyday life incorperated into the culture of the people.
How nice would that be in this country, to have the whole community enjoying and understanding nature, to have families harvesting natures bounty without getting funny looks, and have a closer relationship with the earth.