Is the countryside boring?

[sandsnakes]

Taken from Walking World

Is the countryside boring?

An amusing survey commissioned by hotel group Travelodge informs us that over 50% of UK adults find the countryside too boring to be worth a visit. It sounds grim but, looked at another way, it means a healthy 47% of us see the outdoors quite differently – as a place where there is a slower, quieter form of pleasure.

We really do need to encourage this view, lets hope we can get it up to about 80% by the end of the year .

Sandsnakes

 

[wistuart]

I'm actually surprised the results were as positive as they were. I can't imagine any Travelodge customer being overly concerned about the aesthetic qualities of their surroundings.

 

[Tadpole]

This thread was started a few days ago
Is the countryside boring

 

[East Coaster]

This has been discussed recently

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/index.php/Forums.html


Beat me to it Tad

 

[sandsnakes]

Inshallah

 

[BorderReiver]

Never mind, I'll answer your question.

Yes.

Indeed it's so unbelievably boring that I go out into the countryside for at least two hours everyday just to check that it hasn't got more boring since the last time I checked.

 

[John Fenna]

Yea - I just went for a boring 4 mile walk, watching a boring Red Kite do its boring thing over boring field of young lambs being cutely boring.
I did some boring forraging and plant ID-ing (realy boring that!) then came back to my exciting house to do some exciting housework!
Even the sunshine and clouds are boring - never mind the breeze and views!

 

[harryhaller]

We really do need to encourage this view, lets hope we can get it up to about 80% by the end of the year .

Totally agree - the place is getting too damn crowded - Easter will be hell.

We should spread rumours about big bad wolves in the forests, leprechauns and goblins, poisonous plants, snakes and disease bearing insects - should work

but then...

 

[John Fenna]

Those are not rumours - it is all true!
I saw a wee tiny, portly bloke, dressed all in green with a funny little hat - with a feather in it - and a long white beard....oh that was my reflection...

 

[gregorach]

You mean the midgies and the ticks aren't enough? What do you want, Vashta Nerada?

 

[Ogri the trog]

Its a very sad reflection,
on society as a whole - that the expectation of everyday life is now so falsely exciting - that they can't see the excitement of the perpetual cycle of life in the countryside. I wonder what they think of the period of history before towns were thought of..... Thats must have been unbearably boring.

But carrying on the horrors of whats going on around here - muck-spreading, cutting hedges with a tractor and I even saw someone with his arm inside a sheeps bottom ..... Those country folk ain't like normal people! They walk around with guns all day long, chewing grass and muttering "Gerroff moi larn'!"

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[John Fenna]

You mean the midgies and the ticks aren't enough? What do you want, Vashta Nerada?

Also known as "Black Fly" as I understand it ....

 

[Klenchblaize]

That's why they invented the rifle!

Or the bow as I'm sure at least one Scout Master would argue.

Cheers

 

[harryhaller]

Let's not forget the quicksands, bushes that slap you in the face and grab your clothes as you go past, and the trees that change their position when your back's turned

 

[John Fenna]

The Fairies
Up the airy mountain Down the rushy glen,We daren't go a-hunting, For fear of little men;Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together;Green jacket, red cap, And white owl's feather.Down along the rocky shore Some make their home,They live on crispy pancakes Of yellow tide-foam;Some in the reeds Of the black mountain-lake,With frogs for their watch-dogs, All night awake.High on the hill-top The old King sits;He is now so old and gray He's nigh lost his wits.With a bridge of white mist Columbkill he crosses,On his stately journeys From Slieveleague to Rosses;Or going up with music, On cold starry nights,To sup with the Queen, Of the gay Northern Lights.They stole little Bridget For seven years long;When she came down again Her friends were all gone.They took her lightly back Between the night and morrow;They thought she was fast asleep, But she was dead with sorrow.They have kept her ever since Deep within the lake,On a bed of flag leaves, Watching till she wake.By the craggy hill-side, Through the mosses bare,They have planted thorn trees For pleasure here and there.Is any man so daring As dig them up in spite?He shall find the thornies set In his bed at night.Up the airy mountain Down the rushy glen,We daren't go a-hunting, For fear of little men;Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together;Green jacket, red cap, And white owl's feather. -- William Allingham

Spread the word!

 

[John Fenna]

That's why they invented the rifle!

Or the bow as I'm sure at least one Scout Master would argue.

Cheers

And the Banjo!

 

[mr dazzler]

Boredom is a state of mind-which is far more relevant than wether you are content with your particular place in time and space. They say he who tires of London has tired of life? I personally dont agree with the prevalent techno-urban-centric view that "the city" is really where its at, and "the sticks" is a weird second best for cultural losers
I often read about rural folk who lived in past era's, it often strikes you how content they seemed to be (often by their own account) in what is often patronisingly described as their limited world. This despite privations ocasioned by excessive rents, uncertain job security, poor harvests etc. A modern (sophisticated) person might well think "Oh poor things, our ancestors were so deprived....no TV or media studies, no central heating, broadband or shopping malls; no plastic surgery, trainers or designer clothes, no texting.....poor things, uggh how boring it must have been back then". But I tend to think that our forebears made much more of what little they had. What difference does it make if your world is 1 mile wide, never mind 10 miles or 1000......?
I was talking to an old boy quite recently, he said you can sum up life when I was a boy in 2 ways-folk were unafraid of hard work, and were content with their lot. "Touh furken sarft noowadaize"
LOL This morning me and my sons saw a herd of wild ponies, and surprised 5 boring deer in Lopham Fen woods. They played happily with some boring birch logs and branches, digging boring holes, I got a few boring blanks to take home to carve boring spoons. We saw a boring bird (not sure which species-but it was raucous and large and seeing off all comers!) We also saw a boring widndmill, boring long horned cattle, boring horses on boring Wortham Common....
I tell you what was boring (all hyperbole aside!) One time when I had to stay in Birmingham overnight in a city centre hotel. I thought how do people manage to live in a place like this with the incessant traffic and sirens?

 

[harryhaller]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN3rN59GlWw

 

[locum76]

some countryside is boring....

some countryside is not...

 

[Iona]

Wow! that second one is a stunner of a picture!!!

Having recently moved from the City (all be it only the outskirts of Brighton) to the countryside, it fills me with confusion and sadness that this question is even being asked. By anyone. In the past year since we moved, I have not been able to find the hours in the day to do all the things I'd like... between foraging and brewing and growing and whole weekends spent taking pot shots at bunnies with my son, and fitting in 2 hours a day for the woods walk between villages to get to work and back, (turns out driving to the next village was BORING!), well I'm utterly spoilt!

I have learned more just being here without even having to try, than I'd ever have learned sitting in my flat in town. It seems an odd concept that the countryside could be boring. This is the land we live on and the world as it should be. where's the fun in loud noises and car fumes and so much light everywhere you forget there's stars?

anyway, rant over. Steam let off...