Welcome to our new Nature Wellbeing Calendar series.
Every month, our Calendars treat you to easy and enjoyable ways to get your regular healthy ‘dose’ of nature. Learn more about how nature helps your health and wellbeing.
Here’s some ideas for December:
1. Be daring this December! Embrace the wildness of winter weather. Wrap up warm, and venture out every day, even for a short walk or ride to the shops or around your neighbourhood. After stuffy time spent indoors, you’ll be refreshed by the feeling of cold air, strong winds and rain on your skin. Honest 🙂 Try one of our short Nature Walk and Wheel Routes.
2. Come on Conifers! You’ll be delighted by these trees in December. They are lush and evergreen all winter long. The Conifer tree family includes Pines, Yews, Cedars, and Spruces. Notice them when you are out, and see what different cones you can find. Learn to identify Conifers from their cones.
3. Enjoy a Dusk walk or ride. Head out around 3pm on your mini-adventure into the twilight zone! Pause when you get a good view of the sky. Gaze as the sun sets and turns clouds pink and orange. Watch dark silhouettes of trees emerge. Marvel as the sky gradually fades to a deeper blue, stars appear and the moon rises into the sky. Wow. Such incredible beauty.
4. Look out the window on a clear night. Can you find Orion? With 3 stars in a row making up Orion’s belt, it is one of the easiest shapes to recognise in the night sky. When you do, smile and say hello to our starry friend!
5. If you’re up late, you may also hear one of the most evocative sounds in the bird world – the twit – twoo of Tawny Owls calling to one another. Be still, and listen for a while. How does it make you feel? Perhaps record the sound on your phone to continue to enjoy through the winter. Learn to identify the sound of Tawny Owls.
6. Opened your curtains to a blanket of white? Frost is solidified water vapour and forms when temperatures get below freezing. Notice the patterns on your window, on grass, leaf litter, on lingering leaves or trees. If you’re lucky, there might be a rarer Hoar frost of big feathery ice crystals, a gorgeous sight! Take a photo of a frosty find, and share with friends and family, or on our Nature WhatsApp group.
7. Make the most of those uplifting bright and sunny winter days. Get outdoors if you can. Perhaps arrange a walk with friends, with a warming café stop mid-way. Relish the feeling of the sun on your face as you stroll. Appreciate the last trembling yellow leaves, and the long, long shadows slanting from trees. Wave to your own shadow as you stroll along! 🙂
8. Make a date to celebrate the Winter Solstice on the longest night, around 20/ 21 December. It’s the beginning of our slow return to the long warm days of summer. You’ve made it!
9. Plan a walk or ride to celebrate the last few days of the year or the 1st of January. You could join in with the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland’s New Year Plant Hunt. Every year people record what is in bloom on these days, helping map the effect of our changing climate. Perhaps include any winter flowering plants in your growing plans for next year.
10. And leaving the best to last! Curl up, relax, and look back through your Nature Journal from this year. Reflect on your favourite moments. What will you look forward to next year? Buy a lovely new journal, or download our free Nature Journal for ideas. Happy New Year from the YBB Team! 🙂
York Bike Belles 