Welcome to our new Nature Wellbeing Calendar series.
Each month, you’ll be treated to 10 easy and enjoyable ways to get your regular dose of nature. Learn more about how nature helps your health and wellbeing.
Here’s some ideas for May. How many can you do this month? 🙂
Let nature help you feel better!
1. May is flower power month! Go for a walk or ride, and you’ll be amazed by frothy white Cow Parsley, reaching out to you on all sides! Pause, and breathe in the beauty of its gleaming flowers under trees and hedgerows. Look closer at the intricate patterns of petals. You’ll see why it’s also known as Queen Anne’s lace.
2. Another wildflower to enjoy is the Meadow Buttercup. Take a trip to York’s larger grassland areas such as the Ings flood meadows, the Knavesmire or Hob Moor. You’ll be treated to golden flowers stretching as far as the eye can see! Enjoy a buttercup meadow walk to Bishopthorpe.
3. Why not grow your own wildflowers? Start by taking part in Plantlife’s No Mow May. If you let your grass grow longer, wildflowers will flourish. You’ll get some colourful delights like blue Germander Speedwell, purple Selfheal, or yellow Bird’s-foot-trefoil. Wilder lawns increase vital food and shelter for pollinators and other insects. Which in turn creates a minibeast buffet for birds and bats. Learn more about wilder lawns. If you have no lawn, grow a lawn in a pot!
4. Trees are also in bloom! Take time to admire their May displays. Horse Chestnuts show off majestic candles of white or deep pink flowers. Hawthorn or May trees gleam with fragrant white blossom in the first warm, settled weather. Have you heard the old English saying: “Ne’er cast a clout till May be out”? It means ‘don’t take off any clothes until the Hawthorn is in flower’. 🙂
5. Beetles about! Listen out for the massive May Bug or Cockchafer Beetle. At 3cm long, this is our largest scarab beetle. This gentle giant can be heard flying around green spaces at dusk – on a mission! Having spent several years underground, the adults emerge in May with only 6 weeks to find a friend. Learn to recognise their loud buzzing sound.
6. Can you find ‘The Jewel of York’? Look for bright green Tansy Beetles on Tansy plants along the Ouse. Tansy Beetles are a rare species, only found in a handful of places nationwide. It’s really exciting to spot your first one, and then realise you’re surrounded by many! Take a photo and share your excitement with friends and family, or in our Nature WhatsApp group.
7. Do you know there is a Dusk Chorus, as well as a Dawn Chorus? Simply head out early evening, or settle by your open door or window. Tune in to your local bird singers, relax, and let the melody wash over you.
8. Look to the skies! Another sound to listen out for is the scream of Swifts as they hurtle through the skies. These incredible birds return from Africa to the same places each year, and stop flying only to nest. Train yourself to look up every time you hear a scream overhead. Their aerial acrobatics will keep you smiling all summer! 🙂
9. And don’t forget to look up through the trees too! On a sunny day, fresh spring leaves glow against the sky in luminous greens. Find a place to sit under a tree. Take a few deep breaths, and feel yourself relax in the green glow of the leaves. What can you see, hear, and smell in that moment, and how do you feel? When you get home, try a leaf sketch in your Nature Journal.
10. Finally, have you discovered the Solar System Greenway yet? It’s a lovely traffic-free green route between York and Riccall with a scale model of the solar system and even planet sculptures. Follow the route as far as you want, and enjoy all the flowers, trees and wildlife May has to offer. Hurray for May! 🙂 Enjoy a walk or ride along the Greenway.
York Bike Belles 