On 8 May 2020 we, in Europe, celebrate 75 years of victory over fascism. Victory in Europe Day, generally known as VE Day or V-E Day, is a day celebrating the formal acceptance by the […]
A BLANKET OF Peace and Quiet
Good morning my friends, You’ve all heard me waxing rhapsodic about the resultant clear blue skies and quiet from the lack of jets and airplanes in the sky. I had no idea how much ambient […]
I came to hidden springs and ponds.
I came to hidden springs and ponds. Reading this quote from Norwegian poet Johan Sebastian Welhaven (1807 – 1873) gives me goosebumps. I came across Welhaven only recently through Mikkjel Fønhus, a renowned writer from […]
My first #Virtual Forest Therapy Walk was in San Diego, New York, Denver, Toronto and in Belgium – at the same time
In times of corona, I get to know the garden and forest surrounding my family homes better. I needed also time for myself to heal some inner wounds, but from the middle of April I […]
(I Didn’t Know I was) Raised in the Woods
“Of course, I knew there were forests, and I could see the trees, but I was blind to the value they provide.”
A woman in the polar night, a woman in lockdown
“In 1934, the painter Christiane Ritter leaves her comfortable life in Austria and travels to the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen to spend there a year there with her husband. She thinks it will be […]
Geography of Fairytales: Why are the Germanic stories in forests?
According to Sara Maitland, whose fantastic book ‘From the Forest: a Search for the Hidden Roots of our Fairy Tales’, fairy tales are ‘site specific’. A geographer, I try to make sense of the place […]
Carolyn’s story: A Poem about Forest Bathing
Please meet my fellow forest therapy guide Carolyn Peduzzi. We belong to the Squirrel Tribe, a group of 20-30 guides, all of them situated in North-America, who started their practicum to become a certified forest […]
Changing the stories we live by #6: from Princess Mononoke’s Curse Spirits to the Corona virus
Last June, I got to know the curse spirits of princess Mononoke in real life. I organised a group excursion to one of the certified forest therapy bases in Japan. Now I see some similarities […]
Becoming the Frog – retelling my woodwide story of the past 6 months
“The Frog Prince” (German: Der Froschkönig, Dutch: de kikkerkoning) is a fairy tale, best known through the Brothers Grimm’s written version; traditionally it is the first story in their collection. Since some months, I have a […]
