STAYCATIONS VOLUME II : Nature and the Imagination

If the Foodie and Culture tours from yesterday weren't your cup of tea, maybe our other tour options will appeal to you! These tours are for the nature lovers and book worms out there who like a slower pace. Sit back and relax with your cuppa for some relaxing suggestions on ways to open up to nature and the mind during this pandemic.

THE NATURE TOUR :
Are you normally the outdoorsy type? Is staying within a 2km radius of your home driving you a bit mad? Well you don't need to fly halfway across the world in order to feel connected to nature. A bit of ingenuity and you will feel like you're climbing everest (your stairs should suffice) or enjoying the bucolic views from inside the Grand Canyon. Those of us who cannot walk around due to being in a high rise building, will have to enjoy most of the nature's pleasures from indoor plants, a window, or the very cool virtual online tours of United States National Parks, from Yellowstone to the Grand Tetons, you can see them all if you are so inclined. So strap in for a not-quite-so-wild ride within a stone's throw away.

Garden tour : If you have an accessible garden and animals, it's easy to arrange them to make it feel like an authentic petting zoo or nature reserve. Neva has a 'den' she built at the back of the garden that she can retreat to, and I'm happy enough to pet Sammie (our dog) on my lap like I'm the evil stepmother in Cinderella. If you don't have a garden, don't worry; congregate your indoor plants into one room so you can sit near them and feel like a jungle explorer. Use some binoculars (or make some out of toilet paper rolls) to imagine that you're bird watching from the canopy of a Costa Rican cloud forest.

Neighborhood tour : Walking around the neighborhood, again, can feel a bit drab. Try to take a different lens the next time you go out to see if you can appreciate the local foliage that is popping up during this solitary springtime. I try to seek out the cherry blossoms, which remind me of Japan. Your neighbor may think you're a creeper if you're crouching down in front of their house, awkwardly trying to take a picture; but let's be honest, they won't want to get close enough to shoo you away, so  you are free to take in a peek at their garden without worry.

 Local Park Tour : Whatever your local park is, if you're allowed to use it, get up and go. The early morning is typically the best time, so if you can wake with the sun, just like when you're camping, you can imagine you're hiking to your next destination. Heck, you could even pitch a tent in your house and not shower for a few days to make the experience feel really authentic. We may be a bit spoiled on this one since our local park is the Bray Head and Bray to Greystones cliff walk which overlooks the sea. We can sit amongst the coconut smelling gorse and look out at the sea as if we are in the warm mediterranean, watching dolphins playing in the warm waters. In fact, the sea is probably around 14C. The at-home version could involve a bathtub, a plant, and some squeaky bath toys.

Sunrise, sunset : Hopefully we all have windows available for us to appreciate the sunrise and sunset. Despite being home locked, not many things can beat the overwhelming sense of awe when you catch a glimpse of the sunset. Whether it's subtle, colorful, cloudy, clear, there's always something special about a sunset. Set your timer for the sun rise and sun set times of the day and give yourself 5 minutes to enjoy the passing of one more day, one day closer to the end of quarantine. 

THE IMAGINATION TOUR :
This one is one that we can all enjoy. Whether it's through books or movies, or creating our own literary or artistic world, using our imagination is something many of us are not able to do on a regular basis with the hustle and bustle of our previous reality. Pick up those dystopian novels. Netflix party your favorite murder mystery. Write that short story you have been mulling over in the back of your head.

Get lost in your own mind : Reading is one of my favorite things about staying at home. Without multiple daily commutes to school,  and by packing in a weeks worth of commuting into one day a week, it leaves that extra space at the beginning or end of the day to delve into that book that you have been putting off reading for the last decade. Pile up your top 10 choices next to your bed and start working away. Velcro it to your shirt so when you have a spare minute while heating up lunch or using the toilet, your new best friend is there for you and ready to impart some wisdom. And if you don't have the hard cover, don't forget that many online shops and libraries are offering free e-reads during the pandemic, so you're all set!

Travel to the land of stories : Oral histories have been around for as long as we know, and sharing those stories is an important part of connecting with different human cultures. Our neighbor Paddy is particularly fond of the fairy stories. Below is a photo of the 'fairy paintbrush' he found left inside the purple vine flower in our garden. Thank goodness he found it, as we wouldn't want to slight the little people. Our household personally has many mythology books which helps give us perspective on how people thought and lived in a different place and time. Another way to connect is through listening to storyteller podcasts online. Two of my favorites are The Candlelit Tales here in Ireland who focus on traditional Irish stories, and the Myths and Legends podcast who covers legends from around the world. Remember, these podcasters are likely working away to create more content for your entertainment during this secluded time, so if you like what you hear, let them you appreciate it.

Time Travel : As a scientist, I have to have some root in reality to really draw me into a book. My favorite fiction are usually historical fiction or dystopian future, both which play with the idea of the past or the future. It's easier to suspend my belief if it's in an era that's foreign to me and I enjoy the thought experiment of rules within a world that are completely capable of happening today, if that were the social experiment we had all agreed upon in years past. Below we did a jigsaw of 1599 Ireland, when it was under British rule. We looked at the similarities and differences between borders, and county and city names, and imagined what people were doing and how they lived; at that time, people would have been suffering the effects of war from the Nine Years War. These snippets of history connect us to our past, and exploring the past and pondering the future can hopefully help us better respond to situations in the future. The future is now with our Dystopian Present. Do you think we can learn from the bubonic plague of medieval Europe, the cholera epidemics of the nineteenth century, or the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918? I think we will find out soon enough...