Natures Grasp

NATURES GRASP

Exploring the beauty that surrounds us

Photographer

Isabelle Anstice- Mitchell

Editor In Cheif

Isabelle Anstice- Mitchell

Creative Director

Isabelle Anstice- Mitchell

Advertising Assisstant

Isabelle Anstice- Mitchell

Minerva Roofing Ltd proudly offers a high quality roofing service throughout Devon and the Southwest. Their directors have over 40 years’ experience within the construction sector from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines.

With a career such as roofing, roofers will spend most of their time outside, whilst improving their active lifestyle, as well as connecting them to the local community. This is beneficial as physical health creates a massive impact on mental wellbeing and on the body. This article provides a summary of the evidence of how and why a relationship with nature is so important and beneficial to mental health. To further this, it displays how working as a roofer within the outdoors can aid this.

Revisiting the benefits of the outdoors on the body, fresh air and exercise has long been recommended as a way to aid our bodies and mental and physical wellbeing. Research shows that people who are more connected with nature are usually happier in life and generate positive emotions, such as calmness, joy, creativity and can facilitate concentration.

To further this, findings from Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment Survey found that “people who spend at least 120 minutes in nature a week are significantly more likely to report good health and higher psychological well being than those who don’t visit nature at all during an average week.”

Minerva Roofing

From this, we have discovered that embracing the outdoors and spending time in natural spaces are crucial to everyday life for humans mental and physical well being.

Onto the roofing side, to become a roofer, physical fitness and endurance is crucial as well as the obvious qualifications. This job helps aid the environment for example, installing solar panels on buildings or fitting roof insulation to make a property more energy efficient.

The key message of this article is a need to shift our attention from focusing on getting people to visit natural and sometimes remote spaces, to focusing on how people can tune in and connect with ‘everyday’ nature, such as roofing.

To find out more regarding Minerva roofing. Scan the QR code.

Models: Employees of Minerva Roofing and Churchill

Location: Resident Care Home

Over 30 years in the making the Strawberry Fields brand remains true to its roots and original core farming activities. You may ask, what is Strawberry Fields, well they are a farm shop that pride themselves on making a huge amount of the products that they stock in the shop on site. To further this they have award winning pasties, a butchery stocked with homereared lamb, beef and local meats, on top of being completely self-sufficient.

The focus to become ‘greener’ firstly saw solar panels being introduced to the farm to help produce the electricity needed to power the ovens and farm shop. To further this, in 2014 the need to become even ‘greener’ saw the wind turbine introduced which now makes Strawberry Fields 100% self sufficient, this produces all of the energy they need 365 days of the year.

To expand on this, the location is completely family friendly since they introduced events such as Pumpkin Fest, Maize Maze, pick your own sunflowers, wildflowers, tulips, lavender, and daffodils; as well as The Christmas Experience, Big Machine Week, and The Baby Lamb Experience.

The reason locations such as Strawberry Fields are increasingly important are due to the impacts it has on the environment, family mentalities and community. Outdoor activities give children and families the chance to practise personal skills they might not get from spending time indoors, as well as giving families the space to connect and make memories in a low-pressure environment.

As we already know, fresh air and exercise has long been recommended as a way to aid our bodies and mental and physical wellbeing and what better way to do this than making memories with family and friends and embracing the outdoors.

The key message to take from this is that embracing the outdoors isn’t just about exercise or mental health, but it is the perfect opportunity to spend precious time with loved ones and take opportunities to take part in activities that you cannot do indoors.

Strawberry Fields

Models: Employees of Strawberry Fields

Location: Strawberry Fields Lifton

As a football academy for children Kixx offers a high energy, fun, creative and age-appropriate introduction to physical activity through football, which is also a great opportunity for children to make friends. The Kixx innovative curriculum emphasises both the physical and social development of children whilst creating a fun environment for children to be themselves. What Kixx strives to accomplish, is to develop children’s physical and social skills whilst simultaneously promoting an active and healthy lifestyle. Being physically active can improve brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of illness, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve abilities to do everyday activities and for children this could not be more essential.

Evidence shown by the NHS states, children need to be active for at least 60 minutes a day, with 30 minutes of this outside of school. This should include 3 sessions a week of activity that strengthens muscles and bone. By encouraging this level of physical health and combining with an outdoor activity, this will promote improvement in moods, improvement in behaviour, self-confidence and social skills, as well as obtaining Vitamin D, which is critical to the overall health of our immune systems, brain, heart, bones, muscles and nervous system. Weather permitting, outdoor exercise can be a great change of pace and a 2019 study displayed that people who spent a minimum of 120 minutes outdoors a week were more likely to report higher rates of good health and well-being.

To summarise, Kixx are significantly important for children’s health as they combine both reinforcement for physical and mental health alongside a healthy outdoor activity to bring out the best in children.

You can find out more information on Kixx and find your local group by scanning this QR code to the right.

Copper Penny Farm

Hill farm meats & copper penny farm shop promote local produce and home reared native environmentally friendly beef & lamb. This family run company is owned by John and Jenny Vanstone and due to this, their children have had the privilege to grow up surrounded within a farming lifestyle. Little Ivy, Harry and Bella have the advantage of the farm being right on their doorstep and have grown up surrounded by a love and appreciation for agricultural life.

As agriculture is not part of the curriculum, children miss out on all of the knowledge and learning the importance of farming. It’s fundamental to the world’s success and ensuring the global population has enough food to eat as well as maintaining the natural environment. This is one of the biggest jobs on earth and as the population grows so does the work of the industry.

Within the UK, farmers manage over 70% of the UK’s land area; meaning they’re responsible for managing important landscape features, enhancing our beautiful countryside and providing natural habitats for our wildlife.

Obviously farming isn’t everyone’s cup of tea however, understanding what you can do to support them is also supporting environmentally sustainable land management, the growth of organic food, higher levels of animal welfare, lower levels of pesticides and a safer food supply. It is essential we support our farmers so we can help them embrace natural resources, not only for their company but for their children. By surrounding children in some sort of agricultural setting, even if it’s just growing a plant, they’re learning about responsibility and the importance of caring for living things. As well as this, they are

understanding the role of a farm, such as where food comes from, being able to see how fresh fruit and vegetables are grown and that not all food comes from the supermarket.

Returning back to the topic of Copper Penny Farm, it is important to recognise what farming does to the economy. To help sell their local produce they attend multiple farmers markets such as Sparkwell and Wembury so the locals can purchase the locally produced meats on the counter. Local businesses often have a more personal touch and a greater sense of community involvement as well as this; when a business sources its supplies locally, it helps to create a ripple effect of economic activity.

So to conclude, farming has a great impact on so many things such as the crucial role in food security, the important role of managing our natural landscapes and helping to embrace natural resources. Furthermore, purchasing from your local farm shop helps to support farmers, the local economy, creating a sustainable food system, helping to reduce carbon footprints by reducing association with long distance food transportation and finally by purchasing from locals it helps support the sense of community and connection from where food comes from. Do your bit and taste the difference of local produce and sow the seeds of support and join the farm to table movement and support local farming.

To find out more regarding Copper Penny Farm. Scan the QR code.

Location : Copper Penny Farm

Model: Jenny Vanstone

Model: Ivy Vanstone

Model: Harry Vanstone

Langdon Livery

Model: Holly Frost

Location: Langdon Livery Stables

S T A B L E S

Langdon Barton Livery is home to a number of stables occupied by some of the finest animals. It is a welcoming, friendly and helpful enviroment which is full of accomidating and knowledgeable members.

This is Holly and her welshy, Ruby. They have recently taken part in their first show together and came away with not 1, not 2, but 3 second place rosettes.

Ruby is part of the family to Holly and she takes on the responsibility of providing Ruby with a happy and healthy lifestyle. As much as Holly takes care of Ruby, Ruby also does the same for Holly. With the a relationship with a horse, you are a vital half of a partnership and studies show being around horses can change human brainwave patterns, making people more calm, centered, cheerful and focused. Futhering this, being responsible for an animal is a big job, so succeeding at that can feel rewarding and a 2005 study showed that for children, a therapeutic bond with a horse can help grow mutual trust, respect, affection, empathy, unconditional acceptance, confidence, personal success, responsibility, assertiveness, communication skills, and self-control.

Riding horses is also benefical to physical health and is a slightly different type of exercise that helps tone and strengthen core muscles, this also helps burn a lot of calories when you are riding a horse and provides a fun way to exercise, too!

Langdon Livery

Taking care of a horse is not just a duty, it’s a heartfelt responsibility, horses change lives. They give people confidence and self-esteem. They provide peace and tranquility to troubled souls, they create hope and comfort and their is no better relationship than a horse and their owner. Horses also connect with people and create a bond in a way that exceeds human connection and that bond can help heal emotional wounds. Horses do not want anything from people and they have no expectations. You do not have to talk about your feelings, but a horse can help you to feel what you need to work through. They are magnificent earthlings of nature and what better way to embrace the natural world than with a horse.

West Trevillis Farm is a dairy farm based in Cornwall, dairy farming is a form of agriculture that is dedicated to the production of milk and dairy products from the care and feeding of cattle, mainly dairy cows. Dairy farmers focus on managing the health, welfare, and milk production of animals to obtain the highest quantity and quality of milk possible. The dairy farmer’s role is most certainly a complex one with a range of dairy jobs needing to be undertaken every day of the year. This is not just a job; it is a lifestyle and an integral part of their life. The most important quality you need to have is a love of animals and as you can see in these images, Louisa absolutely does.

Dairy farming creates job opportunities for individuals involved in animal care, milk processing and distribution. Besides milk, dairy farms can generate income through the sale of calves, manure and other products.

How does this help the environment, as Arla farmers they have a big impact on the environment and climate. Arla farmers have been reducing their CO2 emissions for decades by precisely managing their cows, fields, feed and energy usage. They do this by increasing biodiversity, which is the variety of all living things and their interactions.

To further this, dairy farming helps the environment by grazing animals which helps improve soil health, which promotes nutrient cycling which is, the movement of nutrients from the physical environment into living organisms and back again. For example, by using manure as fertiliser for crops, this will reduce the need for synthetic fertiliser.

Overall, when dairy farming is done in a sustainable and environmentally conscious manner such as this. It can contribute positively to ecosystem health. These choices have big impacts and that’s why supporting and embracing local farming is crucial.

West Trevillis Farm

West Trevillis Farm

Model: Thomas Bunney and Phil Bunney

Location: West Trevillis Farm

NATURES GRASP