Kerrie Bigham

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live!"~ Thoreau Stress Relief Coach/Arts Admin/Educator #music #livewell #stressrelief

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

What are you good at?

What could you be the best at?

What makes you happy?

What excites you?

What makes you feel accomplished and good about yourself?

What are you most proud of having accomplished in your life? Can you repeat this or further develop it?

What do you enjoy sharing or experiencing with other people?

[Action for Happiness @actionhappiness]

Not everything that weighs you down is yours to carry

Image: https://t.co/YQcAgUBcPS

[Janet Horvath @playinglesshurt]

#thoughtoftheday

[Kerrie Bigham @daffodil1209]

Sunshine makes a lot of things better.

[Washington State DOT @wsdot]

I'm not getting a little teary-eyed, YOU'RE getting a little teary-eyed! But I mean, just look at that determined little salmon! 🥹

[Kerrie Bigham @daffodil1209]

My street just lost a big tree this week. I hope the new property owner plants a replacement! #plantmoretrees #biophilia #biophilicdesign #urbannature

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

12 Reasons Why Cities Need More Trees:

1. Temperature Control

One large tree is equivalent to 10 air conditioning units, and the shade they provide can reduce street temperature by more than 30%.

2. Noise Reduction

Trees can reduce loudness by up to 50%. In urban areas filled with the sound of cars, construction, sirens, aeroplanes, and music, trees are essentially the best way to block noise and keep cities — along with the homes and workplaces in them — quieter.

3. Air Purity

Trees remove an astonishing amount of harmful pollutants and toxins from the air. In urban areas air quality is often disastrously bad — with severe consequences for our health. Trees make the air we breathe much cleaner.

4. Oxygen

And, while absorbing all those pollutants, trees also put more oxygen back into the urban environment. Oxygen levels are significantly lower in cities compared to the countryside; trees help to solve that problem.

5. Water Management

Trees do more than just shelter us and our buildings from rain — which is, in fact, extremely important. They also absorb huge quantities of water, reduce run-off, neutralise the severity of flooding, and make flooding more unlikely altogether. Not to forget that their roots absorb pollutants and prevent them from feeding back into a city's water supply.

6. Psychological Health

Studies have proven what we instinctively know to be true: that human beings are significantly happier when surrounded by nature rather than sterile urban environments. Our emotions, behaviour, and thoughts are shaped by the places we spend time — and trees have a profoundly positive effect on our psychology. The consequential benefits of being happier and more peaceful — as individuals and as a society — are immense.

7. Physical Health

Beyond all the other ways in which trees improve air quality and the urban environment, much to the benefit of our health, they also encourage people to go outside. Cycling, running, and walking are all more common in urban areas with plenty of trees. A knock-on effect of people spending more time outdoors is also social integration and stronger communities.

8. Privacy

A simple point, but not inconsequential, is that trees provide privacy.

9. Economics

The total economic benefit of urban trees is hard to calculate. There are costs, of course, including the repair of infrastructure damaged by roots and maintaining the trees themselves. But the total economic benefit — a consequence of everything else in this list and more — far outweighs the expenditure. Trees make cities wealthier.

10. Wildlife

Trees are miniature cities all of their own, serving as a habitat for hundreds of different species, including birds and mammals and insects.

11. Light Pollution

Trees don't only block the light shining down, therefore keeping us and our cities cooler — they also disrupt light shining up, from street lighting, cars, houses, and billboards. Skies are clearer in cities with more trees.

12. Aesthetics

And, finally, trees are beautiful. They break up the potential monotony of urban environments — the sharp geometry, the greyscale roads and buildings, the endless rows of cars — with their trunks, boughs, canopies, and flowers.

Just think: the gold and red of falling leaves in autumn, the white and pink blossom of spring, the vast green canopies of summer, and the branches lined with hoar-frost in winter. Every single tree is a myriad of intricacy and texture, of colour and scent, of dappled light on the pavement, mottled bark, knotted roots, of clustered leaves and delicate petals and stern boughs.

Few streets would not be improved by the kaleidoscopic aesthetic delights of a tree, not to mention the many different species of tree, all over the world, whether willow, oak, lime, cherry, aspen, maple, birch, horse chestnut, dogwood, hornbeam, ash, sycamore... the list goes on.

There are some drawbacks to urban trees, most of them context-specific, and they are not — of course — universally appropriate. But it seems fair to say that many cities would benefit from at least a few more trees here and there.

[Scotland with Sam @Theweewhitedug]

Since heather season is in full bloom, here’s the Wee White Dug surrounded by it. In winter this road in the #CairngormsNationalPark is often impassable due to snow. In summer it’s a riot of colour.

Have you experienced heather season in #Scotland before? #visitscotland

[Kerrie Bigham @daffodil1209]

Blue sky after 4 smoke-filled days is amazing! Many thanks to the wind & the firefighters! #cleanair #breathedeep #wildfire

[Buitengebieden @buitengebieden]

Happy goat.. 😅

[Kerrie Bigham @daffodil1209]

@LibrarianSherri

[Kerrie Bigham @daffodil1209]

Homemade egg rolls. #simplepleasures

[Tiny Buddha @tinybuddha]

"Someone said anger is sadness that had nowhere to go for a very long time, and I'll never forget it."

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

Work is not all of life. Your co-workers shouldn’t be your only friends. Schedule life and defend it just as you would an important business meeting. Never tell yourself “I’ll just get it done this weekend.” Review Parkinson’s Law and force yourself to cram within tight hours so your per-hour productivity doesn’t fall through the floor. Focus, get the critical few done, and get out. E-mailing all weekend is no way to spend the little time you have on this planet.

[Kerrie Bigham @daffodil1209]

@LibrarianSherri

[VeryBritishProblems @SoVeryBritish]

What’s the best word/phrase the British use to describe being angry?

[Kerrie Bigham @daffodil1209]

#heartwarming #ducks #justkeepswimming

[Sally Urwin @PintSizedFarmer]

Anxious about the news? Watch this.

(My favourite bit is the hi-vis guy saying "cheep cheep cheep" in a broad Yorkshire accent)

[Kerrie Bigham @daffodil1209]

Nothing like a bear eating snacks to remind you what's important! #breathe #peace #pandas

[Janet Horvath @playinglesshurt]

This is so true! #music #singing #drawing #dance #art #creativity

[Kerrie Bigham @daffodil1209]

Visited here 20 years ago w/teenagers. Two memories - the bells on the wall downstairs, just like @DowntonAbbey, to summon house staff & the staircases so staff could "disappear" if the nobility walked down the halls. #scotland #castlelife

[VisitScotland @VisitScotland]

Culzean Castle, so picture perfect it even has its own frame! 🖼️ Have YOU visited yet? 😍 #UNESCOTrail

📍 near Maybole, South #Ayrshire, @ScotBiosphere 📷 IG/dumitrip

[WSDOT Tacoma @wsdot_tacoma]

Here a bit of a closer look at the orcas passing underneath the Tacoma Narrows Bridge this afternoon.