It’s not every day you see a clown getting his blood pressure tested. But at the Nechells Be Healthy Environmental Fun Day in Bloomsbury Park it was just one of the memorable moments I can recall from a lovely event. It was a very warm and sunny day filled with laughter and occasional screams of delight at the “slight of hand” magic tricks that never failed to amaze everyone. The afternoon had been organised by Yvonne from Birmingham Open Spaces Forum https://bosf.org.uk/ to introduce residents in Nechells to a range of opportunities to use green spaces for their health and wellbeing and a great time was had by all those who came to the very well attended event in August.
There were plenty of ways to help people of all ages connect with nature to help improve their physical and mental health. Over 40 children opted to leave the other activities to join the very passionate and knowledgeable Chris Millward Jnr on a bird walk around the park and learn about the history of the land the park now stood on.
Birmingham’s Park Rangers Teresa and Penny https://naturallybirmingham.org/out-and-about-with-birminghams-park-rangers/ led sessions to help families get to know the trees better and play a “let’s get recycling sorted” game. But it was Ranger Penny’s nail balancing skills that amazed the children most.
The National Trust https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ engaged people in thinking about a new pocket park and use paper cups to introduce bulb planting to improve biodiversity and cheer up green spaces. The Canal and Rivers Trust https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/ were there to encourage people to use the canals for exercise – “You are probably closer to a Birmingham canal than you think.”
There were lots of fun games for the children to try including cricket and advice for adults about getting healthy and staying healthy including the daily mile walking route in the park and talking therapies. For me it was another chance to stop and spend some time enjoying Bench Chats https://naturallybirmingham.org/2024/08/16/friendship-bench-chat/ with friends and colleagues.
Although the park does have benches Alex Morton from the National Trust and I chose one of the logs that have been left in the park under the shade of some large trees for our chat. Alex was one of three friends who took some time away from the crowd to sit and chat for a few minutes and you can listen in to our conversation here:
Yvonne Wager, one of the Volunteer Development Officers who work for Birmingham Open Spaces forum, joined me under threes to talk about the success of the Be Healthy Day and think about the mental health benefits of parks and making time to talk about ourselves and the challenges we may face as our lives change. You can listen in to how our conversation covered the business side of connecting people to nature and personal choices that we need to consider as we get older.
Finally my friend Nikolai Attard also from the National Trust talks to me about what he can see from our log bench which he explains includes community, the future and a lack of flowers in the park. It is so lovely to hear the children playing around us and hear Nikolai’s description of the different organisations working together becoming a community. Sharing stories about spaces like canals and parks and what makes us happy. Asking the question are you OK? and listening to the answer. You can listen to the answer here:
“Every breath we take is a symbol of what being connected to nature actually means”. Sitting on a log in park it all becomes a bit philosophical but very wonderful. Talking to Nikolai – always a pleasure.
You can try Bench Chats for yourself – give it a go, it really does make a difference.
Naturally Birmingham Future Parks Project 