Does anyone love forests, like me?

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I think they are pretty.

mezzanotti- beautiful pics!

I love forests also, and any kind of natural place. Why? Naturally occurring harmony of color, shape, sounds, smells, feelings, devoid of human intervention. So pleasant and relaxing! Also, reassuring about how small humanity and our misery is in comparison to what gave birth to us. I think autists are often very drawn to nature, but many NTs find the same comforts there as well.

I sure do. I've always thought trees and plants are beautiful. I also have to agree with the getting lost in it thing too, and know what your talking about. I always thought forests make places more interesting- an added mystery, delpth and vasteness to places- l I keep you have yo guess what's out there.

Oh, I think forests are great - they're so calm and serene, and the only commotion is birds chirping, cicadas chirping and frogs croaking.

I love forests, I could happily live in one.

Yes, yes, yes and for emphasis, yes.

But I can hardly talk about it without sounding spacey. It is a very emotional place for me, for lack of another words. It brings on many thoughts and feelings. I like the endless sights and smells and feel of the growing things and the feel of rocks, dirt and sand. I search for any signs of life and enjoy even the smallest living things.

It is a restorative place, mentally relaxing even though stimulating. I love taking walks and am fortunate now to live in a large forest by a large stream. I like working in the woods, making trails and landscaping on my property. I see it as an art though. I don't like the formal style much and instead study the spots and how to bring out a feature with a wall, or sunken section.. where to encourage the ferns and where to alter the flow of a spring.

I can easily imagine religions growing up based on forests and special groves. The woods somehow stimulate something unusual in me, and no doubt others and it could easily be transformed into spiritual ideas. I don't think there are spirits inhabiting nature myself, but that does not make it any less magical to me. And I often wonder if it is not some deep instinctive thing, buried in our genes over many millennia, as far as what we naturally sense as 'home'.

Yes, I very much enjoy being out in the forest it seems to make all the stress I have melt away, I could spend hours wandering through the woods and fields in this area, or anywhere really. Not sure why but it seems the closest feeling I get to being alive, I don't know how else to put it.

Toy_Soldier What you wrote is just like forests make me feel, (with the substitution of painting and drawing rather than physically making trails) - thank you for writing that. It inspires me to have the courage necessary to move back to the forest.

Your pictures are great, mezzanotte!
I love forests, too. I like the smell, the noises of the birds and that there are no other people. Fortunately I live near one and can go there as often as I want to.

You obviously understand the beauty and peacefulness of the forest. And there is no reason why one can't live there. But I learned some interesting lessons in my 13 years living in the woods, and they were not all things I thought about or was necessarily prepared for when I moved here.

Basically along with the positive come some negatives and other what you might call mixed blessings. You may have already thought about these, or some may not apply, but just in case, I thought it might be helpful to mention some.

Power Outages - Woods and power lines don't get along real well and power outages are a bit more frequent. Usually its just a few hours but if a big storm hits your region, the outages last longest in the rural/remote areas. We have lost power for 5-6 days three times. We have installed propane heat and have some cooking ability, but no water, lights, internet, and fetching 10-16 gallons of water a day from the stream gets old. Our next big purchase will be a generator.

Bugs - Mainly just ants, but occasionally odd things like gypsy moths or who knows what suddenly explode in numbers and can be quite troublesome, like in defoliating the entire forest for a few years. Most of this is temporary and just once in a long while, but not the ants... the ants want your house always.

Flooding - May or may not be an issue, but be aware of the watershed and flood zones in the area you look to move. We have had three '50 year' floods so far, which doesn't make sense ??? ... so I will blame it on global warming like everyone else.



Wildlife - This is actually a good thing overall, but has some things to adjust to or simply tolerate.

Bears - Live in the woods and I can vouch for the fact they go potty there too. But they also like to steal your garbage or bird feeder, or anything edible. I gave up on bird feeding and keep the trash in the garage, but still they come and poke around. I have had to shoo one out of my garage twice now. Dogs are good bear repellent in that the bears will run from dogs nearly all the time. It doesn't matter what kind of dog. My Chihuahuas work just as well as Pits. But there is some inherent danger, mostly to the dogs. Once already you could see a 400 lb bear running chased by 10 lb Chihuahua which was followed by its running 170 lb owner.



Snakes - You have to learn your areas common and uncommon snakes. I see 4-12 a year, and always harmless non-poisonous. But at first I had no idea, and there are 3 poisonous types, fortunately rare in the region. So I became somewhat familiar to the point I can tell poisonous from harmless. After a little adjustment I became quite used to them and will allow them to live quite close to the house.



Deer and every other living thing - Will eat anything you plant or keep outside unless strongly fenced.



Snow - Getting to and from an be more problematic, and there can be lots of snow removal needed. I pay a neighbor to plow the main part, but it still leaves quite a bit of shoveling and putting down gravel for ice.



Mastadons - Just kidding. But I think it would be so awesome if they succeed in cloning them and they roamed around again. And throw in a few Dire Wolves for the heck of it.



One thing I can't think of any negative side to (except maybe wildlife accidents) is having dogs. For them at least its all good.

I love going for walks in forests (well, aside from the bugs.) I enjoy all of the different earthish-plantish types of smells there and looking at the cool scenery; it's a nice place to recharge my batteries after having a lot of social interaction.

Only thing is if you're on one of those really busy walking trails..
Me: Wow, what a peaceful day. Not a soul in si--
(Family of seven walks by, all chatting at the top of their lungs.)

Last edited by Lillikoi on 20 May 2014, 4:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm with everybody else, I love the forest.

When I was a kid in California, and then a teenager in Washington, I spent as much time as I could, roaming around forested areas. That was the best part about 'going fishing' with my Dad and Uncles.
As an adult in the midwest, I've finally been able to get away from 'civilization' and tilled fields and found a few nice hilly, tree-filled areas. Moved to an area with a lot of great short hiking opportunities. Now that my youngest is old enough to run around a bit, we've taken him out exploring. Just starting at the trees and creeks behind his favorite park. Turtles and birds and fish and crawdads and moths and butterflies... trees muffling the sights and sounds of the towns a couple of miles away.
Good stuff. Made me wish I had more solo time to really spend some time on walkabout again.

Good to see so many kindred spirits

I too love the smell of forest. Like when at my mom's garden (when I visit her) and it has rained... it smells just like it. I love the smell of earth, leaves, trees, all that. Forests make me feel happy and calm inside. In a way reassuring, like music. 'No matter how crap things are, the trees stay/the music stays/etc'. Something like that.

YourMajesty the smell after rain is my favorite scent ever. Better than apple pie, or chocolate or anything.
Toy_Soldier: you - thanks again - totally cracked me up as I scrolled down and came to the mastodons and dire wolves. ha!
I grew up running crazy fun all around in the mountains, (7000' in sierra nevada) so luckily I remember the down-sides and have lots of interesting stories too.
Last year we rented a place for a while to get a feel for the area where we want to live. A month after moving all my stuff in, a forest fire started, jumped a canyon and the whole neighborhood had to leave because they thought it might blow through and burn all the houses down too. Three days later we were allowed back in, all clear, just a few burnt spots in the yard thank goodness. Fire fighters are awesome people and I will always be grateful to those guys and gals who put that fire out.

I like the smell of pine needles on a dry sunny day best.

Yeah, the high forests in the Sierra Nevada are beautiful. I couldn't believe the age of the Bristlecone pine. With typical luck I also discovered the down side by picking up Mountain Tick Fever on my last excursion. Went into the hospital with a 108 degree temp.

Never, most fortunately, had to face a forest fire. Must have been a very anxious time. Those have a particularly scary feel to me, the feeling of not knowing where it might go, or how fast. Those fire teams are pretty amazing and its very dangerous work, with the whole team obliterated, when things go wrong.

Crazy fun? Truth or dare!

Because of the climate, forest fires are virtually unknown here, so I've never had to worry about them, thankfully.

Yeah, I love that too. Deciduous trees in summer rain also have a lovely smell.

Yeah, we had some pretty heavy flooding this January/February as well (low after low coming in from the Atlantic). A few thousand soldiers had to be called in to help with the relief effort (though thankfully, a good couple of hundred miles from where I live!). The lows also brought strong winds (up to 108m/h or 173 km/h) so plenty of trees were knocked over. That, falling branches and the flooding meant that it was not a good winter for forests.

Last edited by FeralRobot on 22 May 2014, 10:15 am, edited 2 times in total.