What is this project?
This project is my contribution to the Access to Nature goal outlined in Vancouver's Greenest City 2020 Action Plan. One of the main targets in the plan is that all Vancouver residents will be within a five minute walk of a natural space by 2020.

Who am I?
I am Becky Till, a CityStudio student working in collaboration with the City of Vancouver on Greenest City projects. I am also a person wondering what it really means to have access to nature.

What will all the participants and myself be doing?
Each participant of this challenge is going to "take a moment" in a "natural space" everyday for the next ten days (March 24th - April 2nd). We will all be posting reflections both written and visual to share what impact this commitment is having on us.

Why am I doing this?
Well, because I used eat blackberries on a forest path during my commute and now I try not to get hit by cars. I want to see if there is a bridge between my busy city life and my need to feel connected to nature. What does it mean to connect with nature in a city? Does it have the same impact as "wilder" nature? Will having more contact make a noticeable difference in my life? To broaden my conclusions I asked fourteen other people living in Vancouver if they could commit to "Accessing Nature" for 10 days straight too. They said yes.
It's on!

Sunday 25 March 2012

Sarah Lind - Day 1

2:03am Day One

Backyard garden
Clear night 6degrees Celsius
Smell cold air, new green, some smoke? 
Hear much quietness, distant downtown hum, mystery scrabbling, a bottle dropped
Saw stars, Mars, much light from neighbours' perpetually flooding floodlights
Felt cold against my skin and intangible sense of spring
I am struck by the beauty of outside at night.  First the stars and air and trees and plants in darkness and backlit in silhouette, and then the garage and then the orange street light and then the hum and the smell of smoke and I am given an eloquent reminder that I and we, our homes and cities are all part of nature, are all natural, and that there is no way on earth not to be

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