{"id":1922,"date":"2009-09-14T16:09:31","date_gmt":"2009-09-14T20:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/?p=1922"},"modified":"2009-09-14T16:09:31","modified_gmt":"2009-09-14T20:09:31","slug":"unnaturally-natural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/2009\/09\/unnaturally-natural\/","title":{"rendered":"Unnaturally Natural"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-1922 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/2009\/09\/unnaturally-natural\/cimg1499\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/files\/2009\/09\/CIMG1499-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"CIMG\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/2009\/09\/unnaturally-natural\/cimg1500\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/files\/2009\/09\/CIMG1500-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"CIMG\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl>\n\t\t\t<br style='clear: both' \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>There\u2019s nothing I love more than to be outside on a beautiful day. Growing up on the <a title=\"James River\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_River\" target=\"_blank\">James River<\/a> has allowed me to venture down for a \u201cnature walk\u201d whenever I\u2019m home. I\u2019ve been spoiled in that sense. So coming to London, a city full of parks seemed like a happy medium to me. I could participate in the big city scene and still enjoy my beloved green spaces. However, some of the parks have been \u2018disappointing\u2019 in that fact that they are so unnatural. What I mean by that is the exact planning and placement of walkways, restaurants, water features, ect. Sure, it\u2019s a great place to exercise and push a pram along a scenic pathway (complete with perfectly manicured lawns!), but it\u2019s not what I am looking for in my ideal park.\u00a0 I can appreciate the effort and money the city spends on these places. It\u2019s a great place to take a break from the hustle and bustle of London and sit on a wooden bench to read your paper. But I find it incredibly strange that people are almost discouraged from sitting on the grass. Instead, deckchairs are available for hire from April to September. Another thing that really bothers me is the rule against ball games. The parks are great place for a pick-up 5 aside football (soccer) match\u2026 oh wait, you can\u2019t play ball in most of these places. Why? I\u2019m the kind of person who goes to open green spaces to relax. When I go to a park I want to be able to run free, lounge on the grass, play games, read and generally cut loose. I feel like I can\u2019t do that here. I\u2019m directing most of this rant towards <a title=\"St. James's Park\" href=\"http:\/\/www.royalparks.org.uk\/parks\/st_james_park\/\" target=\"_blank\">St. James\u2019s Park<\/a> and <a title=\"Regent's Park\" href=\"http:\/\/www.royalparks.org.uk\/parks\/regents_park\/\" target=\"_blank\">Regent\u2019s Park<\/a>. Great flowers, too many rules.<\/p>\n<p>I participated in the \u201cParks\u201d tour group last Thursday and I absolutely loved <a title=\"Hyde Park\" href=\"http:\/\/www.royalparks.org.uk\/parks\/hyde_park\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hyde Park<\/a>. This 350-acre space in the heart of London still has most of the aspects I just discussed, but it has another side. In parts of this former royal hunting ground the grass uncut and long, the people walk off the path and you can even go swimming in the<a title=\"The Lido\" href=\"http:\/\/www.royalparks.org.uk\/parks\/hyde_park\/facilities.cfm\" target=\"_blank\"> Lido<\/a>. Maybe it\u2019s just the sheer size of the grounds, but this park just \u201cfeels right\u201d to me; this is how a park should be. I also noticed the large variety of wildlife at Hyde Park. Besides the normal flocks of pigeons, there were also surprising amounts of <a title=\"waterfowl\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Waterfowl\" target=\"_blank\">waterfowl<\/a> living in the Long Water. The variety of activities was also impressive. One can do anything form tennis to horseback riding in this park! I hope I can go back for a little bit tomorrow after lunch and explore a bit more. Although I have some problems with a few of the Royal Parks, I cannot deny that they are a wonderful addition to the city. I am looking forward to the open air of Norwich\u2026 at least I can play some football there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s nothing I love more than to be outside on a beautiful day. Growing up on the James River has allowed me to venture down for a \u201cnature walk\u201d whenever I\u2019m home. I\u2019ve been spoiled in that sense. So coming to London, a city full of parks seemed like a happy medium to me. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[741],"tags":[1466,1042,1207,1027,858,1028],"class_list":["post-1922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grace","tag-ball-games","tag-hyde-park","tag-modern-society","tag-royal-parks","tag-st-james-park","tag-the-regents-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}