After deciding the aim that needs to be met in this design from the Focus stage, "To find ways to improve my mental health that can be incorporated into my life."  I will break the Observe section of this design into three parts. To begin I will examine my lifestyle and interests and give a general overview of myself to help draw attention to elements that may need further research.  In the second part, I will look at the local environment around the town of Richmond North Yorkshire focusing on the different habitats that could complement the findings from the first section. To finish I will conclude the findings from the first two parts.

Throughout the summer months, I spend lots of time working in the garden, I also like nothing better than sitting in the garden reading. Both activities are great for my health, but at the same time, both activities can become obsessive taking up lots of my time.

On weekends during the growing season, I tend to work most of the day in the garden and then leave the rest of the day to read. I also go walking mostly first thing in the morning, but more than often find myself rushing back home to start work in the garden cutting my walks shorter and giving me less time in nature. Something I enjoy but due to other things that need to be done my time in nature is the thing that gets cut short.

In winter these past few years my time in nature has also been cut short with me always having to do things around the house along with finding time to work on this diploma.

The only time I get to spend more time in nature is when I’m on a foraging mission. Mushroom forging is my favourite, but there are also other times when I know something will be ready for harvest, so I’ll make sure I’m available to go in search of it.

After having a health crisis several years ago I’m very conscious of trying to keep myself in good health. I have a regular practice of yoga and mediation. I usually get around 8 hours of quality sleep each night, I awake without an alarm most mornings around 3.30 to begin my day. I enjoy walking in the early morning when there are no people around, even in winter I’m often out walking around 3.30 am. On weekends I do at least a 6-mile walk each day, A couple of times a week I’ll do around 4 miles. 

Quality nutrition plays a large part in my life, I grow part of the food I eat, forage some and buy organic the rest of the time. I also have a keen interest in supplementing missing nutrients from my diet along with boosting my immune system. I’ve been researching health for over twenty years and have a good understanding of the needs of my own body.

I spend time each week gardening, the time spent changes depending on the time of year or if I’m working on any large projects in the garden. (See some of my other designs). The garden also provides a space for me to relax, as mentioned I enjoy sitting in the garden and reading. The garden also provides great pleasure to me with being able to watch the plants grow throughout the year along with the number of birds that come to the garden to feed.

Birdwatching has always brought me joy throughout my life, when not watching birds in the garden I’m always looking to see what I can spot when out walking. I also enjoy spending time in nature and watching wildlife.

Using the mind map below I’ve summarised the main elements that give me the most joy leading to better health.

Work

To pay the bills I’m employed as an IT technician, here my main role is managing the support desk. With over 350 people to support and having multiple sites across the country with a four-man, IT team things can get very stressful. On top of working eight hours 5 days a week, I’m also providing 24/7 support on a week on a week off rotational basis. Due to other people's holidays, I can also be on call 24/7 for up to four weeks.  Out of hours, calls are limited to only a few but during this period of support, I need to be able to drop what I’m doing no matter what time it is and go into work if I’m unable to provide remote support.

This means I’m unable to switch off from work when on call. There have been a few times that I’ve provided remote support from in the woods when I’ve been out walking. Not being able to switch off from work is very draining and harmful to my mental health.

COVID-19

Whilst most of the country was at home enjoying the long hot spring of 2020 due to the COVID lockdowns and furlough schemes I was the busiest I’ve ever been providing round-the-clock support; this period had a major impact on my mental health and one I never want to go through again. Post-COVID lockdowns businesses have also changed what is expected from employees, there is an expectation that people take on more roles than ever before.  

Death

As with everybody the death of friends and family also provides stressful situations in people's lives. In the past year, I’ve had the passing of four family and friends. It was the sudden passing of a very close friend Justin a few months after starting my diploma that had the greatest impact on my mental health. It took me three years to get my head around that one.

Health

Justin was 40 when he died of a heart attack, a few months after his passing I had a general health check and was diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia which is an inherited condition that causes high levels of LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol beginning at birth, and heart attacks at an early age. I found learning this to be quite stressful.

To help evaluate the information gained so far I’ll use the SWOC Analysis tool in the form of a mind map. SWOC is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Challenges.

For somebody who enjoys being out in nature, Richmond is an excellent place to live. On the other hand, if you want high street shopping, busy nightlife, and quality entertainment Richmond is not going to bring you any of these in the quantity and options you can find in larger towns and cities in England.  

Richmond is a small market town known as the gateway to the North Yorkshire Dales. The town is busy throughout the year with tourists, especially so in summer.  A few key features of Richmond are a castle and a river with waterfalls. The river attracts a lot of people offering excellent swimming and paddling areas for younger children. Having these key features in the town tends to keep most people in these locations leaving the real beauty of the town peaceful.

The countryside surrounding the town is a mix of ancient woodland, meadows, riverbanks, hedge backs, and moorland. Here is where the beauty is to be found.

In the United Kingdom, ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before. In most ancient woods, the trees and shrubs have been cut down periodically as part of the management cycle. Provided that the area has remained as woodland, the stand is still considered ancient. Since it may have been cut over many times in the past, ancient woodland does not necessarily contain very old trees.

Richmond has plenty of ancient woodlands with a fair amount of public footpaths running through them. These offer ample opportunities to forage, watch birds and wildlife, or just find a quiet place to sit.

A meadow is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grass and other non-woody plants. They attract a multitude of wildlife and support flora and fauna that could not thrive in other habitats. There are multiple types of meadows, such as agricultural, transitional, and perpetual, each important to the ecosystem.

As with the ancient woodlands, there are no shortages of meadows around the town. These tend to be very peaceful places due to most people not appreciating what they are seeing and sticking to the more popular places around the town. Wildlife is abundant in them and many medicinal herbs can be found growing.

The river swale runs through the town, this gives an area of land on either side of the river that is left mostly to grow wild. Riverbanks provide excellent areas for both wildlife and plants to grow and live.

The town has quite a few miles of riverbanks, some areas get busy with people at certain times of the year, and other areas see very few people even on hot summer days.

The river swale also holds many different species of fish, from a fishing perspective above the waterfalls, there are trout, mostly brown with the odd rainbow, along with a few eels below the falls are trout, eels, grayling, chub, barbel, dace, and pike.

Hedgerows are areas around the edge of fields that are often found to be overgrown providing an opportunity for native plants to thrive. 

These are often some of the best places to forage starting early in the year with plants and then expanding throughout the year with berries and nuts in the autumn. The town has lots of hedgerows and provides a lot of habits for nesting birds and other wildlife.

Moorland is a type of habitat found in upland areas characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils. Moorland, nowadays, generally means uncultivated hill land.

Above the town, we have the start of moorland which continues into the North Yorkshire Dales where it merges with the heather moors. Here can be found many different species of birds compared to the lower river valley adding a contrast both in scenery and flora and fauna.

Moorland can also provide excellent mushroom foraging.

The interactive map below gives an overview of Richmond helping to visualise the amount of countryside surrounding the town.

If I didn’t already live in Richmond, I’d certainly be looking to move there straight away. For somebody who enjoys the countryside, Richmond has plenty to offer.

I’ve used a couple of design tools to help conclude this section. First, I’ve used Wilf Richards elements and functions table to add some values to key areas that could be of interest throughout this design followed by a PMI table to make sure I’m not missing anything else that needs to be considered in the next sections of the design.