Pica and smells

I used to chew wood as a child. Bedsteads, window sills anything to hand. I ended up being a wattle hurdle maker, working in hazel coppice. Now I tend to seek out the smell of wood. I particularly like the smell of oak. If there is a fallen oak in the wood I’m working, I will cut into it with my chain saw so I can smell the fragrance this produces.

Olfaction is interesting neurologically. Some smells travel directly to the hypothalamus, amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex areas of the brain. These areas are known to be involved with emotions and fight or flight responses. Of all the senses olfaction is unique in having this direct connection.

It is thought that the emotionally charged nature of olfaction helps to maintain physiological equilibrium in a similar way to the homeostatic emotions of thirst and hunger. So your actively seeking certain smells can be explained in terms of anxiety management. If you google “homeostasis and allostasis” you’ll find out more about this. Autopoiesis is also interesting.

As Senior Moment suggests it would be good idea to find a way to alleviate anxiety that works for you. I used to think that binaural beats was just new agey nonsense. Recent research shows that it can help with anxiety relief. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/think-act-be/201911/how-improve-anxiety-sleep-and-more-binaural-beats

Having already looked into relaxation tapes and the various coloured noises, it looks like I will now have to try binaural beats. :-)

I worked in forestry and saw mills for a bit; and sold softwoods and hardwoods. I love that oak smell too. Also, apple wood from old orchards! And gorse!!!

I'm interested in your hurdle-making, because I also worked in agriculture. We used to have some rattan in the garden here. I experimented in making some crude fence panels with it, partly because I remembered doing a bit of hedgelaying in the past.  I reckon I would also enjoy using bamboo as a construction material. Some conservation-minded folks here make woven bamboo panels and then render over the top to create partition walls.I beieve you can also do the same with mud walls. That also reminds me that when I lived in a half-timbered farmhouse, the owner demonstrated to me the modern technique for repairing the wattle and daub panels between the timbers, with wood cement slabs cut to fit the spaces, and then rendered over.

All very therapeutic. But it strikes me really that what would help me the most is to go back to working in a more rural environment. City life here doesn't suit me at all. Way too noisy!

Having already looked into relaxation tapes and the various coloured noises, it looks like I will now have to try binaural beats. :-)

I worked in forestry and saw mills for a bit; and sold softwoods and hardwoods. I love that oak smell too. Also, apple wood from old orchards! And gorse!!!

I'm interested in your hurdle-making, because I also worked in agriculture. We used to have some rattan in the garden here. I experimented in making some crude fence panels with it, partly because I remembered doing a bit of hedgelaying in the past.  I reckon I would also enjoy using bamboo as a construction material. Some conservation-minded folks here make woven bamboo panels and then render over the top to create partition walls.I beieve you can also do the same with mud walls. That also reminds me that when I lived in a half-timbered farmhouse, the owner demonstrated to me the modern technique for repairing the wattle and daub panels between the timbers, with wood cement slabs cut to fit the spaces, and then rendered over.

All very therapeutic. But it strikes me really that what would help me the most is to go back to working in a more rural environment. City life here doesn't suit me at all. Way too noisy!

Thanks for your interesting comments, Graham. It's good to see your work, and realise that we share quite a few experiences.

I often read magazine articles about woodsmanship, which usually take the form of a very introspective inner dialogue while hard at work.

I note some recent research has indicated that there are usually very tangible results achieved through getting people involved in outdoor environmental projects; often making them more cost effective than more direct and traditional employment interventions. People enlisted on such projects frequently turn them into productive and constructive careers/lives.

You have obviously decided to continue with outdoor work. I'm looking to return to more outdoor work life myself, but it isn't always that easy when you are an expat in a country with a fairly extreme climate There also isn't much history here of people returning to more traditional skills as a form of constructive meditation.

This photo shows two types of weaves. On the left a 6’ by 6’ hurdle, the rest is a continuous weave buylt in situ. The gaps are so children and adults can peek through the weave at a bird feeding area on a local wildlife site. I may be doing some hedge laying this season.

I spent 30 years in the woodland, mostly working alone. I didn’t know I was autistic at this time. Now I know my preferring to be alone in the woodland had a neurological reason. Eventually, I had a breakdown and ended up in a mental health hospital where I was diagnosed. I suspect, if I had been working in more sociable surroundings, my breakdown would have occurred much earlier.

Learning at a very young age to keep my mouth shut about seeing music, voices and sounds, unfortunately trained me to keep quiet about other sensory issues and social cognition concerns. This is probably true for many born in the fifties.