Driving along England's Jurassic Coast, I was struck by how different it felt from Scarborough's urban coastline. Dramatic limestone cliffs, exposed rock formations and open grasslands created an entirely different relationship between geology, ecology and recreation.

What fascinated me most, however, was something surprisingly ordinary.

Large areas of grass had turned golden during the dry summer. At first, I instinctively wondered whether the landscape was unhealthy. Growing up in southern China, where lawns remain green throughout summer through irrigation, I had unconsciously associated green with health.