Wow…amazing, I’ve never done this bloggy thingy before so i’ll try to hold back my excitement!
I should really introduce myself at last, My name is Florence Duncan-Antoine, and i’m lucky enough to be one of the new Natural Community Trainees. The very very best thing about this is I’m placed in Paisley! But, before I hear all your remarks I want to have this opportunity to tell you how surprising little Paisley is. On my very first day here in Paisley I must admit I was a little anxious to see what I would find, but Paisley’s actually rather beautiful, full of stunning achitecture and FULL of blossom!
During my short time in Paisley I will be working within Renfrewshire Council as a member of the Carts Greenspace team. The team consists of Mr Steve Edwards and Mr Ewan Kane and Me now too. Together we combat disused open space eye sores and fight for the rights for community groups across Renfrewshire and beyond! Basically to not sound too power ranger like we help the community and schools to create greenspaces and give them a sense of ownership. This is extremly important within Renfrewshire, it’s an area of huge deprivation where community spirit is vital. Within such a small amount of time I have spoken to so many members of the community and the best thing is I’m learning from them. They’ve all got a story to tell and they are facinating to hear.
Before I managed to bag this job I was a volunteer!!! I think everyone was ay! But it gave me the best experience to follow on to this job with BTCV. I was working alongside a community in Glasgow called GOW Triangle Community. This is a lovely backcourt that was a dumping ground for many years but after a huge community effort they pulled together to clear the area. Now it’s clean, green and beautiful. I was also working with Scottish Orchards/Fruitful Schools where fruit trees were the topic. The main aim was to give schools across Scotland the chance to have their very own fruit trees and then reep their rewards in Autumn. Many moons ago I studied as a Garden Designer in Falmouth, Cornwall, which is the most influential place to learn. It was amazing and thats all I’ll say about that or I’ll boo hoo! No need for that.
The best thing while on this placement is using my skills I already have but expanding on them. The words garden design are very flat but getting all this priceless experience will make them turn into huge bouncy castles.
I’ve done lots of brilliant things so far, but I wont go on and on, but I will tell you I’ve experienced a lot of toads doing the naughty, they love it over here. Must be all that Paisley love!
Thanks for reading my blog, don’t know about you but I’m hooked!
Have a lovely (sunny) day!
I’m off to London for some sun and a bit of fleetwood mac, play it loud!
Bye fer now
Flo
P.S. I’m sorry that I have no photos to show you. Unfortunately the council computer has barred me from doing such terrible things. I promise I’ll have some next time. Oh and that goes for my spelling too!