“Can we eat the yogurt when we are done Helen?”
“No not unless you want moss growing in your belly!” is my reply.
Eh? That’s exactly the conversation I had when I was helping some children paint a wall with live yogurt at Byshot Path, in Possil with Children’s Inclusion Partnership. The aim is to encourage moss to grow over the wall on the site. Hopefully the wall will eventually be covered in moss and ivy or creepers, where it will provide great habitat for insects and birds, and generally be nicer to look at. The children in the community just absolutely loved this activity and well… I suppose I had some fun too. Who am I kidding; I freaking loved it.
CHIP and I have also been busy planting wildflower seeds with the children in the area and trying to increase awareness for biodiversity that the site holds. This week after a small litter pick and some more wildflower seed planting, we got the children to take some digital macro shots of the flowers that have bloomed so far, for example Bluebells, Red Campion and Primrose. I taught them the names and I told them some old folklore like Bluebells are also known as fairy flowers, as it was believed that they used the flowers to trap passers by and Primroses not only used to be used to attract fairy’s but were thought of as a portal to another world.
A few Starlings, Bees, Orange-tip and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies made an appearance too… they obviously wanted their pictures taken. The plan is to let the children take pictures through different seasons, so that they may learn what plants and wildlife use the site at the different times of the year.
So what else have I been up to?
I recently helped muster up a good crowd of people to attend a Butterfly and day-flying Moth’s workshop ran by Scott Shanks at Butterfly Conservation Scotland, on the 21st of April. This was a great opportunity to try and get people from Glasgow setting up there own transects, or interested in casually recording in their local green spaces, or brownfield sites, like the transect I run in Kelvingrove Park and undertake in Robroyston LNR.
I have been out doing more Watervole surveys, finding other exciting things along the way such as Otter prints and Toads. To celebrate Save The Frogs Day, I helped the countryside ranger out with pond dipping and games at Festival Park last week. Froglife (and of course my colleague Faith Hillier) were also there and together we engaged with around 60 members of the public.
I was out with TCV midweek volunteers and the biodiversity officer planting wildflowers at Trinley Brae in Knightswood, as part of Glasgow’s Buzzing. Glasgow’s Buzzing is a joint project between Glasgow City Council and Buglife to create wild-rich wildflower meadows in urban areas across the city over the next 3 years. You can find out more about Glasgow’s Buzzing on the link below;
http://www.buglife.org.uk/News/newsarchive/News+Archive+2011/Glasgows+Buzzing.
It’s non-stop here in Glasgow, but I am really enjoying this placement so far.and taking advantage of all the great things happening here. I’m currently getting ready for lots of events in the next few weeks, so my next blog will be full of pictures. I am buzzing! So until then…
BZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.