Hi everyone from gloomy Shotts, where June feels like November (minus the darkness and the snow, so not very much like November at all). It’s hard to believe it now that the skies are back to their usual grey, but we just had a couple of wonderfully sunny weeks around here in Central Scotland. Of course I tried my best to make the most of the sunshine (knowing full well it wouldn’t last).
Things I do around Shotts
For the last two months I have been going down to the local primary school’s eco garden weekly, taking small groups of children outdoors to plant things and generally get in touch with soil, and what comes from it. The children love it, and I learned the hard way that a group of four children is about a million times more manageable than a group of five children (anyone agrees?).
The first week of June was #volunteersweek, and I enjoyed celebrating my wee group of local volunteers. I also got to play fairy expert with the local nursery kids: we painted fairy doors and it was indeed the cutest.
Things I do away from Shotts
For the last few months I have been working alongside Sanctuary Housing to engage a group of tenants interested into getting allotments in Anderston, just next to Glasgow City Centre (and the motorway, of course). The allotments were finally completed at the beginning of June, under a scorching hot sun (with no shadow in sight) which made even this warm weather loving Italian dizzy at times. The Glasgow TCV volunteers are way tougher than me though, and they worked hard building raised beds despite the heat.
The next day I cycled my way to Bo’ness, nearly getting lost in the beautiful Scottish countryside. Once I got to Deanburn Primary, I led a group of over heated children and educators into the refreshing shadow of their local glen, where we all worked hard clearing paths as part of the conservation part of the John Muir award. It’s been great to work with these pupils as they tackled the John Muir Award, a truly amazing resource for schools and beyond.
School’s (Almost) Out for Summer
On Saturday I was lucky enough to work in one of my favourite places in Glasgow: the Botanical Garden. We had a wee stall at FORK (Friends of River Kelvin) Family Fun Day. It was indeed a fun day, and we got to show off the local fauna to a bunch of face painted West End kids.
This week I’ve had my last session at Deanburn Primary for this term, where with the help of Trainee David AKA Bugman we built ladybird houses. At the end of the session we even managed to try out the Opal Citizen Sciene Pollinators Survey: I was quite surprised but quite a few of the kids were super into it! I will definitely try it again (maybe on a sunny day? Will we ever have another one of those?). The children made me a very green thank you card that warmed my cold heart, like sunshine on a rainy day. Thank YOU Deanburn pupils for being awesome and loving nature!
Speaking of awesome kids, today I had a final session in the garden of Dykehead Primary, and we managed to build a bug hotel! I spent a couple of days feverishly (figuratevely but also literally because I’ve been sick as a dog this week) collecting random items from our barn and around the nature park: wood, deadwoood, bark, moss, lichens, cardboard, random plastic tubes, random tiles, random bricks, more wood. I brought it down to the garden, got some kids excited about it and in two hours it was done! It helped that they just went on a bugwalk on Tuesday (thank you again David, what can I say, I know next to nothing about bugs but I know a lot about asking favours to other trainees).
Now that the school year it’s coming to a close, I’m planning to focus on trainings (so I can know more than nothing about bugs). I’m very excited about the next month, stay tuned for some more Centrally Scottish shaneningans!