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11 Sept our first John Muir adventure! Exploring and discovering the fruits of the woods.

The orchard had been strimmed over the holiday so we did some raking, litter picking and started clearing the bases of the trees to remove weeds and grass. We checked on our stored apples in the greenhouse. we also submitted our OPAL survey results collected before the holiday. Miss Warden's ponies got the windfalls again!

We helped prepare for the Grove Garden App launch at Shiell St Community Garden by laminating the QR codes and the numbers and letters needed for the grid. We then went to Shiell St and measured up the grid lines and put in the markers ready for the primary school visit the next day.

20.9.19 We went into the orchard at Grove and collected apples. the good apples went to the greenhouse where we stored them in trays, the windfalls and smaller apples went into a bag for Miss Warden's ponies. We then carried out bark rubbings on a big tree in our school grounds. When weeding our tyre beds in the greenhouse area, we also came across some potatoes planted some time ago.

An Autumnal exploration of Harcourt Arboretum.

We explored the nature reserve noting the changes brought about by autumn, like the golden leaves. We heard buzzards and saw squirrels burying their nuts.

From the 4th to 6th October 2019, I went on a LLATTNP Junior Rangers Residential to the Peak District with other Junior Rangers from 6 different national parks across the country - the Cairngorms, LLATT, Peak District, Pembrokeshire, North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales. It was the first meeting of UK National Park Junior Rangers and over the weekend, we took part in a variety of practical activities and discussions about the future of NP Junior Rangers. After a 7-hour train journey, we started off the weekend by participating in an activity ran by the young volunteers from Pembrokeshire, making paper with wildflower seeds (image 1). We then had a choice of what 3 main activities we'd like to take part in during the weekend. I chose to do the walk up the highest hill in the Peak District National Park (Kinder Scout, image 2), do tree climbing with a tree surgeon and do a practical conservation task fixing tree guards on a newly planted native woodland near where we were staying. On the Saturday night, we gave a presentation on what we do in our park (image 3) and listened to what the other groups did for inspiration. We then had a group meeting with everyone there, discussing projects we could all undertake to improve Junior Rangers across the country (image 4). The results of this included exchanges between National Parks, a conservation competition, how to recruit new members and get more National Parks to set up Junior Rangers. It was an amazing weekend with memories that'll last a lifetime and it was an honour to be a part of. It was such a special experience to be able to meet so many amazing people from all over the country and know that wherever we came from, we all had our passion for nature in common.

While on holiday in Laggan in the Cairngorms National Park, we went on several walks to explore the area. On the first day we went on a loop around Pattack Falls (where I found a geocache, image 1) and then aimed for the deserted village of Druim An Aird, although we took a wrong turn so didn't make it to the village it was a lovely walk all the same, looking onto the Corrieyairack Pass. On the second day, we walked from Garva Bridge over the grand River Spey (image 2) to Melgarve bridge (image 3) - two well-known landmarks along General Wade's Military Road. And finally, we walked up the hill where popular early 2000s TV drama "Monarch of the Glen" was filmed and at the top was Pictish Fort "Dun-da-Lamdh" (image 4, where again, I found a geocache)