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Today is our last John Muir lesson of the year. The pupils who have been involved have made a real difference to our Secret Garden project. Thank you to Mason (Y1), Frankie (Y6), Fabian (Y7) and Devlin (Y8) for all their help. Aaron and Michaela won the Young Conservationists of the Year 2019 award from the Insurance Corporation. Well done to both of them.

We walked along the perimeter of The Sanctuary nature reserve, which is next to Pride Park stadium. The reserve, a former gas works tips, covers ten hectares, and now teems with birds, dragonflies, amphibians and wild flowers. It is closed off to the public, to conserve the area, but has viewing platforms around the site. An artificial sand martin hide has been built to attract the birds. The Sanctuary has been a site of controversy, when plans to build a cycle track on the reserve were halted to preserve the vast range of wildlife on the site. Unfortunately now, the perimeter of the site has been neglected and signs giving information about the reserve and what wildlife can be found there are faded and obscured by vegetation. The group were all surprised to find that such a species-rich area was in the middle of Derby city centre and were also sad to see how run-down the outside of it was. Alex, our Living Landscapes Officer, also pointed out some Japanese knotweed growing around the site.

Living Landscapes Officer, Alex, taking everyone for a discovery walk around Wilmorton Recreation Ground in an urban area of Derby. Everyone found three different types of leaves from the surrounding trees and used their own words to describe their shape, colour and features. Alex guided everyone on how to identify trees using these features, for example, toothed and lobed leaves. Everyone had a chat about ways park managers can maintain urban parks both for public use and to conserve local species. Examples were keeping some areas of long grass for wild flowers to grow, and by creating corridors for wildlife to move from one green space to another through the urban environment.

At dusk, bats fly in and out of the trees catching insects. We talk of bats and tell our woodland stories that are populated by people, a fox and deer, a shaman and a sorcerer. Firelight flickers and draws lines as darkness descends. Some of us sleep in hammocks, others on the ground. Stars sit quietly above us. Bats chatter. Early in the morning, one of us watches them skitter around. We rekindle the fire and toast homemade bread in its heat before wandering through brambles and tall bracken, along awkward stream banks beneath immense trees, the air thick with pollen but fly free.

Starting in Spring, we have observed a gradual increase in the number of pollinators within a 10m x 10m area of semi-wild garden. Beset with obstacles such as some of us wearing of insect repellent on our first gathering, the spraying of a wild meadow recently turned into a crop field just before our timed 10 minute count on another occasion, we are becoming more nature savvy as we head into Summer.

Hermitage conserving the Chester-le-Street garden. They helped clear nettles and thistles to make way for improved habitats and new improved areas in the garden.