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With swooping nets and research equipment we made our way through the park capturing a whole host of amazing mini beasts!! We looked for Centipedes, marvelled at Shield Bugs and hoped to catch a glimpse of scampering beetles or bounding grasshoppers! We came across Slithering Snails and Leopard Slugs in the dense green foliage as they slowly went about their business gorging on whatever came their way. We loved using the different pieces of equipment kindly supplied by Alice and Peter (RSPB) and learning came alive when doing so!

We made our way up to the brilliant Springburn Park where we met another group of friends and Community Partners - Friends of Springburn Park! With the help of Alice, Sarah Jayne and Danielle (FOS) we continued our Active Learning Adventure using a variety of equipment kindly supplied by Sarah-Jayne and Alice (RSPB).....

We love learning through doing and taking part in so many activities all focused at helping us understand our environment, nature and our surroundings. We found a variety of amazing small creatures and even explored the depths of our small college pond. With everyone involved and some keen to offer their thoughts and opinions from what they had discovered it was with positive minds that we made our way to another local environment to continue our learning adventure.....

Our Learning Adventure today took place in two separate Green Spaces and was made all the more special as we had the help of our friends (Sarah-Jayne & Alice) from the RSPB. Our investigation into our college environment started in the college green space as we made our way around campus finding and examining mini beasts! We then discussed their purpose in our environment, the essential jobs that they do and the impact they have on other areas of our lives. We identified the mini beasts that we found using an identification chart and with the help of Sarah-Jayne and Alice were able to increase our learning as we walked, talked, listened and learned......

Back to Croy today and an eye-watering start marching up the steep slope of Barhill running along the course of the Antonine Wall ditch and with incredible views across the Kilsyth Hills from the trig point at the top. I started with Claire and Joseph today, who both volunteer for Sustrans and were very involved in a wildlife project I worked on, so we easily fell into conversation with a man called John who was birdwatching from the top, about what he'd seen and his memories of the nearby nature reserve that Claire is now managing. We stopped into Twechar Healthy Living Centre to get my passport stamped (a malfunctioning stamp causing more ink on the person than the passport) and then followed a shortcut told to us by John to bring us back to the canal towpath, rewarding us with the fourth kingfisher sighting of the walk. Joseph and I carried on from here, litterpicking and talking through ways to better manage the orchard on route 7 that we planted in 2015 and that he helps to look after. So great to have unlimited time to talk about this, and other habitat management. However the rain had become heavy, so we detoured into Milton of Campsie to find shelter for lunch and a coffee, and to meet up with Keith from Strathblane Paths Group - a group that Paths for All had suggested to me as a local community contact - and hear all about their local work. Keith, Joseph and I carried on to complete the section with over 6 more miles of Strathkelvin Railway Path (route 755) to Strathblane, picking up the bits of litter that hadn't made it into the green bags hung up by the local community, cleaning signs and recording artworks and wildlife, including a dipper bobbing on a stone in the River Kelvin. We chatted over volunteering, active travel, family careers, and more, and Keith leapt the fence to rescue an upside-down sheep, and alert the local farmer to its predicament. A final encounter with a small toad crossing the path, and we parted ways in Strathblane in the shadow of the Campsies. I ended the day with a phonecall from my walking companion tomorrow on the longest stage of the John Muir Way over the hills, suggesting (tongue in cheek I hope) that we might want to rope together because of the incoming weather. Eek.

Day 8 and my relaxing mini-break (haha) away from home starts today. No more trains home at the end of each day, my bag is heavier and the weather isn't looking great. So, a pause to reflect - getting the train home from Croy to Edinburgh last night was quite eye-opening, to think I have walked that distance in the last week, and then some. In some ways, it's felt more of an undertaking than I thought - filling all my time and thoughts. But in others, it's been so much smoother than I expected...my body is in one piece (1 x real and 2 x preventative blister plasters being the extent of the damage) and the route has been much more varied and scenic than I thought it would be crossing the central belt. Big credit too to my husband for relieving the pressure by making me dinner every night and helping me sort out my kit, while I juggled photos and blogs and route maps and laundry. So three more days until I reach the opposite coast - 40.5 miles away. Better get started.

We identified different tree species within two different 10 metre ranges.