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As my Conserver award is nearing an end, I've been reflecting on what it's meant to me, and I think it's about connection. Connecting with people and the 'wild' on my walk last year....but I've also been thinking about the connection between Scotland and America that was not only important to John Muir, but also a turning point in my own life when I moved from Edinburgh to Minnesota aged 22 to undertake a Professional Naturalist Fellowship program at an Environmental Learning Center. That year set me on course for a life of nature and being outdoors, and gave me friends who love that too and who are still an important part of my life 25 years on. So I was surprised to find another connection recently when a volunteer doing the Sustrans artwork survey sent in a picture of a memorial to Robert William Service from Kilwinning. When I lived in Minnesota we regularly read Service's 'The Call of the Wild' at campfires for the kids staying at the centre. I had always assumed he was from the Yukon but it turns out he spent most of his childhood in Kilwinning and Glasgow. I've been remembering the end of the poem this weekend. Walking the John Muir Way inspired me to do more of Scotland's Great Trails and I've just cycled the Formartine and Buchan Way in Aberdeenshire, and it was muddy and sunny and windy and painful and joyous and full of wildlife and empty spaces and I loved it. I can't wait to do more. "And the Wild is calling, calling . . . let us go." (Memorial picture: Wikimedia Commons)

Our Active Learning Journey continued today with a Planning and Nature Educational visit to our local green space - Springburn Park. Working with staff from the RSPB our task for the day was to find various species of flower/ wildflowers that are currently in the park and then to make a plan for where additional plants can be planted. To do this we used detailed maps of the park showing exisiting paths and green spaces and also wildflower identification sheets. We talked as we walked to the RSPB staff asking what insects, birds and small animals would benefit from our work and why.....

We commented on the Golden Yellow of the Daffodils and loved to see them carpet the floor of the woodland in the park. The snowdrops had unfortunately 'melted; and dissapeared for another year while the Bluebells were just starting to burst their way into the sunlight! Common Lungwort lay like a thick carpet at our feet and we loved to see little blue flowers peeping out from their green leaves. And so on we went looking for Spring Crocus, Primrose, Wild Garlic and more.....

One of the learners commented that she liked learning with other people and listening to people talk. For me this was a perfect comment as through working and thinking in this way we all would learn. Its great to be able to think of new ideas and by working with our fantastic community partners and nature experts we get to have a deeper understanding of nature and our environment. With the weeks charging past our confidence has grown with the activities we have been part of and the Support Team we have around us. Who would have thought that by planting plants, building bird boxes, helping hedgehogs and helping our environments grow that we would also find ourselves growing at the same time!! #Activelearninghelps!

It is the last planting of the hedgerow trees, the trees from the past years are thriving and shooting up. We will continue to manage the trees until they can stand the deer feeding on the new shoots. I hope that the estate has new areas in which we can take the project further next year.