Fluff up and cuddle up – staying warm in winter (if you’re a bird)!

By Teri Grieve, Cumbernauld Living Landscape trainee On any winter walk a common sight, and perhaps the poster child of our snowy winters, are our resident robins, which stay with us all year round. Strangely though their bright chests may stand out against the white of the snow, they almost vanish against the bare branches of the shrubs. How do

The cleverness of corvids

By Teri Grieve, Cumbernauld Living Landscape Trainee Some of the Cumbernauld Living Landscape team were out planting trees with our volunteers last week at Broadwood Loch, so I thought I’d tell you about others in nature that have also been helping our woodlands. Magpies, crows and jays all belong to a family of species called corvids, and they are very

A frosty walk among the Hawthorns!

Our guest blogger Josh has found some cool Hawthorns this week: “During a frosty walk at the weekend I stumbled across this tree lauded with berries. Upon research I believe it to be a hawthorn tree. These are very common everywhere in the UK and Ireland.  Hawthorn is said to be one of the most magical trees.  Interestingly, hawthorns can

Nature Ninjas keeping paths to nature open for everyone

At such a tough time for everyone, it is important to connect with green spaces.  These connections have been shown, in countless studies, to improve mental health. It is therefore imperative that access to green spaces remains easy and unobstructed.  These are some of Cumbernauld Living Landscape’s guiding principles. We continue to operate our “Nature Ninja” volunteer groups in these

Scythers in the wild!

Our volunteers have been hard at work again!  If you have been out and about experiencing Cumbernauld’s amazing green spaces you might have spotted some peculiar folk in high-vis vests wielding scythes!  Do not be alarmed (although make sure you observe ample social distancing to avoid an impromptu scythed haircut). These are our amazing volunteers wielding these macabre tools. This

Choo, Choo, this Trainee is leaving the Station!

On 4 September 2019 I officially joined Cumbernauld Living Landscape and as I sit here writing this its hard not to be emotional. How do you reflect on one of the most pivotal times in your life? Let’s try. Three years ago, poop lying on the ground was something to be avoided, now it’s a thing of marvel and intrigue

Helping Cumbernauld’s amazing bogs

Cumbernauld Living Landscape’s amazing volunteers are out once again helping to manage and improve local greenspaces. You might even have seen our Nature Ninjas in Ravenswood Local Nature Reserve last week, working away in the blazing sunshine. Our first task was improving the access ways around the park. This included cutting back some of the over-hanging long grass and the

Our volunteers are back in the outdoors!

We are delighted to announce that our volunteer groups are heading back outdoors! These groups will be operating at a reduced capacity with social distance checks to follow current Covid-19 guidelines. We aim to carry out vital tasks in the community – litter picks, invasive species removal and path maintenance. Our volunteers are ecstatic at the possibility of heading back

It’s time to reconsider our relationship with nettles

Nettles get a bad rap. Everybody has a story of getting a painful sting from them. We’re all too familiar with the horrible, lingering, pulsating, annoying sensation after you brush past their leaves. But, I’m about to rock the boat by saying that we should be encouraging more nettles into our lives. These are plants that truly deserve a reappraisal