A bug’s eye view of volunteering

We were marching through the woods. The sun bursting through the trees, the cold air sucked into our lungs. My volunteers had entered a new area of Cumbernauld Glen; unveiled before their eyes. In this space they saw what first appeared to be a void; the last vestiges of winter still clinging onto the forest. I prompted them to take

Cumbernauld Conversations

Cumbernauld Living Landscape is coming to a venue near you! We are coming out into communities to talk to you about your local greenspaces. We want to find the community champions: the people who are looking after these places in unforeseen ways. They could be members of the public doing a weekly litter-pick down the park, they could be an

Volunteers in the Willows

  The rain is trickling down the small of our backs, our bodies still warming from the tea. “Twenty five to go!” harks the cry from within the group, in an almost victorious tone. Bending the thin strips of willow down, intertwining them with last week’s work (and the week before’s), it’s fair taking shape. As the hiss of the fire

Please don’t tiptoe through our bluebells

It turns out people who are trying to get the perfect photo of a bluebell are in danger of killing them off. The UK woodlands are home to approximately 50% of the world’s population of bluebells, which are incredibly delicate and beautiful flowers. Cumbernauld’s wildlife reserves, including Cumbernauld Glen, Seafar Wood and Luggiebank, feature dazzling displays of these plants, which

From the mouths of babes

I’ve been asked many times if I think that conservation has a future. There are some environmental issues that aren’t always clear cut, and at times it can be difficult to express the benefits of protecting our environment due to background noise. Additional pressures from large companies who lobby politicians to curb environmental protections for the benefit of the economy,

The work never stops for our Nature Ninjas

This weekend on Sunday 3 March Cumbernauld Living Landscape has a volunteer day from 12-4pm at Cumbernauld Glen reserve, as part of our Creating Natural Connections project. Our Nature Ninja volunteers have a number of tasks to do this year, such as trimming back the snowberry, removing grass and overgrown weeds, and clearing leaves off the path. Keeping the path

Funding boost for Creating Natural Connections

As you might recall we were on tenterhooks during December, waiting to hear about the funding from Heritage Lottery Fund for our new initiative, Creating Natural Connections. This is a very exciting four-year project that will lead to huge improvements to our green spaces and connect even more people to nature. It has been a tense couple of months and

Winter words from Wild Ways Well

I can’t help it. I always find beauty in nature, or rather it finds me! What has been soul-lifting these last weeks have been the skies! They were well worth stepping out of the path and away from the skyscrapers: dramatic and full of contrasts, from the darkest of the darker shades intermingled with different and lighter shades of greys,

Investing in young people, today

Word has been going around the campfire about the great work Cumbernauld Living Landscape has been doing with young people of the town. So much so that we were invited to an event called Investing in Young People; Investing in our Environment by the Central Scotland Green Network Trust. I invited the Achieve students from Greenfaulds High School to come along

Wish us luck!

After a lot of conversations, consultations, taster sessions and report writing we have finally hit the button to send the Creating Natural Connections Stage 2 Application to the Heritage Lottery Fund.  The Living Landscape team would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this application.  We really appreciate your opinions, your time and your support for what we think is