Every one of us can make a difference for Cumbernauld!

Cumbernauld Living Landscape’s vision – the reason we exist, is to put ‘people and nature at the heart of Cumbernauld’s future’. The most important words in that sentence are ‘people’, ‘nature’ and ‘future’, and besides being key to our vision statement, it’s no co-incidence that they are also the main themes of COP26 – the global climate change conference that

Healthy body, healthy mind – healthy planet

Healthy body, healthy mind is a phrase most of us recognise, but perhaps it is time to add a new clause to that old mantra. It’s now recognised that for a healthy life one of the most important factors is a healthy planet. Research shows that being amongst vibrant, biodiverse, natural spaces is vital for healthy people and communities. At

A wild idea!

A chance comment overheard in a shop, and a forager’s wry joke, should give us hope for the future. ‘It feels like rain’s coming – I can sense a change on its way’, said the Cumbernauld shop assistant I eavesdropped on. ‘I’m picking my dinner’, quipped the brambler I passed on a walk. But what they said sounded to me

Wild can be beautiful

Cumbernauld Living Landscape won two of Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Beautiful Scotland Awards recently, a Silver Gilt overall, and the special Garden for Life Award. We were of course delighted, not only for ourselves, but for the many local people and organisations whose hard work and dedication made it all possible. But we were also delighted on another level, because the

Why Cumbernauld is a cool place to live

  Many of us know that the fantastic woodlands and greenspaces around Cumbernauld make it a cool place to live. But did you know that they actually make it cooler too? All the concrete and tarmac in towns and cities mean that they get hotter than rural areas, because the dark, hard surfaces absorb lots of heat. But studies have

Evolution works in mysterious ways!

If Creationists wanted to cite an animal that seems to defy the theories of evolution, they should look no further than the common cranefly, Tipula paludosa. Every year as summer fades a rag-tag invasion of daddy-longlegs stumbles into homes all over the country, crashing into lampshades, dangling helplessly from undusted cobwebs, and wilfully drowning themselves in washing-up bowls and tea cups.

To Bread or not to Bread: A Guide to Feeding Your Local Swans

St Maurice’s Pond is an excellent spot to see new life this summer. Lots of different birds are currently raising their young; mallards, tufted ducks, swans, coots, moorhens and many more. Feeding and watching waterfowl is a good wellbeing activity and is known to help with anxiety and depression. But how can we ensure we are feeding them the right

A yellow flood

Remember at the end of the winter, when the rain pelted down and we would find new puddles and pools had appeared overnight in the flooded fields and greenspaces around the town? Well now it is summer new pools have appeared – but instead of murky brown, this is a flood of brightest yellow. They are pools of meadow buttercups

What’s happening in Carbrain Gully

  Our Nature Ninjas have been busy!  Over the past few weeks we have been installing various plug plants in sites across Cumbernauld.  The Ninjas have also laid down 50 metres squared of wildflower seeded earth. These works should bring a sea of colourful wildflowers in the years ahead. One site that has been a particular joy to perform these

Blue shade shoes?

Cumbernauld seems to be an island sitting in a sea of violetty-blue at the moment. Whichever direction you walk in the woods the bluebells are out. Surely one of our best-known and best-loved wildflowers, they signal the height of spring like nothing else, arriving with that other harbinger of the season, the cuckoo. It’s from this co-incidence that they get