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I was on a walk with my grandpa on Blackford Hill and the gorse was flowering. It also has very long thorns and smells a bit like coconut. Some of the gorse on the side of the hill was being cut back and burned.

Today would see us heading off to the Wild Life Garden in Pollok which was covered in cloud and soaked in rain!! Sound boring? Not at all!!! With the help of our Countryside Ranger Friends Linzi, Fiona and Gavin we were in for yet another adventure into nature! Linzi took us on a tour of the pond and we learned that we were just in time to have a look at the chains of frogspawn that lay in large clumps in the shallow waters of the pond! Linzi spoke to us about the hundreds of eggs that are laid and why this is essential for success due to predators! Over the coming weeks we will continue to monitor the pond and the developments within it hoping to see the tiny tadpoles once they hatch!! Watch this space and have a look at what we did next as the rain fell and the sun struggled through the clouds!

It's easy to sit and write about the things we have learned so far as we Explore and find our way through our investigation into nature and our John Muir Awards. Spending time in nature allows as to learn without eveb realising it at times. We made our way from the Wild Life Garden to the Flower Power Poly Tunnel and worked with Linzi, Fiona and Gavin planting seeds, watering and dividing young plants! We have worked with lots of people and met others along they way as we make our contribution to the COVID Memorial and other projects around the park. Building and 'growing' these friendships is a big part of this years learning!

Seeds that we planted today were Valerian, Greater Trefoil, Yarrow and Field Scabious. We are looking forward to seeing our work turn into seedlings and young plants before planting them on as part of our college and John Muir Work! It's got to be said that without the help of our Countryside Ranger Friends and our brilliant support staff that this adventure into nature would have been a little bit more difficult! John Muir said that we should break clear away, once in a while and climb a mountian or spend a week in the woods! For us spending time with our friends in Pollok is every bit as good!!

Last week I went on a route check cycle with volunteers in Dunkeld (route 77) and a wildlife walk with volunteers in East Lothian (route 76). On both we talked about birds and Spring and I realised that the confusion over yellowhammers I talked about in the last blog was about song not migration. Yellowhammers ARE a sign of Spring for me, yes, but - as one of the volunteers reminded me - it’s because they start singing then, not because they are newly arrived here. Of course! Kate Bradbury, the wildlife gardener and author, said on Twitter this week that “Spring is saying hi to friends you haven't seen for a while”. Hello, yellowhammer - I hear you and so I see you again even though you’ve been here all along. I also heard my first chiffchaff of the season on the walk - possibly migrant, possibly resident - and recorded it on iRecord. Now I’m hearing them everywhere. Spring is out there and it’s singing! (Picture: continuing my stitch and share plans!) (Edit: Since this blog, I've been reliably informed by my bird-expert friend that lots of yellowhammers partially migrate then return to their breeding area in Spring, so I wasn't entirely wrong!)

Today we started to plan our bee friendly flower bed. We looked through all the seeds we had to see what might be the best option for our bed. We looked up each flower to see what insect enjoyed it. We went with the following flowers: Borage, Sun flowers, Campanula, Corn flower, Scabious, Nasturtium, Evening primrose, Rudbeckia, Nigella, Honeywort, Fuchsia, Catmint, Toadflax and Echinacea. We will start planting the seeds next week :)

On 19th march 2022 - we we're identifying trees and plants and learning about how they bud as its is the start of spring. We also saw quite a few bees and butterflies! Our group leader showed us what she had found - it was what an owl had regurgitated! There was all diffrent types of suff in there like fur and little teeth.

On 19th march 2022 - we we're identifying trees and plants and learning about how they bud as its is the start of spring. We also saw bees and butterflies hovering around flowers! We saw some mushrooms on the ground and thye were bright red! It was so cool to see that there were beautiful trees that had already blossomed.