Feed

(1.5hrs) Spent the afternoon at Pitmuie Gardens near Arbroath. Another hidden gem, absolutely fabulous formal gardens, lovely woodland walk and large pond, and a less grassy wildflower meadow with the same ox eye daisies and lady's bedstraw but this time with lots of plantain and clover and self-heal, but no knapweed. After a brief burst of rain the sun came out, and so did the butterflies (mostly small heath, I think) and also one beautiful damselfly who had wandered off from the pond, I presume. Speaking of hidden gems, I learned this morning in the museum, which has a good wee natural history section, that most of the colourful stones on the beach are probably agates, which have lovely patterns inside. The stones I collected yesterday might be Jasper, I bought a fragment of polished jasper in the museum and it looks about right .

Homeward bound, we stopped off for a walk in the grounds of Glamis Castle. Some nice formal walled gardens, including a grass maze and fountain, and a large deer park with lovely mature trees, including the 1746 chestnut tree and two ancient yew trees. There's also a 'Macbeth' wood sculpture trail in the Pinetum which is fun.

The Save the Planet Team learned about habitats and made 3 types of bird feeders to encourage wildlife to come in to the school grounds.

Our Save the Planet team learned about maps and compass directions. We had fun playing the compass playground game. They also used compasses and were able to follow the correct directions to find the buried treasure. They were able to replicate the activity in their own Family Wild space and draw a map of their area.

The Save the Planet Team learned that Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are three concepts that promote sustainable living. They help decrease the amount of waste we throw away and that ends up in refuse. The group discussed how they could make changes in their daily lives to reduce the amount of waste produced, and live more sustainably. We did a water filtration activity to demonstrate how water is re-cycled and calculated our carbon footprint.

The Save the Planet Team would like to thank Jean from the Irvine Clean up Crew who came to visit us. We had a fantastic session learning about litter and how long it lasts in our environment and how it is detrimental to wildlife and habitats. We walked through the woodland which sits behind Elderbank Primary school and managed to collect 4 huge bags of rubbish within one hour!

The Save the Planet Team enjoyed the responsible fire-lighting session, which made learning fun, exciting and rewarding. Great discussion on being a Responsible citizen and the session gave the young people an enhanced understanding of the natural world around us, a respect for nature, natural resources and our impact on the planet.