Feed

(1 hr) First day on Vancouver Island, staying with my aunt in Comox towards the north of the island. The weather was warm but dull. We visited the Kitty Coleman Garden, created by a local man for his wife. At this time of year there isn't a lot of colour in the garden, which is really a slightly tamed woodland which has lots of rhododendrons in it, with woodchip paths meandering through the trees and a few pools with a fountain. My favourite thing was the labyrinth, somewhat larger than the one at Beechbrae, marked out with stones and woodchip, and about a quarter of a km to walk to the centre, and the same out. With no-one else around, walking the labyrinth was a very peaceful experience. On the way back, I spotted some freaky, enormous webs strung in the branches of roadside trees. I had visions of gigantic spiders, but the more boring explanation is that they belong to colonies of a moth species called the fall webworm (not tent caterpillars, as my aunt thought), according to an article in the local newspaper, the Comox Valley Recorder, from which the photo is borrowed.

Our journey into Nature and The Environment took a whole new twist or should we say 'Turn' today as we were blown away with the help of the staff at Scottish Power site Whitelees Windfarm!! From Engineering Experiments to adventures on Electric buses and on into nature we were treated to a Whirlwind Tour of Green Sustainable Energy and how with this harnessed we can also work hand in hand with nature.....

As we approached the wind farm we marveled at the size of each Giant that lay before us as they spun round working to generate clean power for us all! The first part of our day was spent indoors as we guessed then worked out the best shapes to use as part of our very own wind turbines wondering whether it would be blades, spoons, rectangles or even squares??? Then what would work best would it be 3 or six on each turbine? With the help of the excellent 'Ross' were soon to find out our very own answers! We divided ourselves into small teams each with our very own wind turbine, wind source, paddles, measuring devices all complimented with inquisitive minds and as always the Very Best Support Staff to help us along the way! So with Goggles on we were off, installing paddles and taking off rectangles, talking and asking questions so much that you could literally 'feel the energy' in the room. We had made our predictions and soon the results were in, results that surprised some and made others sit with smug smiles dressing their faces. Then with our new found understanding it was onto the Scottish Power Electric Bus and off out on to the site and another learning adventure....

With the colossal blades whirring above us we could actually hear the energy being generated inside the towering turbines as we pressed our ears to the outer casing. We learned about the weight of the blades and how efficient they were when making this green energy. We asked questions throughout and were soon to be given lots of answers that looked at size, weight, numbers and distances and we were stunned by them all. And as we looked out to this forest of whirring towers we asked one more question, what about the animals who live here?? To this question we were soon to find the answer....

Our morning session and investigation into Health and Wellbeing would see us looking at Anxiety and the part that this can play in the lives of so many of us! As always our classroom session was laden with thoughts, opinions, arguments and learning. Through group discussions ideas were born and it was through our practical experience with Glasgow Countryside Rangers Fiona and Linzi and not forgetting the invaluable Sensory/ Therapy Dog Rannoch we were to come to our conclusions!!!

At the heart of our Plan to Improve our Health and Wellbeing are the four key elements - Social Health, Emotional Health, Physical Health and Mental Health! With these four points in mind we set about finding the answers to the questions created in this mornings Anxiety Class!! The answers we were to find were found in Yarrow! Marjoram! Ox Eye Daisies and Birds Foot Trefoil which proves the point that they answers to some of the most difficult questions can be found in the most natural of places!!