#509: Go Jauntly into your Naturehood

Via LinkedIn.

Go Jauntly has teamed up with the National Trust.

#463: Wildling App - launches today

The OCR blog has a post from Ant Rawlins.

He talks about the new Wildling app which launches today.

Wildling officially launches nationwide on 9 July, backed by some of the UK’s leading conservation organisations and individuals, including the RSPB, the Marine Conservation Society, Forestry England, and advisors such as Deborah Meaden, Ben Goldsmith, and Sir Tim Smit.

It’s a free app designed to make finding and enjoying nature simpler for everyone. Whether you’re in a city, suburb, or rural area, Wildling helps users discover local nature, explore ideas for getting outdoors, and find calming, inspiring content that can develop confidence and connection with the natural world.

It’s suitable for families, first-timers, educators, and anyone looking to reconnect with nature, and feel better for doing so.

You can download the Wildling app for free from our website.

Wildling has been designed to make it easier for people to engage with the natural world, and that has clear value across many areas of education.

By helping students explore nature where they live, the app can support learning across a wide range of subjects. It’s not about replacing lessons, but enhancing them with real-world experience.

This joins apps such as Melissa Harrison's Encounter app in providing people with a chance to identify and record their encounters with nature, which will be useful for geography as well as for the GCSE Natural History when and if it finally gains approval to be added as a new qualification option.

Thanks to Kerry Sage for the tipoff to the blog post and app.

#298: 'Homecoming'- out in November '24

One useful practice for those wanting to engage with nature is to keep a journal. I'm not a fan of the verb 'to journal', but 'journalling' as an activity is akin to the scrap books I used to create, or the diaries I used to write capturing what I had for tea and other valuable information to the Mass Observation project.

Melissa Harrison, who has written a number of books which have been mentioned here on this blog has been busy putting together a resource which sounds like it might be of value to explore with young people. 

It is a diary and almanac combined.

🌱 NEWS! 🌱 In November @wnbooks will publish HOMECOMING: A GUIDED JOURNAL TO LEAD YOU BACK TO NATURE. It's for you, your kids, your parents, friends and everyone you love; it's as close as I can get to inviting you on 12 relaxed walks with me. Pre-order: https://t.co/owNdVIPonv pic.twitter.com/3Udh6KZHFQ

— Melissa Harrison (@M_Z_Harrison) April 30, 2024

Description:

A year-long course in noticing designed to plug you back into the rhythm of the seasons.

Begin in any month and continue round to the start.

Follow the stories, small and large, unfolding all around you - whether you live in the heart of a city or deepest countryside.

Connect to nature, boost your wellbeing and find your way in the living world.

Establish your own rituals, high points and habits to carry you through the year.

Homecoming includes a monthly bird-by-ear as well as rewarding and inspiring activities from meteor spotting to marking each equinox, citizen science to caring for your nearby wild.

#275: Sharon Witt and Helen Clarke

I've been inspired by so many people over the years, and particularly by the conference presentations of Sharon Witt and Helen Clarke at GA Conferences, GTE and Charney Manor over the years. 

They recently presented on how we need to give attention to place, and in particular to our interactions with the 'more than human' world.

Here's some ideas for paying attention when out on a field walk, which might be of interest when it comes to planning some walks around the schoool site and immediate area to scope out its potential for a site for fieldwork, or to take part in the various activities suggested by the National Education Nature Park.

I'm reminded of this diagram, which has been shared lots of times over the years. It was taken from a newspaper article, and linked to my local area of Rotherham where I grew up - hence my additional interest in the story. It shows how the area that young people are free to wander in has shrunk over the years. I referenced this in my GA Presidential lecture as well.

Check out the work of Attention 2 Place here.

#190: 'Local'

Out in January 2024, the latest book from Al Humphreys will be published.

After years of expeditions all over the world, adventurer Alastair Humphreys spends a year exploring the detailed local map around his home.

Can this unassuming landscape, marked by the glow of city lights and the hum of busy roads, hold any surprises for the world traveller or satisfy his wanderlust? Could a single map provide a lifetime of exploration?

Discovering more about the natural world than in all his years in remote environments, he learns the value of truly getting to know his neighbourhood.

An ode to slowing down, Local is a celebration of curiosity and time spent outdoors, as well as a rallying cry to protect the wild places on our doorstep.

This sounds like it might have some good connections with the ideas in the GCSE Natural History.

Why not get out your own local OS sheet?

Mine is OS Explorer 238. 

There's certainly plenty of interest on that map sheet alone that could keep you going. An Explorer sheet covers an area of hundreds of square kilometres which would certainly take more than a year to thoroughly explore.

Available from Al's own website.

You can find out about Al's methodology and thinking around his local exploration here.

This is an area I may return to myself.

I have my copy and can confirm it's a really good read and have already made a few notes and downloaded a few apps that Al recomments, some of which will appear on this blog.

#67: Noticing Nature

This Twitter account is rather good and is well worth following. It is apparently the work of four women who are also putting together a book due out in September called 'Nature's Calendar'.

It shares ideas from a range of people and places, and would be a useful companion perhaps to Richard Mabey's 'Flora Britannica'. (see earlier blogpost on this book)

It is based on a Japanese concept of there being a whole range of seasons, each of which lasts just a few days at times.

The 72 Japanese micro-seasons are outlined here on this website.

The book comes out in September.

I would imagine that climate change is going to mess up these fine grained annual rhythms sadly...