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Freelance Ranger
Elizabeth.tindal@freelanceRanger.com        07842241141

There are no stars in Singapore

12/10/2019

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What a lovely time we had out in the Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park. There are no stars to be seen in Singapore, or darkness either so this was a strange experience for my visitors involving both darkness and stars. They though that I was very courageous venturing out into the dark on my own and were happy I was with them.

It was a bit cloudy and we did get a few glimpses of stars I could talk about but no significant gaps in the clouds. We lit our campfire and did some cooking while we were waiting for more stars to put in an appearance.  The chocolate bananas and campfire scones went down a treat but still no stars. We waited a bit longer and told star stories to pass the time and waited some more. Eventually we decided to start for home. 

As we were driving through New Galloway I thought I glimpsed some stars. I was driving so I couldn't really look so I asked my passengers to look out for me and let me know if they could see them. Once we were out of the street lights the shout went up"Stars". As soon as we could we stopped and looked properly and wow were there stars! The stars had not let us down there was a full Galaxy of stars to look at and a few bonus shooting stars too. It was a real wow moment, not just for them but for me too.


​Jessryl sent me a message "When we were back yesterday we just kept talking about the amazing experience we had and ended up sleeping at 5.30am and I kept bragging to my mum that I saw shooting stars!"

Campfire Cooking with Freelance Ranger
Making chocolate bananas is fun
Fires create a great Darkness Experience
Getting the campfire going took skill
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Over and under, over and under - nature weaving at its best

12/10/2016

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I usually do my Nature Weaving Workshops in places where we can pick up what we need around us but not this time. I knew there would not be enough 'interesting stuff' in the Wigtown Primary Schools playground to satisfy the needs of all the people due to turn up. Therefore a big thank you too all my family and friends who collected who helped me out collecting 'interesting stuff'. When out for walks they were all asked to spot and collect anything that they thought would be interesting to weave with, from nature of course. I got small bags and big buckets full of 'interesting stuff'. There were cones, feathers, twigs, bark and even shells and everyone who came to the nature weaving workshop loved it all.  I even got permission from SNH to collect some of the grass and rushes up at Cairnsmore of Fleet so we had enough. ​It was a great experience seeing people selecting just the right thing to go on their weaving the 'interesting stuff' was a hit.

The Workshop was part of the Wigtown Children's Festival which is part of the Wigtown Book Festival. We were at Wigtown Primary School and as it was a lovely day we were outdoors and got to enjoy the sunshine. This was a good thing as all that sorting the 'interesting stuff' to find the right materials made a bit of a mess.

I use a knot called square lashing to make the weaving frames and this is where the theme of under and over starts. You have to go over and under a cross of two sticks. Over the top one and under the bottom one round and round in a square. The frames were made from trimming the willow screen around the play ground and thank you to the volunteers that helped out cutting that to the right sizes.

Most people used some colourful wool which was donated for the warp thread. This goes over and under the frame to make the loom. All the great stuff that was collected was then woven over and under the threads to make the nature weaving. It was great to see families working together making the looms and choosing just the right things to weave into their designs.


Thank you again to the people who volunteered and gave much needed help on the day, to my families and friends for collecting the 'interesting stuff' and to all the people who came along to weave. Thank you also to the unicorn that made a special appearance too.
Freelance Ranger Nature Weaving Workshop
Some of the completed weavings, as you can see they are all different
Freelance Ranger Nature Weaving Activity joined by a unicorn
PS we met a unicorn too!
Freelance Ranger Nature Weaving Activity
Making the frame
Freelance Ranger Nature Weaving Activity
Warp threads in place the loom is ready to start weaving
Freelance Ranger Nature Weaving Activity
You can add all sorts of 'interesting things' to your weaving
​P.S. This is the third time I have written this blog so fingers crossed that this one is not deleted by the vagaries of the computer and internet
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Getting Batty

23/5/2016

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I really like bats, they eat midges........as many as 3,000 a night each!

Man up a tree looking in a bat box while two women hold the ladder, other people with ladders in the background
Dumfries and Galloway Bat Group surveying Carstramon Wood
​I had a good morning out with the Dumfries and Galloway Bat Group at Carstramon Wood. They were doing a bat survey and I went along to learn a bit more about bats, it was fascinating. I wanted to learn a bit about bats as at certain times of the year they will be out and about on stargazing nights.

I had been at Carstramon a couple of times this week already as the bluebells are superb at the moment and it is a great place for a walk. This was great as it was looking at everything from a different perspective. With ladders, gloves and people who knew what they were doing bat wise it was quite a different experience.
Close up view of Bluebells
Bluebells at Carstramon Wood
We looked at several different types of bat boxes that had been put up over the years. The wooden ones were a bit worse for the wear and didn't have any bats in however the newer woodcrete ones had bats roosting and some even had bluetits nesting in them. How the birds managed to get in such small entrances is amazing, let's hope that the chicks manage to get out!

As we were conducting a survey of the boxes to find out what species were using them we got a close up look at the bats themselves which was a great privilege. To tell the difference between a Soprano pipistrelle and 'common' (bandit) pipistrelle you have to look at their noses. At dusk when they are flying around they echo locate at different frequencies which can be picked up on a bat detector so it is much easier. 
bat being held in gloved hands
Natterer's Bat found during the survey
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Stargazing American style

21/5/2016

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"Do the pointy thing" was the saying that I will remember most from my stargazing night with a group of American and Canadian travel journalists. I was out on a cool and cloudy night with them at Knockinaam Lodge over at Portpatick. With the sea in front of us and the hotel behind it was an ideal setting. The lights in the hotel grounds had been turned off specially and apart from fishing boat close to shore with an annoying bright white light it was dark. As we were waiting for the moon to set and for it to get really dark we enjoyed looking at first the moon then the planets using the astronomy binoculars. Jupiter and its moons made a wow moment for everyone then the redness of Mars and Saturn looking lumpy with its rings.

My laser pointer impressed the self appointed 'Junior' Dark Sky Rangers enabling us to pick out particular stars as they appeared from behind the clouds. Everyone was really enthusiastic and, with the US/UK time difference, wide awake when the clouds disappeared totally and the stars came out to play. With a predominance of Leo's, one of whom had the same birthday as me, it was great when the constellation of Leo made its appearance above Jupiter. 

All in all a great night out and as I left at 2.30am everyone was still wide awake and settling down to a late night cheese board and whisky tasting. To add to their walls of certificates that they have accumulated on their trips around the world everything from Salsa dancing to wine tasting I am now working on some 'Junior' Dark Sky Ranger certificates to give everyone to commemorate their stargazing night. We also have a special Dark Sky Ranger salute, which we can use to measure the distance between stars...... each clenched fist measuring 10 degrees so from the end of the big dipper (America) or plough (British) to the North star, Polaris is 3 hands. ​
Travel Journalists around a table with whisky and cheese
Junior, Dark Sky Rangers with Dark Sky Ranger salute
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Raking sand at St Bees Head

4/5/2016

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Preparing for Cumbria Wildlife Trust summer beach art event

Freelance Ranger raking sand into patterns on beachRanger Sand Art at St Bee's Head

​I got the chance to see Dumfries and Galloway from 'the other side' recently when went over to the South side of the Solway. It wanted to meet up with the Cumbria Wildlife Trust Trainee Marine and Coastal Conservation Officers at St Bees to discuss an event they are holding later in the Summer.

I had a great time checking out the sand and raking some patterns, it is a perfect for it. While I was raking some patterns
I got some slightly strange looks from people out walking their dogs, some dogs even came over to join in. I got a lot done as the tide was out and the trainee I was meeting was visiting lots of places on the caost before meeting me, she joined in when she arrived trying out her raking skills.

One of the things I like about sand art is that it is transitory and after a while the art is washed away returning the beach to normal. We were so intent in what we were doing and chatting we forgot about the tide
 just getting of the beach in time otherwise it would not have just been the sand art that got washed away

A pattern raked in the sand of a beach with cliffs behind it
Organic sand raked pattern at St Bees Head
Spiral pattern raked into the beach with groins and shingle beach behind
Tendril and spiral pattern raked in the sand, St Bees Head
Spiral pattern raked on a beach with a stone at the centre
Spiral pattern raked around a rock on the beach at St Bees
waves coming in washing over the raked sand to return the beach to normal
The tide smoothing out and washing away the design
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Amazing red squirrels

18/4/2016

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I saw an amazing sight the other day, a red squirrel walking up the wall of a house. The house had rough cast on it and a squirrel feeder in a tree at the bottom so this seems to be a regular occurrence there. Unfortunately for this squirrel it also saw me and it let go in surprise falling a good 20m or so. It didn't seem to do itself any harm and I could see that it was young with no ear tufts when I got a chance to look at it a bit closer. I would have loved to get a video of it but what are the chances of it happening again? So unfortunately you will have to make do with this one that I took from the new wildlife hide at the Kirrochtree Visitor Centre in the Galloway Forest Park, still a wonderful site.
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    Author
    Elizabeth Tindal

    ​I would like to share some of the interesting things that I see when I am out and about as a Freelance Ranger. I will also be including some environmental arts ideas too.

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Elizabeth Tindal, Freelance Ranger
Providing bespoke, activities for you, your friends, family, community group or business. You can choose from a variety of activities including pond dipping, mud walks, home made rockets and stargazing. I'm here to help if you want an activity for your clients, something to do on holiday or a special celebration for your family.
 
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