This month I had the opportunity to lead the crafts activity at our Pond Doctor Event at Balmaha Visitor Centre! I chose to do Hapa-Zome which is an incredible craft originating from the Japanese art of Tataki Zome. Tataki means to pound or hammer, and when applied to flowers this is where the magical art happens! Want to try it at home? All you need is thin fabric, a rock and your chosen leaves or flowers. Simply, arrange your leaves/flowers on one side of your material then fold over the material so your leaves/flowers are covered! Then hammer using your rock, all over the fabric and start to see the imprints forming! Finally, open the fabric and peel away the leaves. Voila your Hapa Zome is complete! This went down really well and there were some great examples of this craft created! Everyone loved making a racket and hammering away!
I have also been busy this month planning in Volunteer sessions for the project from August onwards as part of my Public Engagement module! I have several booked in now at some of our lovely sites such as Kildean Wetlands, Kinneil Estate, Drumbowie Community Park and Skinflats. Some of these I will be running with private groups such as school groups or beavers/scouts, whereas others will be open for anyone to come along! Keep an eye out on our events page for these and for our volunteer email! If you are not on our volunteer mailing list and would like to be, drop me an email (laura.hindle@froglife.org) and I’ll add you on!
A success story from this month as well, is that James and I have got venues for nearly all of the months left on the Mapestry Tour! We only have February 2023 left to fill and I’m just waiting on another venue to confirm May 2023! Some of these venues are bigger than other ones we’ve been to, so we’re excited for more people to see the Mapestry! You can see where the Mapestry is each month by clicking here.
As part of my traineeship, I have the chance to book onto various training courses that are relevant to my traineeship and that I want to do! I have now booked onto three different courses which I’m really looking forward to. The first course which Mirran recommended to me is Wild Teams Project Management in Wildlife Conservation which starts next week. I think I am going to find this course incredibly useful for my ongoing career in conservation. I have also booked onto TCV’s Lantra Brushcutters & Trimmers training course. I’m really looking forward to this as I think, again, it will be helpful for whatever my next job might be. Finally, I have booked onto NCVO’s Good Practice in Volunteer Management which again is going to be really useful for my traineeship and beyond!
