Woodstock in Glasgow

Sometimes, a perfect day comes along without much warning.

What can be better than to spend it with your cousins, rocking and dancing along to live music, running wild around a wood workshop, helping yourself to a table of sweets and sausages from the barbecue, playing giant yenga, making tables into pretend bunk beds to sleep in, and hoping to win a raffle prize - "this is the best day ever". Well, if you say so, it probably is.

Woodstock was Glasgow Wood Recycling's summer sale event. The organisation is a social enterprise that recycles wood into beautiful hand crafted items, such as raised beds, bird houses, furniture or anything else you can make from wood. It provides woodwork training and volunteering opportunity while using sustainable resources. And man, they know how to throw a party! It was fun for all of us, for me simply because I love wood and spending a day surrounded by it in itself can't be a bad thing. Having a dedicated and totally lovely bunch of people organising such a great event made it all the more worthwhile. And the kids, they had a ball.

Present choices - new, second hand, recycled, upcycled

Last year around about this time I pondered consumerism around Christmas, whether a levy of spend is a good idea or not. This year, for the past month, I'd intended to look at the choices we can make for giving, but life kind of got the better of me.

And for all the good intentions I had, I didn't put them into practice because of time constraints, circumstances and something having to give. I'm ok with that. And quite enjoyed some one stop shop (shopping centre) shopping which got me out of the house when spirits were low and made me rather pleased that my worry not to get presents in time was quickly kicked into the very back drawer. And you know what? I think I got rather nice presents that suit their recipients, and will be used - at least I hope.

However, in an ideal world, I'd like to have a handmade and recycled/upcycled Christmas, one where none of the presents given are bought from a chain store. There are so many alternatives. Handmade items from etsy, folksy and other incarnations of the same idea. Local businesses upcycling, just look at Glasgow Wood Recycling's range as a great example. Charities with shops often have a lovely selection of fairtrade or environmentally sound presents - Oxfam, Amnesty International and Save the Children are just some examples.

I've also come across online shops with a difference, such as Gifted People, or some other ethical store like Natural Collection.

It's really the same idea as giving someone the gift of a service, which you could do locally as well. Something like the felt making workshop I gifted myself for my 40th birthday, which in turn supported crafting people passing on their skills, but which also means that I now have a new skill myself, something that's going to be very lasting and not gather dust.

Then of course there is also the possibility of second hand. Now, personally, I have nothing against getting something that is second hand. I'd be very happy with that, as it gives an item a new lease of life rather than going to landfill, and it avoids the making of the same item again, which in my eyes is a waste of limited and precious resources.

The problem is that of course we don't have a culture where giving second hand items is acceptable. Yet. While I'm happy to announce that I'd rather get something second hand than new, would I give a second hand item to friends or family? I'm hypocritical that way and most would be I expect.

There's also the pressure element. Some time ago I announced that I felt there were too many presents going around and it was getting a bit over the top and how about reducing it all and just do less but let it be handmade? The thought behind this not being that we have to all make every present, but to give less, and make or buy handmade. The idea was to reduce the pressure to buy so much, not to add another pressure. But of course, for many, this does result in a new pressure, maybe because it's easier to stick with the shops you know, maybe because handmade takes more time, or if bought, is more expensive.

Personally, I always feel that a present given that is not used is a waste, not of money but of resources. Yes, I do appreciate that it's the thought that counts, but if I give a present that I don't see used, I'd rather not have given it. Look at toys for instance. They're all over the place in our house. Yet Cubling hardly plays with them at all. When I think of the amount of money that goes into them and how better that money could have been used, I get a bit flustered. It's not about my money being wasted, it's about money in general having been wasted, because it could have been spend on something more worthy, as well as resources to make the thing that just sits and doesn't get used.

So in the Christmas spirit, and I know I'm a bit late in throwing this thought into your Christmas shopping, do we really need all that we buy? Would we not be better off being a bit more selective, even offering to friends and family to not gift quite so much? In a time where most of us just buy what we need anyway, what is it we need really? Not another thing, but surely time together, help where we don't manage something ourself. Do you know more ethical shopping outlets that you can share, including handmade and upcycling initiatives? Please do share them in the comments! And finally, could you imagine to give and receive a second hand present?

My plan, again, for next year will be to give handmade, home baked, ethical and maybe even second hand. At least to some extent, because some is always better than none. In this spirit, some of my Christmas shopping did in fact come from some of the places mentioned. I also made some presents. Next time it will be more I hope.

All planted up

A little while ago, I blogged about one of the projects that I'm involved in and promised an update. It's high time for it, especially because it was all rather mad and exciting. A group of 12 primary school pupils were on a mission to "replace litter and graffiti with flowers to make our community beautiful and tidy". We had just 4 weeks to make it all happen, and when I say 4 weeks, that translated to 90 minutes per week.

There were a lot of challenges, and even more fun. We went to a local garden centre during school time so that the children could choose what type of plants they wanted. They went there thinking flowers, then saw, touched, smelled herbs and got excited about fruit trees. So the plan was put together to plant a herb garden, a fruit orchard, and three raised beds with a mix of flowers and vegetables.

We also needed raised beds for defnition of planting areas and because the school grounds had very poor soil. These came from Glasgow Wood Recycling, a fab charity that makes reclaimed wood into all sorts of beautiful items (if you're ever in Glasgow, make sure to visit their shop, the Dear Green Place, for heaps of inspiration), who also provided us with compost, wooden bird houses and a massive (empty) whisky barrel.

Starling Learning, a charity providing nature and horticultural training to schools, helped us out with some gardening knowledge so we didn't mess things up. They also handily brought a van with all the tools needed, bought the plans from our shopping list and provided much needed encouragement during the early planting hours.

So here are some of the plants as they saw their new home for the first time:

Then the big challenge started. The school is a newly built school, on the outskirts of Glasgow, at the edge of a housing scheme. The views of the adjacent open land are lovely, the views of the scheme not so. The children are very proud of their new school, however, the decent sized school grounds are not ideal for planting a fruit orchard. We knew this but decided to tackle it anyway. So, the soil the grassy play area was about one inch thick, which was about the depth of the grass roots. Underneath: rubble. Building rubble, glass, unidentifiable stuff. It was backbreaking work to dig holes big enough to accommodate a fruit tree, and the rain didn't help. We ploughed on, with different tools, scraping away until finally, the first of 12 trees went in accompanied by big cheers:

Eventually, all six fruit trees found their spaces, and another 6 soft fruit trees too. We'd been warned that the land services lawn mowers are not interested in fruit trees, so to protect our plants, we fenced them in. Hopefully that will also protect them a little bit against ball play - the grass area is a play area and we were keen to keep it so, while still having a fruit orchard alongside the rather ugly fence.

Once the hard work digging holes into impossibly hard ground was done, the fun of filling the raised beds was just around the corner. The children decided on the best location for the raised beds - they should be visible to pupils, nursery children and visitors alike, and add some colour to the monoblock front of the school. There were many helping hands: the 12 children from the group who came up with the whole idea, support from P6 and the schools Eco Group, as well as some children from the 3-5 year room of the nursery which is also housed in the building. In no time at all the beds were filled and planted:

This was to become the herb garden:

More plants were carried to the raised beds:

And decisions were made where plants would look best:

The children, many of whom had never done any gardening before, got really into it. There was no stopping them. They learned about repotting, plant care, preparing soil, how to fill a raised bed. We discussed best location for bird houses for the next season, and made a plan for maintenance of the raised beds and fruit orchard. They also got right into the design for their raised beds, considering which plants should go where and what would look best. Even the more reluctant group members who were initially a bit worried about getting their hands wet and dirty didn't take long to get into the satisfaction that digging in soil and creating an oasis of beauty brings. The amazing experience was that children ranging from being autistic to hyperactive to extremely quiet all joined in and worked together with one end result in mind: to make their school look nicer and to leave a legacy for generations of children to come.

At 2pm on 24th of June, it was all done. "I never thought we could have done all of this in less than a day!" said one of the children, and the consensus was that it was just "great fun".

And what's more, the whole project initiated a thought process for children, school and us as to how school grounds can become outdoor learning spaces which enhance the school curriculum and how this can be considered right from the planning stages for a new school building or one that is to be improved. Wouldn't it be great if every school could benefit from a bit more biodiversity, green spaces and outdoor learning opportunities literally at their doorstep: the school grounds?