Great Food Festival and Gala

Space to explore

Becky Blanco, Steve Blanco and Emily Cutts

The Little House of La performing

Participating with and watching the performance

The Little House of La

Jessica Gladys Wolfson performs with The Little House of La and the audience become apes.

Merlin the hamster.

Trees to climb and knitted fruit and veg

Anna Fisk of Knit Wild

Crochet inspired by nature

Shiona McCubbin with her beautiful hand stitched crafts

The Green Party table

This summer has been a chilly one in Scotland with plenty of rain, which of course the grass, trees and most of the plants love. I don't mind showers but the temperature feels far too cold for the end of June!

Fortunately, the sun broke through the clouds for another successful free event at the Children's Wood and Meadow on 7th June. Visiting for a few hours in the afternoon, I captured a very small part of a whole day of fun activities; all organised and delivered by local community volunteers. I arrived just as the annual dog show was finishing which is very popular with the many people who regularly walk their dogs on the meadow. McDonald Vets supported this event with categories such as 'Best Trick for a Biscuit', 'Children's Favourite' and 'Waggiest Tail'. One little girl even brought her hamster for a walk who wore a homemade ribbon holster and yarn lead. He seemed quite happy sniffing about in the grass in the fresh air.

There were lots of stalls with local crafts, balloon animals, home baking, face painting, The Green Party, Maryhill Foodbank, and more. Knit Wild had their beautiful knitted and crocheted flowers, leaves, birds, fruit and veg on display with a very friendly knitter helping the children and others to have a go themselves. Many of these items can now be found decorating the woods and meadows. There was a 'Grow Your Own' and Composting workshop and a come dressed as your favourite fruit or veg fancy dress competition!

A great hit with the children were the band The Little House of La. They had the little ones hopping like bunnies, unraveling a paper doll chain and pretending to be Apemen. The Barrow Band were also lots of fun and were enjoyed by everyone.

There was a stall with information about the Council's plans to build on the meadow, with forms so that we could give our reasons for wanting the meadow and woods protected now and for future generations and how we have benefited from this special space. Recently The Children's Wood Committee have been working with an architect on a planning application of their own which would see the area developed further for community based events, recreation, education and as an organic growing space. In spite of the Scottish Government's support of outdoor learning it is still woefully inadequate in many schools, especially inner city ones. Supporters of the Children's Wood and Meadow have been doing a great job demonstrating the benefits of outdoor education with their regular classes and events. This involves training and specific knowledge and skills. It is not the same as letting kids run wild in nature, though of course that is very much encouraged too.

I love how much thought and creativity goes into the Children's Wood and Meadow themed events and appreciate all the time this takes. They are always very unique, so much fun and enable everyone to participate in building a healthy, inclusive, environmentally friendly place to live.

The Children's Wood.

North Kelvin Meadow.
Knit Wild.

Previous blog posts:
 The Worm Carnival.
The Dear Green Place.

The Worm Carnival

What do you do when 95% of the local community surveyed don't want a green space built on but the council have already decided to put new housing there? You start a campaign. That is just what Douglas Peacock did back in 2008. A massive clean up job was started with around 30 volunteers removing over 60 bags of rubbish, broken glass, needles, old sofas etc. It's hard to imagine all these years later because the Children's Wood and Meadow is one of the most stunning wild places to visit in the city of Glasgow. Along with other community created green spaces such as the Woodlands Community Garden it is a place we regularly visit for fun activities and for my son to play, relax and learn about nature.

We moved back to Glasgow last August and I now get really excited about the West End Festival events that are held here because they are so much fun! Last weekend we cycled to the Worm Carnival. I always make a bee line for the healthy barbecue food, then it's straight to the cake table. I don't eat cakes very often and I don't have time to bake so it's a treat to sample some of the delicious delights created by local children and adults for the baking competition. I've never had rhubarb meringue tart before. It was amazing. James Morton who was the runner up in The Great British Bake Off t.v. show came along to judge the entries: lucky guy!

We watched award winning Eco Drama Company perform "The Worm - An Underground Adventure" which was very funny. There was an up-cycling bird box activity, face painting and a pop up cafe run by Garrioch Roots. My son and I did a nature hunt together. We had a list of items we had to find around the meadow such as 6 different kinds of leaves. In one overgrown area of long grasses there are some barrel raised beds full of summer herbs, veg and a few weeds. It is the sort of area you don't see in parks because it looks 'messy'. But I couldn't see a single pest anywhere, everything was incredibly healthy and strong. This is an example of a balanced eco system where predator and pest are in equal amounts therefore no harmful chemicals need to be sprayed. The bees and butterflies, whose numbers are reducing at a shocking rate, were loving the large patch of clover. We saw lots of red-tailed bumble bees: Bombus lapidarius along with the better know yellow striped bumble bee: Bombus hortorum. We really enjoyed doing the nature hunt and it meant we had a tour around the whole site and were able to see so many amazing things in each of the different areas as well as stopping to chat to people, "isn't it great how you meet so many people when you come here" said a new friend.

It can cost a fortune finding entertainment for children and with the ongoing austerity and economic downturn having an affect on us all, this event and the many others you can attend here for free keep families happy with no cost to the council.  The local schools are now benefitting by having a space to grow vegetables and take part in outdoor learning activities, which the Scottish Government has been promoting for some time. This has been and continues to be an excellently run campaign; thank you to everyone involved. It is the love and commitment of the local community and everyone who visits that makes the Children's Wood and Meadow a unique and special place in the city. That is worth preserving.

Support the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign!
A lovely blog about Urban Pollinators

The Dear Green Place

We moved to Glasgow from Hastings in August this year and I started the exhausting job of looking for a flat to buy while we stay in rented accommodation. I arranged to view one in North Kelvinside and as I looked at the street view on line I could see that there was some abandonded looking ground behind a fence taking up a large part of the street. Right away I imagined problems with drugs, feeling unsafe at night walking past the area and not wanting my son to play there. We were early when we went to view the flat so sneaked through a gap in the fence and were delighted to discover we had stumbled upon the North Kelvin Meadow and Children’s Wood. I had become friends with them on Facebook a few months previously when I was researching community green spaces in Glasgow and had signed the petition to save this area as there are proposals to build new flats here. My son had fun running around while we admired all the hard work that has been done to improve the place including tree houses, raised beds for vegetable growing, colourful decorations and signage.

I couldn’t wait to go to the next event they were holding The Bake Outdoors with a huge list of activities and entertainment the whole family would enjoy. I met Emily Cutts who has been a driving force of the transformation of the children’s wood and was nominated and shortlisted along with Douglas Peacock of the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign in the Observer newspaper’s Ethical Awards “unsung local hero” category. Emily was running around sorting out tables for the baking competition and a million other things needing to be done, all with a smile. 

Glasgow, known as The Dear Green Place, is not short of parks. It’s possible to cycle through most of the West End without having to go near a road. Play parks have improved a lot since I was a child when you just hoped you wouldn’t land on the broken glass strewn concrete ground. But children have a completely different experience when they are allowed to roam free in a wild space. My son can be entertained for hours with everything the natural world provides that is FREE; and his imagination. Children don’t need experts to tell them this is their natural environment, they just feel at home.

We had such a lovely day at the Bake Outdoors. My husband bumped into an old friend from college, I bought a handmade Christmas decoration, bath bomb and homemade cakes. We had spicy lamb burgers cooked on a barbecue and cooked our own cheese patties on an open fire. My son cooked up a big mud pie. At a time when jobs are insecure and people are disillusioned with our money driven society, having a place like this where everyone can contribute, whatever skills and experience they have, really benefits communities by boosting everyone’s feelings of self worth. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the meadow lit up with fairy lights at Halloween. I hope my pictures have captured some of the magic that happens here. The children know it; some adults still need convincing.

Sign the petition: The Scottish Government:Stop Glasgow City Council building on North Kelvin Meadow / Children’s Wood.

Visit The Children's Wood

Visit The North Kelvin Meadow