Enjoy Your Little Patch Of Trees

Following on from my previous blog post about the European Union Nature Directives Review, I have very good news:  The EU has had an unprecedented response to their public consultation, of just over half a million people standing up for nature!  This is fantastic!  At a time when nature needs these directives more than ever, with The Woodland Trust currently defending ancient woodland from over 600 threats in the UK alone.  We now have to wait while the results of this public consultation, along with a assessment of the use of these laws across Europe, will be summarised and put forward to Ministers in Spring 2016.  Fingers crossed they make the right decision and save these much needed laws!

Have a Green Adventure

In the meantime, why not take a well deserved break enjoying your local woodland?  You can have a little adventure walking amongst the trees, observing some local wildlife - butterflies, birds, grasshoppers, bees and squirrels all make their homes in local woodland.  You could try your hand at some wildlife photography, have a picnic (but always tidy up after yourself!).  The Woodland is also a great place to clear your head for some creativity.  Why not take a sketchbook with you, doodle what you see or what you feel?  If you're more of a writer, write down all your five senses - what can you see, smell, taste, hear and feel?  Record the experience fully, so you can cherish the memory later.  

Finding a green space is the best way to cool down and escape the heat of the hot summer sun.  (Yes, there is some sunshine over the UK!).  Somehow the earth seems able to absorb the heat of the sun without reflecting it back up to you like concrete does.  Plus you can always find a kind tree to provide a beautiful natural canopy to provide shade while you sit for a while, and let the cares of the world gently drift away.  

Not sure where your nearest woodland is?  Not to worry, The Woodland Trust has a great little tool on their website:  Find a wood to explore.  Simply enter your post code, click Go, and you will be shown a list of woods alongside a map, showing exactly where you nearest woods are!  They also have lots of great ideas for things to do on your woodland trails too.

Wherever you go and whatever you do, have a wonderful summer, you've earned it.

[Photo Credit:  WT/ML - Woodland Trust Media Library]

A Little Patch of Trees...

Photo Credit:  WT/ML  - Woodland Trust Media Library

There’s a little patch of trees not far from where I live.  One of my first jobs from school, I used to walk through this little patch of trees.  They grow on a strip of grass between two roads, but they create a little archway, and it feels like you’re walking into a little oasis.  You can no longer see the busy road or the factories that surround it.  The grass is long where no mowing machine can reach, Magpies lazily poke about in the grass looking for food, and make their nests way up in the tall trees.  It’s a beautiful little habitat protected by these tall, arching trees.  A tiny little paradise in the middle of two busy roads.  It made my morning to walk through there, I always had to pause and take a deep breath of nature, before gently strolling on, feeling elevated by the green.

Now, many years later, I hear they’re planning to build on my little patch of trees.  My local council has plans to build on lots of little plots of grass and trees all around my small town.  They want to boost the economy with new homes and new businesses.  I’m going to miss my little patches of green. 

But this isn’t just happening in my town, it’s happening all over my country, all over Europe, and probably the world.  And it won’t just be little patches of trees, there’ll be bigger patches.  Patches of meadow, marshes, and forests; all containing their own little ecosystems of wild birds, animals and insects.  Some of whom are endangered. 

How can we protect them?

I was surprised to learn that there are no British laws protecting our wildlife and their habitats.  The only laws that have been giving any protection to British habitats is the European Union’s Nature Directives.  (I’d never even heard of these).  They include a Habitats Directive and a Birds Directive.  They look after our little friends and their homes.

The EU now wants to review these laws and see if they are still needed.  Given that the main focus is on regeneration and development, I think these laws are needed now more than ever.  While these laws may not be perfect, they may be the only thing standing between our countryside and a bulldozer.

The EU thinks these laws are little known about in the UK, they think no one over this side of the pond cares about them, or our natural habitats.  I think it’s time we stood up proudly for our countryside, and protect our little patch of land. 

The EU have put together a consultation questionnaire to find out what people think of these laws.  Over 100 organisations have joined together to try to keep these laws.  To make it simple for us to respond, they have created a pre-filled in questionnaire submission form.  Whether you are in the UK, Europe, or the rest of the world, please take a couple of minutes to click on this link, fill in your name and email address, and let Europe know we want these laws to protect our countryside all across Europe.  Let’s look after our little friends, for in turn, they look after us. 

If you want to find out more about what these organisations are doing, you can take a look at The WoodlandTrust’s EU blog post.  You can also send a message to the EU through The Woodland Trust, telling them in your own words how important our wildlife and habitats are, and why we need these Nature Directives.  

Please help save a little patch of trees.  

A Bold New Step - Learning to Write My First Song

Today I have signed up for a free songwriting course with FreeLearn and Sheffield University.  I haven't yet learned how to play a musical instrument this year, though I have dabbled with learning to play the harmonica and keyboard before, learning a little of musical notation, and also learned this in music class at school.  Even though this was a few years ago for me, I am hoping it will be enough to help me do 6 week course.  It says:

"While it will be useful to have access to a musical instrument this is not a requirement, you can participate in the course just using your voice or with freely available music software."

 I do have access to my musical instruments, I just don't know how to play them very well.  I am very very rusty.  But I am hoping this course will kickstart my enthusiasm for this again.  I enjoy listening to music, I want to learn how to play the instruments, and to learn how to write my own songs, with lyrics and melody.  I don't know what freely available music software there is, but I would like to try to find it before my course starts on Monday 8th June.  I am both nervous and excited!  Who knows, a budding songwriter could be just waiting to be discovered inside of me!

May 2015 Art Challenge - 'Ancient vs Futuristic'

Here is my entry for Draw with Jazza's May 2015 Art Challenge - Ancient vs Futuristic.  The idea is that they are a kind of secret service MI5 (or Men In Black) top secret government agents in Victorian times, fighting Aliens and Futuristic Robots.  Hence the lady and gentleman on the left, are fighting a spider-like robot from outer space, in a Victorian sewer tunnel.

This is my first artwork in quite some time, I think it might actually have been a couple of years since I last tried to create some colour pencil art.  I still doodle in pen and pencil, but I've not tried to create some real art in ages.  I was really rusty.  But I really enjoyed doing this, and even enjoyed sketching out and colouring in bricks in between ad breaks on the TV.  

I joined this Art Challenge late on in the month, having only a couple of weeks to come up with the idea and create it.  If I'd had a little more time, I would have liked to have continued darkening the background, and just had a light glow around my heroes, and from the robot's laser bolts.  But as it is, I still enjoyed it.  And I want to create more!

My Artwork:  Colour Pencil, on A5 Sketchbook paper.

To see more of my art, check out my dedicated Art Blog:  

Sketching Girl

Draw with Jazza - Colour Pencil Shading

I stumbled across Draw with Jazza's Youtube channel today, and found a lot of helpful videos.  Jazza talks enthusiastically and really encourages you to have a go.  I feel inspired to create new art again!  It's been quite a while since I last created art regularly, and I'd really love to improve my skills.  I feel my colour pencil art skills are pretty basic, with mostly just shading in flat areas of colour.  Here is a great colour pencil shading tutorial from Draw with Jazza.

Draw with Jazza - How to shade using Color Pencils

For more about Draw with Jazza and what he does, check his great website.

My 2015 Adventure List

This is basically my New Year's Resolutions list for 2015.  I need to straighten out some bad habits and make myself and my environment more conducive to living an exciting and adventurous life.  Baby steps to begin with, and build up some steam for the bigger more scarier things I want to do.

1.  Declutter all my possessions

I have a tendency for impulsive shopping.  I think I do it to cheer myself up.  Only now I have reached the point where I cannot move for the teetering piles of stuff on my floor.  Nothing is easy to get at or find in my home.  Therefore, it needs clearing out, badly.  I am going to declutter all my possessions this year, hopefully within the first 6 months.  I want to completely sort through all the large reference books on my bookcase (and those stacked on the desk, and the floor, and the landing).  I also have a filled double layered bookcase of novels I have never read.  A huge mountain of CD's I've never listened to, and DVD's, and Video Games.  I think they are a bargain when I buy them so cheaply from the charity shop, secondhand or electrical trade in store.  But they soon build up into overwhelming insurmountable towers, threatening to collapse.  So now they have to be vastly shrunk in quantity, and I have to choose what I like, quite like, and love.  And only keep what I really, really love.

2.  Lose 2 stone (28 pounds) in weight

For the first half of the year I intend to use my decluttering as my exercise, then develop an exercise programme after that.  It will include Pilates, various Aerobics DVDs (of which I have collected quite a number, but never watched), and possibly some weight training (I have a beautiful collection of light blue dumbells under the bed, happily collecting dust). I would also like to explore some alternative fitness, such as contemporary dance, anything different and fun to try.  Just because I am doing it in my own home, can I not emulate and express myself like the dancers on Strictly Come Dancing?  In the meantime, I intend to eat fruit and vegetables as snacks in between meals, but eat plenty of them if out walking or doing exercise.  They seem to contain so little calories that the weight easily starts to fall off.  It's just mastering the self-control every day to stay away from the chocolate bars and fizzy pop!

3.  Get up early every day

I am much more of a night owl than an early bird, this one is going to be very hard for me to stick to!  But it does have the greatest impact in giving you lots of free time to accomplish all the other goals listed below.  Plus I have more time out of bed, hence more time to burn calories to help with my weight loss!

4.  Nothing New - Do not buy myself any luxuries this year

This will massively help with my decluttering, I tend to declutter lots of things from my home and take it to the charity shop, only to come back with armfuls of books and games I don't need!  I am also a ferocious internet shopper.  I once spent over £500 in one month on ebay, and only made £15 in selling some unwanted stuff.  I should definitely never attempt to make my own business buying and selling, I would soon go bankrupt!  This goal also gives me the opportunity to make or craft anything I actually want, or just draw the things I want, til the desire is satisfied and my impulsiveness moves on to a new target.

5.  Be Kind, Be Patient, and Make Time for People in my life

Partly inspired by a radio interview I heard with Bear Grylls, where he explained how he begins every day on his knees by his bed, and gets his children to do the same.  He says something like: "Be Kind, Do your Best.  Come on, Let's Do It!"  This motivates and starts his day the right way, focusing on what he wants to do.  I really like the idea of starting each day focusing on Being Kind.  I think it would make our relations to other people so much better.  Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with the famous character of Scrooge teaches us to carry the spirit of Christmas in our hearts all through the year, peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind.  I would like to get on better with people, spending more time with my immediate family, and less time on my own in front of a computer screen.  I believe being kind is a very good way to prevent the usual irritability and impatience that can get in the way of you getting along and making friends.  Also making time for each other and having patience is good too.

6.  Learn to play new Card & Board Games

This will also help me to spend more time with other people.  I have bought quite a number of traditional board and card game books, to help me find fun new ways of spending time with my family.  I have tried some of these games out recently, including Farkle and Pick Up Sticks, and I have found they also help with my Maths.  My Maths skills without a calculator are not as good as I would like, but the main problem is that I lack confidence with them.  Practice will make me feel better about it, and finding a way to have fun with them too will encourage me to keep at it.  I also have some new Solo Games books which teach me many different ways of playing card and board games on my own, so I will never have an excuse not to improve my gaming and Maths skills, and can always relax and have some fun with them.

7.  Start an Art Journal

I love looking at Art Journal pages online, I collect images of my favourite pages, but have never made any of my own.  I have blank Sketchbooks and numerous craft store papers and embellishments to use, I have just never got around to doing it.  I would love to start my own, as I believe once I have plucked up the courage to start my own, then I will be so happy and addicted I will make many pages and many journals!  I am thinking of beginning to make an Art Journal for 2015, focusing on my 2015 Adventure List, with a page for each goal.  Now I have several page ideas to work from!

8.  Learn to play a musical instrument

I have collected various musical instruments, some cheap, some not quite so cheap, and I would love to finally learn to play at least one of them.  Again, I have various music books to teach me, the odd DVD and CD, and of course numerous Youtube videos and About.com pages.  I have everything I need at my fingertips, I just need to push myself to start!

9.  Write a Short Story

I always have 'Write a Novel' on my New Year's Resolutions list each year.  I want to write novels, I have attempted National Novel Writing Month every year for several years, without success.  I have never finished Nanowrimo.  Ironically, I have never tried to write a short story either, as I have no idea how to plot such a short story, I wouldn't know what I could fit into the story or not.  Can I fit sub-plots or just one main plot in a short story?  Can I develop much of a science-fiction plot, or not?  I have the Teach Yourself book Write Short Stories and Get Them Published by Zoe Fairbairns, so hopefully I can find out how to plot and write a complete short story hopefully within the next 6 months.  

10.  Be more Adventurous in my Personal Style

I am not as adventurous as I would like with how I wear my hair and what clothes I choose to wear.  I always wear my hair in a ponytail, spend the summer in jeans and a T-Shirt, and the winter in a Hoody, jeans and a T-Shirt.  The only variation tends to be which colour hoody am I going to wear this week?  I want to try wearing my shoulder length hair in different styles.  Can a 30-something wear her hair in pigtails?  I intend to find out!  I know I am going to have to strictly stick to my Nothing New goal, and not buy any more clothing unless I literally don't have anything to wear, but people generally wear only 20% of their wardrobe, and I am sure that is true for me too.  So there must be many new outfits I can make from my wardrobe as it is, without buying anything new.  I am going to find out what these are, make some new combinations, and pluck up the courage to wear them!

11.  Read 10 Novels and 10 Reference Books

I struggle to read my own books.  I am more likely to read books from the library than from my own shelves.  They are actually more neatly stacked in the library!  I want to read 10 novels (that's less than one a month), and 10 reference books.  I want to read what I have instead of leaving the same books to gather dust on the shelf, never knowing whether I like them or not, and never discovering the exciting gems that lie hidden inside.  Also, as a writer, I need to read more novels, and find more methods of writing my craft.  

12.  Discover new music

I have had this one on my New Year's Resolutions before, and actually stuck to it pretty well.  I enjoyed looking up the music videos of artists in the Official Charts.  I also checked out the American Billboard Charts, I love their country music.  This year I want to take that up again, get to know the music even better, and discover some new musical genres that I don't tend to listen to, and see if I like those too.  This is the year I want to experiment and try something new.  I may not like everything I hear, but at least I will know what I like because I have tried it.

13.  Learn more about ancient traditions and beliefs of England

I have recently been learning about the ancient traditions and beliefs of England at Christmas and the Winter Solstice.  I am fascinated to learn that ancient cavemen in Stone Age times were celebrating this time of year in their traditional way at Stonehenge and similar stone circles, observing the sunset and sunrise on the longest night of the year, feasting and merry making, dancing and having fun, whilst sharing the warmth of the fire and the food they had with their family, friends and neighbours.  I had no idea they were so sophisticated.  I would love to learn more about the other times of the year too, like the Summer Solstice, the Spring and Autumn Equinox, and the other ancient festivals in between, such as Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas/Lughnasagh and Samhain.  I am fascinated to learn more of my English heritage, and keep that tradition alive today.

14.  Keep a Sketchbook

I love drawing, ever since I was little girl I have loved to draw things around me, sometimes from what I see around me, and sometimes from imagination.  As I've grown up, life has tended to get in the way, and I don't draw anywhere near as much as I'd like to.  I would love to become a really skilled artist, becoming a fantasy and science-fiction artist.  But I must improve my skills first, and keeping a sketchbook really helps with that.  One office I worked in, when I would take my break at my desk, I would take a sheet of printer paper and sketch on it each break and lunchtime.  By the end of the week I had filled the sheet of A4 with doodles and sketches of strange furniture with eyes in it, plants that were alive, superheroes and cartoon characters of people I worked with.  I want to have more fun like this, and improve my skills.  Art is fun!

This is my 2015 Adventure List, my New Year's Resolutions.  I may have picked rather a lot, and I make struggle to accomplish them all, but I am hoping I can attempt some or all on different months, and make my life more fun and adventurous.  I intend to post the results of my attempts on this blog, along with any inspiration, motivation and encouragement I find along the way, because I am really going to need it!

New Year's Resolutions 2015

1. Declutter all my possessions
   #Declutter #Minimalism #Minimalist #SimpleLiving
2. Lose 2 stone (28 pounds) in weight
   #Exercise #Fitness #Motivation #Healthy
3. Get Up Early every day
   #GetUpEarly #ReclaimThePowerOfTheMorning
4. Nothing New - Don't Buy Any Luxuries this year
   #StopSpending #Money #SaveMoney #Declutter #Minimalism
5. Be Kind, Be Patient, and Make Time for People in my Life
   #Kind #Relationships #Friendship #Family #Familytime
6. Learn to play new Card & Board Games
   #Dice #DnD #PlayingCards #CCG #TCG #TableTop #BoardGame #RPG
7. Start an Art Journal
   #ArtJournal #SmashBook #ScrapBook #JunkJournal #Crafts #Stamping #RubberStamping #Scrapbooking
8. Be more Adventurous in my Personal Style
   #Style #Fashion #Wardrobe #Hair #Bohemian #Boho #Tomboy #PersonalStyle
9. Learn to play a musical instrument
   #musicalinstrument #keyboard #ukulele #ocarina #recorder #pennywhistle #irishflute #harmonica
10. Write a Short Story
    #ShortStory #Write #Fiction #AmWriting #Writing #Stories #Books #Novels #NovelWriting
11. Read 10 Novels and 10 Reference Books
    #Reading #Books #Novels #ReadingChallenge #AmReading #YearofBooks
12. Discover new music
    #Music #Genre #Rock #Country #Blues #Classical #Pop #Funk #Soul #Acoustic #Folk #Traditional
13. Learn more about Ancient Traditions & Beliefs of England
    #England #History #Research #Ancient #Tradition #Beliefs
14. Keep a Sketchbook
    #Sketch #Sketchbook #Drawing #Pencil #ColorPencil #ColourPencil #Illustration #Art #Artist