The John Muir Trust
‘The John Muir Trust is a conservation charity dedicated to protecting and enhancing wild places in the UK’.
To find out more about their work please take a look at the John Muir Trust website: www.johnmuirtrust.org
As I have been working slowly towards my John Muir Award I have been supported and encouraged by Coralie Hopwood, John Muir Award England Inclusion Manager. She asked if she could publish a short article about me on the JohnMuirTrust webpage: Click on this link if you’d like to read it – john-muir-award-story-four-seasons-in-the-white-and-dark-peak.
John Muir Award Story – Four Seasons in the White and Dark Peak
Published: 18th April 2017
The work of the John Muir Trust and all of the UK’s conservation charities and organisations is just so important if we are to protect and repair the wild spaces and ever decreasing biodiversity of habitats and wildlife on this island of ours. I’m proud to be playing just a small part in hopefully raising awareness and inspiring those around me to proactively support conservation in the UK.
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity”. John Muir
Visiting The North York Moors
We’ve just come back from a week exploring the coastline of another stunning national park, The North York Moors. Based in Whitby we had a relaxing time looking for fossils, riding the steam train, walking along the river from Goathland to Grosmont, watching the Starling murmurations in Whitby at dusk and walking some of the Cleveland Way from Robin Hood’s Bay.
The Mallyan Spout waterfall near Goathland
The Cleaveland Way
Whitby and Sandsend beach
Whitby Treasures
We saw a lot of stunning fossils on the coast line to the east of the town, mainly ammonites and we found a large rock with plant like foliage patterns on it (I decided to treat myself to this spli, polished Ammonite from one of the little gift shops in the old part of Whitby town. It’s really fascinating to see and the Whitby museum has some really exdciting finds in it’s collection. For more information about Whitby fossils see: UK Fossil Collecting and whitbymuseum.org.uk.
These perfectly round holes in the stones that I was finding all the way along Whitby beach are apparently made by a mollusc sea creature called a piddock.
‘Once the piddock has carved a safe tunnel for itself, it settles down inside and extends a siphon through the entrance, which it uses to filter food such as phytoplankton from the sea water. Another siphon empties waste products back into the sea. As the animal grows in size, it chisels at the walls of its rocky home to expand them’ taken from https://the-hazel-tree.com/2013/08/21/piddocks-anything-but-boring/.
Feeling inspired and refreshed from a fabulous coastal holiday, it’s time to head back to the Peaks for some brand new Forest School adventures with the young explorers of the Hope Valley.
