14th Nov 2022
Thornliebank Primary 1 class and primary 7 helpers returned to the library as part of their ongoing Root Cause Project work.
This week, we discovered some facts about minibeasts and how clever and helpful insects are for the natural habitat. Minibeasts often get a bad reputation as pests ( think wasps) but are actually brilliant composters. Many will help to chew up dead leaves and trees and the nutrients are passed back into the soil. They also provide a food source for birds and other animals. Even the wasp plays an important role in pollinating. Inspired by the fact-finding mission, the children painted pebbles ready to go in the outside area for a bit of vibrant colour! We can’t wait to create bee hotels and rest-stops for our new minibeast friends in the springtime.
9th November 2022
It was all about birds today when primary 1 class and some of the primary 7 class visited Thornliebank library. The temperature has definitely dropped so we chatted about how we can help our little winged friends to get food over winter. The children were brilliant at identifying different birds including robins, blackbirds, chaffinches and blue tits and we learned about the foods to avoid giving birds such as turkey fat. Then it was time to make bird feeders or fat balls. The children had great fun filling old yoghurt pots with oats, grated cheese, seeds and topped off with melted suet. 40 pots are currently chilling in the fridge and we can’t wait to hang them outside in the library garden for the birds to enjoy over the winter months.
Top tips… you can freeze fat balls/ bird feeder balls in the freezer and take out when needed. If you have a pet dog, avoid using raisins/ sultanas etc as these are poisonous to dogs. Turkey fat doesn’t set the way other fats would and can stick to birds feathers making it hard for them to fly.
31st October 2022
Kirsty, one of the writers who came along to the creative writing sessions with Lesley has shared a piece with us. Taking inspiration from arrivals and departures from Giffnock train station and our sense of place.
Train
Arrival departure, small window of chance and chaos
The platform inhales
A promising portal, holding, sighing,
The possibility of chance
So cruel, and me
Always left behind
I watch as
They filter through the veins of the town, homing to the heart
The beating hub,
Chunks of concrete, the edges cut out of the landscape for their convenience
It gives hidden, lonely soles some purpose
I’m waiting for my train
I have somewhere to be
A haze of people
Someone, wait for me
Panic, melancholy, homesick
Carriages approach,
My winter saviour,
Warm, familiar,
Musty, smoky damp
Squealing arrival
Roaring departure
Always get on the train
Do not get left behind
28th October 2022
This morning, I donned my wellies and spent a lovely hour with colleagues from East Ren Council’s Environment team, Sam and Mark, helping them and other volunteers to plant the last of the remaining trees from the ‘Wee Woods’ project.
‘Wee Woods’ is a Cop26 legacy project organised by the Environment team and has seen over 11,000 trees planted across East Renfrewshire! Today’s planting session brings the total to an incredible 27 Wee Woods- how amazing! Each Wee Wood is about the size of a tennis court and has around 400 new trees ready to flourish for future generations to enjoy. A wee pause in the digging/ planting gave me a chance to speak to the team about The Root Cause Project and we are looking forward to seeing how we can continue to support our sustainable projects.
5th October 2022
Lesley Traynor, published and passionate writer and founder of ‘Women With Fierce Words’ has just finished delivering a wonderful block of creative writing sessions as part of the project. We invited Lesley to write a piece for the blog about the sessions. Enjoy!
Storytelling is a way of protecting our environment. We need to keep telling the stories connected with places. David Attenborough, COP26 November 2021
Time had been carved out of busy careers, motherhood, and numerous other commitments. Taking part in the Root Cause writing workshops was about realizing a desire to write. The first two weeks of our writing journey included reflective walks in the grounds of Eastwood House. Thoughts were written into small handmade folding notebooks. A few extended this by walking in their own communities, channelling sensory and emotional reactions into wonderful thoughtful writing that was shared with others. Writing of where they lived (who knew we had an Olympian living in the area), of places important in their life. We relived one writer’s arrival in the small Italian village her family have called home for generations.
We drew memory maps of places special to us, annotated them with names of people, highlighting areas of significance that would never exist on an OS map. Stories were shared using them.
Settled into Giffnock Library, we considered how to place characters into an emotional landscape in our writing and in our last session we considered our connection to place. We observed people arriving and departing in Giffnock Railway Station, connected that with emotional leavings and arrivals at our own front doors. Our writing journey concluded by reflecting on our own narrative, of people weaving stories about us, of giving us a sense of belonging.