Events success
Ask any 6 year old child on Boxing Day, and they will confirm that the problem with really looking forward to a single date, is that the moment has to pass and it leaves you feeling empty.
For the last three or four months a really big deal loomed large on my horizon. The Easter holidays, or is it now called spring break, was full of events for me and it was something I was really looking forward to. Firstly there were the Local Nature Reserve family events.
I have somewhat reduced the number of events that I offer on the East Devon Local Nature Reserves, as I had found a saturation point and wanted to revert to offering quality events rather than getting bogged down in quantity. With any outdoor activity, you are at the mercy of the elements, and a number of factors, including publicity and date can conspire against you to make for a perfect or not so perfect attendance.
On Monday 7th of April I trotted down to the Bowd Inn at 9am to meet with what I expected to be 12 or so people to go on an early morning retile ramble. I pulled into the car park and saw more cars than I was expecting people! The sun was shining, it was the first day of the school holidays and 63 people wanted to join me on a walk to find some reptiles on Fire Beacon Hill!
I can’t say I blame them, I was looking forward to the event for the exact same reasons, but I suddenly felt a wee bit of pressure to entertain these folks as they had taken the trouble to join me so bright and early. As it was we found a happy medium, with children coming to the front if they were interested in a particular find, and otherwise cavorting about if they were happy just to be outside – I hesitate to say that I think the event went rather well. We found common lizards, a slow worm and in the circumstances, I was rather relieved not to find an adder!
After that nice surprise I was glad to have specified a strict upper limit on numbers for the following day’s event, a wild cook-up in Holyford Woods. I had enough home made bread and ingredients with me and 15 of us wandered off into the woodland to gather ingredients for a quick and easy wild soup. Nettle and wild garlic – delicious.
Back at Fire Beacon Hill on Thursday morning, I finally found the secret of producing insects to order - give yourself an unrealistically short time limit. I had to rush off for a second meeting at 11, and so we set off for the heathland in double time, with another record turn out of people. The bugs didn’t stop coming, and I found none of them!
Firstly a minotaur beetle was spotted on the path by a sharp pair of eyes. This huge black shiny beetle has three horns projecting over its head and is one of my absolute favourite UK beetles. It was incredible that about 25 pairs of feet had walked past/over this big, rotund individual without noticing it, sometimes it is better to concentrate on the journey rather than focussing on the destination!
Next we found an unidentified beetle grub, big, with powerful centipede-like jaws I didn’t know exactly which group this grub came from, let alone which species. And I was similarly puzzled by the next finding, a solitary wasp, with long flowing antennae and a rather dramatic looking ovipositor.
The last beetle we found was shoved under my nose as my alarm was beeping away in my pocket. I knew I might get carried away with the insect finding, so had set a reminder and now it was an unwelcome intrusion into the morning. A little girl had found a beetle almost as big as her hand! A violet ground beetle, heavy with eggs, was proffered into the circle of expectant faces.
As with the other big beetles, I took a few photos and explained a little of what it was we were looking at. We then attempted to get the beetle to crawl over as many pairs of hands as possible, before she jumped off into the heather.
I was enjoying myself so much it was terribly difficult to tear myself away. I left a little later than planned and hurtled down the path, risking a turned ankle or twisted knee, luckily I had been ultimately lazy and parked my car at the bottom of the hill, so was able to jump in and drive off to my less exciting engagement, leaving the hoards of Junior Ranger bug-hunters up on the hill continuing with their discoveries. Considering that it was them, and not me, who had found all the really good stuff, I wonder what they found after I left – probably a Keugelann’s ground beetle!
After the Local Nature Reserve events I put in some time cooking on stage at the Exeter Festival of South West Food and Drink – not the natural habitat for an Education ranger, but you know me, I’ll give anything a try! Three days of sustainable fish recipes, Sunday roasts and healthy eating was exhausting, but great fun and allowed me to showcase the District Council’s Food 4 Thought project to a foodie crowd at the festival.
The problem now is that I have reached the other side of this big diary date, and have spent Tuesday afternoon off work, rolling the cricket square. Not to worry, the schools silly season is about to kick off and this year we are making a particular fuss about the Exe Estuary, so plenty for me to write about in here over the next couple of months. Next thing you know it will be the summer holidays!