Happy Xmas from the CEI

Well its that time of year again, the weather is into its winter season and things are beginning to look festive...



















(Above: a holly tree covered with berries, December 2009)

Remember to put some nuts out for the birds and take care in the cold...
all our best wishes from the Coalfield Environment Initiative over the xmas break and for the New Year ahead!

Captured Through Time Exhibition

www.newcumnock.ea-cei.org.uk

Captured Through Time Exhibition

The 'Captured Through Time' Exhibition in the Castle Primary School in New Cumnock was a great success.

Over 230 people came to visit and share their memories of New Cumnock's changing natural environment.

Visit the newly updated exhibition website to see some of the photos and artifacts that were on display, you can also add your comments and memories to the site.

www.newcumnock.ea-cei.org.uk

A huge thank you to all the contributors and helpers who made the exhibition happen!

Wildlife Success!

It goes to show that by simply planting plants such as a buddleia you really can attract wildlife into your garden.

This peacock butterfly was spotted along with a red admiral butterfly, hoverflies, bumblebees and swallows.
The late flowers are a key source of food for insects, and many of the plants now have berries which will help sustain both insects and birds throughout the autumn.

Bumblebee in New Cumnock Wildlife Garden!

EASY group artwork goes up in the Garden

Busy times in July

Well July is a busy month for the CEI as we try to keep all the projects moving along....

the hot weather has been hard for the garden but most things have survived and appreciated the little rain we got... the plants are getting established and as you can see things are looking lush...




If you haven't had a look at our new web pages visit www.newcumnock.ea-cei.org.uk and see if you can contribute to our up coming autumn exhibition,

if you have any comments, if you want to help out in the garden or if you spot anything we should know about please feel free to get in touch!

June 2009 & the garden is looking fantastic!

We've started planting up one bed.... its a bit stoney and lumpy.... but not so on the other side of the garden....
A big thank you to Geoff for his work preparing this bed and flattening the area in the corner of the garden... what a huge difference!

June 2009 - The interpretation panels are in!

Have you seen the interpretation panels? Do you know what the animal tracks on each board are? Have you spotted the bumbleebee, damselfly and butterfly?

Orange-tip butterfly and a Bumblebee

Yep - May is here and I spotted a bumblebee on the bog garden and an orange-tip butterfly in the garden! Brilliant!

The CEI helps out at the Cub Scout Day at Dumfries House

The EASY Group make a Bog garden and plant bulbs...

Raised Beds in time for Easter!

The raised beds are in! and the greenhouse has bottles in all the walls...

we still have lots of jobs to do

- tidying up the greenhouse and strengthening it all - and getting the inside kitted out!

- moving the soil into the raised bed on the swimming pool side

- filling the beds with some lovely yummy compost

- and sorting out near the back fence with all the rubble and rubbish...

and then its planting planting planting!

Whoo!

Spring 2009

"... I was sitting on one of the larch benches this morning as the sun was trying to come out and just thought this is a lovely space to be in..."

As the days are getting longer and the spring flowers are beginning to show work is steaming ahead in the New Cumnock Community Wildlife Garden! So many thanks to mention, the East Ayrshire Strategy for Youth Group, New Cumnock Primary School Eco Committee, New Cumnock Nursery, Freightliner Group Ltd (who have kindly donated £1000 to the CEI), New Cumnock Community Council, New Cumnock Liasion Group, all the community members who helped out, not forgetting Louise McClounie for storing plastic bottles on our behalf for all this time and for making delicious homemade scones which put a smile on everyones face! Thanks to the CEI partners aswell, without whom the success of last friday would not have been possible!

As you can see we still need a few bottles to finish off the roof - and we're keen to get the last bit done asap to help protect the walls from the strong winds!
If you still have bottles please let me know!

Winter 2008/2009

February 2009:

Well its been a cold month.... I popped down to the site to take a picture in the snow -
... found bird prints in the snow too...
We've been doing amazingly well collecting plastic bottles (thank you to all at New Cumnock Primary and Nursery and anyone who has given us bottles)... I expect we will be nearly there by the end of the week which is perfect timing to make the greenhouse in March!The East Ayrshire Strategy for Youth Group have been busy preparing some of the bottles and starting work on the greenhouse frame... we also made some bird and bat boxes which we will be able to use later on in the garden...

I also got a chance to go visiting and learn a bit more about the history of East Ayrshire this month with a quick stop at the Barony A - Frame, if you havent visited I recommend it...

January 2009:

New Cumnock's Community Wildlife Garden gets underway!

Happy New Year!

Welcome back after a lovely break... January is already proving that it is going to be a very busy 2009!
The 19th - 30th January is the RSPB's Big Schools Birdwatch, this is a great opportunity for local schools to get involved and learn about native birds in and around our parks and gardens! See www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch/ for details.

We are very pleased that the CEI has been granted planning permission for the New Cumnock Community Wildlife Garden...

We have also been very busy looking to the future developing some new exciting projects and working towards some funding applications that will support us through 2009!

Happy Yule-time!

Its estimated that the festive period will create 1.5 million tonnes of waste in Scotland! So there couldnt be a better time to collect your plastic bottles for the Community Wildlife Garden Greenhouse!
The greenhouse is a great chance to showcase an innovative way to re-use what we no longer need... recycling is so important for the environment - plastic for example, could take more than 100 years to decompose in landfill but no-one really knows as it hasnt been that long since plastic was invented!
I'm very excited to be working with the eco-group at New Cumnock Primary and the Nursery to collect bottles... and I cant wait to continue with this and other exciting projects throughout 2009!
All my Christmas wishes for everyone...
enjoy yourselves and please take care over the holidays,natsx

December 2008:

The snow has arrived!!!
I've been thinking a lot about the garden, hopefully work done now will mean lots fitting into place in the New Year....
We should be getting some lovely native trees for the 'woodland' part of the garden, great for birds and insects!
The benches will hopefully be some gorgeous Scottish Larch, when its all planted up I think they will look really natural...

If you have any questions (or plastic bottles!) please feel free to get in touch,
...and take care out in the cold...

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Autumn 2008

Its been a busy month!
Thank you again to all those who helped out at MADD 2008 back in October, we were featured in the Cumnock Chronicle this month...
Following on from MADD, work on the New Cumnock Community Wildlife Garden continues...
We are tantalisingly close to finalising the paperwork with East Ayrshire Council... I've started planning for the garden infrastructure, focusing firstly on the paths and access. Once we have recieved quotes for this work hopefully it can get going asap!
At the same time as the paths go in I am hoping to have the base for the Plastic Bottle Greenhouse installed. We should be ready for the greenhouse by mid January.
New Cumnock nursery will be collecting plastic bottles, and the eco-group at New Cumnock Primary are hopefully going to lead a bottle collection...
If you have 2lt bottles to recycle please send me an email - natalie.fleming@ea-cei.org.uk or ring me on 07766185987

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This week I have been out visiting some of our local primary schools - its going to be exciting to work with the children for the Big Schools Birdwatch, Eco groups, Gardening projects, Climate challenges - theres lots to come!

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The New Cumnock Habitat Network project is moving forwards, I'm definately excited by the potential of this project.
Looking at survey results and working closely with FWAG the CEI is going to be drawing up some ideas to improve biodiversity and habitat connectivity around New Cumnock.
The opportunity to consider a large area of New Cumnock's landscape and think about linking habitats for wildlife together will be hugely beneficial for environmental conservation around the town...