Welcome and thank you for being a tree friend, especially to anyone who is receiving this newsletter for the first time. We hope this finds you well and safe, enjoying the summer where you are (if you’re in the northern hemisphere). While life may have had us focus on personal matters for a few weeks, we have been taking some steps along the wiggly path.
Our wanders and events
We have recently added some new locations where you can experience forest bathing in central Scotland. We look forward to welcoming you to the woods soon, either face-to-face or online if you’d like to connect from further afield. We are grateful to the various land owners and managers who have given permission for us to wander in their woods in small groups. Advance bookings (for events arranged by Woodlands Breathing) are available as follows:
Hopetoun House and Gardens - 6th August Places are still available for this Saturday’s event at South Queensferry near Edinburgh where the Hope family have lived since the late 17th century along with some characterful tree beings. Please click here for further booking details, and here for a Hopetoun Grounds ticket. Please note that this is a shorter session of 2 hours.
Beecraigs Country Park - Saturday 20th August Managed by West Lothian Council and located on the hill between Bathgate and Linlithgow, West Lothian.
Almondell Country Park - Tuesday 23rd August Managed by West Lothian Council and located between Broxburn and East Calder, West Lothian. This country park celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.
Online Virtual Walk - 25th August, 25th September, 9th October, 20th November (updated) Join us from wherever you are in the world - your home, local green space or woodland. We will walk together for 90 minutes with the aid of a little technology and share our land and beings. There will be time for your own connections. Please bring your own tea and snacks.
Binning Wood - 27th August, 24th September, 29th October, 26th November Walks will take place on the last Saturday of the month. This wood, originally planted by the Earl of Haddington, with a design possibly based on a street plan of London, is located near Tyninghame village and East Linton, East Lothian.
Cashel Native Forest - Saturday 17th September Located north of Balmaha, on the east side of Loch Lomond. This is a quiet haven near the loch side, a mixture of semi-native woodland and new native woodland on previous agricultural land. A donation from your booking will go towards the Cashel Forest Trust, a subsidiary of the Royal Scottish Forestry Society (RSFS), a membership organisation established in 1854.
Cowden Japanese Garden - Sunday 2nd October The garden, near Dollar, was restored recently along with some of the buildings and is a wee piece of Japan in Scotland. It reminds me of ‘scenery borrowing’ of gardens in Kyoto, Japan where the surrounding landscape is incorporated as part of the garden design. We have much enjoyed facilitating some bespoke forest bathing walks in the garden and woodland over the last year. Please book your ticket directly with Cowden Garden for this 90 minutes experience. Alternatively, contact us for further details.
If there is demand, we are happy to arrange additional walks for general or special booking. Contact us to discuss how we can tailor an event for you - for work / play to support your wellbeing and wellness.
What else has been fluttering and keeping us occupied …
Now that face-to-face events are becoming more usual again, especially those outdoors, we have refreshed our first-aid training. Nicky at React Fast First Aid is highly recommended. We attended a useful and very practical weekend training course at Nicky’s house, completing an exam at the end. If you spend a lot of time in the outdoors, you might like to consider this course so that you are prepared for any incidents you come across on the trail.
Over the summer, we have attended other events including some ‘Wild Wednesdays’. These events have been arranged by the seasonal assistant rangers, and have moved around different parks across the West Lothian Council area. This week we’ll be at Addiewell and next week, the final event will take place at Polkemmet Country Park.
If anyone knows the M8 motorway between Edinburgh and Glasgow, this is where the horn sculpture sits. We walked to it recently to check if the music was still playing but sadly the music has stopped; these days it is a stick store (for the birds).
Getting Social …
If you are on social media, we would appreciate a follow. We have recently created a business Facebook page and hope you like the posts so far. We will use the page to provide updates on events and share a few photos of things spotted on our wanders.
You’ll also find us on Instagram and occasionally on LinkedIn and Twitter.
We are keeping printing to a minimum to reduce unnecessary waste and to be conscious of paper use. However, as supplies were running low, we have taken the opportunity to refresh the design of our leaflet. It now contains a wee gift which participants will receive after a walk.
Climate Change - the 19th century and peatlands …
You’ve no doubt been experiencing some impact of climate change over recent weeks so let’s acknowledge some early work on climate change in the 19th century. I had heard of James Croll thanks to the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) but Eunice Foote was a new name to me until recently. So, here’s a brief introduction to them both. Eunice Foote was an amateur American scientist who had her paper presented in 1856 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science by a male colleague. James Croll was born near Perth, Scotland. He started work as a janitor at the Andersonian College and went on to become a scientist with the British Geological Survey after presenting his paper in 1866 (three years before Origin of the Species was published).
If you’d like to learn more about climate change in the current day, we can recommend the Outrage & Optimism podcast. We were interested to note that the teachings of Thich That Hanh had helped in the discussions which led to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.
If there’s anything you’d like included in the future, let us know. If you know of a group who would like to an introduction to forest bathing, you have a new location to suggest or you wish to join an event, arrange a gift voucher or special group experience for friends or staff wellbeing, please get in touch to discuss options.
Thank you for reading and we hope to welcome you to the woods soon …
Happy wanders!
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