One of the John Muir Award challenges is about sharing. This can take many forms including painting, writing, poetry and even just discussing your experiences. Each of the challenges can include an element of sharing as there are no hard and fast rules defining the boundaries between them. The other challenges are Discover, Explore and Conserve. This post will showcase some of the Visitor Welcome Team participants creative work they wished to share.  The photos included were taken by Betsy Ogilvie.

Here’s some of Tamar Duncan’s contributions:

John Muir Award – My experience

I have enjoyed working on the John Muir Award. It has given me the opportunity to discover more about the Garden and see it in yet another different light.

I help record the wildlife sightings in the Garden. To explore the Garden’s wildlife, I developed a bird identification sheet to take the enthusiastic John Muir Award into the Garden and talked about how to identify birds that find sanctuary here from their colour, shape, size and calls.

From this I focused on looking at the Bullfinch, which is one of my favourite birds, and how we can conserve this beautiful, shy bird. The bird is declining in numbers throughout the UK; however it seems to thrive here in the Garden. This will be a project that I will continue to look at and share through Botanics Stories and Facebook. I will also share a few words of thought, inspired by John Muir’s poetic way.

I have found it interesting learning about John Muir, I’ve been inspired by his story. I am already involved with conservation campaigning, teaching with eco-schools and of course engaging with the visitors of RBGE but the John Muir Award has provided the opportunity to share my experience, learn from others and to delve more into how to conserve nature.

Nature gives us life

The food we eat the air we breathe

Go outside, stop, look and listen to the natural wonders

Let us give life back to nature

Enrich your life; open your eyes and mind and Connect

 

For me, the natural world brings me peace, helps me to relax

My heart warms when I hear the song of a robin, smell a flower, and see a bee busily flying past

It makes me feel amazing when I can save any one of these lives

Its helps to put things into perspective

 

Nature lives, it breathes and bleeds like us

Show your human compassion, be kind to nature and all living things

 

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness”

John Muir

This poem was written by David Brash:

Discovery

10/12/14

One man who looks at nature

A yearning for discovery

Passion unrecognised

A father of life, in lands unknown

Discoveries and learning to be told

A path created

For us to follow

To learn

To love

To grow

Here’s one of my poems:

Merlins

 

Exuberant wing-flaps,

Darting over trees,

The thrilling exhilaration

Of chasing in the low sun’s beams.

 

I cannot imagine a finer existence

And freedom beyond compare

Than being able to hunt

While diving through the air.

 

It’s all a sport, a game,

It’s all a joy to be alive

And my greatest wish is that

The merlins continue to thrive.

 

If you would like to read some of my other poems you can find them on my Kyberpoetica website.