Think Health Think Nature October Newsletter
Welcome Helen!
We’re excited to welcome Helen Perkins who is our new Senior Development Officer Green Health :)
Helen is originally from Cornwall but has lived here in the Highlands for over 15 years .Helen moved here to be near the Mountains so she could ski more .
Helen tells us “ I still love to ski but you'll find me on the beginners slopes now with my kids!” she goes on to say, “I Love this area as I can experience being in the snow at wintertime and also get to enjoy dipping in the beautiful Lochs, rivers and sea in the summer months. I have worked as an Mental Health Occupational Therapist, prior to this role and have enjoyed offering groups and activities delivered in the outdoor environment . This included Branching out Groups and weekly Greenspace activities within the hospital grounds .I am lucky to experience the benefit of nature and the outdoor environment within my personal life and sharing it with others within a work setting . I truly believe of the benefits of offering Green health-based activities to improve a persons wellbeing. “
Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults
Highland Third Sector Interface is pleased to be distributing the Highland Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for a third round on behalf of the Scottish Government.
This fund is to support community based initiatives that promote and develop good mental health and wellbeing and/or mitigate and protect against the impact of distress and mental ill health within the adult population.
Improving Applications - Group Sessions on Communities MH&W Fund
Are you fairly new to funding applications or lacking in confidence? Are you unsure why previous funding applications may have been declined? Are you looking for reassurance that you have the answers needed to submit an application?
If so, you can sign up for a free group session, where Marion MacNeil, Development Officer (Funds & Fundraising), will guide you through the form for Year 3, for anyone considering completing an application.
Please be aware, these sessions will not cover specific proposal queries. We encourage you to contact [email protected] to discuss any concerns or issues you have around your project(s) and how it fits within the criteria.
Heading for the Scottish Hills - Hillwalking during the deer stalking season.
The Heading for the Scottish Hills service helps you find out where deer stalking is happening on Munros, Corbetts and other popular hills throughout Scotland, so you can plan hill routes that minimise the chance of disturbing stalking, in line with the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.
The uplands are a much-loved destination for anyone wanting to experience Scotland’s great outdoors but activities such as hill walking also increase the likelihood that we accidentally disturb essential deer culling. Increased deer culling is necessary to stop overgrazing, enabling our upland habitats to recover as part of our response to the nature and climate crises. Deer are alert to human activity from a great distance. So, it is often impossible to tell when our presence has unsettled them, or moved them away from areas where stalking is taking place, making it more difficult, or impossible, to cull deer in that area on that day.
Due to the biodiversity and climate crises, the Heading for the Scottish Hills service is expanding in 2023 to cover the red deer stag and hind stalking seasons from 1st July to 15th February.
You can help to minimise disturbance during this whole time and especially during two key periods - from the 1st to 20th October and towards the end of the hind season, which ends on 15th February.
Roddy Maclean looks at places on our maps named for the bellowing of stags during the rut.
There is a wonderful Gaelic word, which has a hint of the onomatopoeia about it, that tells of a fantastic, wild sound to be heard, at a certain time of year, in the Scottish hills. The word, which appears surprisingly frequently on maps of the Highlands, is bùirich (pronounced approximately ‘BOOR-ich’ with a long ‘OO’) and here are its foremost meanings according to Dwelly’s Gaelic-English dictionary: ‘roaring as a bull, bellowing; wailing; growling; loud lament; low murmur’. In nature, the word can represent the roar of wind, the sea or a waterfall, the sound of thunder or the call of the mythical characters known as ùruisgean (urisks) near the streams that are their abode.
Why should such a word appear in place-names? Is it simply a descriptor of the howling of the wind in that location? Well, perhaps occasionally, but in most cases, I would submit that bùirich in the landscape represents the sixth meaning in Dwelly’s tome: ‘bellowing of deer in the rutting season’. Is there a finer sound to be heard in a remote upland location?! ….
S a v e t h e d a t e
Monday 13th November, 11am - 3pm at Abriachan Forest
For the Arts in Nature Project Launch
Highland Third Sector Interface are launching a new project, Arts in Nature, and invite you to join us at Abriachan Forest to learn more about the project and take part in some nature based creative workshops int he surrounding woodland. The Arts in Nature project aims to support organisations and groups to take their creative activities outdoors and into nature. Workshops will be held during morning and afternoon sessions and lunch will be provided.
Invitations and programme to follow. Please pass this on to anyone in your organisation that you think may be interested in the event.
If you have queries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Charlotte Mackenzie, Arts in Nature Manager [email protected]
Events
Art & Nature: Mandala Making
Saturday 21 October 2023 / Eden Court, Inverness / 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Join us for a relaxing mandala making session using natural and mixed media materials. Through our conversation and art making together, we will explore our connections with art & nature reflecting on how and why they can benefit our wellbeing.
This drop-in session concludes the activity of the Art & Nature Connections project, led by Green Tree Arts in collaboration with members of Moray & Highland Communities. Through their research activity, they have found that creativity and nature can help us to express how we are feeling, creating space for discovery and reflection, and key to this is the companionship and building meaningful connections with others.
This mandala session will be informative, empowering, and fun. Alongside this, we will share film, artwork, poetry, and photography created within the project, inviting you to explore your own relationships with art & nature further in response to what you see.
Wheelchair accessible venue
This drop-in event will take place at the Community Table Space on the 2nd Floor at Eden Court. [email protected] / 07860 867 118 / FREE
Our Project Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etJfijCT-OU&t=48s
Our Project web page http://greentreeartsstudio.co.uk/
Monthly Forest Therapy Group
Find a Nature Walk for Wellbeing in Inverness
Join a Nature Walk for Wellbeing in Nairn
Outdoor Dementia Resource Centre
Autumn 2023 Project Update Activities:
The days may be getting shorter but Badaguish remains as busy as ever as autumn approaches. The warm spell around the September bank holiday coincided with another Outdoor Music session in the tipi. We have also been foraging for fungi, gardening and getting creative with nature in recent weeks. Andy has caught some great animal images with our webcam. You can view a link to our short wildlife film on our webpage:
https://www.alzscot.org/living-with-dementia/getting-support/find-support-near-you/outdoor-dementia-resource-centre
News / Articles
Why tackling biodiversity loss could solve the climate crisis
Is tackling biodiversity loss or climate change more important?
Think Nature Health Walks have had a busy summer. Read their latest newsletter to find out what they have been up to and how to get involved.
Funding
Branching Out Fund -The Tree Council
Need funds for a community planting project? Branching Out supports applications ranging in value from £250 up to £2,500, with specific criteria for those under £500, and those above £500. The deadline for applications is Sunday 3 December 2023.
Resources
Nature Connection Guide
It’s not just the connection with nature that’s important, it’s about the nature of the connection
An Online Nature Connection Guide brought to you by An Darach Forest Therapy and funded by local Green Health, Community and Environmental initiatives.
This Nature Connection Guide offers a range of simple nature connection activities that you can try in different locations.The idea is to really slow down to the pace of nature, connect with nature through all your senses and experience the benefits to wellbeing greater nature connection can bring.
In using this Nature Connection Guide resource, we hope that you will pledge to:
Take only nature connection journal entries, photographs and memories (and the occasional fallen pinecone or interesting leaf), and leave only footprints
To reflect on what you can offer back to nature, so that the locations listed are not just used and exploited by humans for their wellbeing potential, but benefit from a reciprocal relationship
A reminder that all the Think Health Think Nature Resources can be ordered directly from the Health Improvement Resource Service (HIRS). Including the popular Almanac! They can post to your nearest NHS location, such as GP surgery or clinic.
That’s all for this month! Thanks for reading. We hope you enjoy checking out all of the resources and events provided and will be back with a new update next month.
If you have something you’d like shared in our next newsletter, please send it to [email protected] by September 28th.
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