….you’ll sure get a big surprise….” as the old children’s song, ‘Teddy Bears’ Picnic’, goes.
“Think globally, act locally“ urges people to consider the health of the entire planet and to take action in their own communities and cities. Long before governments began enforcing environmental laws, individuals were coming together to protect habitats and the organisms that live within them. These efforts are referred to as grassroots efforts. They occur on a local level and are primarily run by volunteers and helpers…..” ( Wikipedia ) ….and they are surely taking great shape in our local neighbourhood, North Kelvin, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
May 2012 saw the start of The Children’ Wood – an offshoot of the sterling efforts of the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign, for the last few years the latest in several local initiatives, whose objective over a long period of time now has been to save a patch of local waste ground for community green space use, as opposed to its hosting yet another set of newbuild flats – in an already built up area – if Glasgow City Council’s plan for the space goes ahead.
To find out more about the The Children’s Wood click HERE.
photo: Anne Whitaker
You will see from checking out the above site that there have been a whole series of imaginative outdoor activities at The Children’s Wood this summer and autumn. These have captured the imagination of parents and children alike, as well as local residents whose own children by now have grown up and moved elsewhere. More events are planned!
The most recent event, yet again organised by local mum and community activist, Emily Cutts, was terrific fun and really well attended. Sunday 23 September 2012 saw a world music premiere!
The Little House of La – the children’s version of Indie pop group House of La – gave its first live performance at The Children’ Wood.Three band members were originally members of the well-known and popular Scottish Indie pop band Aberfeldy. Fortunately, one of their lively and catchy numbers, ‘The Ape Man‘ by The Kinks was captured on video and posted on YouTube.
View it HERE – to see community action, participation – and sheer FUN!!
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400 words copyright Emily Cutts/Anne Whitaker 2012
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
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from Kris Goodman, via Twitter 29.9.12:
Ohhhh, just reminded me of “Teddy Bears Picnic” Think I will teach this song to Kassidy tomorrow 🙂 Thanks Anne
Kris, you are welcome! Great to pass those brilliant old songs on to the next generation….
Dear Anne and all, simply love it……to be as the children.
Thanks a lot.
BTW: I am deeply bounded by the nature. It must be in the genes somehow, and believe in it or not, but the nature of Scotland and Norway are very much the same.
Hi Inger Lise
thank you for affirming this initiative. And yes, I do believe it ….there is a stark beauty to both countries….and I love the music of Jan Garbarek who invokes the dark power of the fiords.
What a fantastic initiative. Very, very inspiring. Thank you so much for letting us know about it!
Well, things like this are now happening all over the world….let’s see where it takes us!
Hi again Anne.
Yes absolutely, Jan Gabarek is good. If not recalling it all wrong of him originally came from Hungary as a youth and of him settled in Norway. Back in the 1960thies many refugees from Hungary settled in Norway.
May peace be on the earth soon.
Love and delight to all of us.
Thanks for that information, Inger Lise.
My goodness, I’d forgotten “The Teddy Bear’s Picnic”. On the 4th of July (our Independence Day) there was a Teddy Bear parade for the kids – I’ll have to check and see if the song was included.
I love the thought of the meadow as a setting for story-telling. For some reason, the mention of the wind in the trees and the dappled sunlight reminded me of my favorite book as a child – “Heidi”.
These local initiatives are so important. We had the saving of our historic oak, of course, but on a more regular basis people are involving themselves in the planting of marsh grasses to help preserve our coast.There’s so much that is being done, and so much more that could be done, if only government would get out of the way. (That’s our government – not yours. I don’t know enough about yours to criticize it!)
Thanks, Linda. There is so much going on locally which should give us reason for hope across the world – if only governments would get out of the way as a general principle, I think – not an issue confined to the USA or the UK !!
Thanks for highlighting the campaign Anne, it’s great to hear that there are similar initiatives going on across the world and wonderful to have the support of people like yourself. Shoreacres, have you come across Richard Louv, author of Last Child in The Wood? he is spearheading a large scale nature movement in the States.
Thanks, Emily. As you know, I really admire the way you have put your own values and beliefs into practice in spearheading our inspiring local movement!