If you went down to The Children’s Wood, North Kelvin, Glasgow, UK tonight, you’d find this:
photo: Anne Whitaker
in the centre of the photo, a tiny flare of fire: a long IPhone shot of a beautiful, leaping bonfire on a crisp, cold, dry autumn night. Fireworks going off all round, sparks and whorls of vivid colour in the dark. Dozens of parents and children: children entranced, parents sipping mulled wine, enjoying the first mince pies of an extended winter season which now seems to begin at Hallowe’en. Yes, The Children’s Wood hosted a stunning event then too….fairy lights, food….and five hundred neighbourhood folk.
The local community has proved over the last six months that we need and want and use this green space. Support us by signing the North Kelvin Meadow Campaign petition. I have recently discovered that most of my blog followers live in the USA and Canada, followed by the UK and a healthy sprinkling of readers around the world. Can you help make this campaign international? If you can, sign the petition and circulate the link. Thank you!
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200 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2012
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
This is such a wonderful space. I’ve signed the petition and passed it on to some friends in England, who may be able to send it on through their facebook and flickr contacts.
Your photo is wonderful! There’s nothing like a bonfire to – make me want marshmallows. Do you folks toast marshmallows, too? Or is that an American thing?
Linda, thank you SO much for this support! We really do need all the help we can get in making the local authority see that what is being done here is in line with all we know internationally, via solid research, regarding the importance of three things: getting kids outdoors, providing opportunities for children and parents to be together, and fostering those ancient, vital, health-enhancing links between human life and the natural world.
Having fun is also vital! Maybe some other reader will have a more informed take on the toasted marshmallow situation in these parts than I…..but from my thirty-five year experience of Glaswegians (i.e people who live in Glasgow) if given a choice between marshmallows and mulled wine, the latter would win hands down…..