We are super pleased to announce our new partnership with the very worthy, awesome group Midlothian Wildflowers. Midlothian Wildflowers are ‘a grassroots community group working to create, care for and protect greenspaces throughout Midlothian while supporting the health and wellbeing of the communities (they) work with.’

The group spent some time last week at Three Hares with teenagers from Lasswade High School, continuing their work experience journey. We look forward to welcoming them back soon for the creation and installation of some bat boxes.

This is what Midlothian Wildflowers say:

‘Midlothian Wildflowers are delighted to join in partnership with the Three Hares Community Woodland, providing a unique conservation & wellbeing experience for fourth year students attending Lasswade High School. The session lasted for 3.5 hours, as a group we were fortunate to visit the Three Hares Woodland on a stunning beautiful Autumn day. Together we enjoyed the walk from Auchendinny exploring the tunnel, enjoying the colours of the leaves and the magnificent views over the Auchendinny Viaduct and South River Esk. The students had never visited Three Hares Woodland before, so were provided new exciting learning opportunities in: exploring new landscapes, habitats and woodland, learning skills in fire pit building, fire lighting and safety, tree identification, citizen science recording and identification using Inaturalist, nature photography, discovering local mushrooms and seeing the buzzard soaring high above on the clear blue sky. Over the course of our session we got down to rebuilding the fire pit. We took a nature riverwalk together learning how to navigate the pathways safely, before the students were sent off on their own to gather suitable rocks for the fire pit build. The students worked exceptionally hard as a team to complete the difficult challenge of gathering rocks from the river navigating at times challenging terrain while barrowing a heavy load. We then set a challenge of building a fire safely. We gathered the driest materials from the orchard clearing, learning to use loppers to cut up longer pieces of wood, gathering kindling,arranging wood to size and lighting the fire safely. We worked together as a team to ensure the fire pit was built safely for future use, gathering dry kindling materials, cutting wood,storing, then finally enjoying a brew together around our cosy fire. We enjoyed the freedom of the Three Hares together where we relaxed, reflected and enjoyed the much need fresh air. Midlothian Wildflowers would like to thank Lasswade High School, their wonderful students, Mrs Mconiville and the Three Hares for enabling a wonderful learning experience. We can’t wait to do it all again.‘