three hares woodland

The Three Hares and Dougie Mackay storyteller are thrilled to annouce we’ll be taking part in Visit Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022!! Thanks to Year of Stories Community Stories Fund we’ll be running:

‘Rekindling the ceilidh: storytelling through the Scottish seasons’

This project will bring young people and the local community together to share traditional stories, and create new ones, inspired by their natural environment. A group of young people (aged 8 to 13) will create stories about the natural world during a series of outdoor storytelling sessions. They will then help to develop and participate in four public events tailored to the seasons, weaving together storytelling, crafts and nature exercises which mirror each season. We can’t wait!

Look out for more details in the new year on the young people’s storytelling programme and the four public events to run from March – October next year!

Find out more about all the excellent events for Year of Stories 2022 here: www.visitscotland.org/news/2021/yos-events

#YS2022

We are continuing our monthly volunteer days, which usually happen on the last Sunday of the month. For December we are bringing the date forward to this Sunday 12th, from 11am to 2pm.

We will be joined by the Edinburgh University Conservation crew the Dirty Weekenders, but all are welcome!

Jobs include swapping spiral guards to deer guards, removing competitive grasses from base of trees, and generally just giving our newly planted trees some TLC.

Bring your own water/refreshments/snacks. Bring gloves if you have, although we do have a wee stash. And wrap up warm!

Last weekend The Three Hares had the pleasure of welcoming Kyria arts for a couple of days rest stop before the last leg of their (long!) journey to COP26. Kyria arts have been walking from the south of England to Scotland over the last few months in time for the UN climate conference which starts this week in Glasgow.

The walkers have been gathering stories, dreams and hopes from people they’ve met along the way to create a final performance piece to be presented during COP26 which reflects the people and land which made up their jouney.

Dougie Mackay storyteller and other Scottish residents gathered at Three Hares to welcome them for a day of storytelling, performance exchanges and fire gathering.

We wish them luck on their final journey to Glasgow, and hope to catch their final performance!

It’s only 3 days till the start of out story camp event. We still have a few tickets available so if you have a 9-12 year old then why not sign them up! The event starts on Wednesday so if you know anyone who might be interested please share this with them. It will be a fun and varied 3 days with story telling, fire lighting, games, playing in the river, and exploring the woods. We will have an experienced staff and volunteer team of three so your children will be well looked after. Tickets are £15 but if this is a barrier to your childs attendance please just let us know. We also have our new aframe installed so are ready for whatever the weather throws at us! To get tickets and for more information just follow this link https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5143521

As we’re in the midst of summer which for new woodland creation projects means there’s a lot of tree care to be getting on with, we reflect back to the end of this years tree planting season at The Three Hares.

Rewind to April where we hosted a wonderful tree planting event in partnership with Plant Paradise. They kindly donated 200 native broadleaf trees which were enthusiastically planted by a team of volunteers on one of the sunniest days of the year so far!

Plant Paradise are a non-profit organisation developing a web platform that connects volunteers with tree planting and greening projects. This tree planting event marked the testing of the pilot version of their platform before the full launch at the end of this year. Check out their Facebook page for more information, and while next visiting the land see if you can find the newly planted trees.

Photo credit: Laura Bourjac

Anyone who’s been lucky enough to recieve free native trees over the years also probably recieved an abundance of canes and spiral tree guards. We’ve seen lots of creative ways the canes can be put to good use after the trees out grow them, with a recent favourite being the creation of bee hotels!

Robert from Cohooley woods collected some of our old canes a few weeks ago and quickly whipped up these beautiful bee hotels. Bee hotels help support solitary bees who are important pollinators in our landscapes. These wild bees do not form colonies but nest alone and can take up residence in bamboo canes and other human-made tubular holes.

Making bee hotels can be a fun task for all. If you’d like to try building your own, check out Nature Scot’s guidance on best practice to increase the chances of your home being occupied.

If you want to see more of Robert’s wood work check out his Woodland Crafts Facebook page where funds go towards supporting Cohooley community woodland project.

We got more storage! In 2018 at the start of becaming stewards of The Three Hares land a beautiful Roundwood Hut was built. This has been a great gathering and storage space over the years, but recently we’ve needed more space.

Thanks to Emma Elliott-Walker, a carpenter and off-grid community builder, we recently installed a new mezzanine inside the Hut. This extra storage space will allow us to continue to use the hut for a rainy-day shelter option.

To check out other work Emma does, you can find them at:

• Personal instagram – @emma_elliottwalker
• Email – emmae-w@hotmail.co.uk
• Cross-cut cooperative instagram – @cross_cut_coop

Huge thank you to Scottish Forestry Community Grant for funding this build!