The Great Outdoors
So much of what we enjoy involves tramping around in mud or just being out of doors. Fortunately, we live in a very beautiful county.
We love our town and like to spend time picnicking on the beach, especially Morison's Haven where you can collect fragments of broken pottery (a relic from the town's industrial past). Jan is fond of taking her metal detector despite the fact we have never found anything with it. We often combine this with a visit to Prestongrange Museum or Burns Yard.
Beachwatch
The Adopt-a-Beach scheme, supported by the Crown Estate and DEFRA's Environmental Action Fund, has been developed from the hugely successful annual Beachwatch event, which continues as the flagship of Adopt-a-Beach. Nationally, the project aims to create a network of 500 adopted beaches around the UK cost, making it the country's largest coastal environmental initiative.
We 'adopted' the 100m length of beach stretching from the steps opposite the Prestoungrange Gothenburg westward past the murals. The annual beachwatch survey takes place during the September weekend when we, along with other volunteers clean and survey each and every bit of debris collected in the 100m zone.
The information gathered during the surveys will be used to raise awareness of the problems and dangers of coastal marine litter to both humans and wildlife. It will also enable the main sources of local litter inputs to be identified and the polluters responsible to be targeted.
More information: Adopt-a-Beach
Geocaching
The pursuit is often described as 'high tec treasure hunting'. Basically, a weatherproof container is hidden (but not buried) and the aim is to track it down using specified GPS co-ordinates and the given clues. A container can be anything from a tiny magnet smaller than a watch battery to a lidded lunchbox packed full of toys and novelties.
It's a great way to make more of your outside time and fits in well with other pursuits e.g. dog walking, birdwatching, rambling, bookcrossing etc. No matter where you are in the world, you are never very far from a geocache.
We went on our first geocache in 2007 and, although we don't go nearly as often as we would like, we find it great fun.
More information: Geocaching.com
Litterpicking
This is Jan's obsession but the other Barkers often as not join in any clear ups going on and we have all got in the habit of taking a litter picker and rubbish bag along with us when we go out for a stroll.
Cuthill Park was neglected for years until a bunch of locals turned up with gardening tools, litter pickers and paint and smartened it up. The Council added a dog bin and overnight one particularly unpleasant feature of Cuthill was eliminated. The people who live near to the park have formed an action group with a view to securing funding and safeguarding it's future.
Oblitter8 was a town-wide clear up to launch the East Lothian Litter Initiative which combined litterpicking with geocaching.
The local churches regularly combine forces to combat litter. The CCU (Church Clear Up) Crew kindly let Jan tag along on clear ups despite the fact she is not a member of any church.
Prestongrange Community Archaeology Project
The project, which has been supported by a £50,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and developed and co-ordinated by East Lothian Council Archaeological Service and East Lothian Council Museums Service was launched on Saturday 24 April 2004 at Prestongrange Museum.
The Project provides 20 or so local volunteers - of whom Jan was lucky enough to be one - with the opportunity to take an active role in archaeological work assisting professional archaeologists to uncover more about the history of the site. The first phase had three main aims:
1. to investigate the 16th century harbour, fort, vaults and tidal mill,
the 17th century glassworks, the 18th century pottery and the 19th century
tollbooth
2. to provide information which will contribute to the long-term conservation
and interpretation of Prestongrange
3. to enable interested individuals and local communities to get actively
involved in a long term archaeological project, working alongside qualified
archaeologists
More information: PCAP
Guerilla Gardening
Secret sprinkling, midnight planting, illicit cultivation. What are we one about? Guerilla gardening involves taking over a derelict plot of land and doing whatever is necessary to restore it to its former glory. It can be as simple as pulling a few weeds, planting a few daffodils...or whatever your resources allow.
This video explains it far better than we ever could...
More information: Guerilla Gardening