We are pleased to announce that the first ever Isle of Wight Twestival will be raising funds for Gift to Nature. Big thanks to those who voted for us in the Twitter poll. Do come along and show your support, it sounds like a great evening.
Press Release
26th May 2009
For immediate release
Great Big Squirrel launches Great Little Green Guide
A 6ft Red Squirrel launched Gift to Nature’s “Great Little Green Guide to the Isle of Wight” this bank holiday Monday onboard Wightlink’s Lymington to Yarmouth ferry. Visitors to the Island were greeted by the larger-than-life Red Squirrel, and Gift to Nature’s wildlife expert Ian Boyd was on hand to point out the fascinating wildlife visible from on deck. The Green Guide received a positive response from those on board, as did the squirrel handing them out. Sam Buck, Project Manager enthused “It was great to get such a good response. One person on board didn’t know there were red squirrels on the Island. Now she does, and has the information she needs in the guide to help her track down the regular size variety! Ian’s bird spotting skills were also popular – people coming to the Island are often keen to learn more about our wildlife, and just need a little help to get the most out of their time here.”
The new guide is the latest publication from Gift to Nature, who have helped tens of thousands of visitors to the Island find out more about the Island’s fascinating wildlife and beautiful habitats in previous leaflets, postcards and walking guides. The new guide provides a taste of the varied green activities and attractions the Island has to offer, from snorkelling and tree-climbing to nature reserves and local food. The guide is designed to be fun and accessible, and a revised edition will be produced each year.
The guide features lots of information on Gift to Nature’s wildlife sites around the Island, including the Red Squirrel Safari and viewing hide at Parkhurst Forest, Sandown Wetland Walk and picnic area and the nationally acclaimed Troll Trail.
Copies of the Green Guide are available free of charge from all Island Tourist Information Centres, the Gift to Nature Website www.gifttonature.org.uk and from many Gift to Nature member businesses.
Notes for editors:
Gift to Nature is a project run by local charity Island 2000 Trust. Through its supportive member businesses it collects money from visitors and local people who want to contribute something back to the Island’s unique environment. This money is invested in wildlife enhancement projects, creating and maintaining vital habitats and sites where visitors can discover the wonders of Isle of Wight Wildlife.
Photographs are available from http://www.flickr.com/photos/gifttonature
Wightlink are a corporate member of Gift to Nature, working closely with the organisation to help support Island wildlife.
For further information contact Martin, Sam or Ian on 200074 or 298098, or see the Gift to Nature website at www.gifttonature.org.uk Review copies of the guide are available on request.
Island 2000 now has two facebook pages and twitter, erm, thingies. Keep up with the latest using the links below:
Island 2000 Trust Facebook Page
Gift to Nature member Corries Cabin In Cowes are holding a Fishy Fundraiser (ok I’ll stop the puns now…) next week - between 23rd and 28th February. They will be donating 50p from every purchase made to charity, with 25p of this going to Gift to Nature. They have run similar fundraising events for five years, but previously only on one day.
“The event is always well supported” said owner Richard Quigley “but people have said they cannot always make it to the shop on that particular day, so we have decided to run it for the week, so that everyone that comes in can contribute.”
We think it’s a fab idea, and will be popping in for chips during the week.
Sunday dawned bright and blue despite the rotten forecast from the day before and an intrepid band had soon assembled down on Small Hope Beach for the 3rd annual SandmanSnowman event. The great thing about that bit of the Shanklin esplanade is that there are so many people out and about anyway and sure enough we soon had some game passers-by joining in. There were carrots and coal and lashings of hot chocolate, all the necessary ingredients for an excellent day and sure enough wonderful creations soon began to sprout from the sand. Take a look at the Flickr gallery to see them all:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandmansnowman/
We are currently in the throws of a fairly extensive modification of the Gift to Nature website ready for 2009. Please bear with us if anything on the site is not quite right over the next few weeks. Everything should be in order by the end of December.
I’ve been playing at the wordle website. This is a word cloud generated by wordle from the latest Gift to Nature posts. Click on the image for a bigger version.
We have now added the fantastic Snorkelling on the Isle of Wight to the Gift to Nature Shop.
The guide is great for beginners or more experienced snorkellers or simple for a more involved rookpooling experience. It combines great tips on where to go with quality photographs of some of the species you are likely to spot. Best of all it’s 100% waterproof, so you don’t have to worry about dropping it in the sea! You can buy it online or drop into any Isle of Wight Tourist Information Centre.
You too could look like this!
Gift to Nature’s Lin Watterson appears to always be doing something. Even when she sits still for 5 minutes the activity doesn’t stop, instead the knitting needles come out. Lin’s knitted iPod cases went down so well with staff in the office and their teenage offspring that we have decided to stock them in the Gift to Nature Shop. These are most definitely a limited edition, Lin can only knit so fast! As such I highly recommend hot-footing it to the Gift to Nature shop to snap up yours now for the bargain proce of just £4.50. Oh, and they also fit mobile phones or anything else that sort of shape/size (they are nice and stretchy).
P.S. This Nature Knit post is in no way connected with the excellent Nature Net website. That’s altogether different.
We periodically run walks and other events for Friends of Nature. Recently I lead a cycle ride along the Troll Trail (as recommended by the Daily Telegraph) to go pond dipping at Birchmore Pond. My first thought on the morning of the ride was to put all the equipment in the car, drive to the pond, drop it off, drive on to Merstone, get the bike out of the van, do the ride, then reverse the process. It took a while for my pea-brain to work out if I dumped half the equipment (which was always going to be more than we needed) I could strap it all to the bike and cycle the whole thing. After all, Dan managed to transport a 3m xylophone by bike. Thus I reduced my emissions to zero, and got some health benefit. As I rode out to Merstone it made me think about again how much more pleasant it was to actually experience the landscape rather than just zoom past it in my tin box.
I rather suspect a few people were rather frightened by the weird man in a cycling jacket, jeans and woolly hat with a huge net and tank strapped to his bike, so I apologise to you all.
I have spared blog readers the sight of me, but here is the simply modified bike come pond survey transport vehicle.
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