Celebrating nature

Event organised by folk at work to celebrate nature...

Celebrate Nature Day featured something for everyone from children's games, facepainting, wildlife photography classes, nature and bird walks, a build-your-own bird box activity, creepy crawly & mini beast walks, bat watching, a children's nature trail, and nature photography film.

Scotland's Big 5 animals: a golden eagle, an otter, a red squirrel, a harbour seal and a red deer also made a special appearance. We got the kids to decide which plate of food each creature would prefer for their picnic (see photo). At one point the seal and otter were not entirely happy with their lunch!

The Big 5 campaign asks people across Scotland to vote for their favourite animal, as part of the Year of Natural Scotland.

Yummy cream teas were also on sale and we encouraged people to bring their own picnics and enjoy them on the grounds.

We even organised a free shuttle bus service to bring visitors from town to the event, with return buses all day.

The day got off to a rocky start due to the rain which made it difficult to set up before the event opened at 11:00. But by lunch time the rain had stopped and the sun even came out.

By the end of it all I was shattered, but I still managed to find time to have dinner with friends and go see the Lone Ranger at the cinema.