We welcome guest blogs from people living and working in Highland to help to inspire and raise awareness of the ways in which contact with nature can help to improve our health and wellbeing. If you have a story you would like to share, please read our guidance and get in touch.
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Go Green to Get Lean
Most of us head into the new year with a plan to be a little bit healthier, especially after an indulgent festive period! But as we sign up to gym memberships we often forget about opportunities available to us in our outdoor environment. This year, let’s take our workouts outdoors and practice both good physical…
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Books to Connect with Nature from Home – Our Top Picks!
Children’s Books: Life Cycles: Egg to Bee by Camilla de la Bedoyere. Packed with fascinating facts about life cycles. Amazing photographs of every stage. Labelled diagrams to explain growth and development. Butterfly Kiss by Vicki Churchill Newly hatched, butterfly can’t find the right food – and his friends aren’t any help at all! A Seed…
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N4H – Green Health Activity Day with Green Hive, Nairn 25th July 2021
Nature 4 Health, a well-established, locally based organisation, ran a full day programme of nature connection for the Nairn community. There were opportunities to try foraging, mindfulness movement, campfire cooking, coastal and riverside walks, paracording and to sit back and enjoy the storyteller’s engaging tales. Green Hive Nairn provided their welcoming orchard for everyone to…
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Lochcarron Community Development Company Green Health Events – Summer 2021
The Lochcarron community put on yet another great programme of Green Health activities over the summer of 2021. The Lochcarron area has several outdoor sites suitable for events for local people of all ages. Kirkton Woods, the Smithy Centre (with the community wood next door) and the village itself which is ideal for shoreside walks.…
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Seaboard Communities – Beach day 23rd August 2021 by Maureen Ross
Who better to tell you a little about a Green Health outing run as part of a summer long programme of sessions in the Seaboard Communities? Maureen Ross is the backbone of much of the community goings-on in this area, having been involved with the Seaboard Centre for over 20 years. The Green Health LEADER…
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Portskerra Activ’ Club, Melvich Beach Day 29th August 2021
Portskerra Activ Club (PAC) was set up during the winter of 2020 to encourage group community activities to help their everyone’s physical and mental health. Its driving force is the desire to improve community health, foster better support networks and encourage communication within and throughout their scattered, rural community. The Beach Day, open to all,…
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Sleat and Tormore Open Day – Sunday 14th August 2021
Welcome To Tormore Community Forest During July, August and September Tormore Community Forest volunteers offered a full-to-bursting programme of nature and wellness activities – for the local community and visitors to “come out into nature”. Everyone had an opportunity to test their artistic talents weaving a fish, creating with charcoal, and making clay tiles incorporating…
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Discovering Winter Trees
Sarah Walker is an accredited practitioner with the Institute of Outdoor Learning, with a BSc. Honours in Biological Sciences (Zoology) from Edinburgh University and over 10 years of teaching experience in environmental education. Under the name of Wild Willow, Sarah has produced a series of educational videos available online. Sarah writes: ‘During the pandemic, like…
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Garve and District Green Health Day by Toni Clark
Lochluichart Church and Community Hall 28th August 2021 There was so much to enjoy this day it’s difficult to know where to start! Despite having to arrange a new venue at short notice the day was full of engaging activities; with opportunities to mingle, and munch on delicious sandwiches and cakes. Friends and neighbours came…
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Badenoch and Strathspey Therapy Garden Open Day, By Ailsa Villegas
Badenoch and Strathspey Therapy Gardens mission statement is to: ‘to provide social and therapeutic horticultural activities in a safe and supportive environment for all members of the community, where everyone will be treated with respect’. The gardens are situated adjacent to the Am Fasgadh allotments in Kingussie, down beside the site of the former Highland…
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Abernethy Golf Club – Green Health Activity Day Sunday 4th July 2021
This Green Health funding allowed the Golf Club to put on their first ever activity day open to everyone – golfers and non-golfers. The day started with a “Golf Memories Coffee Morning” based on the Golf Memories Scotland project but with the emphasis on golf in this community. Aimed specifically at isolated members of the…
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Oliver’s Botanical Expedition
Oliver is a visually impaired young boy from Badenoch and Strathspey. The story of how Oliver’s Botanical Expedition to Inverness Botanic Gardens started back in Summer 2020 when he received a “Touch and Tell” Green Health Home Pack. Co-ordinated by the Highland Green Health Partnership this was just one of over 2000 Packs delivered to…
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The Joy of Hedgehogs visiting my Garden by Margaret
Hedgehogs visiting my garden? Who knew? I certainly didn’t until one mild early autumn evening last year when my neighbour was sitting outside and heard rustling on the gravel pathway at the side of my house. And there was a hedgehog – trotting from my back garden round to the front. She showed me the…
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Hydrotherapy on my doorstep
My wild swimming story began in July when my youngest son decided to buy a Paddle Board. I will come back to that……… I recognise talking about my health condition is my Achilles Heel. Most of those reading, who know me will be surprised by my story. So why am I writing this now? Recently…
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The Joy of Forest Bathing in Winter
Forest bathing was a term I first picked up after the birth of my second child. I used to take him for walks in the woods to cleanse the stress and monotony of life indoors with a newborn. I did not know, at the time, that Forest Bathing was actually based on a structured practice…
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Green Health For Home Educators
Since schools have reopened in August, pupils in mainstream education have been experiencing the much-needed health benefits of seeing their friends at school. For home-educated young people, this has not been possible as many of the social events and group meetings have been cancelled. Following the disruption to routine, parents have reported an increase in…
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Night Riding Is A Breeze
Night Riding is a Breeze When I was growing up, ‘Knight Rider’ was a talking car driven by David Hasselhoff. Last week, the term took on a whole new meaning (and spelling) for me. Annie is my next door neighbour and she is a UK Breeze cycle leader. This initiative is run by British Cycling…
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The road to a reserve
The Road to a Reserve My lockdown experience revolved around a road. The road to a small Scottish Wildlife Reserve called Tallich, which is a lovely little Alder wood, the remnants of what used to be a loch a very long time ago. Now, you’d think that my focus would be on the Reserve, but…
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Foraging in Nature
Foraging is such a wonderful and valuable outdoor pastime, with strong links to folklore, tradition and sustainable living. Our little boy, Arthur-Felix, is three, and has become quite the little forager! He has been coming out with us every day since he was just a baby, and after his first foraging experience of Bilberries at…
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Walking In Nature
“In a world that is so disconnected right now it is important to reconnect in a way that is safe, friendly and makes you feel great – nature is that way” The pandemic of 2020 has taken a lot from us with so many changes in how we live day to day which creates a…
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River Magic
River Magic These last few weeks have been draining at work. The pandemic has such a negative impact on so many people which resulted in me last weekend feeling overwhelmed and huddled up in the house with my dogs. At the start of this week I forced myself to make space in my working week…
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Nature Explorer Project, With HISA
Highlands and Islands Students’ Association Launches HISA Nature Explorer Project The Highlands and Islands Students’ Association (HISA) , who represents all higher and further education students across the University of the Highlands and Islands and its 13 partners/Colleges has launched a Nature Explorer Project to encourage students of the University of the Highlands and Islands to…
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Treasure hunting in Borgie forest
Recently, Tongue Walking Group managed to hold their #GreenHealthEvent which was funded through Think Health Think Nature, Highland Green Health Partnership funding. Ahead of COVID, there were a number of events planned for 2020 which we hoped would take place throughout the Highlands. These events would aim to encourage local communities to step outside and…
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Think Nature Health Walks – An Introduction
Think Nature Health Walks By Health Walks Co-ordinator, Charlotte Mackenzie “I go for a walk whenever I can, whether it’s around the garden, along the river by our house or further afield on an evening or at weekends to one of the many amazing places that there is to explore in the Highlands. Twenty minutes…
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Transition support through outdoor play
Transition Support through Outdoor Play Many children breeze through the transition from primary to secondary school, but for some, the move up to a much bigger school can be a very worrying prospect. Ordinarily, the last term of P7 before the summer holidays is all about marking that transition, from leavers assemblies to “moving up…
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‘Meeting The Cailleach’
Living up here in the Highlands gives us the chance to develop a personal relationship with nature that can help to enrich our lives in many ways. Through the cultivation of this very special relationship; a deeper appreciation for the ebbs and flows of the seasons, of nature and ultimately life can help inform…
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