Features from Wildlife magazine Wildlife articles 2008 -- Spring 2008 -- ::Severn Barrage ::The Variety of life ::A year at Willsbridge ::Willsbridge comes of age ::Reaching out - Willsbridge ::Round the reserves Wildlife articles 2007 -- Autumn 2007 -- ::Thinking BIG ::Watery webs:the pond network ::Wildlife in the landscape ::Variety of life ::How to be a climate friend ::Seasonal stroll - Walborough ::Round the reserves -- Summer 2007 -- ::The Folly Farm appeal ::Weston Big Wood-biodiversity at its best ::The variety of life ::How to capture a butterfly ::How to get to know an orchid ::Seasonal stroll - WestonBigWood ::Reserves update -- Spring 2007 -- ::Folly Farm - a very special place ::Making a difference at Folly Farm ::How find the magic at Folly Farm ::Seasonal stroll at Folly Farm ::Magic spots at Folly Farm ::Batscapes ::Climate challenge ::Variety of Life - the Ponways project ::Round the reserves Wildlife articles 2006 -- Autumn 2006 -- ::The Severn Estuary ::Bird Watch results ::How to identify garden birds ::Making space for wildlife ::How does your garden grow? ::Round the reserves -- Summer 2006 -- ::Going for green ::Stand up and be counted ::Happy birthday NSLMP ::Holi day - a riot of spring colour ::Avon's species-rich grassland ::How to photograph dragonflies ::The Big Switch ::Round the reserves -- Spring 2006 -- ::How to identify winter water birds ::Make 2006 the year you... ::Invasive invasion ::Sowing the seeds: Willsbridge Mill ::Round the reserves Wildlife articles 2005 -- Autumn 2005 -- ::Indentify common funghi ::Build a hedgehog hideaway ::Big Bird Watch ::Champions for wildlife ::Round the reserves ::Seeds of the futre: Willsbridge Mill -- Summer 2005 -- ::Restoring Folly Farm ::How to become bee-friendly ::How to identify the butterflies of spring ::Save our seas ::The variety of life: hedgerows ::Round the reserves ::25 Ways to make a difference -- Spring 2005 -- ::The variety of life: water voles ::The Avon Biodiversity Action Plan ::How to take really good wildlife photos ::How to help your garden grow ::Round the reserves ::Seasonal strolls: Browns Folly ::Sowing the seeds: for wildlife for people ::Sowing the seeds: looking back

Magic spots

Visiting Folly Farm is a rewarding and positive experience for anyone. For people coming out from urban areas it can be a magical and empowering visit too.

We have had groups of city children coming out from Bristol and Bath to take part in the Earth Education programme at Folly Farm since the early 1990s when we first decided to open the gates to school groups and share this very special place with our future generations. It was the enormous success of our children's activities here that formed part of the vision we developed to restore Folly Farm into a residential centre offering a wide range of courses for children and lifelong training and learning for adults.

Inspired by nature
The Earth Education programme aims to help children to understand the earth's ecological systems and communities, deepen their feelings for the earth and its life, and reduce their personal impact upon the planet. Serious stuff? Yes, but inspiring, exciting and lots of fun as well.

One of the activities which we try to include in most of our Earth Education days is Magic Spots ... which is exactly what it sounds like! Every child (and parent and teacher) finds their own special place, their own Magic Spot, where they sit and experience what it feels like to be alone in nature - this is done very sensitively so that the children both feel and are safe. They may be sitting in Folly Wood, on a branch, a rock or a stream bank, or they may be out in one of the meadows, leaning against an ancient ant hill. They'll be able to see plants and often animals close by, and hills and woods in the distance. They'll hear birds and insects and the odd plane, they'll smell the earth in all its glory, and they'll be able to reach out and touch moss, quaking grass, a feather, a leaf. And it does feel strange at first, and slightly unnerving, and possibly boring. And then things start to happen ... the wind moves some leaves, a twig crunches just behind a bush, something in the distance changes, you move to get more comfortable and find there is a very interesting insect climbing along a blade of grass. And suddenly you're hooked. It happens every time. The first five minutes can be difficult to get through, for adults and children. You want to move, make a noise, attract attention, find someone to pull faces at, anything rather than just be alone. But once the children have broken through this barrier they love it. It is a fascinating world out there, and the children come back to the circle excited, laughing, full of stories and poems and pictures, and asking for more. For children doing a three day programme, they build up to doing half an hour in their Magic Spot and are still sad when it is time to finish.

Making connections
Magic Spots is very special, but just being at Folly Farm puts you in touch with nature and with yourself and your relationship to other plants and animals. Powerful stuff. Coming out from the city means you are leaving behind a particularly busy and built-up environment and at Folly Farm you begin to rebuild connections with the earth. Recently the Trust has carried out a research programme into the people we work with and would like to start to work with and we'll be building on this to encourage a wide variety of different groups of people to Folly Farm. In this work, we found out that so many people do enjoy experiencing and learning about wildlife in lots of different ways, but sometimes just haven't had the opportunity or time or maybe simple haven't been introduced to it. This is where we at the Trust come in. Our role is to make wildlife easily accessible by providing appropriate opportunities and to inspire people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to appreciate and love the natural environment, and the magic of Folly Farm makes this job all the more enjoyable.

When Folly Farm is ready to open its gates once again, we'll be looking forward to welcoming a broader cross-section of society, eager to find and strengthen their own connections with the natural world.

"My magic spot is near a little bush and long green grass and at the top of the grass there were different colours. I could hear the birds and they made different sounds everytime"
Candice

"My favourite part of the day was 'Magic Spots' when I saw a pheasant with an orange belly and bright red eyes, sitting on the hill in the meadow."
Jimmy

"When we went to our magic spot it was so peaceful that I could hear the bees buzzing. You could not hear anybody at all. I wish we could have another day there."
Laurie

"This is total heaven! I can hear birds very busy in the bush behind me - and the crows over Folly Wood circling and cawing loudly. Low bright sun slants through the long dry grass of the meadow. Each stalk woven into giant silken webs made by hundreds of tiny spiders..."
Volunteer helper