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  1. Friends of the New Forest

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    I absolutely love the New Forest.  Based in the south of England,  it's such a beautiful place to visit.   I adore watching the New Forest ponies, cattle, deer and donkeys make their way around the villages and seeing all the wildlife in the wooded areas.  It's lovely to stop off at and tuck into a cream tea.  I remember well going on holiday there and driving through a little ford which was very exciting.  I highly recommend a visit, if you're thinking of a holiday.  Great place to go horse riding and dog walking, too.

    So when I heard about the Friends of the New Forest, I just had to tell you about it.

    When I wrote this blog back in 2017, the Friends of the New Forest were 150 years old.   Since 1867, the association has been protecting, conserving  and enhancing the fauna, flora and  heritage of the New Forest. 

    Its vision of the New Forest is "a unique naturally beautiful yet living and changing place in which strong elements of tranquillity and wilderness are maintained despite the increasing pressures from the demands of local population, recreation and infrastructure."  You can find out more about it here

    And it carries on its work today, protecting the Forest.

    Its campaigns include

    • Commoning
    • Habitat conservation
    • Landscape
    • Planning and development
    • Recreation
    • Roads
    • Education and understanding

    If you become a member of the Friends of the New Forest and contribute to the long-term protection of the special character and qualities of the New Forest.  There are also events and campaigns you can get involved with.

    As a Friend of the New Forest you will receive:

    • Their magazine
    • Invitations to the AGM and other informative or social events giving you the opportunity to meet other members
    • Details of activities or campaigns in which you can take part
    • A copy of their Annual Report.

    Click here to visit the New Forest Association's website and find out more

  2. May is Local and Community History Month

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    Did you know that May is Local and Community History Month?

    The aim is to raise awareness of local history – often forgotten besides the histories of people such as Henry VIII or events such as the Second World War.   But it’s also a chance to promote history to local communities and get people involved.

    Getting involved in a local history group is also a great way to meet other people who are also interested in history, so like-minded people, and you can learn a lot from each other.

    The Local and Community History Month is organised by the Historical Association.  It’s a chance to get out and about in your area, and really delve into how  your local area has changed, what’s happened and why, the local characters involved,  how it connected with the outside world and so forth.   The Association have 10 Top Tips for Researching the History of Where You Live so this would be a great place to start and there will be events going on all over the country.

    One great source of local history is of course newspapers. Thanks to a great project between the British Library and the British Newspaper Archive, there are now over 84 million pages of newspapers you can access online through a subscription.  They’re adding more and more pages each week and there are still new titles being added, too.  So you can find out all about local history in your area even if  you are still restricted, or do your research online and then  head off to spot history, stand where it happened, and imagine what life would have been like

    The British Newspaper Archive gives us a chance to see what readers wanted to read about and hear about, what was popular to sell and buy at the time – the advertisements are a great source of information – and what sort of social events were held.  You can give a gift subscription for one month or choose to run it for longer.

    Local and Community History Month is also an opportunity to raise awareness of the Historical Association itself.

    The Historical Association has a number of memberships, including a Gift Membership –  and the Historian Membership which is for anyone who just loves history.  There are also different memberships for those involved in the subject at primary or secondary level and you can see what the different membership levels include here.  The website on its own is a massive mine of information for people involved at a professional level e.g. history teachers or wannabe history teachers but there’s also lots of articles and topics of interest for people who just love the subject.


    Historian Membership of the Historical Association includes The Historian,
    the quarterly magazine of the Historical Association

    Historian Members receive The Historian quarterly magazine (not every membership includes this) and you can download a free copy by registering online to see what it’s like.  It’s a great gift for anyone who teaches or studies history – or who just loves it.  I did History for my degree and still love immersing myself in the past to escape from the craziness of this modern world we live in and daily routine!

    Memberships help support the Association’s mission to develop the teaching, learning and enjoyment of history at all levels, for generations to come.

    Members also have free access to over 350 high-quality podcast talks by history experts; these cover historical periods, regions and themes, so there’s plenty to discover!

    The Historical Association was originally established in part to bring people together who were interested history, and there are over 45 local branches around the UK meeting regularly.  Branches organise a programme of speakers every year so that members and the public can hear from historians and researchers.  You can find your closest branch here.  They may also be history visits and CPD events, it depends on the branch.

    Find out about the Historical Association's Historian Membership here 

    There's also the British Association for Local History, which is the national association devoted to local history.  It publishes books and pamphlets on local history, and it also publishes both The Local Historian, a quarterly journal, and Local History News, a topical magazine.  It has lots of resources online, plus events and there are even classroom exercises to bring local history into the classroom!  There are several different types of membership.  Visit the British Association for Local History here

     

  3. Give a gift membership to Plantlife

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    Plantlife is one of my favourite charities.   If you're looking for a gift membership for someone who loves flowers and wildflowers in particular, and wants to help with conservation, please take a look at its website. 

    Wild flowers , plants and fungi are essential for all our wildlife.  There's nothing like seeing a beautiful roadside verge full of wild-flowers, or a wild-flower meadow.   

    Plantlife work to raise awareness of the importance of wildflowers, plants and fungi and to protect them so that future generations can enjoy them and that wildlife can continue to benefit from them.   

    Get involved in Plantlife and conservation!

    We can all get involved in their work, by going on a Great British Wildflower Hunt, taking part in No Mow May (leave some of your lawn uncut and then you can work out how many bees and butterflies the area would support - Every Flower Counts!  They have a cowslip survey and of course, they have a Road Verge Campaign.   The good news is that many councils are taking steps to make road verge management more sustainable and wildlife-friendly. 

    Give a gift membership!

    Membership benefits include Plant Life magazine three times a year, a free identification guide, information on how to grow wild flowers in your garden and priority access to selected events

    Give a gift membership to Plantlife
    Image ©Plantlife

    Other ways to support Plantlife and its vital conservation work include:

    • Adopt an acre
    • Adopt a veteran tree
    • Adopt a reserve
    • Adopt a flower
    • Make a donation
    • Support an appeal

    You can do all of these things through Plantlife's online shop. 

  4. Memberships help the WWT fulfil its mission to help wetlands and wildlife

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    The 2nd February is World Wetlands Day, and in the UK, the main charity helping to protect our wetlands is the WWT. 

    If you’re looking for a membership for a nature lover, what about giving them a gift membership to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (the WWT)?

    It’s a win-win, as you’re giving a meaningful gift which will make a difference, you know your money won’t be wasted and your loved one can enjoy the gift for as many months as the membership lasts.

    You can help nature with your gift! 

    The WWT says that nearly all life depends on wetlands for water, food or somewhere to live.  They include estuaries, deltas, mudflats, floodplains, peatlands, marsh and the bog and pond at the end of your garden.  But a third of them have been destroyed.

    How the WWT want the world’s wetlands to look by 2040:

    1. The UK’s wetlands and their wildlife are thriving and increasing with blue and wildlife-rich corridors across towns and countryside, with threatened wetland species’ populations flourishing
    2. Everyone on the UK can access wetlands that provide amazing experiences and inspire them to support conservation
    3. Wetlands in the UK are recognised as part of our natural infrastructure, providing space for wildlife and people and vital services to us all such as reducing flooding, drought and cleaning our water.
    4. Decision makers globally understand the threats to wetland nature and are taking ambitious action to remove those threats. Strong international agreements support better wetland management across the world.
    5. Wetlands are managed in a way that benefits wetland nature and enhances people’s lives across the world.  People understand how wetlands that are thriving and doing well improve and sustain local livelihoods.
    6. Risks are decreasing for all wetland nature.  No species have gone extinct.

    The WWT wants wetland nature to recover, so that all the species we share our planet with have a future.   It believes that showing people first-hand how amazing wetlands are will set alight their passion to help the charity conserve them. So it welcomes a million visitors every year to its wetland reserves around the UK.  Find your nearest centre here.

    You can find out about its conservation projects here – they strengthen the link between wetlands, wildlife and people in the UK and beyond. 

    3 Ways Memberships help the WWT:

    The WWT says that membership helps them meet these goals and here’s how:

    1. They provide funding for the WWT’s conservation work
    2. They add weight and noise to our campaigning work a
    3. They help spread the word about how wonderful wetlands are for wildlife and people.

    WWT Member benefits:

    • Support conservation
    • A welcome pack
    • Unlimited free entry (centres are currently closed due to the coronavirus except for Steart Marshes but you would still be supporting nature conservation with this gift)
    • Regular copies of the Waterlife magazine

    Please give a gift membership to a nature lover and support the WWT in its work to protect wetlands for all our sakes.  I’ve joined – will you?

    Give a gift membership today or just join yourself and give the gift of your support to WWT