Squeeze in a stroll

As March draws to a close, a couple of things occur. I am writing this on the day of the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring - if you subscribe to the astronomical calendar, although I find nothing at all wrong with celebrating Spring on St Brigid's Day in February as they do in Ireland, and at the start of March as per meteorological Spring. You do need your teeth in to be able to say that however. And if you're celebrating twice, why not a third time, today, the day that day and night are of equal length. Or are they? In fact just before I sat down to write this, I learnt a new phenomenon: equilux. A level Latin has never felt so useful as I translated this to equal light. An equilux occurs twice a year when light and dark are equal lengths. Hang on though, isn't that the same thing as equal night - and day, as in the equinox? Apparently not! Well, you can imagine how quickly I fell into a hole in the internet with this news! The equilux this year, at the latitude of Glasgow fell on 17th March this year, so a whole 3 days ago. It all comes down to how you measure the sun - from the edge, or from the centre. As I understand it, equal light is measured from the edge of the sun, so the first moment it appears on the horizon, to the last moment it disappears behind it. Which makes it a few minutes different from day and night, which is measured from when the centre of the sun reaches the horizon - in both directions! If you want to read more then there is a good introduction here. An equinox is a festival of balance, so now is a good time to take stock, and gently start to throw off the shackles of winter and step into Spring.

Balancing in another form takes its place at the end of March with the end / start of the financial year in the UK, so right now many people are balancing the books, looking at finances and statistics, demonstrating what has been achieved over the last year. We're no different at GOL, and this year in South Lanarkshire we're just tying up the last pieces of our Paths for All Smarter Choices Smarter Places project. Throughout March we're encouraging people to squeeze in a stroll whether that's in their lunch hour, during their commute or to the shops. Because that's the other thing about this time of year, the outdoors is a much more hospitable place. It might still be cold, but it's much lighter. I am always surprised on the day that I find myself in the park first thing in the morning and it is still light despite knowing that it is inevitable. I realise this will change briefly in another week or so when the clocks go forward but for now I am enjoying it, especially with the return of the woodpecker in the park - a whole week later than the last two years. On Monday out in Carluke finishing up our last Make Your Way walk, I was thrilled to see two hares bounding up the path ahead of us. I can't comment on if they were mad or not, but for some great walks around Carluke, and many other areas of South Lanarkshire do check out the Make Your Way website, and keep your eyes peeled for paper maps and two map boards making their appearance soon in the town. Another area of focus for us has been walking in Hamilton, not least because it's where the VASLan office is based. For over a year now we've been trying to get out for a walk at lunchtime after our team meetings. Recently our favourite walk location has been Bothwell Road Park, as some of us like to have a wee shot on the swings while we're there. We are wanting to encourage more people to get away from their desks at lunchtime so we're sending out some postcards to the NHS Lanarkshire health improvement team based in Beckford Street and SLC HQ to spread the word. On the reverse is the link to our Go

Jauntly walk which will take you a wee loop around the park, taking in the swings and the sensory garden. Sadly a lot of trees did come down in the park during Storm Eowyn so watch your step and send the trees some love as you pass. If your office is based in Hamilton and you'd like to share the postcards with your staff, give us a shout. By the way if you live in Hamilton and fancy a walk at a weekend, there's a health walk that leaves from the Whitehill Neighbourhood Centre at 10.30 on a Sunday - and of course many more health walks across Lanarkshire every day of the week with our friends Get Walking Lanarkshire. Our thanks also goes to them for logging routes on Go Jauntly as well as sharing routes with us so we can go and walk them. The new walk in Larkhall was one I enjoyed getting out to do very much, and while I'm thanking people, all the support from the Countryside Ranger Team in South Lanarkshire Council has been very much appreciated. How lucky I have felt to be taken on great walks that I never knew existed - and then get to share them with other people.

It's been great to have been able to continue our partnership with Go Jauntly over the last year through this funding. We've added 12 walks from local community centres or health centres and hospitals to the closest greenspaces, to encourage people to get outdoors or to travel actively to these sites. However in Carluke we've been able to add even more walks thanks to the work of Carluke High School and some of the primary schools who have photographed their own walks and uploaded them to show us the places they like to go in the town. Thanks to the team at Community Action Lanarkshire for all they've done to make this happen. We've added a Go Jauntly page to our GOL website where you can find a selection of our walks, and of course they are all available on the app which we highly recommend you download. As part of this year's partnership many of our new walks and some of our most popular older walks are available to print as PDFs if you're not keen on having to use your phone when you are out in nature. This is the last year of Smarter Choices funding from Paths for All, and we're really grateful for all the work we have been able to do and the partnerships we've built up as a result of it.

Finally to point you in the direction of another app just in case you're in the mood for something new. Nature writer Melissa Harrison has recently launched Encounter Nature, a guided nature journal for your phone. Dedicated as I am to notebooks and writing by hand, although I downloaded it as soon as it was launched, I have to admit I haven't really used it. However journaling really is only one aspect of it. There is a lot of information available too. I've had to switch it off and walk away so I can get this post finished, but I'll point you firstly in the direction of an article from the Highland Countryside Rangers which was highlighted on the app, which has changed my mind about gulls, in the time that I took to read it (although I am still scared of them) and secondly I need to share my new found knowledge that (and please excuse the capitals) MAGNOLIAS EVOLVED BEFORE BEES and so are pollinated by beetles. If you need me, I'll be poking around the local magnolias looking for beetles. Happy Equinox.