Captain Carbon flies again!
In good time for the school holidays, we’ve launched a new booklet to help children enjoy Kilmagad Wood, the beautiful woodland on the side of the hill above Scotlandwell.
This is a companion to our popular ‘Bogtastic’ booklet, in which Captain Carbon takes youngsters on an adventure round Portmoak Moss. The new one is called ‘Treetastic’ and once again Captain Carbon - a climate change superhero - invites you to use your senses to see, smell and hear the different kinds of plants and birds that live in the wood.
In the centre of the booklet there’s a map with points of interest to discover and by the end of your adventure you should be able to identify some of the different trees which grow there. The booklets are available in a dispenser just inside the main entrance gate, across the road from Portmoak Kirk car park.
The launch took place during a guided nature walk, led by PCWG member, Marjorie Smith, who has also been responsible for commissioning the booklet. It was under the banner of the Portmoak Festival and the group have been pleased to participate in this and other events during June.
The weather was also fine enough for a folk music concert, featuring local musicians, in Chris’s Place, at the heart of the orchard in Kilmagad Wood. It’s a perfect little amphitheatre and we hope there’ll be more live music there in the future.
There was supposed to be ‘Jazz on a Summer’s Day’ in the middle of the month but by then the spell of dry weather had broken and sudden showers with blustery winds made it too risky to set up instruments and equipment outside. Luckily we have Portmoak Village Hall just across the road which meant that around 50 people spent a pleasant afternoon listening to the Batchelor’s of Jazz playing some well known numbers and some less familiar takes on old standards, like ‘Benny’s from Heaven’.
After this rare digression from our core activities we’re back on track for the rest of the summer, with plans to pull Himalayan Balsam, to stop it invading the Moss and a public fungal foray with an expert guide to help you identify mushrooms and toadstools, also in the Moss. That’s not til the end of August and there’ll be more details to come.