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As the Membership and Bookings Officer for Waveney & Blyth Arts, I am busy through the summer months taking bookings from people for the ‘Celebrate’ programme. But early in July, I went to volunteer for seven days with the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd in Scotland. The Cairngorm Reindeer Centre offer daily hill trips for visitors to see the herd and I had been on one of these trips in 2015, fallen in love with the reindeer and since then had wanted to return to spend more time with these charming and intriguing animals, and find out more about what goes on at Reindeer Centre, so I applied to volunteer.

The Cairngorm reindeer herd was established in 1952. Mikel Utsi visited Aviemore in the late 1940s and found that the habitat on the Cairngorm Mountain was perfect for reindeer, and had been surprised not to find any there. In fact reindeer had been native to Scotland but had died out, so Mikel Utsi reintroduced reindeer to the Cairngorm mountainside by bringing eight reindeer across from Sweden in 1952 and today the herd is 150 strong.

Reindeer Centre in Glenmore consists of a souvenir shop where visitors go to buy their hill trip tickets, a small office and accommodation for the herders. There is also a paddock and exhibition space so visitors can learn more about the history of the herd and about reindeer in general. There are craft activities to enjoy in this space and talks by herders. Four reindeer are in the paddock each day so that visitors who can’t make the hill trip still have the opportunity to interact with these fabulous animals.

When volunteering there is no guarantee of how much time volunteers get to spend with the herd as there are a variety of jobs to do at Reindeer Centre but I am tremendously grateful that I got to spend a lot of time with the reindeer, up on the hillside and in the paddock, learning about herding, halter training, health checks, and feeding, all of which I got to take part in, it was very exciting.

I was shown how to put food out for the reindeer in the paddock, these reindeer got an extra treat of lichen with their food, Lichen, birch leaves and blueberries, ‘blaeberry’ in Scotland, are all favourite food for the reindeer. Blueberries grow on the mountainside so are one of the things the reindeer have naturally in their diet. Although the reindeer have everything they need to eat on the mountainside their diet is supplemented with a food mix made by the herders at reindeer centre and so I was shown how to mix their food, and this became a task I did regularly. Included in the reindeer food are dark grains, a by-product of the whiskey industry, sheep food, barley and sugar beet.

In the summer months there are three hill trips for visitors a day. Visits to the herd are a car ride and short walk away from reindeer centre. The herders leading the hill trips carry the bags of feed up the mountainside where visitors are given the opportunity to hand feed the reindeer. Feeding the reindeer is a wonderful thing to do, they have furry noses and you can feel their breath on your hands as they feed. One of the things I loved about accompanying visitors on hill trips was seeing the joy on their faces when feeding the reindeer, the same joy I had first experienced when visiting in 2015. Visitors going on the hill trips will often need to hire wellies, so I would help with getting the right size for visitors and then washing off any dirt from the wellies when they were returned. Other general duties were cleaning and topping things up; stock in the shop, bird feeders, the squirrel feeder, water, and craft supplies in the exhibition centre. I swept up pine needles that were dropping from the trees and ‘poo picked’ the paddock. Where there are reindeer there is reindeer poop so scooping poop from the paddock area was one of the first jobs I was shown. This was not a messy job as reindeer poop is like a cluster of rabbit droppings.

Whilst in the paddock area there were often rabbits and pigeons, and on occasion I saw a tiny little mouse and I was also lucky enough to see red squirrels. I was also shown how to set up and close down the exhibition space and paddock area morning and evening and on my last day completed the set up and feed and let the reindeers in to the paddock by myself which was a real treat. What I really enjoyed and felt very privileged to be a part of was the team spirit at reindeer house, everyone working there looked for jobs to do and everyone helped with everything. It was very inspiring.

The striking difference between the Cairngorms and Norfolk is of course the mountains, and the incredible views that accompany a climb up a mountain. I climbed Cairngorm Mountain, which is the sixth highest mountain in the UK, there is a 360 degree view from the top and it did not disappoint, it was phenomenal. My camera battery had run out half way up but I was relieved in a way because it meant I was completely in the moment, absorbing the view of mountains after mountains after mountains for miles in the distance. There was some cloud the day I went up, not enough to obscure the view, just a few near by and when I reached the top it did feel as though I was in the middle of a cloud doughnut at one point, it was very atmospheric.

This was another fascinating aspect of going part way up the mountain on the hill trips, seeing the incredible views of the landscape, different on a daily basis, affected by the changing weather in the distance. I really enjoyed watching rain, mist, sunlight, clouds, and cloud shadows transform and morph the view, sometimes on a minute by minute basis.

Another difference between being in Scotland compared to Norfolk was the light. To be more specific, the hours of daylight. I don’t think I have previously travelled north in summer before as I was really surprised by how light it was late into the evening. With staying there so close to the summer solstice it was particularly noticeable. It was very striking, and as I hadn’t considered that it would be lighter it was a delightful surprise.

As well as enjoying all of the above it was fascinating to learn more facts about the reindeer too. The herders stop at intervals on route to the herd to tell visitors all about the reindeer, so I picked up lots of interesting facts from this as well as from looking around the exhibition space. The most intriguing thing to me is the ability the reindeer have to conserve energy in the challenging weather conditions. In winter they grow a thick cut with an under layer, the long hairs on the outer layer are hollow to trap warmth. They can locate one another in foggy or blizzard conditions from the clicking noise that comes from their heels which is made by tendons snapping over bone, this saves them losing warmth from their bodies, which would happen if they communicated vocally. As well as having furry noses the reindeer have an internal heat exchange system which means air breathed in is warmed before it gets to the lungs and cooled before it is breathed out. The reindeer are very energy efficient. There are lots of other exciting reindeer facts so if you are interested in learning more one thing you could begin by looking up is about their feet, and one book I would recommend is ‘Reindeer: An Arctic Life’ by Tilly Smith, owner of the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd. In this book you will find out about the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd as well as about reindeer in general. I would of course also recommend a visit to the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd, for more information and the blog they write this is their website http://www.cairngormreindeer.co.uk you can find out interesting things like how they name their reindeer, amongst lots of other things. If you want to see more pictures from my visit you can find them on my Instagram account @katie_ferdinand, but you will need to scroll back as I have posted several other pictures since.

I had an incredible time and am looking forward to going and spending time with the herd at some point again soon, either as a visitor or working with them.

On a sultry afternoon in July those who were not felled by the heat gathered in the lovely setting of The Locks Inn at Geldeston to create short poems and haikus.

Tim Gardiner, a wildlife expert as well as a prize-winning published poet and specialist in Japanese short-form poetry, introduced us to the essentials of haiku writing. In addition to the well-known stipulation of a maximum 17 syllables (normally 5,7,5 per line) we were told that traditionally all haiku were about the natural world, reference the seasons in some way, have a break that cuts the poem into two contrasting parts, and use irony, surprise or emotion to ensure that the poem means more than it apparently says. They are, as Tim pointed out, deceptively simple.

He then advised us not be overly constrained by the rules, apart from the overall length, and to concentrate more on the rhythm, alliteration, metaphors and imagery. With that liberating message we wandered into the adjacent cool, shady woods (thanks to River Waveney Trust for securing this little gem for public use) to take inspiration.

After a few hours and a very productive group ‘crit’ we each had a couple of poems we were happy to share. Thanks to all who took part, a combination of more and less experienced poets, and to the laid-back but effective Dr Gardiner.

Lynne Nesbit:

Fallen not felled
Willow will not weep

Poet seated on her muse
Inspiring summer breezes

Footprints in duckweed
Scatter surface waters
Only to close over

Nina Roffey:

duck weed blanket
holds our shadow
before we drown

wren stabs a warning
near nettles laden with
their own venom

bark fissured skin
Poplar grows old
wears moss socks

Ashley St Clair:

In the woods
empty hollow
void of leaf or flower
spirit fills

Haiku workshop
poet rests on stump
breathing sultry woodland air
inspiration

Chance encounter
nettle brushes arm
unexpected meeting
feeling love’s keen sting

Nicky Stainton:

Seed heads
Holding life in a tiny orb
Blushed with colour

Silver slug trail
Earth patterned with shadows
Calligraphy of twigs

Kaaren Whitney:

A Place Found
two soaring willows
ancient trunk roots joined
a sacred seat

Kilbran’s Marriage Guidance
branches intertwine
room to grow respected
breathing space

Insect Learning
a brown moth zigzags
rises before the mower
sharply cuts the path

And, last but not least, Tim Gardiner:

wild hops intoxicated by the view

filling the hours taxidermist

turning hay
in the far field
west wind

prize pike
in the cabinet
beware the hunter

Some of us stayed on and were joined for the second event of the day – a talk about moths and a walk led by renowned naturalist and nature writer, Mark Cocker.

Mark had promised to set a moth-trap in his garden the previous night and bring a few specimens from the nearby Yare valley for us to look at. What he brought was the most amazing cornucopia of moth life. He revealed hundreds of the creatures, from the flamboyantly colourful pink and green privet hawk-moth and eerily spectral poplar hawk-moth to dozens of pretty little rosy footman moths and their more restrained cousins, the common footman, as well as arches, cinnabar and gypsy moths.

We watched in fascination as he brought out these treasures and shared information and statistics about moths, a group of insects related to butterflies, belonging to the order Lepidoptera. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of which have yet to be described. Mark pointed out that only 3 or 4 of these are the type of house moths that eat our clothes and textiles and are not greatly loved by humans. In common with all other insects moths have a vital part to play in a healthy ecosystem.

Once all the moths had been released into their new habitat we went for a short guided walk spotting a brilliant blue-green banded demoiselle (damselfly), spiders and other often overlooked wildlife elements feeding and breeding around us.

As the temperature dropped a little some of us stayed for a delicious supper in the garden of The Locks. We are very grateful to Grain Brewery, the new owners of the pub, for giving us use of their lounge, free run of their grounds and a warm welcome. It was the perfect setting for this fascinating day, and well worth a visit for anyone who loves the quiet beauty of the Waveney Valley and its unspoilt grazing meadows.

Has this summer inspired you to write about Bugs & Blossoms?

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