Today was a very special day. Way back in February I gave a presentation at the Wansbeck You Decide! voting day, and the Friends of Choppington Woods were awarded £10k based on my impassioned plea to support the reserve that lies behind my office. We’ve done a lot with the money but my own personal favourite part of the project is a boardwalk and pond-dipping platform, designed with our local schools in mind (not influenced at all by the fact that I’m Chair of Governors at Choppington First School…). So, this morning we had an inaugural pond-dipping session, organised by the Northumberland Wildlife Trust SENSE project, with a group of Year 2/3 pupils from the school. Although it was cold and there wasn’t a great deal of life in the pond, the enthusiasm of the pupils was clear for all to see and they did catch a lot of pond snails and a water boatman. Another little bit of breaking down the disconnect between children and the environment, and the launch of an excellent community resource as well.