Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Haughian House New Windows
We have just been able to send off pictures for Christmas to Mr Haughian of the beautiful new windows. The windows were made and installed by our artist in residence, Marty, and will keep the place snug this winter. We have been searching the special offers on composting toilets and solar lighting ready for the next stage of making the cottage usable for a wider range of people. The new batch of Duke of Edinburgh groups will be setting off soon to start their training there.
My Eco Fairy Lights
They really worked - a very wee solar panel on a stick kept them twinkling (well it might have been flickering) through Christmas. I've been warned by those who know better, that the secret is to make sure I keep them going year after year to make up for the carbon cost of manufacturing them.
Thursday, 20 December 2007
Planting Holly for Christmas
As part of our science department project with Wild Watch, lots of new native species trees have been planted out this week, including lots of seasonal holly. We look forward to working with Wild Watch again next term, with more hedge mix plants coming.
Friday, 30 November 2007
Bats and Hedgehogs
On Tuesday, along with invaluable support from the Ulster Wildlife Trust, our batboxes and hedgehog hides were installed. slowly but surely our grounds plan is being rolled out. Jean Forbes made out the detailed and challenging plan, and by bits and pieces, lots of different people are contributing to bringing it ti life. More action soon on the daffodil drift which is planned for along the wall, just inside the main gate. See Derek Baliey if you would like to be involved in carrying out the work.
Saturday, 17 November 2007
what I'm not good at
I'm not good at houses, but this weekend I have tried to move a stage more ecofriendly by changing the rest of the light bulbs to low energy ones, and sticking heat reflectors down behind the radiators. Changing bulbs is so simple, it's the centrepiece of jokes, and the radiator panels' only technology is the double sided tape, but you wouldn't believe the mess I made. One disappointing thing is that I ended up sending away for the bulbs and the radiator panels. Does anybody know where to buy them within walking distance? i ordered them all through the Shimna website and Natural Collection, which gives a good percentage to our fundraising.
Friday, 9 November 2007
New Trees for Planting
Two new packs of trees have arrived, and our eco group will be organising the planting. With two batches to plant, any offers of help would be most welcome. Native species bulbs will also be going in soon. In all our work on the grounds, we are following the detailed plan set out by Jean Forbes of the Board of Governors. There is a long way to go, but real progress is also in evidence.
Monday, 5 November 2007
Haughian House Revisited
After rumbling along for several years with our expedition groups and occasional visitors from staff and parents' council members, we are ready to move to a new phase where we undertake the work necessary to make the cottage more accessible to a wider range of users. We are determined to do an eco-friendly job of work. First move has been the new windowframes, individually made in wood by Marty. Next thing is to sort out the power and water situation so that people with other purposes than roughing it will be able to enjoy the place. We have been searching websites for the best composting toilet and and ways to power some lighting. Any help, advice or suggestions eagerly welcomed.
Friday, 19 October 2007
A Little Bit of Effort wth a Spade
We have been a bit low on activity on the eco front. However, one of the activities undertaken with recent visitors from Holland was to plant out crocus bulbs in the shape of a Star of David, to celebrate work done by our students on the Holocaust. We really need to get active again. The crocuses will be great, but we could be doing more.
Sunday, 24 June 2007
Rumours of Eco Gardening
There is a rumour that we will have an eco gardening club next year. Eco friendly plans have already been drawn up for our grounds and the club will be a real step forward to making those plans come true. We haven't a huge reserve of gardening expertise among the staff, and would love to hear from families or friends who could help with a bit of advice, labouring, supervision, 'adopting' one of the garden projects on the plan.
Saturday, 19 May 2007
Wild Roundabout
The next time you go round the roundabout at the top of the town in Newcastle, have a look at our bed of Basque wild flowers, planted last year by a group of our students, Janet McIlvenna of Down District Council and EcoSeeds of Strangford. I well remember that drizzly Saturday morning during out HallowE'en holidays. Its wonderful to see the flowers blossom through to their second year. I wonder how the twin wild flower bed in the Basque Country is doing? Best of all is that our own EcoSeed, Morgan himself, is blossoning again and looking good.
Friday, 4 May 2007
EcoSpeakers
Well done to Sophie Hennessey and Catriona Kirwan, who presented their ideas on the environment to Janet McIlvenna of Down District Council.
Wednesday, 2 May 2007
Litter Picking Visitors
We had some very welcome visitors today. Participants at a conference in the Slieve Donard Hotel undertook volunteering activities in the local area for one of their conference sessions. We all do our best to keep Shimna litter free, but our windy site means that inaccessible litter gets wedged in the perimeter fence and our visiting volunteers offered to hoke it out. We are very grateful for the help, to our visitors and also to Deborah McDowell who organised the event.
Friday, 23 March 2007
Trees Planted
Year 8 science students today planted out twelve new trees, wild cherries in the grove by the wiggly fence, alder with their feet near the pond and birch on the hll towards the church. Teams of waterers and tree minders will look after the saplings as they grow. More trees will come in the autumn, and will be planted out according to the land scaping design drawn up for us by governor Jean Forbes.
Saturday, 3 March 2007
Cardboard
We have started to see real benefits from all that bin-hoking. Remember that we found that our biggest single waste substance was cardboard? and that we were able to have the cardboard recycled by the local interchurch project? Well, Mick has been keeping an eye on the effects and we filled four bins fewer with landfill rubbish just by the action alone of recycling the cardboard. Benefits all round. We will be able to save money next year by hiring fewer bins. The interchurch project will gain the proceeds they earn from suppyling the cardboard to the recyclers, and everyone benefits from less landfill.
Tuesday, 13 February 2007
Recycling Mobile Phones

There is a huge heavy box waiting in the hall to be collected by the carriers. It's full of exhausted mobile phones which students and head of physics, Alasdair Spence, have collected for recycling. The benefits are as big as the box. The phones will be reused where possible, and recycled safely when re-use isn't possible. Because each recylced phone raises money, Shimna science department will also benefit. So many of us love our phone, so many people get new ones for Christmas and so much damage is done if the phones are just thrown away. This has been a really worthwhile project.
Wednesday, 31 January 2007
Recycling cardboard
One of the surprises of our bin hoke was that heavy cardboard was the largest element of waste from our kitchen. In addition, our new interactive whiteboards, installed last week, left behind a huge amount of cardboard. Jean Forbes, one of our governors, saw the cardboard out the window, emailed Joe McMahon of the Interchurch Recycling Project. Next day, all of our cardboard was on its way to be recycled, and a regular pick-up has been organised for Thursdays. Fabulous! Thanks a million to Jean, Joe and the project.
Sunday, 28 January 2007
Rechargeable Batteries
Has anyone tried USB rechargeable batteries? They are supposed to appeal people who mean to but never get round to managing a recharger. They work by recharging through any USB port. We have a few out among us being trialled. Let us know if you have used them and how you find them in terms of useability and efficiency.
Tuesday, 16 January 2007
Big Smell

That's us: Michael from Second Nature and student volunteer Stephen; Joanne Anderson; Alison Bahadoor; Ellen McVea; the whole of year 9. We hoked everything out, we sorted, we weighed, we recorded the paper, glass, cardboard, glass, plastic, tins and the residual and then.....we put it all back in again. One ordinary bin and one recycling bin came out and one half full ordinary bin and two recycling bins went back, so that gives us a preliminary idea of what has to be done. Down District Council has provided us with plenty of new recycling bins so that we can have full coverage throughout the college. Year 9 are going to spread the message throughout the rest of the college, and then we just need to do it! The measurements will be put together by year 9 geography classes and passed on to Second Nature to add to our Carbon Footprint measurement. Milliions of thanks to Michael, who took charge of us.
Sunday, 14 January 2007
Big Bin Hoke

With Michael of Second Nature to help us, year 9 geography students are undertaking a Big Bin Hoke on Tuesday 16th January. The students will hoke the rubbish out of the bins, will sort it, weigh it and measure it and analyse how we currently manage our waste. The results will allow us to make an action plan so that in future we are recycling and composting to the maximum.
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