I love ecology!

I don't know why I feel a need to apologise every time I don't post in a long while, haha...

I am absolutely loving my college course so far! Particularly all the ecology stuff and species ID. It'd be difficult to find something more up my street unless I did an entire course solely on ecology. Last week I got 100% in the first ID test we had, of 25 trees and shrubs - yay! We're doing one category each half term, so we've now started to learn 35 woodland bird species for a test before Christmas. Thankfully we don't have to learn the scientific names for these, as we did with the trees, so it's easier. But this week the tutor did a see-how-much-you-already-know-before-we-start-learning-them test, and there were only two birds I didn't know, which I was quite chuffed about. It's a shame the species ID is a separate certificate, and doesn't count towards the actual course! But I'm so keen, it's exciting to have something I'm good at and to be learning about things that I love!

We do Estate Skills practical days once every two weeks; I missed the first two due to joining the course late and then being unwell, but so far I've built a bat box, and helped to remove and start to replace a stock-proof fence, and next time we're going to be working on a hedge. The practicals are challenging, obviously because I haven't done anything like it before, but it's quite fun doing something different. I hate wearing the understandably-necessary steel toe capped boots, though, they're too big and clunky and uncomfortable. We're also doing a unit on machinery... so at some point rather soon I'll be having a go at using things like chainsaws and driving tractors!

I am struggling in some areas, though, probably in most. I'm fine with facts and figures, but then actually applying information to things like evaluating a practical task, or creating management objectives for a woodland, or creating a presentation as if you're trying to persuade an MP to encourage more people to get out into the countryside (especially when you know that actually more people usually just creates more issues), I'm finding pretty challenging. I got ever so stressed out a few times in the first month, spending an entire day attempting just one bit of homework at least twice. I know it's early days and I need to somehow learn to not be hard on myself, and to ask for help, and to be okay with submitting homework that I may not be completely happy with. We only have between 10 and 13 hours of face-to-face lessons a week, and I'm not someone who easily learns self-guided. I don't know how to learn, how to study. I go to my classes and do my homework, but don't look at my notes outside of class, read them, rewrite them, arrange them into easier-to-remember blocks of info or whatever, don't do any further research. Are we meant to, is that what people do? That's a rhetorical question; I'm assuming the answer is yes. But nobody tells you these things. I've only just found out what a flash card is. And I'm absolutely no good at 'self-starting' or whatever it's called, making myself do things, setting up a schedule for myself and sticking to it. The course is assessed in a number of ways, all of which I'm nervous about, especially exams, but at least it's not only exams. But the tutors are great and have said they'll go over everything again beforehand, and the college has a study support team I can go to whenever I need help, so hopefully I'll manage.

Anyway, I thought I'd write up some of what I've learned so far! Over different posts, not all in one go, don't worry.

Biomes

A biome is a major biogeographical region, defined by the climate and in turn the predominant vegetation. They're affected by latitude and altitude (how far away they are from the equator, and their height above sea level), and tend to have similar landscapes and wildlife. However, what the different biomes are, how many there are, what the characteristics are, etc., depends entirely on where you look or who you ask. Every map depicting the world's biomes is different and statistics vary. Some maps show five, others a dozen or more. To put it simply, the five major biomes are aquatic, tundra, forest, grassland, and desert (according to National Geographic). But these are all are broad classifications which just give a general biogeographical overview of a large area, and are usually sub-divided further to various extents. 

• Aquatic - can be marine or freshwater, have high biodiversity, marine is world's largest biome. 
• Grassland - open, warm, dry, can be tropical (savannah) or temperate (prairies and steppes). 
• Forest - dominated by trees, high biodiversity, can be tropical (warm and humid, close to equator), temperate (seasonal, mild, often wet), or boreal (cold and dry, close to polar regions). 
• Desert - dry, little vegetation, specialised wildlife, can be hot or cold. 
• Tundra - cold and dry, inhospitable, simple vegetation, specialised wildlife, can be arctic or alpine (in mountains at high altitudes).

The map below shows 10 biomes, and with the different colours you can see how they roughly correspond to latitude.

Map of biomes across the world

The biome covering the UK and most of Europe is "temperate forest" or "temperate deciduous woodland". A place doesn't have to be covered in trees to be part of a "forest" biome; it just means that the dominant plants are trees, and if left alone to their own devices the landscapes would eventually return to woodland. But - fun fact - we do have some tundra and boreal forest here too! They usually cover places like the Arctic and Siberia, so I think that's really cool! In the UK those biomes are only found in one place - the Cairngorms, in Scotland.

The Cairngorms are the eroded stumps of a mountain range far older than the Himalayas. Even at around 50 million years old, ranges like the Himalayas and the Rockies are in geological terms relatively young, and still quite 'pointy'. The Cairngorms are around 400 million years old, and have gradually been eroded to form a plateau - a large, relatively flat area that is raised sharply above the land surrounding it. I've just read on Wikipedia that "evidence suggests that the granite now at the surface was once found to be at a depth of between 4 and 7km." Wow! The high Cairngorm Plateau is where the tundra is, cold, dry, and treeless, and it's surrounded by boreal forest - what remains of the ancient Caledonian Pinewood - at slightly lower altitudes.

How cool is all that? :D Haha. I always loved physical geography.

Lastly - although "woodland" and "forest" are now used interchangeably, the original meaning of 'forest' was just 'an area given over for hunting'. So places like the New Forest, which was set aside by William the Conquerer as one of his numerous private hunting grounds, often aren't an unbroken expanse of trees - in fact trees tend to be a hinderance to giving chase on horseback. A woodland is an area of trees, no matter where it is or how large it is. Funny how language changes.

That'll do for now, methinks! I might write about the history of the countryside next time, that was fascinating.

Mindvalley's "Barcelona Experiment"

Last weekend I watched a documentary made by the team behind online learning platform Mindvalley. Mindvalley's curriculum is dedicated to personal growth and transformation in all areas of life - in a cutting-edge and exciting kind of way. Since watching the film I've been wanting to write about it, because I loved it, but I've been struggling. I think I wanted to write some sort of review, but that wasn't happening, so I'm just going to write and see what comes up!

So. The documentary was called "Barcelona Experiment". (The absence of the word "The" at the beginning is ever so slightly irritating, haha.) It was about the pilot scheme of Mindvalley University, aka Mindvalley U - basically, 300 people of all ages and from all over the world came together in Barcelona for one whole month in the summer of 2017, to learn about things you don't learn in school.

...Things like consciousness and self-awareness. Lifestyle design. How the mind works, and changing your mindset. Learning how to learn. Meditation, mindfulness and yoga (there are reasons why these practices have been around for over two thousand years). Nutrition. How to communicate well. Productivity. Exercise techniques. Creativity. Emotional intelligence. The importance of good habits. Energy work. Self-love and feeling like you are enough. Etc. Things that can help you become the best version of yourself, and live a life that is good for you, the rest of humanity and our planet.

Mindvalley's founder, Vishen Lakhiani, is passionate about education being lifelong, and that the prevailing educational system is outdated and largely redundant. So he brought together a tribe of passionate teachers, thinkers, visionaries, entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, philanthropists, seekers, parents and children, to learn from, with and about each other, in a month of talks, workshops, seminars, social and community events, cultural learning, and connecting.

The film begins with an onscreen quote of Sir Ken Robinson's: "Education is modeled on the interest of industrialisation and the image of it." (If you haven't seen his legendary 2006 TED Talk "Do schools kill creativity?", click that link and go watch it. Like, asap.) Basically, our current education system is based on the interests and needs of the age of the Industrial Revolution, and has barely changed in over 200 years. It's like a factory. It's about linear paths to becoming something like an engineer or a doctor or a secretary. We're told to learn specific information and then go out an work for someone else for the rest of our lives.

People get into large amounts of debt by going to university and, most of the time, don't remember what they 'learned'. Many end up having to go into jobs that are nothing to do with what they studied and certainly nothing to do with what they love, and feel totally unprepared for the world of work. In many cases, formal education is no longer useful. As someone in the documentary said, "The world is rapidly changing and classrooms aren't keeping up." Instead, what people really take away from university are friendships, connections, experiences, and a sense of community.

What Vishen and his team wanted to do was explore a new model of education - one where it's less of a system and more about those topics listed above, community and connection, and helping people figure out what value they want to bring to the world and how to do it. At one point he gives an example of someone wanting to be a doctor. They might think they want to be a doctor, but actually what they really want is to be a healer. You don't have to be a doctor to heal. For a lot of young people in education, there isn't even space to have a conversation about figuring out what you want to do. There's an expectation to figure something out, do something, do anything.

I think the thing I loved best about the project was that kids and teenagers were fully included. They're the future. They're the ones who will inherit the world we're creating. So let them learn - really learn - the knowledge, skills and awareness that'll mean they can have a say in that world, too. At Mindvalley U, children and teens between the ages of 5 and 17 spent their days together, rather than separated in year groups like at school, learning things like mindfulness, yoga, energy work, how the mind works, empowerment, self-confidence, intuition, etc. The focus was on the personal: how they connect to themselves and each other, how they show up in the world, and helping them know they are whole, complete and enough just as they are.

Vishen Lakhiani's hope was that Mindvalley U would be a dynamic city campus - an annual event, held for one month each year, in a different city each time. Barcelona was more successful than they had ever imagined, so Mindvalley U 2018 begins in just a couple of weeks in Tallinn, Estonia - this time with 1000 people.

So the question I'm asking myself now is - what value do I want to bring to the world? The answer that's coming out right now as I type is that I want to show that it's possible to break free. Possible to live a life that you love, that you have created. Possible to change your mindset, re-programme your brain so that you can move past the barriers and self-limiting beliefs you've grown up with. To live not only with purpose but on purpose. That the "life" most people have is just a societal construct, it doesn't have to be that way - it's only the norm because people believe it can't change. I want to have a life that I love, that satisfies my soul, and I want to take the people I care about with me, I want them to be able to do the same. Life is short and precious. I especially want my nephew and little cousins to see - they're all between two and five. Who knows what the world will look like when they're at university age?

I have absolutely no idea how on earth I'm going to do any of that just yet. I know I have a lot of inner work to do. But I do know that I fully intend to apply for Mindvalley U 2019, wherever in the world that may be.


---
Currently reading: How to Be A Stoic: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living - Massimo Pigliucci (non-fiction: philosophy)
Currently listening to: Renegades - X Ambassadors