We have also ‘twinned’ our new toilet with a toilet in Nepal through Tearfund’s Toilet Twinning scheme, so a Nepali village has also benefitted from the installation of our loo! Rich and Elaine have a soft spot for Nepal, having spent some time out there in the early 2000s, so we loved to be able to support this brilliant scheme.

However, we intend to be running Taleblazers for a very long time! This means that DSRT could be waiting a long time before sharing any financial success. We have therefore decided to make a donation of £250 as a New Year’s gift to DSRT, as a kind of interim statement of our ongoing investment in the community and our desire for other organisations we love to benefit from our success.

Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team are a voluntary charity who help the emergency services to search for and rescue lost, missing, injured and vulnerable people. We most frequently associate them with finding lost walkers on the moors but they are also active in helping to find vulnerable people such as people with dementia, children and people experiencing mental health crises. Over 90% of their income is from donations and we are delighted to be in a position to support them.

At the same time, we have also decided to donate £100 to one of our favourite charities, the John Muir Trust, who conserve, protect and restore wild places across the UK. We share their passion for wild places and their John Muir Award programmes are central to our education work.

Mental Health Benefits

• Stress relief: Crafting can be a great way to relax and de-stress. The repetitive nature of many crafts can help to calm the mind and body.
• Improved mood: Engaging in creative activities can boost the production of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. This can help to improve mood and reduce anxiety.
• Increased self-esteem: Completing a craft project can give you a sense of accomplishment and boost your self-esteem.
• Cognitive stimulation: Crafting can help to keep the mind sharp and improve cognitive function.

Physical Health Benefits

• Improved hand-eye coordination: Many crafts require fine motor skills, which can help to improve hand-eye coordination.
• Reduced pain: Crafting can be a distraction from pain and can help to reduce its intensity.
• Improved sleep: Engaging in relaxing activities like crafting can help to improve sleep quality.
• Strengthened social bonds: Crafting can be a great way to socialise and connect with others.

Additional Benefits

• Creativity: Crafting can help you to tap into your creativity and explore new ideas.
• Productivity: Crafting can help you to be more productive by providing a focus and outlet for your energy.
• Mindfulness: Crafting can help you to be more mindful and present in the moment.
• Sense of community: There are many crafting communities online and in person where you can connect with other people who share your interests.

Why not come along to a Taleblazers session and try some of our crafting activities for yourself? 

We also looked at the waterfalls and filtration leading to how clear the water was falling down the cliffs, and had some fun letting the cold water run through our fingers.

Recently, two of our students who are completing the John Muir Award spent an afternoon at Churston Cove, a location frequently visited by the public where seals can often be spotted enjoying the tranquil waters brimming with life.

After gaining insights into the objectives of The Seal Project, the students developed posters to raise awareness about appropriate actions when encountering seals, highlighting what to do — and behaviours to avoid. We also learned about the small population of Common Seals that visit the Bay, and the subtle differences in their appearance.

The students independently designed their own posters and were given the option to focus on either an anti-litter message or cautioning the public against feeding seals. Litter can ensnare seals in plastic, hindering their ability to feed properly. Directly feeding them can also lead to excessive dependence on humans or expose seals and humans to potential harm.

This was an issue for Devon and Cornwall police as recently as last year, with a seal named ‘Spearmint’ becoming vulnerable to anti-social behaviour, dog attacks and physical harm after being habituated towards humans. In a report (ITV), a spokesperson from Devon and Cornwall Police said:

“We have received reports of seals being fed from boats within Brixham Harbour.

Feeding wild seals creates really big problems for seals and humans. Seals are quick learners and just one feed can develop habituated behaviour for life.

In their minds, food becomes linked with people and boats. This reduces their natural fear of humans and puts them at greater risk from humans and boats”.

The students did an outstanding job crafting informative posters, and we shared their creations with The Seal Project, who were equally delighted with the results. Well done!

Our dedicated John Muir Award student became a vital part of the team, collecting data and making a valuable contribution to seaweed and climate change research.

Surveying seaweed along our beautiful coastlines plays a crucial role in understanding the effects of climate change. As climate change indicators, seaweeds provide valuable insights into shifts in our marine ecosystems. By participating in the #BigSeaweedSearch, anyone can actively contribute to a nationwide effort to collect important data that helps scientists and researchers monitor these changes and research their findings in more depth.

The John Muir Award, known for its dedication to exploring and conserving wild places, provided the perfect platform for our student to actively engage in a very meaningful environmental project. Through their involvement in the #BigSeaweedSearch, they not only contributed to a vital conservation initiative but also gained firsthand experience in scientific research and citizen science.

Now, you might be wondering, how can you get involved and become a seashore explorer yourself? It’s easier than you think! Joining the #BigSeaweedSearch allows you to monitor the impact of environmental change on Britain’s sealife on your next visit to the beach. All you need to do is head out to your local beach, armed with curiosity and a keen eye for detail. As you explore the seashore, bring their ID form to document the living seaweeds you encounter, noting their types and abundance. Your observations will contribute to a nationwide database, empowering scientists and researchers to better understand the effects of climate change on our coastal ecosystems.

Participating in the #BigSeaweedSearch is not only a chance to contribute to scientific research but also a fantastic opportunity to be an active participant in the conservation of our precious marine environments here in Torbay.

Learn more and participate in the #BigSeaweedSearch at: https://bigseaweedsearch.org/

A litter pick is also a great way for young people to get out, explore and truly appreciate the human impact upon nature in their community. You can make it competitive, or you can make it into a game: who can fill the bag first? Who can count as many different types of litter as possible?

And, after all, who can deny the satisfaction that comes with seeing a ‘before’ and ‘after’ picture of a particularly messy beach clean-up?

It’s also a great way to introduce them to the basics of conservation, citizen science, and ecology.

We can conduct litter surveys for the Marine Conservation Society, sending valuable citizen science data to scientists. We can also look for Nurdles, or plastic pellets; small lentil-sized pieces of plastic that are the building blocks for most plastic products. We can report this as part of the Great Nurdle Hunt, a citizen science project launched to monitor microplastics in our oceans and coasts. Due to their size, and often clear colour, nurdles can look like fish eggs which makes them particularly attractive to seabirds, fish and other marine wildlife ingesting them.

Every time they go out, kids can discover what types of litter they find in their environment and learn more about the kinds of things that people should be disposing of properly. It may open up a conversation (and often a quick Google) on how long it takes certain items to decompose — what about a shoe (30-40 years)? A cigarette butt (500-1000 years)? A can of Coke (250 years)?

In turn, this opens up conversations about our own plastic use and the potential impact of plastic on the food chain — including how it may come to enter our own part of the chain.

By playing an active role in cleaning up their local environment, kids become more aware of how important it is to protect nature and why we should all be doing our part to keep our environment clean. Overall, litter picking is a great way to allow our young people to continue to develop an appreciation for nature and an awareness and understanding of their own environmental impact, with their efforts recognised and celebrated with the John Muir Award.

Yet, I think part of it is also in the journey of transformation that the glass shards go through in their dance through the briny depths of the ocean.

They start as jagged and rough pieces, but as they weather through time and tide, they turn into something beautiful; jewel-like and rounded. In the same way, life shapes us; softens our edges. Like the movement of the waves, every obstacle that we face adds to who we are. A small piece of sea glass may have withstood a hundred years of storms and winters to become a piece that a child picks up and says, ‘Wow, come over here and look at this one!’

Stood on the sea shore hunting for this treasure, we are reminded of the infinite capacity for growth and transformation that we each carry within ourselves. Like the sea glass, we are at once both fragile and strong, each obstacle contributing to the mosaic of ourselves.

Working with children, I will often remark on this change, commenting that sometimes the pieces that have been through the hardest journeys are the most beautiful. If we had picked it up in a car park, would we feel the same? Why is it that we feel it’s more special when it has been in the sea?