Hello and welcome to another Youth Space blog post! As the darker nights have started creeping in we thought now would be a good time to look back at the amazing summer we had…
Barbeques
We kicked things off with a Barbeque at the Lomond Centre, Otto was our chef for the day and Ben and I made several poor attempts at building our gazebo (most of which ended with us being stuck inside it). There was a lot of of tree climbing and skateboarding all in all it was a great start to our summer!
Our second BBQ of the summer was packed with good food, good company, balloons & bricks..
That's not as weird as it sounds.. seriously, look up bricks and balloons task from taskmaster and you'll get the jist. Thanks to Katie for searching along the beach with Biscuit for the bricks (rocks).. and Ben for buying YSF blue balloons we did lose a couple to the wind though, for sure..
We also did a paint the worker game (using no hands!) and once we packed up and cleaned the BBQ we had a realisation "why are we only doing two of these, awbdy loves a bbq."
Kayaking Trip
A lot of our trips this summer were in collaboration with the Scottish Fisheries Museum and their 'Positive Currents' project. The aim of the project was to inspire and encourage people to take positive action towards safeguarding the environment and we were asked to create a video that could be included in the museums exhibition. To watch the video our young people made, follow this link - https://youtu.be/oItOnjhjCVk
I missed the kayaking trip so asked our volunteer Jennifer to give her perspective of the day -
From my perspective, the kayaking trip was one of the best from the summer programme. Getting to be in the water and being set different challenges on the kayak was something I’d never done before so it was really fun. The Scottish fisheries museum was somewhere else I’d never been inside but walked past a thousand times. Learning all the history of Pittenweem’s fishing culture was fascinating because it’s somewhere so close to home that I had no idea had such a rich history.
Isle of May Trip
July was a very busy month full of days out and one of them was a boat trip to the Isle of May! Sadly due to bird flu we weren’t able to explore the island but that didn’t stop us seeing some amazing birds and getting some great photos!
We learned all about the different species of birds that were on the island and had a chat with Marine Biologists, Emily and Izzy. Aside from the sea sickness a few of us had to endure, it was a great day!
Mindfulness walk
Part of our work with the fisheries museum on the 'positive currents' project, we were treated to a walk along Elie's coastline!
Led by the wonderful Fife Coast and Countryside rangers Hanna & Aidan, we got mindful in the fresh air, searched for rare butterflies through the tall grass and walked alongside beautiful scenery. Then to finish we made some art with natural materials on the beach!
We also had a mega fancy minibus for this trip, and well, we felt VIP. 😎
Pride 2022
We held our annual Pride event again this year which is always a highlight of the summer! There were a lot of snacks, music from our gaydio playlist created by the young people and we even made our own badges. We also created our own pride banner inspired by Jackson Pollock, it got very messy and we very nearly destroyed our shoes with paint but the results were worth it!
Saltmakers Trip
Another one of our trips in collaboration with the fisheries museum and their ‘Positive Currents’ project was a visit to the East Neuk Salt company in St Monans! We started the day with Archaeologist Paula Martin and she taught us all about the history of the salt pans. Some of the young people on the trip asked her some questions while filming the day!
We then headed to the East Neuk Salt Company where we were introduced to its founder Darren Peattie who opened up the company in 2019. Darren showed us the process of making salt and chatted to us about his business, it was lovely to see how passionate he is about preserving the history of the salt pans in St Monans. We were very kindly gifted some salt free to take home and try!
Fringe Trip
To finish off the summer we headed through to Edinburgh to have a day at the Fringe!
It was a very warm summers day so when we arrived we grabbed some lunch and sat in Princes Street gardens. After lunch we took a stroll up the Royal Mile to have a look at some of the street performers and see what shows were on, we bumped into a group handing out flyers for their show but they were also handing out "We hate Otto" stickers which was a very weird coincidence! After a quick trip to the castle we headed to the show we had tickets for which was a Dungeons and Dragons improv hosted by four stand up comedians. Everyone really enjoyed it (Obviously Katie and I didn't have a clue what was going on).
We finished the day with ice cream and a quick visit to the museum before catching the train home. It was the perfect end to our summer programme!
That's a wrap on our fun-filled summer! A big thank you to the Scottish Fisheries museum who made these days out happen. Also, a big shout-out to all of the amazing people who joined us on these days out, you made it a summer to remember.
It's hard to believe we're already coming to the end of 2022, the next time we update you all will be to chat all things Halloween and Christmas! If you follow us on our social media I'm sure you will have seen some of the amazing Halloween content Nick has been producing - but we'll get into that next time!