What have Me and Batman got in common?

Answer - we both appear in new films featuring Wollaton Hall!

On a freezing cold December day Richard from PARKINarts shot this brilliant little film

Some more info from the Wildlife Trust about the Cow Appeal

The simple fact is that over the past 50 years we have lost 98% of the UK's wildflower meadows. This valuable habitat was originally a product of traditional livestock farming, where farmers would graze locally bred cattle on their land. Grazing cows prevent the growth of other plants and shrubs, so wildflowers then thrive - great news for the wonderful wildlife that relies on this habitat for their survival.
Over the years, this sort of farming has been on the decline. Beautiful wildflower meadows have been lost forever, replaced by more intensive forms of livestock farming. We believe the only way to guarantee a future for our wildflowers is to reinstate traditional livestock farming as it used to be done.
We are a partner in the Trent Vale Landscape Partnership - an ambitious living landscape project focusing on the area along the River Trent, from Newark to Gainsborough. Through our Cow Appeal, we want to champion traditional grazing techniques within the Trent Vale and across Nottinghamshire.

Lincoln Red cattle - a traditional breed from the Trent Vale. Lincoln Reds were bred specifically to thrive on grassland habitat, with no need for fertilisers or other food sources. They are perfectly suited to this job - professional grazers who are a living part of our heritage !
We are working with local farmers, British Waterways, the Environment Agency and others to find areas of land which have not been grazed for many years, and will be using our conservation grazing experience to improve threatened grasslands.
Our herd will also help us to demonstrate the landscape and biodiversity benefits of traditional livestock management, both to the farmers of today and to the public.

Route

I think I have settled on my route:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=213570569999472437745.0004b150edb59bfc7c26f

My name is Geoff Hickman and I live and work in Nottingham.

In May 2012 I will be solo-cycle-camping from Lands End to my home in Nottingham to (hopefully) raise £1000 for Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

This is the first time I have done anything like this and until I started training for the event the furthest I had cycled was from the 4 miles from my home to my office.

This blog is intended as a record of my trip starting from now as I begin my training - and finishing when the last of the donations is collected somtime in Autumn 2012.

If you would like to help out with a donation please visit https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/400milesofmindfulness

Why this trip?
I was invited to participate in an organised mass-ride for charity in 2011. When I looked into I discovered that £1000 of money each rider raised went on support costs – food, accommodation, mechanic & medical assistance etc. I thought to myself “If I upgrade some of my camping and cycling gear I could do this myself and ALL the money raised would go to my charity”. Every penny of the money I raise will go direct to Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. I am hoping for some sponsorship from camping and cycling stores as well as some help from campsites en-route; all other costs I will cover myself.

Why Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust?
This autumn Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust are launching a new appeal to raise funds to purchase and maintain a herd of Lincoln Red cattle – for grazing within the Trent Vale and for breeding. My target of £1000 will enable the trust to purchase the first cow.

"So you're doing all this just to buy a cow?!"
Well, not quite...

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust are leading on the grazing aspects of the Trent Vale Landscape Partnership project, an ambitious living landscape area aimed at buffering, reconnecting and interpreting fragmented habitats and heritage features along the river Trent.  As part of this they are working with farmers and other bodies such as British Waterways and the Environment Agency to identify areas which have not been grazed for many years and bringing their experience with a “Flying Flock”, or herd in this instance, to bring back the traditional management in these areas.

Lincoln Reds are a traditional breed from the Trent Vale, so are a heritage feature which delivers habitat management.  They are perfect for use on the species rich meadows in this area, creating habitat opportunities for plants and insects as well as nesting and feeding sites for birds, which have all been struggling in this area over recent years

"Yeah but that's still just messing about with fields an' that right?"

OK, let me call upon the great american entomologist E.O Wilson, the chap who first coined the word biodiversity -  he can explain far better than I why habitat management is important:

"...the worst thing that will probably happen - in fact is already well underway - is not energy depletion, economic collapse, conventional war, or even the expansion of totalitarian governments. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process now ongoing that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us."

GH