Training Opportunity

You could benefit from heavily-subsidised training being provided by the Explore Braunton Project. Explore Braunton is a community initiative, funded in part by Devon Renaissance, one of whose aims is to assist people into work. To this end we are offering Coast and Countryside Leader training, which is part of the South West Mountain and Moorland Leader Training Scheme. It is a fun, informative and useful course for anyone with an interest in the countryside, particularly that around Braunton.
As part of the course, we are offering Appointed Person First Aid awards,
which are a prerequisite of the course. We will also provide contacts and opportunities for you so that you can put your training to good use.

To be eligible, you must be:
• of working age (16-59 for women and 16-64 for men) and:

• unemployed (out of work, want a job, have actively sought work in the last 4 weeks and are ready to start in the next fortnight or are out of work and have accepted a job that you are waiting to start in the next fortnight)
OR:
• economically inactive (are either not looking for or are not available for work e.g. looking after the family and home, students and those who are long-term sick or disabled)
OR:
• in employment at risk (in paid employment but at risk of losing your job e.g. have received a statutory redundancy notification)

We begin with a day’s first aid training on Friday 5th September.
The two day Coast and Countryside Leader course follows on
Monday and Tuesday 15th and 16th September.

Participants are required to pay a £15 registration fee and bring a packed lunch,
course fees will be met by the Explore Braunton project.

Places are limited and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
To register, please contact Katie James, Explore Braunton Project Officer at Braunton Countryside Centre, Caen Street Car Park, Braunton Devon EX33 1AA, 01271 817485 / 07815 162159 or katie.james@devon.gov.uk.

Rainy Days Again

Heavens, what a lot of rain and it seems impossible to avoid it - so frustrating that I've had to get all my wintery raincoats and everything out in the middle of August. I guess we can only hope for a surprisingly fine Autumn.

As usual, I haven't had time to write lately because I've been absolutely up to my neck in work. The saying 'live to work or work to live' is becoming increasingly pertinent. Progress seems so terribly slow and yet I'm beavering away every day. I will be glad to get training for walks leaders organised and also my downloadable walks leaflets finished. Thankfully, the AONB has just taken on Matthew Hensby, a highly proficient work experience man who will, I think, be able to help me in the next few weeks - phew. It seems incredible that I have just five weeks or so left until the end of my 12 month contract.

I'm very pleased with our partners Node and particularly the efforts of Jo Armstrong, who is currently working on some improvements to the functionality of the tours. I'm also very grateful to Simon Houghton of the Public Rights of Way team, who has recently instigated improvements to signage and more on the Braunton on the Move multimedia tour route. As for me, I've been working hard to go through all the interviews we've done over the past few months (all 9.5 hours of it) and catalogue what is said when, to enable long-suffering Neil to easily find the bits that are needed for films to go on the web-site. It'll be great to have this multimedia element on the site and it'll be good to use some interesting parts of the interviews that we were not able to use on the Explorers.

At the end of last week there was a very rare hour or so of sunshine and so, armed with my camera, I decided to have some time out. I went to explore St Brannock's church and take pictures of it for the web-site, along with photos of the Peace Tree, which was planted in the churchyard by American soldiers who trained in Braunton prior to D-Day. I found both and met the flower ladies who were adorning the already-beautiful church for a wedding the next day. Then I ventured across the road to St Brannocks Well Close, in pursuit of a holy well said to exist nearby. I didn't find it straight away but, after locating the pretty Roman Catholic chapel nearby I gained entry (much appreciated) and found the picturesque heart-shaped well next to it. More about this on the web-site!

As for my running, I've sadly injured my knee. I'm not sure how it happened, something went when I was running downhill recently, and unfortunately it's getting worse not better so it's unlikely that I'll be doing the Human Race at the end of the month. Sad, but there's sure to be more to do later on.

Well, I hope you're avoiding the rain better than I am! I'm off now to address the rest of my 'things to do today'.