autumn

We are off to the Carlow Autumn Walking Festival

We are off to the Carlow Autumn Walking Festival

nao

It has been a little busy in the Science Wows household of late but now it is time for some fun! We are off to Carlow on Friday for the Carlow Autumn Walking Festival (I’ve been invited on the blogger tour by Green and Vibrant) and we are all very excited. Only two more sleeps! I wrote recently about my love of Autumn and a bit of the science behind how the leaves change colour so I think it is a wonderful time of year to hold a walking festival.

Amazingly, I have never been to Carlow although I do have some friends from there and anyone I have asked seems to rave about it. These photos are certainly selling the area to me (as if I need convincing to go on a family weekend away with lots of outdoor activities to keep us all happy and entertained).

Carlow
Carlow

Before we had children, myself and Mr. Science Wows often headed off on walks and climbs around our local counties. More accurately, he walked… I followed, blindly!… some times to my near peril and once down a mountain (one of the twelve bens) in complete darkness, with the reassurance that “it’ll be grand!”. Mr. Science Wows told me that if we did get into difficulty we would not be able to call out the mountain rescue squad as his mum was a member and it would just be too embarrassing.

Nowadays things are a little calmer but as our children get older we are able to increase the activities we can do together. That is why this weekend is so appealing. There are a number of walks available, for the novice to the advanced and plenty we will look into as the children get older. For now though there are a couple that have really caught our eye….

…A Walk on the Wildside with Mary White, environmentalist and walking enthusiast, will include foraging for delicious edible greens and fungi, learning about the native trees and mammals around the area, identifying wild herbs and checking out the flora and fauna of Kilbrannish Woods. This is a two-hour (7.5km) C graded leisurely walk

…Walking with Wildway Adventures – Green Walk 11, a two-hour leisurely walk with Una Halpin from Wildway Adventures.The 6km stroll will begin at Clashgranny Lock and take in the trees, plants and insect life along the Barrow Way and through the Borris House Estate, ancestral home of the ancient Kings of Leinster, the MacMurrough Kavanaghs.

 

Our weekend will include more than walking as there are a number of other activities available. We are really looking forward to a canoe safari trail on the river Barrow. We have dabbled in canoeing on previous family holidays but usually one of us was left holding a baby and waving from the bank. This time round it will be all inclusive as the event has been developed with families in mind.

Getting in some practice
Getting in some practice

We also plan to hire bikes to round off our active weekend. Our youngest decided to dispense with the stabilizers this Summer and due to his stubborn persistent nature, perfected the art in no time. We have travelled with bikes before in Ireland and in France but this time we will be getting five bikes for our family of five and we will all be pedalling under our own steam.

We love cycling as a family activity and the fact that we will be off road in Carlow is a great reassurance as we will be able to relax and enjoy the wonderful scenery knowing the children are safe.

It is easy to forget about all the wonderful activities available to us in our own land but Ireland really does have so much to offer. For us this festival will really tick all the boxes for the entire family:entertainment, outdoor activity, exercise and lots of nature. It seems that a lot of thought has gone into planning this event to appeal to the young and not so young, the novice to the experienced with plenty of fresh air included free for all!

 

For more information on the event check out these two blogs by Greenside Up and Vibrant Ireland. You can see all that is available on this online brochure or you can go directly here to pre-book your chosen events.

If you want to share or follow the event the hastag is #WalkCarlow

 

 

 

 

Autumn, Equinox and resharing

Autumn, Equinox and resharing

nao

Happy Autumn Equinox! With all this lovely weather we have been having it was easy to forget it. I thought it was apt that the weather became more chilly today as it is the official Autumn Equinox, marking, for many, the start of Autumn.

I have written before of how we Irish like to define the seasons in our own bizarre ways. The same post also describes what an equinox is, if you want the nitty, gritty detail. Personally, I judge the seasons more by the cues in Nature and I certainly have noticed the birds starting to gather for their migration, the days beginning to shorten and the leaves on the trees beginning to change colour. I always thing the colour display of Autumn is worth the colder nights and darker days.

Did you ever wonder why and how the leaves change colour? Well it turns out I wrote about that too, in my first ever blog post. Today I get to share it with you again while joining in a blog linky by lovely fellow Galway blogger, Aedin, over at Minis and Mum, as she invites people to share their first ever post in celebration of her lovely blog’s three year anniversary.

So here is a repost of mine…

 

CARROTS, CABBAGES AND CUPS OF TEA…

It’s funny how Autumn comes around every year and I realise how much I love this time of year…. it’s as though I seem to forget I like it all throughout the other seasons.  Of course we have had a particularly nice Autumn this year in the West of Ireland and maybe that has re-enforced my happy memories of the season.  The days have been bright and crisp showing off all the beautiful colours in all their glory and splendour.

photo credit: Stellas mom via photopin cc
photo credit: Stellas mom via photopin cc

I grew up in Co. Wicklow surrounded by some beautiful deciduous woods and forests and this Autumn has really brought my childhood memories flooding back.  My mother brought us often to the woods as children and we would hunt around for hidden treasures and delights to bring home and turn into some “masterful” collage in homage to the season.  There was also the foraging, a distinctive primordial instinct in us all, there is nothing as pleasing as returning home with your bounty… be it blackberries or sweet horse chestnuts- to be turned into jams and tarts or painstakingly peeled off all nasty layers to reveal  the divinely sweet, fruity, nutty delight beneath.  In fact the joy that came with eating the nut always made it suddenly worth your while to start the arduous task of peeling all over again!

…and I hope that I will never outgrow the delight of running, kicking, shuffling through a crisp new crop of fallen leaves!

As many people know, the lovely green of most leaves is caused by the pigment chlorophyll… green in colour (obviously) and capable of using sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into energy (sugar) for the plant.  However, when the sunlight hours fade coming into winter so too does the chlorophyll in the leaves of trees, or, to be more precise, the pigment begins to degrade and is not replaced.  Once the green colour is gone other pigments that are often present in the leaf come into view… carotenoids are pigments responsible for the yellow/orange colour of leaves, anthocyanins are responsible for the redder colour of leaves and tannins are responsible for the brown colour of leaves.  There is, within this pigmented system, a sense of hierarchy, at least in part.  But did you ever wonder about the science behind those wonderful colours?  I did… why the green suddenly disappears, where does it go and how do the other colours get there in its place? So, if like me, you ever wondered about these things… here is some insight into the why and what of Autumn!

 

photo credit: looseends via photopin cc
photo credit: looseends via photopin cc

Carotenoids are the pigments responsible for the orange colour of carrots. If carotenoids are present their colour tends to dominate leaving the leaves yellowy and orange.

In the absence of carotenoid, anthocyanin is the dominant pigment. Anthocyanin (the same pigment found in red onions, red grapes, red apples and red cabbage) is a natural pH indicator, meaning that it can change colour depending on the levels of acids or bases/alkali in its environment.  In fact one of my favourite experiments that I often do with children is to demonstrate this colour changing using anthocyanin extracted from red cabbage (but that’s a whole other blog in itself).  At the beginning of Autumn the levels of sugar in the leaves tends to be quite high, increasing the acid levels in the leaves, this strengthens the red colour of Anthocyanin if it is present in the leaves.

At the end of Autumn the leaves die off and the levels of carotenoids and anthocynins die off too, leaving another pigment to dominate… and this is the brown pigment of tannin, the same pigment that give a cup of tea it’s colour!

So there you have it… next time you are crunching through those leaves you may wonder why you are suddenly thinking of carrots and cabbages and cups of tea!!!

 

There are lots of lovely “first steps” posts to read in this linky, just click on the image below to find some more.

Minis and Mon - First Steps Liny
Minis and Mum – First Steps Linky

 

carrots, cabbages and cups of tea!

carrots, cabbages and cups of tea!

nao

It’s funny how Autumn comes around every year and I realise how much I love this time of year…. it’s as though I seem to forget I like it all throughout the other seasons.  Of course we have had a particularly nice Autumn this year in the West of Ireland and maybe that has re-enforced my happy memories of the season.  The days have been bright and crisp showing off all the beautiful colours in all their glory and splendour.

photo credit: Stellas mom via photopin cc
photo credit: Stellas mom via photopin cc

I grew up in Co. Wicklow surrounded by some beautiful deciduous woods and forests and this Autumn has really brought my childhood memories flooding back.  My mother brought us often to the woods as children and we would hunt around for hidden treasures and delights to bring home and turn into some “masterful” collage in homage to the season.  There was also the foraging, a distinctive primordial instinct in us all, there is nothing as pleasing as returning home with your bounty… be it blackberries or sweet horse chestnuts- to be turned into jams and tarts or painstakingly peeled of all nasty layers to reveal  the divinely sweet, fruity, nutty delight beneath.  In fact the joy that came with eating the nut always made it suddenly worth your while to start the arduous task of peeling all over again!

…and I hope that I will never outgrow the delight of running, kicking, shuffling through a crisp new crop of fallen leaves!

As many people know, the lovely green of most leaves is caused by the pigment chlorophyll… green in colour (obviously) and capable of using sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into energy (sugar) for the plant.  However, when the sunlight hours fade coming into winter so too does the chlorophyll in the leaves of trees, or, to be more precise, the pigment begins to degrade and is not replaced.  Once the green colour is gone other pigments that are often present in the leaf come into view… carotenoids are pigments responsible for the yellow/orange colour of leaves, anthocyanins are responsible for the redder colour of leaves and tannins are responsible for the brown colour of leaves.  There is, within this pigmented system, a sense of hierarchy, at least in part.  But did you ever wonder about the science behind those wonderful colours?  I did… why the green suddenly disappears, where does it go and how do the other colours get there in its place? So, if like me, you ever wondered about these things… here is some insight into the why and what of Autumn!

 

photo credit: looseends via photopin cc
photo credit: looseends via photopin cc

Carotenoids are the pigments responsible for the orange colour of carrots. If carotenoids are present their colour tends to dominate leaving the leaves yellowy and orange.

In the absence of carotenoid, anthocyanin is the dominant pigment. Anthocyanin (the same pigment found in red onions, red grapes, red apples and red cabbage) is a natural pH indicator, meaning that it can change colour depending on the levels of acids or bases/alkali in its environment.  In fact one of my favourite experiments that I often do with children is to demonstrate this colour changing using anthocyanin extracted from red cabbage (but that’s a whole other blog in itself).  Anyway, at the beginning of Autumn the levels of sugar in the leaves tends to be quite high, increasing the acid levels in the leaves, this strengthens the red colour of Anthocyanin if it is present in the leaves.

At the end of Autumn the leaves die off and the levels of carotenoids and anthocynins die off too, leaving another pigment to dominate… and this is the brown pigment of tannin, the same pigment that give a cup of tea it’s colour!

So there you have it… next time you are crunching through those leaves you may wonder why you are suddenly thinking of carrots and cabbages and cups of tea!!!