Episode description

Founded by Jordan Grant after he was inspired as a teenager to turn his life around, Glasgow Garden Maintenance is now offering an apprenticeship scheme for aspiring tree surgeons. Mark meets Jordan and a former apprentice to hear about how the business has gone from strength to strength supporting young people into new careers along the way.

Rachel visits the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther and takes a look at one of their exhibitions- The Long Haul: a generational study of fishing in the East Neuk. We hear an excerpt from Helen Needham’s upcoming Radio 4 programme, Crossing the Cuillin Mountains. In this two part series, the writer and mountaineer Robert Macfarlane attempts to complete the Cuillin Ridge. The expedition marks twenty years since his first book 'Mountains of the Mind'.

Naturalist and environmental educator Dan Puplett has seen a big increase in the number of people keen to learn more about mammal tracks. Rachel heads out with him to see what she can identify through footprints and poo! We chat live to Rick Taylor, from the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project about the recent successful translocation of Golden Eagle chicks to the area as well as the upcoming Moffat Eagle Festival.

Mark visits the Sighthill Stone Circle in Glasgow along with podcast maker Matthew Magee. Matthew has been exploring some of Scotland’s fascinating neolithic sites on his bike for his series Stone Me. He explains what makes Sighthill unique.

Skein Dial is a new art installation created by Hannah Imlach at RSPB Loch Lomond. It is a migration sundial carefully calibrated to mark the seasonal arrival and departure of Greenland White-fronted geese. Mark takes a look and finds out how Hannah created it.

And after his chat with Hannah, Mark continues his musings on geese and what their arrival at this time of year means for us.