Woodland survey

Earlier in the week I took part in an ecology survey at Headingley Campus, to measure the current floral biodiversity at Queen's Wood, a section of campus woodland managed by the university grounds team.

The aim is to determine the plant species present, where they are and in what numbers. The information will then be compared with previous and future surveys of the area to see how biodiversity changes over time.



Native bluebells in Queens Wood 

Following an initial briefing from the arboricultural consultant overseeing the project, I accompanied Peter Griffiths, Grounds Maintenance Manager on a walk around the south section of Queen's Wood. Provided with a species guide and checklist of wildflowers to look out for, we recorded those encountered and the frequency in which they appeared, and enjoyed a good natter along the way.

Peter pointed out examples of grounds work projects. Selective bramble clearance to encourage the spread of native bluebells, removal of diseased and strucuturally unsafe trees, leaving the felled trunks to provide resources for woodland wildlife, removal of invasive species, planting hedgerows of native fruit bearing shrubs and trees, maintaining piles of shredded and composted material, installing nesting boxes for bats.

 

Solomon's Seal, Lords and Ladies, Red Campion

 

First section complete, followed by a well earned cup of tea, I surveyed the second area myself, focussing on the section of woodland adjacent to our office. Favourite sights of the days included carpets of English bluebells in dappled shade, Red Campion, Lords and Ladies, Solomon's Seal, a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the treetops, a Wren perched briefly on a diagonal branch, Speckled Wood butterflies danced in sunspots in a woodland clearing, the sound of a Chiffchaff on the margins. I returned my findings, and came away refreshed and with a much greater understanding of the woodland, the work of the Grounds and Woodland Management Team and the challenges involved in managing the area.



Read more!

Merry Christmas

All of the the News and Media team would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Beth, Linda and Helen take time out of a hectic Christmas Eve in the Grange for a pic featuring our Derek Acorah adorned Christmas tree. 

Read more!

The student experience

I’ve been working for the News and Media department here one day a week for six weeks now so we thought it was about time, just before Christmas, to have a think about how its been going. As a PR student at Leeds Met, I started this year (final year, where’s that’s gone?!) needing to find a placement and some work experience. Over the past two years I’ve managed to get a couple of bits of work experience but these have both been agency based, so I fancied a bit of a change and wanted to look more in-house. The university seemed a logical option, seeing as I’m here anyway, and have the added bonus of being able to walk in from home.

Although only one day a week, I’ve been lucky enough to be able to my teeth into a couple of little projects and lend a hand where possible. Working on the magazine has been good fun and is definitely something that I’d like to continue with in the future. I managed to make a few (small) contributions to the magazine and was even given the opportunity to attend the CIPR awards in November supporting the team in their nomination for Best Magazine. Unfortunately we didn’t win but award evenings are always fun, especially when free food is thrown into the mix, so let’s hope we get that opportunity again.

Last week was the Winter Graduation and I was fortunate enough to be around while that was going on. This gave me a chance to see the goings on on a day like that, and hopefully, a taster of my own graduation this summer! It was great to help out and speak to a few graduates about their experiences at Leeds Met and what they plan for the future.

I’ve enjoyed working on a range of different topics in the short time I’ve been here and not being used as a tea boy (not actually drinking tea might be a contributing factor), and in comparison with other placements I’ve had I’ve got a few good pieces for my portfolio already. It’s certainly been a good way to spend my Fridays (although I’m a bit gutted to not be able to stay up and watch the Ashes on a Thursday night) and to get an idea to what goes on behind the scenes at the university.

I hope to continue into the New Year and get involved in some more projects in the future.

Andrew Carroll

BA (Hons) Public Relations

Read more!

Autumn colour

Enjoying the autumn colour on campus at the moment, here's a brief selection of what's about, Beech and Maple are pretty impressive. My advice is step away from the screen, wrap up warm and catch the display before it disappears.   

Linda G

Read more!

One day my 'prints' will come

Now I’m not one to moan…but…isn’t technology supposed to be getting better through the ages? Yet over the last few months our office has seen a huge turnover, for whatever reason, in printing machines!

Once upon a time (why it was only earlier this year) we had a speedy, high-quality, colour, laser printer which did us just fine; I mean yes it had its occasional technological tantrums, but it faired us well over the years and even survived the office move from the fifth floor of City Campus all the way up yonder Headingley Campus to our current location in the Grange. However, it took just one fateful day…and a suspect ‘water meets printer’ episode courtesy of Duncan Worth…to finish it off forever. We tried in vain to fix it, pressing all its buttons and even attempting the age-old trick of ‘turning it off and turning it on again’, but to no avail. Sadly we had to call it a day and waved goodbye to our beloved printer as it was wheeled away by members of the Computing Services team.

It wasn’t long before our colleagues from CS were back, only this time they came to deposit a gift – a replacement model to our former printer. It wasn’t quite the same, it didn’t look as advanced but in its favour it was a little less cumbersome. Of course, like many things, it didn’t work straight away; in fact it seemed to take weeks before it was ready to spawn our documents. In the meantime we were hooked up to another one of our ex-printers, situated in a neighbouring office and now belonging to our Corporate Projects team mates, which was great apart from when the team left for the day and locked their door (not to purposely halt our use of their machine I hasten to add).

Once our own new addition to the team was ready to roll we set our digits to Control>P and awaited with anticipation the results of our printed work. As the first sheet churned out there were gasps of horror as our once crisp and clean documents came out streaked with yellow ink. We hoped it might just be a teething problem and the streaks would eventually fade, but things went from bad to worse as the weeks went on and our words became almost illegible. Drastic action was needed and after numerous complaints from our leader Helen, the CS team returned with a third printer.

Once again there was a delay between sending to print and actually receiving the work at the other end…about three weeks on this occasion! By the time the printer was ready to install I had travelled over 2000 miles to my holiday in Egypt and back, so I hadn’t missed anything revolutionary print wise then!

I have now been back just over a week and in that short space of time have seen printer no.3 fail to install, install, fail to print, print perfectly, shred documents, Computing colleagues come and go and finally the installation of printer no.4! But despite a few minor install/print issues earlier today we are now once again up and running and able to publish many thanks to Spencer and co from Computing Services for their efforts and their saintly patience!

Beth Hallam, News & Media

Read more!

Autumn chill

Today the News and Media team are feeling the cold. As Cris nipped out for his lunchtime run in a bid to warm up, the rest of the team rummaged through the dressing up box and coat stand for a few extra layers to see us through chillsome times. Laura, visiting from Leeds Business School, was on hand to witness the sorry sight. 

Linda G

Read more!

Plane Crazy

As a stay-at-home dad on Fridays, I sometime struggle to find interesting and worthwhile things to do with my nineteen-month-old son. He's at that awkward age where he has started walking and (almost) talking, but also still needs two naps a day and is prone to needing his nappy changing at inopportune moments.

One of his current obsessions (like most small boys of his age) is mechanical things such as diggers, cranes and lorries. We were driving through Yeadon a few weeks ago, when I wondered whether he would be interested in watching the planes taking off and landing at Leeds Bradford Airport. At the very least, the noise of jets passing overhead would keep him occupied for a while.

After a quick search on the internet, using the power of the iPhone, it became clear that there is a one major spot where people in Leeds with a lot of time on their hands go to watch planes. I headed for the cheerfully-named Cemetery Road in Yeadon, where a layby overlooking the runway offers great views of passing air traffic.



Strictly speaking, no-one is supposed to park there, because it's double yellow lines. As a fellow plane-spotter sagely observed to me, if a traffic warden wandered up there, they'd have a field day. But it seems to be pretty well-established as a local tourist attraction, complete with an attendant ice-cream van. It's a pity people don't look after it a bit better though - the ground is littered with broken glass and litter, and people clamber over the cemetery wall to get a better view of the jets passing overhead. It must be a bit galling if you've driven over to put flowers on your grandmother's grave, to then have to weave your way past plane-spotters eating Soleros and playing loud trance from their Honda Civics.

There is also a hard-core of plane-spotters who clearly spend a lot of time hanging around this spot armed with enormous telephoto lenses and and ham radio equipment. They spend a lot of time in their cars, fiddling with antennae and listening to Leeds Bradford air-traffic control. They also serve as a useful early-warning system for when a plane is about to take off or land, because they get excited and twitchy, dashing out of their cars and scanning the sky with binoculars.

Now, call me a nerd, but watching a 40-ton jet flying over your head at a few hundred feet is undeniably quite exciting. Landings are quite a surreal experience in this particular spot, because the plane's engines are running at lower power, therefore its approach is quite silent. It arrives out of nowhere, and suddenly the sky is filled with a huge aircraft, seemingly headed straight for you. It's a heady experience.

Takeoffs, when the wind is in the right direction, are equally exciting. Depending on which way the windsock is blowing, the planes taxi very close to the waiting spectators, before gunning their engines to full power. At that close range, you can really feel the force of jets, like standing next to the bass speakers at a concert. It seems at the moment inconceivable that the huge plane in front you will actually be able to leave the ground. Then the roar deepens, and slowly, the plane begins to rumble down the runway, gathering speed until it leaves the ground.

I'm not a fan of flying in planes - given the choice, I'd much rather stand on the ground watching them. Hanging around with my Max Power and CB Radio chums gave me a fresh perspective on this phobia. I think flying in planes is actually too exciting to be an entirely comfortable experience. It actually doesn't feel right that people are sat reading Heat magazine while thousands of pounds of thrust are preparing to blast you three miles high into the stratosphere.

I wouldn't go as far as Will Self, who suggested that the inflight movie plays the 'Beyond The Infinite' sequence from 2001 as you take off, but I think a bit of razzmatazz definitely wouldn't go amiss. Just so long as I didn't have to sit next to a fellow plane-spotter throughout the entire flight.

CN
Read more!