Latest news with #MensShed
BBC News
a day ago
- General
- BBC News
Farm 'tackling loneliness' appeals for more volunteers
Volunteers running a community farm are appealing for more people to help with this year's harvest and join its men's Village Farm, in Somerset, grows free food for schools and food banks, and it also operates a Men's Shed, which aims to tackle loneliness. After a bumper crop of fruit and vegetables from last year's heavy rainfall and the recent hot weather, more help is needed to process the produce. Jack Helme, the market garden assistant, says it is "lovely" to have such a biodiverse site and those who volunteer hope to build community resilience "by taking care of nature and each other". Mr Helme says farms were traditionally somewhere that people would "gather together and connect to the land" but said that idea had been "lost a bit"."We're really trying to build community resilience, and it's great to do that with all the people that benefit in many different ways here," he said. Volunteer Derek Logan said it is "important that we get new members". "People come and go, so we're always looking for volunteers to come and join us."
ABC News
5 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Bird backpack and rocket set back
As a kid, you'd know there's lots of places to find new friends…. at school, in your sporting team, or in a concert band. But what about grown-ups, how do they make friends? Some grown-ups get together at a place called a Men's Shed. In the last 30 years, about 1200 Men's Sheds have opened throughout Australia. They're places men can come together to do woodwork, fix broken things like lawnmowers, or restore bikes for schoolkids. They're also places for men to make friends and support each other through tough times. Not too long ago, some women thought that they should have their own version of a Men's Shed, so they can work on woodwork and art projects and look out for each other too. There are now 60 women's sheds around Australia, including one that's just opened in the Queensland city of Cairns which is called a She Shed. There are plenty of women who want to create she sheds in their area, but finding a space to set up doesn't come cheap. So, there's a call for more government funding. Friendship, new skills and good support: it's amazing what you can find in a shed! Off the coast of Victoria is a place called Phillip Island. You might know it for its famed penguin population which brings 70,000 visitors to its shores every year. But - another bird scurrying around the island scrub might just steal the spotlight. This, my friends, is the bush stone-curlew. They're quiet creatures, and very well camouflaged by their bush surroundings, and they're wandering around Phillip Island for the first time in 40 years. These birds didn't leave by choice – they disappeared on the island after being hunted by foxes. The good news is that eight years ago, after a lot of work, scientists eradicated – or got rid of - all the foxes on Phillip Island. Now, researchers have reintroduced 12 bush-stone curlews, and they're giving them tiny backpacks. You got it! Inside each backpack is a GPS tracker. Researchers are using them to follow each of the curlew's movements and give them health checks every three months. Yep! So far, so good. The curlews are healthy and enjoying their brand-new predator-free home. Just a few weeks ago, over in Switzerland, there was a lot of dribbling happening. It wasn't a baby get-together, although there were a few tantrums! The world's best soccer teams faced off in the Women's European Championship. England and Spain made it through to the final, with the England Lionesses taking home the win! England's goalkeeper, Hannah Hampton, was named player of the match. She made two saves in the penalty shootout, which secured the win for her team. Hannah was born with an eye condition called strabismus, which means she doesn't have depth perception. Depth perception is how your eyes can work out how far away objects are and the distance between them. Hannah has said that if she pours a glass of water, she always needs to hold the glass in one hand. If she doesn't, the water won't pour into the glass, but spill on her feet. Having had strabismus her whole life, Hannah was told that she should not play soccer. That's right. As a goalie, Hannah's job is to stop balls from reaching the goal behind her, so she needs to know exactly when to leap and save the goal. Hannah had some operations to fix her vision but still finds depth perception hard. As we know though, she's worked hard and never given up, and that commitment has helped score her team the Euro win. Over the years of News Time, you've heard plenty of stories about rockets blasting off into space and you'd know it takes a lot of work to get to lift-off. Recently, in Queensland, a company attempted to launch an Australian-made orbital rocket. That's a spacecraft with no crew on board, designed to stay in space for at least one orbit. People travelled from far and wide to watch the rocket launch from a distance. The countdown began, a big blast took place and plumes of smoke shot into the air. The rocket lifted off from home soil, but only stayed in the air for 14 seconds. Then it crashed down to earth. Even though the rocket didn't quite launch, the company that built it said they were happy with the launch attempt, it was a major step forward for Australia's space industry and they're not giving up on their space dream. If you've been to Sydney Harbour recently, maybe cruising around on a ferry, you might have noticed a bit of extra colour splashed around the edges of the water. Goldy yellow, as well as green, red and grey concrete squares. They've been stuck on to seawalls right around the harbour, at different tide heights. Researchers from Macquarie University had been thinking about how animals see the world, and how sea creatures see their surroundings. They realised that around the Harbour there was a lot of bland grey seawalls, and that most shorelines have the colours yellow, green, red mixed with grey. The researchers set to work in their own backyards making coloured tiles that they hoped would help sea life. It didn't cost much money to make the tiles at all, and the experiment worked. Algae and barnacles have grown on the tiles, and fish have enjoyed chowing down. Scientists have discovered that green algae and barnacles were most likely to grow on red tiles, and brown algae chose to grow on green tiles. The team are now placing more tiles on concrete walls around Botany Bay in Sydney's south to revive marine life there. Well done, scientists on a truly fishy finding!
