Gibside: My Work Experience at Gibside

My Name is Rosie Plunkett, I am a year 10 pupil at Lord Lawson of Beamish Academy. I came to Gibside for my work experience (a week away from school in a working environment to have a taste of the world of work.) While I was working I decided that I wanted to do a small blog about my time here and add in pictures that I had taken. As a took GCSE Photography at my school it seemed like a great opportunity to document my time here. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

On my first day, I was working with Phil (a ranger) and Andy (a volunteer ranger) I was made to feel very welcome and was told roughly about my schedule for the week, so I was well prepared! One of the first things we did was go on a walk through Gibside that took us along the avenue and down to the river, this was to check up on things, like flower growth and to make sure nothing was out of place. It provided an excellent opportunity to get some photos and as it was such a nice day the lighting was really lovely to capture. After lunch I was taken for a tour around Gibside in the landrover, whilst out we saw a buzzard and a roe deer. All in all it was an amazing first day.

For day two I was working with a ranger called Vicky. We spent the morning going round to all of the first aid kits in Gibside to check that they were up to date and had all the appropriate equipment. This didn't provide much of a photo opportunity but it did give me an experience of working in the more public side of Gibside. Just as we were going to have a small break Vicky got a call from the Stables saying that a swallow had accidently flown into the cafe and couldn't find its way back out. So we went up in the landrover to see if we could give it a hand. It took some time but eventually the swallow was captured and after it was given some time to recover was released back into the woods. It was such a good opportunity to get close to such a pretty bird and I loved seeing it up close. In the afternoon Vicky and I did a butterfly survay to document the amount of them in Gibside. This will help to document the population in Britain and what types turn up were and when, this was also a brilliant opportunity to photograph the butterflies.

On Wedensday (day 3) I was working with Phil again to trim up bracken up near the top of the avenue so the heather wouldn't be swamped and killed. It was tiring work and sore, but it was satisfying to see the progress we had made by lunch time. In the afternoon I worked in the office on my blog for a while, until Vicky took me to help with the catering van that needed to be brought to the Chapel for the evening event of an outdoor Shakespear play that was taking place that night. There wasn't much opportunity to do any photography that day, but it was still a fun day full of learning and activty! That night me and my Dad were lucky enough to be invited to go badger watching with Phil and Andy, We saw 4 badgers and one came as close as 3 meters away! It was such an amazing thing to see real badgers and I got so many amazing photos!

On day four I worked with Lisa and the garden team in the walled garden and Orangery. At first we were in the green house watering the plants, but then moved on to the Orangery to work on weeding and touching up the plants, and the before and after result was amazing! I got some lovely shots of the Orangery and as it is one of my favorite places in Gibside, I love photographing it!

On my last day I worked with Vicky again, we cleared bracken from the nature playscape and cut dock and hogweed from an area near the walled garden in preperation for the grass cutting that will be taking place in the next week or so.

I have had such a fun time working at Gibside over the last week. I have learnt lots about Gibside and the world of work. I really enjoyed the relaxed and peaceful atmosphere and it was such a nice place to be!

I took so many photos this week that they couldn't all fit on the blog, so here are some of my favorites from the week...