From Kim Chester, Development Manager:

Today I'm in Stroud working alongside Stroud District Council and the Cotswold Canals Trust on the restoration of the canal.  It's a big project (total cost around £33m) with lots of engineering and as well as environmental and community projects.  My role is to help raise the match funding that is required, this means working with the team to develop projects which meet the needs of the community, the project and are appealing to funders.

At the moment I'm working with Stroud in Bloom to make sure that they are involved in the landscaping projects.  By working in partnership with them we've managed to secure £500's worth of free trees which the community will be planting on March 26th.  So if you live in Stroud and fancy a morning getting muddy, bring a spade and gloves to Cope Chat Field by Hilly Orchard bridge and come and get stuck in!

I need to keep an eye on the clock though as I need to catch the early train today as this evening I'm off to swim training - I'm entering my first open water triathalon this summer and its all getting a bit scary!

Want to know more about the tree planting event? Contact Kim.

Find out the latest about the restoration of the Cotswold Canals.

It's long been a desire of mine to visit the Scottish Highlands and now with recruitment of a Canal Environment & Heritage Officer for the Caledonian Canal underway, maybe I'll have just the excuse to go. Our work in Scotland is going from strength to strength, as well as extending our work to the Highlands our Scents & Sensitivities project at Auchinstarry Basin on the Forth & Clyde Canal is just a few weeks away from completion.

This has been a mamouth iniative - to transform a new canal basin into a resource which is valued, used and enjoyed by the local community and visitors to the area.

Working with the local community of Croy, we have helped to create a sensory garden and nature trail, new pathways and seating areas. Stunning sculptures provide wonderful focal points at the site. Local school children worked with artists to create artwork which now adorns litter bins, picnic benches and helps to interpret the site. Volunteers from The Coach House Trust also learnt valuable woodworking skills when they helped create the picnic benches.

This project is a great example of just how we are helping to enrich people's lives through waterways.

Sometimes it isn't easy for people to get out to see, explore or discover their local waterway due to age - too old, too young, mobility issues or simply a lack of interest. To help overcome some of these issues our Canal Community Liaison Officer in Scotland, Steven Cole, got together with the Open Museum at Glasgow Museum Resource centre to create a Glasgow Canal Kit.

The kit contains museum objects such as a model puffer boat, a kingfisher, butterflies, plant-life specimens, a horseshoe, a windlass, boat tickets and small samples of goods that were both transported on and made along the canals. There are also photographs, a map, suggested walks and a history of the canal.

Local community groups such as youth groups, nurseries, care homes, community centres can borrow the kit free of charge and help more people uncover the history of their area, the wildlife that make their homes along waterways or perhaps how of Glasgow has changed over the years.

This is just one of the ways that the Trust is helping to make the story, heritage and wildlife of our canals and rivers more accessible to the local community.

You can find out more about this kit by contacting the Open Museum.

I'm also trying to stick to my New Year's resolution of doing some kind of exercise each day and with Spring on its way, the office's location in Gloucester Docks leaves me with no excuse but to get out and pound that towpath on my lunch break. If you are able to get along to a canal or river, they can be fantastic places to set a new PB (personal best). A nice, flat route makes a marked difference to the hills of Herefordshire where I live!

Saw a manual typewriter in the office yesterday it looked like a museum artefact. Slowly rememberd that I learned to type on a machine like that! Makes you realise how far we have come in such a relatively short space of time. Although given all my IT headaches over the past couple of days maybe all progress isn't so good. With the exception of keys bunching up when you typed too fast, how many things could actually go wrong with a typewriter?

Good piece on Coutryfile on Sunday about the National Waterwys Museum and the Heritage Boatyard. And folk our Scotland office have started tweeting. Follow them and see what's happening on the Lowland Canals.

Waterways Action Squad is going from strength to strength. More than 700 young people have take part in events and activities along our waterways since the project got under way in July 2009.

It is crucial that we help the next generation to build a connection with our canals and rivers so they are looked after and used for years to come.

Another project in Scotland which has helped several young people gain much needed work experience is nearing completion. Three Modern Apprentices have spent a year working on our environmental improvement project at Auchinstarry Basin on the Forth & Clyde Canal, Scents & Sensitivities. They have learned how to landscape, lay paths, plant hedgerows and build fences. Hopefully these new skills and practical work experience will help them get a job in the future. We'll be celebrating everything that has been achieved through the Scents and Sensitivities project in March.

Tuesday 25 Jan

New website is now live, rather scary. It has been so long in the planning and development, taking that final step to go-live was rather daunting. Comments have been positive so far, just waiting for someone to discover a glitch or fault...

BBC's Countryfile visited the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port to shoot a feature. Great success. Crew were really friendly, presenter Ellie Harrison arrived at the museum on one of our historic boats then interviewed some volunteers about what life would have been like on a canalboat and had a go at re-creating some Roses & Castles artwork.

Looking forward to seeing the final feature on Sunday 6 Feb.

Busy week, as usual. Met producer from Countryfile to discuss a possible feature on our Heritage Boatyard at the National Waterways Museum. Would be really good publicity for the boatyard and museum and give the two young trainees to show off the new skills that they have learnt.

Finished editing our newsletter for our Scottish supporters, it's now with the designer and should be dropping on people's door mats in early February. Now to make a start on  Rushes, the newsletter for our supporters in England & Wales.

Judging for the 2011 Waterways Renaissance Awards is also well underway. Yet more fantastic projects showing just how people and organisations are working together to make the most of our canals and rivers even in these cash-strapped economic times. A real feel-good moment.

Oh and the small matter of finalise this great new website so it can go live. It will be a super way to communicate to and with our current and new supporters and partners - showcasing our work and hopefully getting more people involved in what we do.