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Shrewsbury, Shropshire, United Kingdom
FSC Preston Montford has been an outdoor classroom since 1957 and is a Field Studies Council centre. We deliver curriculum related outdoor education by the experts; from pre-school to Masters level; for infants, school students, undergraduates and enquiring adults with an interest in the natural world. Courses for schools and individuals. A venue for others to use; with bed space for 130, catering facilities and 7 fully equipped teaching and meeting spaces.

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Wild Skills Week 

Growing Confidence Project 

https://www.field-studies-council.org/courses-and-experiences/opportunities-for-16-25-year-olds/growing-confidence/

Over October half term we had a group of young people staying at Preston Montford for a week packed with outdoors activities - canoeing, bushcraft, a visit to the Stipserstones, making bird boxes and conservation tasks. 

They completed their John Muir Discovery Award and many also attended for their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. 

At the end of the week they wrote something about their week for their John Muir Award. Here is what they wrote.

🌳

Day by day

A poem about each day of the course (bushcraft, canoeing, Stipserstones, conservation tasks, making bird boxes).

Blow by blow a sooty smell turned to ash burning cascades of flying lights as natural fibres crack

Stroke by stroke endless water moved further and further from the eagerly dipped paddles

Gust by gust the bloody butchered stones stretch far beyond the eye

Chop by chop relentless vines encroached onto ripened ready Land

Nail by nail birds fly from far and wide to see the inept builder of their home 


A poem

The earth a brilliant red

Hand hewn cliffs tower over the trees

Over the carpet of needles and leaves of

Orange and gold, rustling with wind as…

The sky a looming grey

Storm torn clouds filled with rain

That pours into puddles and pools of

Mud and water that contrasts the trees…

Growing in vibrant greens and hues of

Life, the bark hidden by layers of soft and

Somehow beautiful moss, lichen

That teems with life and animals…

Squirrels bounce from limb to limb and

Birds soar above us, they cry to the wind

The rain, creeping in the leaves the insects

Are shaken off as we feed our fire…

The flames start small, a smouldering of

Dry wood and smoke, the heat is welcome as

The fire grows and dances in the cold air

A grey ash, embers fall through the air…

Drifting then landing softly on

The earth a brilliant red

🌳

Canoe Day

The beginning of the day was quite difficult after not having done canoeing in many years so it took me a long time to get used to. Since I was at the back of the canoe, my role was to steer and ensure we are heading in the right direction. Since we were travelling in a canal we had to ensure we were constantly travelling in a straight line and a small adjustment to steering could have led us into a bush and crash.

In the beginning it was very hard as we often ended up travelling in zigzags and took us a while to get a good pattern in terms of how we travelled. When it got to lunch, we had to take the canoes out of the canal and carry it across a lock and this was when it started raining and everyone’s moods went down. This was when we tried a different approach by switching places to see if our teamwork would improve and travelling would be better, but I discovered that I wasn’t very good at being as the motor in the front. To change this, we stopped and changed back to our initial places and decided to build our communication skills and talk to each other in the best approach to avoid a bad situation like crashing. By the end of the day I started to really enjoy myself especially after the sun came out and everyone’s mood and happiness improved and I found myself enjoying my time with my group. 


                                                              

Wild Skills Week

Only a few days before Halloween, we were up on the bleak and rocky moorlands of the Stiperstones. The rain was just easing, but the sky was still quite grey despite the lack of fog. On such a day, at such a time of year, one could almost imagine the faeries amassing to ride forth. With the walls of the world feeling thin, I found the tale of Wild Edric stirring in my mind.

In the distance loomed large rocks, and small stones were scattered over the moor. The ground felt as if it had been just inundated by the autumn rains after a slightly drier summer. Growing amongst the rocks were clumps of heather, no longer purple but green and brown. And growing amongst the heather one could see their cousins growing- bilberry, and once you got your eye in you could something else. This, I was informed, was cowberry; something I should have recognised but, out the field, did not initially do so.

On we walked, towards the distant, huge rocks. Up in the sky a bird appeared. It seemed quite large, but as it approached it become clear it was no bird of prey, but a Corvid. Its wings were jagged, but I couldn’t get a very clear view of its tail. Sara informed us that the bird was a Raven. Ravens are beautiful birds, highly social and intelligent, and they have such a bleak wildness to their atmosphere. A wanderer might considerer Ravens to be a joy of the Stiperstones. But they were not all there was to see here.

As we were walking towards those looming rocks, we came across another sign of intelligence. Smaller chunks of quartzite had been collected together and piled up into a cairn, located at where three paths met. And further beyond the Cairn, an enormous quartzite outcrop, several in fact. If you looked sideways, one could almost suppose one of them could serve as a chair for some legendary giant. There are some that say that giant is not mortal but the very Lord of the Hills, hence the name given to one of the outcrops- the Devil’s chair. Together with the tale of Wild Edric, this a hill steeped in the mythology of people.

And all the while, as a group of upright apes contemplate their faerie stories, the ravens above keep their own vigil. Who knows how they might see the world, see these moors?  Meanwhile, slowly, the processes of weathering continue to shape the landscape as geological processes shaped the landscape since the Cambrian time and before.

🌳

Wild Skills Week Review

Day 1 – Bushcraft Skills

Throughout the day we focused on the skills of:

Fire building

Removing fire safely to leave no trace

Making natural survival resources – nettle string

One of the main things I took away from the day was the emphasis placed on understanding why we were doing certain activities, such as the importance of safe fire removal. We thought about how many of the techniques will have originated from knowledge being passed down orally throughout history – I thought this was an interesting and new approach to an activity which I had done previously.

Day 2 – Canoeing and Mammal Traps

Taking a 12km journey down the canal acted as a good team building activity as we had to encourage each other to remain positive despite the bad weather conditions.

Throughout the journey, observing the surrounding plants and taking photos allowed us to explore the environment.

The evening consisted of making Longworth mammal traps. I found understanding why trapping and recording local mammals was equally as important as physically positioning them in contributing to my knowledge and experience in conservation.

Day 3 – A Visit to the Stiperstones

Botany was a new concept introduced to day 3, allowing me to identify plants in the heather moorland habitat such as common heather and bilberry.

Quadrat sampling of the plant populations introduced me to some of the methods used by the local wildlife trusts to conserve the natural environment. This also helped me to build on my current knowledge from A levels.

Day 4 – Conservation at Nesscliffe

By collaborating with Shropshire Wildlife Trust, we worked to reduce the coverage of Rhododendron which we learnt to be minimally useful in supporting other forest species or maintaining species richness.

I found this to be a therapeutic process which would make a lasting impact on the local environment.

In the evening we looked at the challenges wildlife trusts can face in maintaining the balance between maintaining the local economy and protecting the local area.

Day 5 – Bird boxes and completing the award


Monday:

Began with meeting the group before moving on to bush craft activities such as starting a fire and creating string using nettles. 

Tuesday:

Today was exploring the local area by canoeing on a canal. We explored wildlife and plant life in the area as well as learning to control a canoe.

During the evening we set up mammal traps to collect information on the mammals in the local area.

Wednesday:

We began with opening the mammal traps which we set up the night before. Overall we found 2 mammals, a vole and a mouse and surprisingly a bird which quickly flew off. In the day we visited the Stiperstones in the Shropshire hills where we learned about wildlife and plants such as the heather, which is the only habitat for the red grouse which lives there.

Thursday:

Conservation tasks were the agenda for today. We visited Nesscliffe to remove the invasive rhododendron which was damaging the land and preventing anything else from growing. To finish we took a walk around the area to have a look at the views and explore the area.

Friday:

On the last day we made some bird boxes which we will take home and place out to give the birds a place to live.

🌳

Discover 

Shrewsbury, Shropshire  

Stipertones Hills

Very windy but it has great views      

You can see for miles
Snailbeach
Old mining place
Recovering broken areas
Lots of history
Nesscliffe Woods
Beautiful woods full of trees
Red cliffs
Nice walks
Explore
Bushcraft
Fires
Nettle ropes
Canoeing
Teamwork
Rain and hot chocolate
Animal trapping
Identifying types of animal
Wren, voles and mice
Stiperstones
Amazing views
Rock scrambling
Plant sampling
Nesscliffe
Conserving woods
Observing trees and plants
Creating bonfires
Walking down steep paths
Making bird boxes
Creating homes








Monday, March 23, 2020

Unprecedented

“Unprecedented” – never done or known before (Oxford Dictionaries, 2020)

2020 has seen storm after storm sweep across the UK, floods surge through our landscape, and Covid-19 (Coronavirus) arrive on our shores and impact our lives – all of which have been described as “unprecedented” events.

On Tuesday 25th February, approximately 1.3km away from FSC Preston Montford, the River Severn exceeded its highest recorded level at the village of Montford. The river gauge logged a peak height of 7.01m. For the most part this had little effect on the centre, but the view across the fields towards Montford showed a river that appeared to be 6-7 times its normal width. This caused erosion to the river cliff on the centre’s side and flooding around (and possibly in) the houses of Montford Bridge.

View of swollen River Severn from the bridge at Montford Bridge. Credit: Vicky Brown

Luckily the trees were able to save this summerhouse from floating away. Credit: Vicky Brown

Darwin's View - usually the River Severn is between the two lines of trees in the middle of the photo.
Credit: Vicky Brown
Landslide on our path down to the river. Credit: Phil Wilson.
Downstream in nearby Shrewsbury, the impacts of the multiple floods were felt keenly. The water stretched across carparks and nearly up to the bandstand in the Quarry Park. It reached the top of the cellar windows of the houses by English Bridge, flooded many businesses, and transformed Shrewsbury centre into a ghost town. With the town practically becoming an island, vehicles were unable to access the town for several days via all routes save for the Kingsland Bridge. For many people this had been the second or third time that their properties had flooded in as many weeks.

Looking from Smithfield Road to Theatre Severn - the flood barriers are holding. Credit: Phil Wilson.

Homes and businesses fighting the floods in St. Julian's Friars. Credit: Phil Wilson.

Porthill Bridge becomes the 'bridge to nowhere' as the River Severn takes over the bottom of the Quarry Park. Credit: Phil Wilson.

Transport restrictions are put into place due to rising flood waters. Credit: Phil Wilson.
These flood events were history in the making and tutors spent their time monitoring the Environment Agency’s online river gauges and were out taking photos to remember the occasion but to also assess the safety of our fieldwork locations.

Now we are in March and the next unprecedented event is upon us – the Covid-19 coronavirus. The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, declared on Wednesday that all UK schools are due to close to all but the children of key workers as of Friday 20th March. This will, I am sure, leave many parents, guardians and children unsure of how they will face the upcoming weeks…, months…, who knows? The Education Team are certainly feeling a little redundant; what are we supposed to do now? No schools means no fieldtrips!

However, ever the optimists, we have realised that this unique, unprecedented situation poses a great opportunity for people to reconnect with nature. Therefore, as well as planning to develop our centre grounds and updating our risk assessments for lesser visited sites, we have tried to come up with a list of things that you could potentially do alone or with your families during these uncertain times:

1. Get arty! Spring has officially arrived, and the natural world is changing. This springtime display could be captured by watercolour, pastels, photography or any other medium you wish to use. For younger artists, challenge them to use natural materials to create their masterpiece.

Love natural art. Credit: Charlotte Timerick

2. Be a modern day Beatrix Potter. Miss Potter loved to write stories about the animals that lived in her garden; why not come up with stories about the creatures that visit you? You could then share these with loved ones via social media, by email or by phone.

3. Do you have one of our fold-out FSC identification guides? Brilliant. Take it out on a walk with you, away from the crowds, and see what you can discover in your local area. We suggest the Mammal Tracks and Signs Chart, the Tree Name Trail, and the Features of the Shropshire Hills, but any will do depending on your interests. Furthermore, who said walks were just for the day time? Visit a familiar location that you can safely navigate (even your own garden will suffice) and take along our FSC Night Sky Chart, so that you can discover the stars – don’t forget a torch though!

4. Find a Citizen Science project to be involved with. Citizen Science is about members of the general public collecting and/or analysing scientific data, typically as part of a project run by professional scientists. It allows the collection of vast amounts of data that a few scientists could never hope to achieve in the same timeframe, therefore advancing scientific knowledge much more quickly. It’s also great fun. To get you started, have a look at Zooniverse https://www.zooniverse.org/projects or the Natural History Museum https://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/citizen-science.html or the Open Air Laboratory (OPAL) https://www.opalexplorenature.org/surveys.

Taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch in 2017.

5. Record the wildlife in your garden, or in your local area using iRecord. iRecord is a website and app that allows you to submit biological records (for example, J.Bloggs found a hedgehog on the front lawn of FSC Preston Montford on the 20/03/2020). This information allows us to build up a picture of where different species are around the UK. If it is done regularly, then we can see how a species’ location, or distribution, is changing and may be able to conserve or manage it better.

6. Design an iSpy game or treasure hunt for your household. This could be a simple list of things to find on a walk or it could be a complicated clue finding mission that sends explorers to every nook and cranny of your chosen area.

7. Grow your own…sunflower, carrots, wild flower meadow. What is more joyous than seeing a little seedling grow each day into a beautiful plant? You could even have competitions to see whose is the tallest, widest, or produces the most flowers.

Preston Montford's annual meadow in full flower. Credit. Charlotte Timerick
8. Build a den. You can make a den from anything. Just go wild!

9. Improve your wildlife identification skills. We recommend using the iSpot website, which allows you to upload photos and details of the plants and animals that you find. Experts respond to you to let you know what species it is or, if you made a guess, if your identification was correct. If you have the basics covered and have a more advanced identification book that has been sitting on a shelf gathering dust, take this moment to dust it off and get practising.

10. Share your knowledge and green space online. If you are passionate about the natural world and have something to share or just have a lovely green space near you, then pick up a camera/phone/other device and get videoing. The FSC are currently working towards making some #fieldworklive videos for school students to aid their knowledge. https://www.field-studies-council.org/2020/03/20/fsc-to-launch-fieldworklive-with-encounter-edu/.

So, the events of 2020 have so far been unprecedented. Well, I encourage you to have an unprecedented positive reaction! Look after one another, enjoy the natural world as safely as possible and lets make 2020 the year the world reconnects with nature.

Note: Please follow strict social distancing guidelines and remain in your own neighbourhood at this difficult time.

Source:
Lexico: Powered by Oxford. 2020. Oxford Dictionaries: Unprecedented. [online] Available at: <https://www.lexico.com/definition/unprecedented> [Accessed 23 March 2020].

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Growing in confidence - making a positive impact on young people and the environment.

Hi, I’m Dan and I have been volunteering as part of the Growing Confidence Project at Shropshire Wildlife Trust since February 2017. As part of these volunteering activities, I and other young people learn practical conservation skills to benefit Shropshire’s wildlife and nature around us – allowing us confidence that the species and habitat they rely upon will remain for future generations. I have also attended several activities at Preston Montford where I have learned skills including moth trapping and identification, perform a ‘bioblitz’ and identify native flora.

Learning new skills through conservation tasks.
As part of my involvement with the Growing Confidence Project, myself and Laurence Kinnersley became Youth Representatives for the project as part of National Lottery Community Fund’s ‘Our Bright Future’ Youth Forum. The Our Bright Future National Youth Forum is made up of several National Lottery Funded projects around the UK and Northern Ireland – each of which nominate one or two Youth Representatives to meet as part of National Conferences where we all meet and discuss conservation and youth voice issues and how to resolve them.
Members of The Our Bright Future National Youth Forum.


Letting young people have their say on environmental issues.
As part of this, we pushed forward the Three Asks – three basic changes to Governmental policy and how young people are involved in society; Ask 1 – More time spent learning in and about nature, Ask 2 – Support to get into environmental jobs, Ask 3 – Government, employers, businesses, schools and charities to pay more attention to the needs of young people and the environment. By meeting these asks, we hope that both young people and the environment will benefit greatly.

By being involved with this Youth Forum, I and a small group of others from Shropshire Wildlife Trust created our own local youth forum called Youth For The Wild – where we host discussion meetings between young people and expert panellists about local environmental and wildlife issues. From these discussions, the Trust will support these young people to bring about the change they want to see happen in their local area.

Speaking on environmental issues.

I would say that by taking part in the Growing Confidence Project and attending activities at Preston Montford, my life and opportunities have developed beyond what I thought they would ever be. I realise I am now able to undertake practical conservation activities to benefit the natural world and wildlife around me – which I would not have developed in any other way. Similarly, my engagement with others has improved vastly – just a short time ago I would never have been able to stand in front of a group of others and deliver a presentation and discussion, but now I do so on a regular basis. Not only have these skills enabled me to gain an offer from The University of Oxford and follow a career in the environmental sector, but have benefited me in every area of my day-to-day life, and I would encourage any young person to become involved with these fantastic projects!

By Daniel Bowen 



 About the Growing Confidence Project

Growing Confidence (GC) is a five year project giving young people the opportunity to discover more about wildlife and wild places and have fun learning skills in their local environment. FSC Preston Montford is working together with Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Fordhall Community Land Initiative to offer a wide range of inspiring opportunities for young people aged 11-25.

You can find out more about the Growing Confidence project, an environmental project for young people aged 11-25, at https://www.field-studies-council.org/courses-and-experiences/opportunities-for-16-25-year-olds/growing-confidence/.

Monday, December 23, 2019

Christmas Time...

Education Team on training at Blists Hill 2019.

Here at FSC Preston Montford we are like a family. We support each other by sharing the workload, we care about each other’s wellbeing and the wellbeing of our guests, and our Office Manager knows everything and organises the diary. Yes, sometimes we create a mess (walking boots on the carpet), forget to communicate our whereabouts and walk in late to dinner (apologies). However, each of these actions and characteristics makes us the unique, slightly eccentric family that we are and one that we enjoy being part of.

Therefore, we encourage you to be part of your ‘family’ at this festive time – whoever they may be. Remove the distractions of everyday life, revel in the fact that for a few days you don’t have to live your life by the clock (we advise using a clock whilst cooking, counting out-loud isn’t so accurate and gets boring way before the 3,600 second mark) and enjoy the simple things in life.

We have kept this blog short for a reason, now…walk/board game anyone?

Merry Christmas and looking forward to seeing you in 2020!

The staff at FSC Preston Montford x

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Deck the halls...with sustainable decorations this year


As winter draws in and the incessant rain of this autumn gives way to sleet, snow and a frosty glaze covering the morning earth, preparations for the Christmas festivities are appearing all around us. Towns and villages across Shropshire have been putting up their Christmas lights and decorations for a few weeks now; whilst as I write this, Shrewsbury itself prepares for the big switch on of Christmas lights this evening (20th November). A few of the FSC Preston Montford team will be in attendance to enjoy the music, lights and joy – by the time you’ve read this we won’t still be there, but if you want to imagine us to still be at the Christmas lights party, feel free. This however, started me thinking about how I’ll decorate my flat and how we will decorate FSC Preston Montford as sustainably as possible.

One of the most straight forward ways for us as a centre to achieve this is to use the natural materials around us to create some lovely wreaths. All that is required is some willow or bendy hazel and a range of plants that can be attached to the willow / hazel ring. We tend to use ivy, holly, teasels, pine cones, raffia, dried fruit, dried flowers and grasses – anything you can work into the wreath to make it look pretty. Here are a few examples of our wreaths and some of materials that we use to make them.

Foraged materials from around our centre and our own gardens.

Natural wreaths have texture and interest. You can dd foliage and holly with berries to yours for more colour.

Natural wreath and Christmas tree decorations.

Aside from wreaths, there are plenty more decorations that can be made from wood and the nature you find around you. Here are some small Christmas trees, stars and animals created with a bit of willow weaving or with pine cones and twigs.

Pine cone reindeer, Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/347692033711650729/

If you want to take it up a level, Arran our Education Team Leader informs me that he has previously made reindeer out of blocks of wood and twigs / small branches, like the ones below. I think they’re pretty awesome!

Log reindeer, Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/357614026644245698/

Meanwhile, Jenny our Growing Confidence Project Officer brings some ideas from the country renowned for its Christmas celebrations – Germany – which I might attempt to make this year.

Christmas tree ladder hanging - a great craft activity to do with children, Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/134685845082312141/

I hope you can appreciate all the different natural decorations you can start making to brighten up your homes this Christmas – many of which will adorn our centre (keep an eye out on twitter for photos!). The last and, perhaps most important decoration in any home or Field Centre is of course the Christmas tree! Like me, you may have been struggling with the thorny – some might say needley! – issue of natural or artificial tree for some time. Here is a link to a BBC News article on the subject. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38129835. It seems that to ensure your artificial tree has a lower carbon footprint you need to use it for at least 10 years, otherwise a natural tree is best. Of course there are other issues like how biodegradable each is.

You may be asking, like I was before joining FSC Preston Montford, where we get the material from to make these wreaths and other wonderful decorations. Well, I’m glad you asked, because winter is the perfect time of year to undertake a number of conservation tasks which contribute to both encouraging new shoots and wonderful materials for Christmas decorations – as well as other objects like fences. I am talking about coppicing, which we started a couple of weeks ago with our Duke of Edinburgh Award volunteers. They have enjoyed coppicing both hazel and willow, some of which can be used in decorations, some in fencing and the rest is being used to supplement our dead hedge. A dead hedge is a hedge sized barrier made from dead wood and provides a perfect home for insects, fungi and small mammals and birds and thus is an important biodiversity enhancing feature in our grounds. Winter is an important time to coppice as the trees are dormant and so it reduces the chance of stump mortality as well as providing the time in spring for new shoots to grow next year and over time develop into wood we can use for some of the uses already outlined.

If you want to get into the spirit of winter and have a go at creating your very own wintery art, we have a fabulous upcoming course on Saturday 7th December led by Sara Lanyon and Mike Ashton. You will have the opportunity to make gifts, decorations and just have a fun time. Follow this link to find out more. https://www.field-studies-council.org/courses-and-experiences/opportunities-for-16-25-year-olds/growing-confidence/

Whilst you nature lovers may be lamenting the colder weather, longer nights, and the loss of the spring and summer flowers, take festive joy in getting close to nature this winter with some wonderful, natural, Christmas decorations.

Phil Wilson (Tutor)

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Autumn Glory


Last year Autumnwatch visited and aired from New Hampshire, America, to show off the fantastic display of colour that the deciduous trees were providing. Here at FSC Preston Montford we have been exploring the beauty of the landscape on a smaller scale and trying to capture some of those autumnal changes with our young visitors.

Early in October, the Growing Confidence project ran a ‘Landscape through a lens’ day, focussing on observing the landscape and improving photography skills. It was led by Sara Lanyon, an award-winning environmental educator, and Mike Ashton, an artist, photographer and graphic designer. Mike began the day by talking about composition – the way the elements in a scene are arranged within the frame – and how there are different guidelines to help you to achieve a more attractive picture.

One such guideline is the ‘Rule of Thirds’. This is the idea that you divide the frame into a grid of nine equal rectangles and place an interesting element on one or more of the lines or where the lines intersect. In the example below, the berry has been placed on the first vertical line (the photographer was going for the intersection but miss-judged it slightly).
Credit: Charlotte Timerick

Another guideline is using paths, walls, etc, to guide the viewer through the picture and to focus their attention on important elements of the photo; this is called ‘leading lines’. Leading lines do not need to be straight.


Texture and certain colour combinations can work well too. The latter is often over-looked as a composition tool for getting the best out of your photos.

The blue-green of the lichen contrasts well with the pink of the rock. Credit: CharlotteTimerick

After the brief photography lesson, the team headed out to Corbet Wood and Grinshill to put the guidelines, and their various cameras (smartphones, compact camera and DSLR), to the test. The results were fantastic, and it was interesting to see what different people noticed in the landscape. Sara’s challenge of photographing certain elements of the landscape certainly helped to hone the team’s observation skills, as they tried to spy them out.




 

 
 
 


























































Photo credit: Vicky Brown

Have you been noticing the little changes near you? Why not have a go at capturing them and uploading them onto Instagram or Twitter with the tag #wildphotochallenge – that way we can see them too. Not a Social Media fan? That’s okay, spread the joy by showing friends, family and work colleagues instead. Happy Autumn watching!

Our tutor team love watching the Beech tree outside the Education Office slowly change colour and loose it’s leaves. Credit: Charlotte Timerick

To find out more about the Growing Confidence Project and how to get involved, please go to https://www.field-studies-council.org/courses-and-experiences/opportunities-for-16-25-year-olds/growing-confidence/.