Good morning Xtra grateful people! Start your day with a thankful Thursday. 🙏❤️✝️

Focusing on her unsolved disappearance 84 years ago overlooks what propelled Earhart to celebrity status in her short lifetime: her sense of adventure, her determination, her confidence to break with the norms of the first three decades of the 1900s, and her commitment to promoting air travel and supporting women’s roles in aviation and the world. Propped up in a window at the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum in Atchison, Kansas, is an illustration of 7-year-old Earhart and her little sister Muriel enjoying a roller coaster the girls built with a packing crate to ride in and a ramp of wood planks propped against a shed roof. Right outside the window is a replica of the contraption based on the sketch, which appears in the 1977 children’s book Amelia Earhart written by Muriel Earhart Morrissey. Earhart’s first ride ended in a crash, but she felt the exhilaration more than the bruises. December 1920 at a California air show, just four months after women gained the right to vote with ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, she was 23 years old and said she knew immediately she wanted to learn to fly. For lessons, she found Neta Snook at Kinner Field in the Los Angeles area. Just one year older than Earhart, Snook was the first woman to operate her own aviation business and was one of the first female graduates of the Curtiss School of Aviation in Newport News, Virginia. Snook gave Earhart her first lesson in a Curtiss JN–4 Canuck on January 3, 1921. Because she didn’t drive, Earhart had to ride a bus and then walk four miles to the airfield. Snook taught Earhart to drive a car, too. Among the many jobs she took to help raise $1,000 for those early flying lessons was driving a gravel truck. For personal transportation, though, she loved the speedsters. She bought a 1923 Kissel Speedster Model 6-45 “Gold Bug” to drive herself and her mother when moving from Los Angeles to Boston in 1924. The bright yellow car attracted attention on the six-week cross-country adventure, as did the fact that two women were driving 7,000 miles alone. A few other cars Earhart owned or endorsed were the air-cooled Franklin Airman line in the late 1920s and early 1930s, a 1932 Hudson Essex-Terraplane Special Sedan, and a 1936 Cord 810 Phaeton. According to Barbara H. Schultz’s book Endorsed by Earhart, the enterprising pilot endorsed much more than cars: airlines, luggage and trunks, chocolate bars, collector cards, and Lucky Strike cigarettes, though she was a nonsmoker. Earhart also wrote a book detailing her experience the same year as the Friendship flight, and her speaking tour for 20 Hours and 40 Minutes sometimes included three appearances in one day. She used the money to finance her solo flights. Earhart often wore hats, dresses, and flight suits she designed and sewed. In 1933, she launched a clothing line featuring designs for active women. She sold pieces in department stores as well as patterns to make the clothes at home. She is credited with popularizing selling separates instead of suits limited to the same size top and bottom. She was days shy of her fortieth birthday when the twin-engine Lockheed 10–E Electra was last heard from on July 2, 1937. The last known remaining Model 10–E, which has been modified to look similar to Earhart’s and is on display in Kansas.

Queen guitarist Brian May's woodland vision began in 2013 when he bought 157 acres of land near Bere Regis. And it has been just over 13 years since he planted the first tree on September 28, 2013. Dr May, also an astrophysicist and wildlife campaigner, wished to establish new native woodland as part of the Save Me project. The London-born star said he had had links with the Dorset area for years and even had ancient relatives who were dairy farmers in the county.  He said: “This piece of land is one of a couple of areas I invested in about 12 or 13 years ago. “I have no agenda here, I’m not trying to make money or get famous. “This is not for profit gain or greed, just to make a better environment for all creatures on this planet.” The 'We will Rock You' star initially presented his idea to residents at Drax Hall in Bere Regis to plant 100,000 trees on the site to the south of the village, between Bere Regis and Black Hill. The land was previously used for agriculture and is adjacent to a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Dr. May, who gained his Phd from Imperial College in astrophysics in 2007, said he wanted to create an environment where people and animals can exist together. He said: “I come from a place of playing guitar and music but there’s always been a concern about animals. “The basic philosophy is that this land used to be forest hundreds of years ago and it would make a wildlife corridor and link on with the wildlife meadow. “We have a wonderful possibility to make an environment which our children and grandchildren will grow up and enjoy as human beings in harmony with animals around them.  “I’m hoping what we will get is better than what you would have got with hundreds of houses being built." Young and old joined in the community planting day and over the next 12 months more than 100,000 trees were planted in the area. The Save Me project planned to reclaim the land that used to be forest years ago and create a wildlife haven that both animals and people would be able to enjoy together. The Woodland was originally going to be called Save Me Woods, but it has become known by local residents as May’s Wood and the name stuck. Dr. May opened the planting day with a speech about his vision for the wood and then children from Bere Regis First School sang a newly created woodland song. He added he felt he was on a learning curve. He said: “I feel excited – I have never done anything like this in my life. “This is completely new to me. “It feels very rewarding already to see the first of the saplings. "It's truly one of the most memorable and different days of my life - If those trees develop into healthy adults, I will feel that I've contributed in a small way something significant to the rescue of the British countryside." And its first 10 years were declared a success - the star's website brianmay.com reports that 101,000 trees and shrubs, along with newly created large wildflower strips and clover rich rides, have matured and attracted many species of insects, birds, wildflowers and small mammals that were not present on the 157-acre site during many years when it was used to grow crops. May's Wood is now considered to be a 'forever home' for wildlife with areas available to the public to visit for walking.