Bringing in the sheaves!

This week we were playing with straw - this time it was not pinched from any nearby field, but legitimately bought in Acomb Pets (which I would recommend as a morning outing for a boisterous preschooler - watching the lizards being fed with live locusts will shut them up). The task: to make a corn dolly!

We started with the story of corn dollies: for centuries, people have worried as they cut down the last sheaf of their crops - leaving the fields desolate and lifeless - would nature help them again next year? It must have been very sad to look out on the stubbly, empty fields all winter. So they took that last sheaf and made it into a corn dolly to hang over their fireplace all through the winter.

Well, ours were a bit smaller. And held together with string. And for the younger members of the group, it was more practical and fun to stuff a piece of cloth with straw and draw the dolly's face on instead. And to be honest, the kids were in a running-around mood. So we took our dollies with us and headed for the Story Trees to risk life and limb climbing up and down the roots instead.

Newsflash: we have got our funding!

We (and the Friends of Rowntree Park, and Pine Trees Day Care Centre) have received some good news: we have been granted the £1500 we asked the council's Active Arts Team for to do Community Mapping projects in each of our parks! We will work with an artist to produce beautiful maps, containing all our individual knowledge of the parks, that will stay on display as a record and to guide new visitors to the parks. What is the next step? We have to choose an artist! Anyone interested in sharing their ideas about the project, or just hearing more about it, is invited to a planning meeting with the council officers involved on Monday 29th Sept at 10am in the park cafe.

Another bit of breaking news: every year the Friends of West Bank Park ask a wood-carver to carve a tree in the Park - in previous years it's been a Green Man, a nymph, a lion, a totem pole...this year they have asked him to carve something low-down that even toddlers will be able to reach. He will be doing it on Sunday 5th October, 10am-4pm approx, near the New Lane entrance to the Park. Events like a Tree Walk, some live music, storytelling and refreshments are planned for those who come to watch him carve. So keep the date free to pop by!

The past two weeks have been fairly low-key at Very Young Friends. On 11th Sept we gathered some windfall apples and went to the cafe to - rather cheekily - cook our own lunch! We made couscous salad with fruit and cheese, and ate it all up (or most of it anyway). The children managed the hot water very well. The following week, my dear husband Andreas met a few of you in the playground for some good traditional swings-and-slides action.

Hope to see you this week!

Harvest time continues...

It hasn't been such a good year for blackberries, but the zealous Very Young Friends found an incredible number in the Park this week. The difficult part is deciding whether to eat them yourself, contribute them to the shared pot of blackberry yoghurt, or put them in the mashing pan to make dye. Even more difficult is keeping little hands out of the yoghurt pot! But it was very impressive how even the smallest children managed not to touch the hot dye pan, but instead helped to blow on it and cool it down, hands carefully tucked behind their backs.

It was nice to watch bits of fleece turn pinky-purple in the dye, and hang them up on the line. We followed it up with the story of Tom Badger collecting paints from the end of a rainbow, and using them to transform all the houses in his village. Our rendition of 'I Can Sing A Rainbow' afterwards was (I thought, anyway) actually quite moving!

On another note, we are making an application for funding from the council for an arts project in the Park, along with the Friends of Rowntree Park and the Pine Trees day care centre. It would be something everyone, of all ages, could get involved in - not just the making of it, but also the design. The idea is to make a 'community map' of the park that would show everyone's favourite corners of it, where people used to play as kids, what their private names for this clearing or that mound are....if you are interested get in touch with me (catherine.heinemeyer@barkmail.com). We should find out by the end of September whether we have the funding.

All the best,