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.
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Our beloved Queen Victoria
We sometimes bow to her before we set off into the woods!
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