On Thurs 19th March I had planned to do tree bark rubbing, and indeed we did that, for a little while. But our nest was still there, and some spirit moved me to bring our play tent to the park as well. The children decided to set it up on the nest itself, and they 'built a fire' among the felled stumps and logs beside it. We (parents) were getting told off for going too near it.
The 26th was an important day with an important task to be done, but we got side-tracked by Holly's suggestion that we should look for pine cones. Off we went on a hunting expedition and found alder, fir, and large mysterious egg-shaped cones as well as pine. But we couldn't stay there forever - it was our last session before the cafe was to close, so we held a little ceremony to thank then and say goodbye. We made cards, using leaves we had gathered and pressed in the autumn, and paper flowers for each trainee or member of staff, and we sang them some of our favourite songs.
This past Tuesday, 2nd April, was a similar story - there was work to be done (in this case, making a felt picture) but we got side-tracked by the frogspawn - again - in fact we have been checking up on them every week for a month or so. The spawn keeps getting eating but the undaunted frogs keep returning for another go. Let's hope some of it survives to froggy maturity.
The Felt picture was a bit of a challenge until we gave up on trying to involve the children. Once they were busy playing 'What's the time, Mr Wolf?' things went a lot more smoothly. The adults laid out the fibres - first east to west, then north to south, then a coloured 'design' layer of flowers and patterns. Then we wet it with soapy water and the kids could join in again, with the rubbing - first gently, then more vigorously, till it turned to a lovely cloth!