'Fall'-ing into bad habits...

Yes, eagle-eyed readers will observe that this is the first blog post in 7 weeks - a lot to update on! The excuse, as usual, is that we have been extremely busy in the Very Young Friends, and especially with finishing our community art project along with the Council, Pine Trees day care centre and the 'grown-up' Friends of the Park. I hope to include a picture of the finished mosaic itself, as soon as it is actually mounted in the park!

What else has the group been up to?
* A musical instrument day - making shakers using old containers and woodland treasures such as beech nuts and pine cones to fill them. Thanks Nikki for leading this session.
* A Berry Day - first we had a good look at all the different kinds of berries growing in the Park and what they are good for - from snowberries which really go 'splat' when you stamp on them, to blackberries which are delicious, to rowan berries which are magical and good for making trails, to hawthorn berries which are great for the birds but very prickly, to elderberries which make good jam, to guelder rose berries which taste disgusting, to yew berries which really ARE poisonous (all you can do with them is throw them away into the hedge very quickly). We made our own 'berries' using potatoes and colourful fleece, hid them and laid trails to them with the rowan berries.
* A Yoga Day! Laura Potts, experienced yoga teacher, led us in some Story Yoga, using positions like 'the camel', 'the tree', 'the dog', and 'the dog having a wee'. What more can I say?! We all greatly enjoyed this, appreciated the good stretch, and most of the kids even joined in!
* A Three Little Pigs Day, led by Laura Barrett, in which houses were built of straw and sticks and got blown in!
* An Apple Day - we gathered windfall apples, washed them and sliced them and hung them up to dry. A little bit challenging for our smallest members, but it's good fun to go foraging.

I am definitely missing a few here but that's enough for now!