Those birds ought to be really happy now...

Not only do we make all sorts of food and feeders for them, but now we make beautiful houses for them too. Well, paint them, anyway. I brought along some my husband had manufactured from some old fenceposts, and the children set to with brushes and paint. They really got absorbed in their task, and seemed to enjoy working together on it, until the houses looked more like bird-hippie-communes than respectable dwellings. Once they have been varnished we will see about getting them nailed to a tree in the park somewhere.

The park cafe had all its Christmas decorations out, including a beautiful tree with baubles and bells. So we had a story about Tante, a little old German lady who made Christmas magic for all the children and animals of her village with her wonderful Christmas tree. A little premature but we are really getting into the Christmas spirit now!

Log Bird Feeders Thursday 20 November 2008

As winter seems to be well and truly here, the Very Young Friends decided to help out our feathered friends and make some bird feeders. Phil had kindly drilled a number of large holes through lengths of log for us to fill with our yummy mixture, lard and bird seed! The children took it in turns to pour in bird seed and mix with the lard, this was quite hard work for both large and small hands. The mixture was then spooned into the holes and ready to hang from a tree, lets hope the birds enjoy their stylish feeder!

November doings

Apologies for the bloggy silence since the beginning of the month. It's not that nothing has been happening!

On the 6th Nov we did some cooking in the cafe - but not for ourselves, for the birds! We chopped cheese, apple, bread and other titbits for their delectation and mixed them together in a huge bowl. Well, most of us did. My son Patrick concentrated on stuffing himself with cheese....ah well. The following rhyme accompanied our work:
Chop, chop, choppity chop
Chop off the bottom and chop off the top
All the rest goes into the pot
Chop, chop, choppity chop!

The following week, 13th Nov, everyone - including Patrick, and therefore me - was sick. So there was no meeting that week, for the first time since Christmas week - normally the Very Young Friends are very hardy!

This week, 20th Nov, Bryony was in charge, much to my delight. We made wonderful bird feeders from logs with holes drilled in them. I will leave this to her to recount!

Halloween fun in the playground

We had a proper Halloween party in the playground. Why the playground? Because it gets quite tiring, racing after toddlers to try and keep track of them in the woods, week after week, and the playground has a FENCE!!! So the children got busy gathering big sticks and small, and tying them together into broomsticks. I don't know how many would really fly, or even sweep up if it comes to it...

We then made 'apple men' by sticking twigs and cloves into apples. Some of them were really lovely little characters.

Pumpkin cake and ginger tea warmed us up a bit, but as the sky started to darken we decided to hurry the rest of the party along a bit. So we had our story - starring all the apple men. A little pumpkin gnome was looking for friends to celebrate Halloween with. The pine cones weren't very enthusiastic, but the apple men, hiding under the autumn leaves, all wanted to join in! A few quick songs and then RACE HOME OUT OF THE WET!

Autumn creativity

The blog is a little out of date! The past two weeks have seen some impressive creative efforts by the Very Young Friends. Two weeks ago, on a radiantly sunny day, we gathered autumn leaves from the maple and sycamore trees at the bottom of the Rose Walk. The cold, dry weather had brought out some beautiful yellows and reds in them. Then we tied them into bunches, mobiles and the like - although I must confess it was quite difficult to contain our younger members and persuade them not to run away altogether. But even the littlest and wildest did concentrate on the story, in which Kigbo (the hand puppet) took a wander through the forest (all their leaf creations being held by them) and admired the different 'trees'.

Last week blustery weather sent us into the Park cafe, where Jill and the other wonderful staff are always so tolerant of our noise and mess, and supply us with tempting chocolate cake. We made 'gardens' on trays (chopped-up cereal boxes) using salty playdough as 'land', tinfoil for 'lakes', hedge clippings as 'trees', sticks as 'fences', conkers and pebbles and crabapples as various garden structures. The children really concentrated and produced some lovely gardens. We gathered up all our leftover clippings etc, and brought them to the Park compost heaps, where the children presented them to the Heaps as presents! Then storytime, as last week, featured a little gnome going for a walk through all their lovely gardens, looking for a friend to play with.

This week Bryony will be showing us how to make a bird feeder out of a log - looking forward to it!

Following the Squirrel Food Trail...... 9 October 2008

This week the squirrels of West Bank Park asked the Very Young Friends for their help. The squirrels had collected food to store for winter but had piled it up and were having trouble finding it again. Luckily the squirrels had left some very big footprints for us to follow and a few clues along the way to help. The older children concentrated on following the footprints, looked out for the clues and collected the food in their bags (chestnuts, beech nuts, rose hips, pine cones etc), the younger ones enjoyed being led along the trail and picking up the food to put in their bags. The squirrels meanwhile had been busy writing thank you letters to the children and rewarding them with cake for their hard work (the squirrels in our park are very talented!).

Autumn Celebration a great success!

This Sunday saw a rather impromptu 'Autumn Celebration' at the Park. The wood carver was finishing his carving (two Green Men - I think - near the New Lane entrance - nice and low down for little ones to look at!) A fantastic ceilidh band called NE66 set up, juggler too, refreshments were served, a naturalist offered a Tree Walk round the park's interesting collection of trees, storyteller (me) set up near the cafe, the weather was glorious....but at 1:30 hardly anyone was there! But little by little they trickled in, till by 2pm there was a really good crowd, some bopping near the band's gazebo, others listening to stories or queuing for tea and biscuits.

My two little ones had such a good time they didn't ask to go to the playground even once! They were too busy dancing and nicking the juggler's balls!