Above: our view from Hambledon Hill on a current stroll.
For 10yrs now now we have had the pleasure of internet hosting St Michaels faculty from Bournemouth. They first got here once we nonetheless had the cows and have been allowed to do tractor and trailer rides which have been the spotlight of the day. We’d drive them up ridgeway lane sitting on hay bales, again to again, looking on the hedges. They cherished the bumps and swing of the trailer alongside the observe.
With no cows and no tractor and trailer rides, until on a ‘particularly’ designed trailer, now we have to be extra ingenious to excite the children for his or her foray into the countryside. Once they first arrive they’re cut up into 4 teams for ‘duties’ planting, harvesting, tying up Tomatoes, planting Broad Bean. While strolling to their duties they get an opportunity to eat Mange Tout pea flowers/lettuce/spinach/chard and chive flowers. Each 15mins I ring an old-fashioned bell they usually change over. Then its two teams one watching Emsie Sharp blowing glass and the opposite a ‘software’ completion.
After lunch sitting in a subject with a great view of Hambledon, its all the way down to the woods to play and that is now their spotlight. I give one group a speak about how simple it’s to be a guardian of wildlife in their very own gardens nevertheless small. On show I’ve a log, sensible for harbouring beetles and different bugs, a pile of brick/rocks/damaged tiles good for sluggish worms, toads and perhaps even a grass snake, a small trying bonfire that hedgehogs, mice and different small mammals love to cover or hibernate in and lastly an insect wigwam. That is made with small twigs caught into the bottom full of dried grass/leaves and topped with a terracotta plant pot. Glorious for ladybirds, earwigs and even small moths. A very powerful factor is to go away it as undisturbed as doable and sometimes flip the log over, choose the pot up and simply observe what’s seen. We will all be wildlife guardians not simply David Attenborough.
The opposite group make a path of lengthy pink fabric hanging from timber and conceal deep in our woodland. They must be silent which for 8yr olds is difficult however when they’re its magical as they ‘pay attention’ to the timber. The woodland bursts with screams of pleasure, which will need to have been heard all through Baby Okeford, when they’re discovered. Then they only benefit from the freedom of ‘working’. It’s fairly an enormous 12 months group and we had them Mon/Tues/Thurs and Mon once more.
Hope you noticed the point out of Mange Tout peas that will probably be prepared subsequent week and we’re already promoting the primary of the Broad Beans. Phil is again from Japan and within the farm store once more and can make sure to regal you with a story or two from is travels.
