At last, clear blue skies and sunshine, although a sneaky N.E. wind is making it pretty chilly here. Never mind, in sheltered spots it's glorious. Our plan tomorrow is to light the fire in the roundhouse and make charcoal drawing sticks which we can use to draw on pieces of bark. Barry is going to make a wooden pig so watch this space...! Today there was ice on puddles and baby lambs to bottle-feed as well as shetland ponies on Death Hill.
Hyde Park Junior School are having a great time and a group have just set off across the lawn field to collect the donkeys. Time to light the Quiet Room fire I think...

I'm trying to get my head round this blogging thing and want to let you view photos of the progress of the roundhouse from the beginning to now. Let's see how I get on!

Our roundhouse, half-finished though it is, has come into its' own already as a perfectly serviceable shelter from the elements when we do our Forest School sessions on Tuesdays. The weather turned against us this week and there was drizzle and a little blustery wind, although it was much milder than of late! Titchfiels Primary School entered into the spirit of things with a log fire on which to cook scones using our new tripod and making charcoal drawing sticks and rush rope. Outside under a thick holly tree Barry helped to saw discs of hazel with which to make medallions and several groups had a go at creating a spark with the magnesium sticks. We all enjoyed eating our scones as soon as they were cooked and everyone ended up smelling strongly of smoke and understanding a little of the trials of our ancestors in living in a roundhouse!

What a relief to be rid of the snow and back to normality. It looked very beautiful but prevented us from travelling freely and caused our first school of the year a few worries when they feared they might not be able to get to us. As it turned out, everything melted away in time and we are half-way through a lovely week. Milder temperatures and some sunny skies have made it a pleasure to be out and about although there was a sneaky cold wind in the spinney today during our Forest School session. The campfire struggled to heat us up but the children were incredibly resilient and made charcoal, sawed wood for pendants and wove things from willow without complaining! Thanks for that.
Three new piglets will be arriving next week as well as a new stag turkey with some females. We'd love to be able to hatch out some of their eggs so fingers crossed that they will be good and fertile. The bulbs are just poking up above ground so spring is definitely coming.
Quote of the week so far;
Q."What does a heifer become when it has had its' second calf?" A. "A sheep".
(Thank you, Eleanor!)

Testing this out for FFCC - Middleton