Although it felt far from being spring, we found some signs of new life including primroses, crocus and daffodils.  Also, there were lots of fresh green shoots and leaves that have appeared in the woodland walk.  Spring really is, just around the corner.

Our hazel trees by the pond and in the woodland walk have been alive with ‘lambs tails’ or catkins.  These are the male part of the plant. Hazel is monoecious, meaning that both male and female flowers are found on the same tree, although hazel flowers must be pollinated by pollen from other hazel trees. Female flowers are tiny and bud-like with red styles.  Hazel trees provide fantastic wood for whittling and actually thrive when they are coppiced.  Using loppers, we cut some branches, close to the base and then learnt all about whittling safely which included wearing a glove, whittling away from the body and making sure no one was out our blood bubble when we whittled.  Some lovely drum sticks were made.

The fire was lit in the hope of making and cooking pancakes.  The Forest Schoolers later reflected that they hadn’t enough wood ready to feed the fire so there was not enough heat produced to cook them or pop corn.  Lesson learnt and next week, we agreed to give it another go.

By this point, we were all quite wet.  The floor was very slippy and  there were a few accidental slips throughout the afternoon.  Then there was the mudslide and then some sliding on purpose.  The highlight was a mud slope train.  There were so many squeals of laughter and so many happy faces!   Some certainly embraced both the rain and the mud!