Month: January 2023

Categories
Site work

The challenge of not-so-glorious mud!

After a very wet late Autumn, there was mud wherever we walked. It is all very well for the reptiles …

But something had to be done, and the children have been in on the act. Here we record two useful projects that they have enjoyed.

The entrance to the farmyard, where Rosie Chicken lives, was a quagmire. So a small number of bricks were laid in a prepared rectangle, and pebbles were used for a surface.

More recently, in January, a muddy puddle was developing at the main entrance to the plat. The children filled the hole with dirt and then laid a plastic grid on it so we hope to have grass protected and penetrating in the spring.

The challenge of mud seems endless, so there will probably be more projects to come.

Categories
Events

That was the ultimate week

Monday, the rain fell, and the temperature was freezing. It was all a bit of a challenge, but the children coped wonderfully. They are not afraid of being outdoors. The rest of the week, every day was cold, with children arriving on site in minus degrees centigrade.

On Wednesday, we had the dreaded phone call from an OFSTED inspector to say that we were to have an inspection on Thursday. It would be the first full inspection since we moved to Tarly Pit.

We were blessed that day with sunshine and a fire that lit so easily. Between the two we were kept warm on a day when the temperature ranged from -2 to +6 degrees centigrade. All went very well and we were so grateful.

Most memorable will be the boy who was squealing from a tree he had attempted to climb, with another already on a favoured perch. We all assumed that the fuss was a dispute about rights to that branch, until the distraught lad demanded, “Get me down!” It then became apparent that the problem was nothing to do with territory. Unseen even standing immediately in front of him, the boy had caught his hood on a broken branch and could not move an inch. It could only happen in view of an inspector.

All went well. The tree climber was rescued, and the day ended happily. The children went home; the inspector offered feed-back; the staff felt proud.

On Friday, we were doing it all over again, but only under the gaze of heaven.

That was the ultimate week.

Categories
Uncategorized

How the Advent Term came to its conclusion

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We were indebted to the Cranbrook Congregational Church for the kind permission to have the Nativity Service in the beautiful Cranbrook High Street building.

The children, who had no opportunity to rehearse in the church, were amazingly confident and sang out their Christmas praises.

Then came the weather.

We coped with a sharp drop in temperature after the super mild Autumn. There is nothing like collecting sticks and the sight of the flames to warm the heart.

That was followed by the snow.

No director’s car was parked; 5 mph was an impossible speed; the gate was frozen fast against all comers.

And then the thaw and the torrential rain.

Overnight, the carpet of white that had lain for the entire week vanished. The track and car park were flooded. Water poured off the field above our site. The waterfalls flowed through the woods.

Let’s leave that behind us, and remember the happy event of the Nativity. Here is a posy for the leading lady.