A week for working with wood

Whilst pondering what to write for my next blog I was starting to think I was suffering from writers block when I realised there had definitely been a theme to my past week and that was working with wood!

The children and I visited Burlesdon windmill on their last day before starting back at school last week and we had a wonderful day. It was gorgeously sunny and the staff had arranged a windmill workshop which meant the children were able to make these fantastic windmillls out of willow and the traditional paper ones too.

We did this all in a beautiful old barn and then we sat on the lawn next to the pond for our picnic and once we were full up on chocolate brownies and strawberries we were able to climb the windmill and be told the story of how flour is milled. Every single child soaked in the information and then returned to the barn to grind with a large hand stone their own flour and sieve it into different grades and take it home. The whole day cost £5 per child including materials, I would recommend it to anyone with children from the age of about 5-12 years.

The girls then went off to school and their weekend project was to strip the bark from 12 various sized sticks in order to make a set of wind chimes. They immediately enlisted the help of their little brother and his wonderful much loved and cherished Tree House Blue Moulin Roty tool box. Molly and Toby then set to work sawing off the knobbly bits!

The toolbox came in useful again when at the weekend we decided that as the ducklings are now getting quite large and frankly starting to make our back cloakroom smell of a farmyard! they needed to spend some time outside but as well as needing to make their run foxproof they would need a shelter whilst outside. Molly volunteered for the job and designed and built a superb shelter with minimal help from dad, which the ducks nestled down into almost straight away.

Moon our pony came over to inspect and cant quite work out what all the fuss is all about.

This week is also the week the bluebells have blossomed in our nearby woods, so we have been visiting them daily on our dog walks, they are just wonderful to look at and marvel at the beauty of nature. I think Ellen did a good job of photographing the woods in order to appreciate how amazing they are.

We are looking forward and preparing now for our school May Fayre, which if anyone has ever visited a Steiner School Fayre is a really lovely event full of handmade ideas, products and activities. My brother has been roped in to teach fly tying and casting so watch out anyone who may be in the vicinity of Aldermaston's Alderbridge school on Saturday 7th May at 11:30. He assures me he will be removing anything remotely sharp from the hooks, so that all visitors leave with body parts intact!!