Wildlife spotting...

It's been an amazing year for wildlife spotting for me! Earlier in the season I saw a family of Wild Boar in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire with my class and we had a Song Thrush and a Wren nesting in the Bushcraft shelter at work. In the summer I witnessed a lot of activity around a Badger set in West Sussex and a few weeks later I was able to see a glimpse of an Osprey, a couple of Hares and several Dolphins in Denmark. In late summer, along the River Severn in Worcestershire, I saw my second Kingfisher ever and today we had the pleasure of seeing a Hedgehog close-up outside our house... Bring it on!

Autumn birthday party

On Saturday the 3rd of November 2012 we celebrated an early birthday party for Ella with an outdoor Autumn theme! She had invited lots of children from her class and, as the weather was beautiful, we managed to spend the whole afternoon outside. We made a fire, went on a treasure hunt, played, made hot juice and baked bread-on-sticks on the fire, we made a windmill and generally just enjoyed ourselves! As it started to get dark, we even managed to enjoy our storm lamps till it got pitch dark!

Fundraising forest cycle ride

Over half of the Wynstones Steiner School Class 2'ers went on a family cycle ride in the  Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire today. We had a lovely time, with beautiful sunshine, fantastic autumn colours and a lot of fun on the trail. It was a fundraising event with proceeds going to the Goderich Steiner School in Sierra Leone, West Africa. As everyone had so much fun, the idea of doing a monthly ride sounded very appealing. Watch this space...

Bushcraft birthday presents...

Here are some of the presents I got for my birthday: a Karesuando Bushcraft Knife  and a traditional Fire Steel with flint... The Gransfors Bruks Axe I bought a little while ago and the Swedish Fire Steel I've had for some time too. Looking forward to start using it all! Enjoy...

Advanced Bushcraft Award

I have just completed the Advanced Bushcraft Award NCFL IIQ Level 3 course with Woodcraft School down in Sussex. It was a very inspiring experience with lots of practical stuff such as crafts, fire lighting, animal tracking and making water safe. But also lots of knowledge to be gained on trees and plants, heat and cold injuries and generally being confident in nature! Above all it was great to spend eight days in beautiful woods and get a glimpse of what life must have been like before technology and modern living became part of today's world! Highly recommendable...

Heartshore Horses, Minchinhampton

We took Ella for a horse riding lesson at Heartshore Horses in the Cotswolds near Minchinhampton today. 13 year old Acorn, who she was riding on, is a lovely pony with a thick coat of hair and despite the biting cold wind, Ella loved every minute of it. We hope to go back many times...