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edible flowers

30 Days Wild. Days 25 – 27 Wild Flowers, Climb a Tree, Edible Flowers & Culinary Leaves

  Day 25 Wild Flowers     There is a beautiful planting of wild flowers right in the centre of Esher and today I have gone to have a closer look at them. They are essentially located on a traffic island and can be easily seen as you drive through Esher. They certainly give me […]

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30 Days Wild. Days 13- 15. Sound, Wild Flowers in Central London & Flower Colour Treasure Hunt

We have been concentrating on the garden over the last couple of days although the wet weather has prevented us from undertaking much actual gardening.   Day 13  Sound Map of the Garden It’s years since we last created a sound map of the garden. One afternoon about 5.00 pm we just closed our eyes, […]

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natural paintbrushes

30 Days Wild Days 7 to 9 Natural Paintbrushes, Log Animal Shapes & A Frog

We are joining in the Wildlife Trust’s 30 Days Wild Challenge which runs for all of June. Anyone can have a go just see below to see how easy it is. The Wildlife Trust will send to you a really helpful pack. Day 7 Natural Paintbrushes   We spotted this idea on Pinterest and thought […]

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Gunnera

30 Days Wild. Days 4 to 6 Patterns in Nature, Giant Leaves & A Mini- Beast Hunt

We are on a roll with our 30 Days Wild with the Wildlife Trusts.  You can read about our earlier adventures, shades of green and buttercup wanders here Day 4 Patterns in Nature We took the time to really look what is growing in our garden, large & small, colourful & plain. Here’s what we […]

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Blowing Dandelion Clocks

30 Days Wild

We are joining in the Wildlife Trust’s 30 Days Wild Challenge which runs for all of June. Anyone can have a go just see below to see how easy it is. The Wildlife Trust will send to you a really helpful pack.   Day 1 Buttercup Meadow   It’s Half Term and we are enjoying country […]

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Making Garden Ice Sculptures

Making Garden Ice Sculptures

      When you know you have a good frosty, freezing night ahead a fun activity for the great results the next day is to use your garden as a freezer.  We took advantage of a cold spell last week and had a go at making ice sculptures.  We hope you like the results. […]

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spices from a spice garden in Sri Lanka

A Walk on a Spice Farm in Sri Lanka

  We have just had the most beautiful holiday in Sri Lanka.  One of its highlights was staying on a spice farm.  It sounds exotic and it was.  If you have ever been inside the tropical house at Kew Gardens or  the Eden Project then imagine that scaled up 100 times.  The smell, sounds and, […]

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tREE TRUNK

Dens in the Wood

Most kids love building a den, whether it be with the sofa cushions indoors and outdoors, and the more traditional rustic type with branches, sticks and twigs from trees.  Indeed whatever foliage you can lay your hands on.  Nothing beats that cosy toasty feeling when the making is complete and you can crawl inside.  Its […]

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Kew Gardens Barefoot Walk

Barefoot at Kew Gardens

You have over 7,000 nerve endings in each of your feet.  We have been putting them to good use with a real tingle, thanks to Kew Garden’s barefoot walk. We have come across barefoot experiences in a small village in Austria, and again, this summer around a mountainside lake in Switzerland, and we think it […]

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journey stick

Journey Sticks

Walking and sticks are a perfect combination.  Our walk with friends last weekend had all three boys starting the walk with a large stick.  One of these had a forked end and on his own initiative one of the boys wound a long piece of grass around this stick and started adding items to it. […]

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no traffic

The Day We Closed Our Road to Traffic

  We live on a relatively quiet road.  Few of the houses have space for garages or driveways, just small front gardens.  So most of the time there are cars parked on both sides of the road.  Consequently, as with many roads, the only time the children can play outside is when they dash up and […]

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Music and Sundials at the Horniman Museum & Gardens

  I wanted to share with you our day out at the Horniman Museum and Gardens in South East London.  We had never trekked across south London to visit before and I had always assumed that it was a mini-version of the Natural History Museum.  To some extent it is, but it so much more, […]

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woodturning

Countryside Skills Day

    Thank you Dorset Coppice Group for holding such a wonderful open day and for letting us find out about some of those really important countryside skills.  From the location, a beautiful wood used to practise those coppicing skills, through the range of crafts on display to the knowledge and willingness to talk about […]

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Cattle grid

A Walk Around Stourhead Gardens

This weekend Professor Tanya Byron talked about family time in the Saturday Times.  Top of her list were some very basic bonding behaviours such as walking together as a family, chatting and looking at nature.  So our walk around the Stourhead estate in Wiltshire fitted the bill perfectly.  We had intended to marvel at the […]

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bridge over Stour

A Walk on the Waterside

I have been pondering how many people consider going for a walk a form of outdoor play.  I don’t mean the go for a walk to the shops type of walk, but where you set out to have an adventure and a voyage of discovery.  The sort of walk that’s a bit of a treasure […]

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