Despite the very cold temperatures of recent days our children were thrilled to spot some positive signs of spring in our woods this week! The beautiful sunshine emphasised the different shades of green starting to appear all around.
Days in the woods are always good, warm days in the woods even better but not sure what can top a warm day in the woods AND finding tiny toads! 🐸🐸
Update – wrote that too soon! Even more better are warm days in the woods AND tiny toads AND marshmallows!!
We’ve been getting on with planting our vegetables in the Walled Garden at Gillies Hill Community Woodland this week. We’ve been planting the beans, turnips, carrots, courgettes, onions and beetroot that we sowed before the Easter holidays. So far we have filled one of the beds where the old greenhouses used to be. Next week we hope to get our raised bed planted too!
Last week a team from Learning through Landscapes Scotland visited us on a glorious sunny spring day. LtL are making 24 short films for Scottish Forestry about managing sites for regular use by early years settings and asked if they could come and see what we get up to at Gillies Hill Community Woodland. We were very happy to meet them and show them around. We were also very interested to see their film and sound equipment.
We received funding last year from Falck Renewables to allow us to begin the development of our new nursery in Gillies Hill Community Woodland. We also won the Falck Renewables Recovery for a Resilient Sustainable Future Competition. As part of the funding process we were interviewed by Falck and asked about what we do in the woods and about our plans for the future.
We were very interested in the monster truck harvester in the woods today. It’s job is to fell trees and it has already cut down some to make a path along to the walled garden. It has enormous wheels and makes very deep and muddy tracks. We helped Amos mark out an alternative path to the muddy one so people walking can keep out the truck’s way. Look out for our colourful ribbons!!
After a long and dry spell which has rendered the burn and puddles in the woods almost non-existent our children were delighted to see the results of Thursday’s heavy rain. They thoroughly explored the changed landscape and textures and engaged with them as only children can!
During woodland play sessions children may be exposed to ticks as they are commonly found in woodland, moorland, grassland and parks. Ticks can sometimes pass on disease such as Lyme disease to humans. Not all ticks are infected and, if they are removed quickly and safely, the chance of illness is greatly reduced.
We strongly recommend that children wear long sleeved tops and trousers as they not only reduce the risk of tick bite they also protect against nettle stings, scrapes and scratches.
We also recommend that parents check for ticks routinely and, if found, remove as soon as possible. The safest way to do this is to use a tick removal tool commonly available in most outdoor shops and chemists.
The following information and guidance may also be useful :
Forestry and Land Scotland : Checking for ticks is easy
NHS Scotland guidelines : Current NHS Scotland Guidelines on Lyme Disease
Forestry Commission: Forestry Commission Identifying Ticks
The following YouTube video by a NHS Highland GP shows how to remove ticks safely :
We are very grateful to Aldo for making a lovely new sign to go beside the fruit trees in our orchard in the walled garden. Amos helped the children find a good spot to put it up. Our apple trees are already covered in blossom and there are leaves on the pears , plums and cherries. The children are hoping to be able to harvest some fruit next week!
The children had great fun (as well as a significant amount of patience) making damper bread in the woods today. The bread took a long, long time to cook but it was worth the wait. The children said it was yummy and that it smelled just like toast 😊
Cambusbarron Village Nursery 