Nurture in Nature - first signs of spring

  

Guck mal Mami, a daisy! And die ersten Blumen!

Thus Cubling spotted the first signs of spring and was full of excitement, and mummy obliged and took the photos.

On our way home she asked if it was her birthday tomorrow, as it was now spring.

Patience monkey, it's not quite spring yet. When the daffodils are out in bloom, then it will be your birthday. And the ones in our house don't count.

Pictures taken during our Nurture in Nature playgroup outing in Pollok Park on 3rd February 2011, between the two storms. This post is part of Outdoor Challenge Monday which is hosted at 5orangepotatoes.

A walk in the woods - Outdoor Monday

On Sunday, we took advantage of the dry, if overcast, autumn day and headed to Chatelherault. I'd heard about it, but didn't know at all what it was, just that it was reasonably close and might be a good day out with kids.

I was in for a surprise - so much so that I wondered how such a gem could have escaped me all this time. Maybe it is something about my antennae being directed towards the sea and the hills, going north and west rather than east and south.

Chatelherault offers a perfect day out for a family (or anyone really) - with beautiful long woodland and river walks, an adventure playground, a garden centre with some farm animals and the mansion itself which has a lovely cafe and an exhibition, as well as events for children of all ages.

Our plan was to have lunch in the cafe and then go for a short walk to leave time for farm animals and adventure playground, but we took a wrong turn and went on a long walk instead, which pretty much took the whole afternoon between toddler and post-c-section-mummy-wearing-baby. Lots of pine cones were collected, stones thrown into the river Avon, holes were explored for badgers and bears, mushrooms were discovered and sized up, and sticks were carried and used for drawing on the ground. Cubling carried her own baby (a bear baby girl by the name of Spencer) all the way, and both got a lot of fun out of jumping into muddy puddles. I'm very proud of Cubling for having walked all 4km up and downhill by herself.

A definite must for returning, the adventure playground looked too good to miss, I love garden centres anyway, and I'm keen to explore the exhibition in the former hunting lodge or even take part in some of the countryside events that are offered throughout the year.

Chatelherault is situated just outside of Hamilton and since 2005 has a train station with a half hourly service from Glasgow and Hamilton. Entry to the country park and all attractions is free.

This post is part of Outdoor Challenge Monday, which is hosted on 5orangepotatoes. If you want to take part, head over to check out how to. This post was brought to you thanks to my fabulous parents-in-law who took Cubling for a bike ride while Snowflake napped in her sling/wrap (what on earth would I do without the sling???). Blogging hasn't been such a precious activity in a long time ;)

Oh, and yes, I've noticed that I need a hair dye... Bottom photo taken by Goldilocks, aka Mr Cartside.

Nature connections with children

I'm two weeks late. I guess I have an excuse for it of sorts.
So, exactly two weeks ago marked the first out of a two day "course", or should I say experience, of Connecting with Nature. This course was set up by Glasgow's Bodhi Eco Project and run by Art of Mentoring for anyone who considers themselves and educator and it's all about how we can help children connect with nature in new and more engaging ways.

It was right down my lane, and I didn't care that it was scheduled to be 8 and 9 days after my due date, especially with a 42 week + pregnancy under my belt already. So I signed up. (And yes, the first day out in the woods was enough of activity in upright position, some jumping and other unusual physical activity inclusive to send me into labour the very night, so I never made it to day 2)

I don't want to go through all the amazing activities that we tried out ourselves because that would be boring - you really have to do it to experience it, that's the whole point of the course. What I can describe is more general - and with the contact details provided, if you want to experience a similar course near you, you can just get in touch with the facilitators and I promise you'll go home full of ideas, enthusiasm and maybe even give birth the following day.

First of all I liked the idea of the target audience, educators, with it being a very wide term. So who was there? Eco schools coordinators, forest kindergarten staff, home schoolers, parents and forest school teachers. I'm sure there were others (I didn't manage to find out about everyone with a full schedule and me only being there for one day), so it was a pretty diverse group of people.

Secondly, the approach was through doing it. Trying out the activities, becoming a child yourself for the day, or at least imagining yourself as a child version of yourself if that makes sense. On the topic of sense, that was part of the approach too, experiencing nature with all senses, not just our usual overbearing visual sense. So there were blindfolded exercises, movement, listening, feeling, touching, imagining, smelling. It was about rediscovering the variety of experience and senses that we all have but that have been neglected to a great extent.

My particular high point was meeting a tree (in true tree hugging style!), blindfolded, and trying to get a sense of this tree. I then set out to find it again, this time with vision, and it was incredibly easy. What was also incredibly easy was to find out what tree I had met, because for once I'd remembered all its features. My initial guess that it was a birch was wrong, it was in fact an alder and I'm pretty sure that I will forever be able to identify an alder after that very short meeting. Any information I will now gather about this tree will be easier to remember, because my experience of the tree was not just visual.

Other forms of experiencing of nature that day were through song, through lighting a fire, through trust exercises, games that heighten listening skills. There was so much in it, I felt that I needed time to take everything in, which of course didn't happen thanks to labour setting in that night. Thankfully I've since received a handout which reminded me of all the different activities - not sure what I would have done without it!

I can really see how the activities will work with a diverse group of children, different ages, but also how they can help children develop a sense of focus that they may struggle with in indoor environments. It will give all children equal opportunity to participate, rather than favour those better able to cope with a classroom setting. They're all fun, but develop a lot of skills at the same time, to name but a few these are listening, communication, team work, respect for other people and the natural world alike, woodcraft and probably lots more.

The course draws on a range of different sources, and uses a range of tools which include storytelling, creative arts, and lots of practical nature skills.

Needless to say, it's all outdoors, as it should be.

Outdoor Monday: Urban Foraging and Making Jam

I love foraging. Ever since I've moved to Glasgow, the annual brambling season has been marked in my calendar. Usually, the brambles are made into a jam or some crumble cake, sometimes mixed with other fruit, sometimes as bramble jelly.

Bramble season is only about to start in Scotland so there's another week or two to wait but thanks to a kind friend I heard about damson trees in the middle of the Gorbals (which is almost right in the centre of Glasgow). Not having much time to lose, Cubling and I went foraging in the urban park. We found damson trees heavy with fruit, from top to bottom, so that there was enough to be picked on Cubling's height. As much as picking, she enjoyed just being in this slightly wild spot of land, sitting down, playing with her favourite teddy, my camera and generally directing where and what we should pick.

The park is small and situated between council and private housing, close to high rise buildings. It's not very big, but still manages to have a sense of reclusion. The fruit trees and the overgrown area around them meant we were in a small but separate world of our own, away from the dog walkers and lunch break smokers, closer to the birds and the thistles. The sun came out and we spent some time just sitting, chatting and being there.

Our pick was about 2.3kg of damsons, and 300 gr of redcurrants, which translates to two jam making sessions. So in the afternoon, I tried my hand at damson/redcurrant jam:

Damson jam:
1.5 kg of damsons (I had 1.3 kg of damson plus 300 gr of currants)
500 ml water
a knob of butter
1.5 kg of preserving sugar (plain sugar works too as damsons are high in pectin and don't need additional pectin)

method: Remove stalks from the fruit, place in large saucepan (I tend to use my largest one for jam making). Slow boil the damsons with water until the fruit falls apart. (This takes a while, enough time to wash and sterilise your jars - I usually sterilise by sticking them into the oven at 150 degrees for about 30 mins, but having a microwave steriliser for baby equipment, I used this: 3 mins with a bit of water sprinkled into the jars.)

Now, the stones should start making an appearance at the top of the broth. If not, try a potato mashing tool to help the fruit along. You'll find that the longer you cook the fruit, the easier it is to spot the stones and take them out (however, you don't want to overcook either), it's still fiddly and not the easiest jam to make together with your toddler. You can continue picking out stones while you cook and jam the fruit, even when pouring it into the jars. You will get better at spotting the stones as you go along, honest.

Once the fruit has disintegrated, take off the hob, add the sugar and butter and allow some time for the sugar to dissolve. Once dissolved, boil for 10 mins, test for setting point (I never do that and it still works) and once setting point is reached, take off the hob and fill into your sterilised jam jars. I use a funnel for this, and also top the jam with wax discs, but this is optional.

The recipe makes about 6-7 medium sized jars of jam.

out in the back garden - Outdoor Monday

This week, our outdoor adventures have been limited. Baby's head is weighing a ton and my radius is getting smaller by the day, walking simply is uncomfortable. I'm glad Cubling still attends the forest kindergarten, especially because the weather has been rather nice and this is a lovely time of the year.

Sometimes though, you don't need to go far to enjoy the outdoors. Our back garden may be small but we are so lucky to have it. Today, Cubling took her play out to the garden. I was hanging out the washing, which is one of my most enjoyable household chores when it can be done outside, and Cubling decided that she'd like to do some ironing of the washing. She fetched her ironing board, her iron and some of the laundry and placed it outside.

Later on the items on the washing line were counted and we managed for the first time to get beyond 20, in German at least and with a bit of help.

We were also able to at last admire our first sunflower in bloom, alongside some insects who were equally impressed. Only a week ago we had feared that sunflowers were another write off in the garden, but low and behold, there are two small but perfect flowers:

Colour in our garden at last!
What were your outdoor adventures this week?

Outdoor Monday: Climbing Trees in Linn Park

This week, our outdoor fun took us to Linn Park. Believe it or not, the heat in our back garden was quite overbearing (at least if you're 37 weeks pregnant) so we decided to explore the leafy shades of one of Glasgow's urban park gems. Linn Park is really walking distance from us and runs along the banks of the White Cart water, south from Cathcart's picturesque Snuff Mill. The river has moulded a deep gorge into the landscape, and makes for ever changing views. It incorporates a golf course, play areas, large wooded as well as grassy areas. In spite of being landscaped it retains a  wild aspect to it, with lots of exploration in an easily accessible environment. It used to be my favourite running track, what with gentle slopes on one side and never ending steps on the other which made for an ideal short but demanding run.

On Sunday, the park with its woods brought a refreshing breeze to a hot day. The whole family came along and Cubling enjoyed playing hide and seek with her cousin and grampa, my little niece didn't tire of exploring the texture of falling leaves in the grass, and my nephew had a lot of space to impersonate Lightening McQueen or Buzz Lightyear (the confusion is all on my part, I'm sure nephew knew exactly who he was). There were perfect climbing trees, bugs, seeds and mushrooms to explore, and the accessible banks of the river make for perfect fishing with nets and rods.

The beauty of the park lies in it's spectacular setting which lends itself to ever changing aspects. It's big enough for it not to become crowded even on a busy Sunday afternoon. In a month's time, it'll be the ideal place for some brambling too. This time, we made daisy chains and double headed daisies, looked for fallen tree seeds and played a lot.

On Sunday, while the kids were busy having fun, we relaxed and watched, sometimes joined in, and had a perfect lazy afternoon.

 Linn Park will host a family fun day on 29th August, a perfect opportunity to visit if you haven't explored it yet.

Outdoor Monday: Cathkin Braes

It's a rare week where I can pick from a number of outdoor adventures. Luckily I displayed a proper pregnancy brain cell loss when I forgot my camera on Saturday, so the choice was easier if I wanted to show some photos. I'm still utterly annoyed at myself because Saturday was a very special day, what with N visiting all the way from New York.

Anyway, Sunday we decided after much toing and froing (the choices for family friendly activities are just fabulous in Glasgow in the summer) that we'd make the best out of the good (!!!!) weather and remember an outing 3 1/2 years ago - when I was also 9 months pregnant. The destination was Cathkin Braes, which is situated between East Kilbride, Carmunnock and Castlemilk just south of Glasgow. It's situated higher than Glasgow and offers fabulous views of the city and both meadows and forested walks. Historically, it's also the place where Mary Queen of Scots watched her troops being defeated by the army of Queen Elizabeth I (the battle took place just next to where we stay) in the 16th century.

We took a long walk through the heath, marsh, woodland and meadows and discovered plenty of wildlife - some too quick to capture on film. Cubling went from one discovery to the next and I felt I had a lot of learning to do with her constant enquiries as to names of plants. I really need to dig out some of my plant identification books.

Access to the country park is free of charge and it's ideal for walkers, mountain bikers, joggers, or even on horseback. The Braes are gentle and both toddler and 9 months pregnant proof. Take a picnic (there are no local services, bliss) and enjoy the views.