Adventures for all in the darkening woods... EVENTS THIS AUTUMN AND WINTER Potions and broomsticks Sunday 28 Oct 2.30pm-4.30pm Venture into the forbidden forest, brew a potion and fly your own broomstick.... £7 per child aged 4-15. Woodland wreath workshop Sunday 9 December 10.30am-12noon Family workshop around the fire, creating a beautiful wreath and other decorations. £6 per adult or child aged 4+ Stick man Sunday 9 December 2.30pm - 4.00pm Sunday 23 December 10.30am - 12noon Tell the story of the lost stick in the winter woods, toast a crumpet on the fire before making your own stick man to take home. £7 per child aged 2+ Midwinter magic Sunday 23 December 2pm - 4.30pm Find the winter elves who look after the woodland animals, feast by the fire and walk the woods by candlelight. £12 per child aged 3+, £3 per adult Coming up in 2019 - Wild Camp, Winter Camp, Easter Bunnies, Firecraft... All these events take place in a little private wood at Folkington near EASTBOURNE. To book, please email
[email protected] WOODLAND PARTIES The little wood at Folkington works well for birthday parties , just off the A27 but down a track into the wilds - with a car park and toilet! Recently we've been playing at Pirate Fairies, Robin Hood, Escape the Forest and just about to build a railway track through the trees for one little boy... Parties are held all year round (fully booked until Jan 2019 though). Parties can be for grown ups too - not just for birthdays - you can meet for some wild cooking, wood craft or just forest bathing. Got an idea? Just ask! See www.cherrywoodadventures.co.uk/parties for details. Parties cost from £130 for an hour and a half for up to sixteen children. Bluebell Club for pre-schoolers continues at Arlington Bluebell Wood on Fridays...It's a fortnightly group for 2-4 year olds, running all year round. It's usually fully booked but if you are up for little adventures in the woods with a good cup of tea or coffee too, do get in touch to be on the waiting list. We made these hedgehogs at the club from local clay and beech nut cases. It's been a great "mast" year for beech trees - so many seeds about. Not so much for the oaks - last year's huge acorn harvest may be the reason... It's been a great year for blackberries, and if you've still some some in the freezer, (or don't mind buying some) how about blackberry ice cream or blackberry whisky...... Ice cream Put however many blackberries you have in a pan, and add the same amount of water. Add half the volume of the blackberries worth of caster or granulated sugar. It's a lot of sugar - needs to be sweet to get the flavour after freezing. Heat slowly, stirring all the time, until the sugar is dissolved and blackberries are soft. Strain the mixture through a muslin, squeezing as much out as you can. Fold it into softly whipped double cream and freeze. Enjoy with appley puddings! Blackberry whisky Here's the River Cottage recipe I used -thanks a Bluebell Club mum for introducing me to the River Cottage series which includes a great foraging book - Hedgerow . More woodland foraging and cooking events next year! I'm a huge fan of "The Lost Words" by Robert McFarlane and Jackie Morris and and I'm supporting the Sussex Wildlife Trust's campaign to put one of these books in every Sussex primary school by Christmas. Sumptuous illustrations accompany poems about words that have been taken from the Oxford Junior Dictionary "through underuse". Astoundingly, these include "acorn", "bluebell" and "bramble". You can help by going to their website and when I run an event next year based on the book, I'll use some of the proceeds to buy books for my children's schools. (It's an ideal present for a nature loving child or grown-up too!) The recent still, mild days have been perfect for listening to the territorial song of the robin, one of the few birds still to sing at this time (though there are still chiff-chaffs about, surprisingly). There'll be more birdsong identification walks to join in late April - there'll be one in Old Town, Eastbourne and one in the woods. See you in the woods! Sarah But I thought not once of winter Or summer that was past Til I saw that slant-legged robin With autumn on his chest. Andrew Young Visit THE WEBSite www.cherrywoodadventures.co.uk 07887 556336 www.facebook.com/cherrywoodadventures
