Archive for March, 2013


Our Mud Kitchen

‘We’ve been very busy collecting to make a mud kitchen outside and at lunchtime today Miss Lowery and her mummy ‘Nessa’ put it all in position. We can use this space to explore all things muddy! Making mud mixtures, mud soup, mud stew, mud cakes and mud potions! This really helps our physical development, our knowledge of the world, communication and language and working together and sharing resources. Look at how much fun we’ve had already!…’

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Mepal playful landscapeThis is the second post in a series on projects to create playful landscapes, this one located in Mepal, near Ely, in Cambridgeshire.

This play landscape was created within an existing play area on the edge of the village recreation ground. Adjoining this was an area of overgrown woodland/scrub, with a seasonal pond, used to drain the playing fields next door. I was commissioned by the Parish Council to design and specify the new landscape.

The Parish Council held an extensive consultation process to discuss early ideas and this informed the final design. It was decided to retain elements of the existing play area (2 slides and a couple of climbing frames). The brief was to devise a broadly-based play experience for children of all ages that made use of the woodland and pond if possible, and had some features just for younger children. The budget was c£50,000, funded by the Government Playbuilder Programme and other local fundraising.

The final design features the thinning of the woodland to create greater natural play potential, and includes a new tree house structure with a bridge to a mound as well as restoring the pond to be a shallow, usable play feature.

An informal hedge of native species was also planted to provide greater definition to the play area, as well as increase biodiversity, and additional turfed mounding and bark surfacing was introduced to provide landscape variety.

Some old equipment was removed, and a new basket swing and cableway introduced. There is also a new sand and water play feature for toddlers with logs for climbing or sitting on. The Playful Landscape was completed in June 2010.

Other posts of relevance:

Natural Play- ten tips for parents

Natural play – by design?

Playful Landscape- Wensum Way, Fakenham, Norfolk

‘Free range’ children?-  seven tips for successful garden play

Old School Gardener

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New Website on Dereham and local museum

Here’s a new website designed by Sue Walker White for the Dereham Antiquarian Society and Bishop Bonners’ Cottage Museum, in Dereham, Norfolk.

Project Wild Thing

David Bond‘In the first of a guest blog series, filmmaker David Bond writes on how being outdoors can remedy the conflicts of family life….’

Thinking of spring and the Dell at Bodnant

Some lovely pictures and words by Chas Spain

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PicPost: Feather

Time to prune your blueberries: early March is ideal, as it is usually easier to see the fruit buds. Start by taking out your 3 Ds (dead, diseased and dying). Then remove the ends of the branches which fruited last year, taking them back to a strong bud or branch. Finally, remove a third of the oldest stems from the base, to open up the bush and encourage new growth. If it’s newly planted just do your 3 Ds!

More info here: http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=85

– Becky, RHS Members Advisory (who is now craving blueberries!!)

10 Top outdoor play blogs

‘You’ve probably guessed by now that I am a huge fan of outdoor play. 

In an age when a complex web of circumstances pressures seem to be keeping our kids indoors more than ever I believe that one of my most important roles as a teacher is to give our kids lots of time for free and unstructured play outdoors.

Here are 10 fellow bloggy types who feel the same way.…..’

Finding Nature

Nature Connectedness Research Blog by Prof. Miles Richardson

Norfolk Green Care Network

Connecting People with Nature

Discover WordPress

A daily selection of the best content published on WordPress, collected for you by humans who love to read.

Susan Rushton

Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life

Unlocking Landscapes

Writing, photography and more by Daniel Greenwood

Alphabet Ravine

Lydia Rae Bush Poetry

TIME GENTS

Australian Pub Project, Established 2013

Vanha Talo Suomi

The Journey from Finnish Rintamamiestalo to Arboretum & Gardens

Marigolds and Gin

Because even in chaos, there’s always gin and a good story …

Bits & Tidbits

RANDOM BITS & MORE TIDBITS

Rambling in the Garden

.....and nurturing my soul

The Interpretation Game

Cultural Heritage and the Digital Economy

pbmGarden

Sense of place, purpose, rejuvenation and joy

SISSINGHURST GARDEN

Notes from the Gardeners...

Deep Green Permaculture

Connecting People to Nature, Empowering People to Live Sustainably

BloominBootiful

A girl and her garden :)