They are mastering their fire striking skills and this week they set about collecting kindling in preparation for the Marshmallow Challenge. The Golden Boot challenge was also introduced.....can you tie yours?

https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/big-garden-birdwatch/submission

We wondered... was it the warmer weather? was it the sunshine? was it us? was it the full moon?

As we arrived at Sweet Chestnut camp, a thin furl of smoke wound its way skyward. Catkin had got the fire off to a roaring start in preparation for today's cooking and craft activity.

Coconut Rice Pudding & heat treating wood for bending.

Due to the sub-zero temperatures, it was necessary to make sure we kept ourselves warm so the whisk makers had to take themselves off for regular marches around the wood.

Inspired by Bumblebee & Bluebell's example, a couple of children set about making icy sun catchers.

See this week's photos here.

There were some eagle eyed nature spotters this week. They managed to find a very tiny Jelly Ear Fungi and remembered that it was most likely growing on Elder wood.

There was some excellent den building with great team work and problem solving.

A small group embarked on making whisks out of the top whorl of their Christmas trees. They showed real resilience and tenacity keeping with this on such a chilly day. It was had and sticky work.

Take a look at this week's photos here.

It has been such fun learning and growing with Rowan Group over the last 7 years and this year has been no exception. Click on the video below to see an overview of the term.

The blackbirds and pigeons have made light work of my crab apple tree's crop this year. Fortunately a local farmer had kindly donated a big bag or crab apples for one of my favourite winter treats to make around the camp fire. Also, due to all the wet weather, the sweet chestnuts had not been as good as we had hoped, so we had to rely predominately on imported chestnuts, which all prompted interesting discussion about weather, climate change and the difference between foraging and harvesting.

We started with a game of delicious or deadly where we had to vote which plant we would have opted to eat out of two. Fortunately, not a real event as 95% of us would have been wiped out in the first round by possibly the most poisonous plant in the British Isles: Hemlock Water Dropwort!

Then Michael started introducing the stars of the show....the mushroom. We learnt LOADS. We puffed puffballs and bruised boletes. We learned how Otzi the 5000 year old ice man (Europe's oldest known mummy) had been carrying a Birch Polypore fungi which was threaded with a leather string. He was almost certainly carrying it for medicinal purposes as Birch Polypore is known for its antibacterial properties. We learnt the distinctive red and white spotted Fly Agaric mushroom gets its name fromthe medieval practice of breaking up the caps and leaving them in milk to stupefy flies. 

Michael had made us some mushroom sweets which lots of us were keen to try and most of us thought were delicious! We then went on a tour of Deggs Wood to see what fungi we could find. It was brilliant fun and we found lots - somegot really good at identifying milk caps, amanitas, boletes and brackets.

When we came across a rotting Stinkhorn (it really was stinky), Michael looked just beneath the leaf mould and discovered.....a witch's egg. This is a young Stinkhorn mushroom. He cut it open and the more curious and (arguably) braver amongst the group gave it a try. Some of them even tried the incredibly gooey, jelly casing. The tasting crew agreed it tasted a 'little nutty' and 'a bit like a radish' but given the option they preferred the mushroom sweets!!!

The children loved Michael's visit and we are ever so grateful to him for coming to visit and sharing his passion for foraging with us. Thank you so much to Bluebell (Karen Cowell) for organising this special morning. Take a look at the photos from the session here. If you would like to know more about his rural courses or to follow him on Instagram, click on the links below.

https://www.instagram.com/rural_courses/

https://www.ruralcourses.co.uk/

Click here to see this week's photos

 Those that needed to take a little time out from the hustle and bustle of digging for gold, trading & warding of would be thieves, had the opportunity to weave conker webs: a marvellously mindful craft activity. I made a remembrance poppy.

Click here to have a look at this week's album

Check out this week's gallery here /gallery/?pid=61&gcatid=29&albumid=1198

Here's the link to this week's gallery...

/gallery/?pid=61&gcatid=29&albumid=1197 

We read a poem by Susan Coolidge an looked at the art work of James Brunt. I then challenged the children to create their own patterns in our very own Dragon's Drive Art Gallery. The children are unsurprisingly proud of the results.

The session was also full of child led learning, problem solving, creativity and toffee crab apples... I have included the recipe as promised.

Watch this week's video to get a better idea of what Oak Group got up to and to see the super art work.

"This tastes better than Co-op bread!"

It was a hive of activity. We saw examples of resilience, problem solving, teamwork, self-challenge and creativity.

Following our group snack break, the children were challenged to a game of Acorn Hide & Seek. The children all hid an initialled acorn in the woods which they knew they were going to have to find again half an hour later. Apparently squirrels lose around 50% of the acorns they 'squirrel away' every year. Amazingly it was roughly 50% of the children who found their acorns.

Take a look at this week's video to get a little flavour of what went on in the woods this week.

Have a look at this week's video to get a little flavour of what we got up to. The children also shared their ideas for activities they would like to explore over the next 6 weeks. Expect to see: fire, dens, cooking, mud, craft and lots of more besides!