Hello, well it has been another busy few months at the Tree Life Centre with lots of travelling! This blog will cover my antics in May and June and there has been lots going on! We have experienced some beautiful warm weather and have been spotting lots of wildlife on site.
Trip to Dulwich
In early May I travelled to TCV Dulwich upper Wood in London for a meet up, it was great to visit another site and have a catch up with the other trainees and chat about our successes and challenges. Dulwich upper wood is a lovely site and I loved the minibeast homes that had been built into the wall of the shed (see below!).
Growing Wild
During May we also started the Growing Wild project at the Tree Life Centre. The project is funded by South Glos Council and involves us teaching adults with special needs food growing skills, including how and when to harvest the fruits and vegetables and how to prepare them. The participants have done fantastically well, our polytunnel is full of a variety of plants that we have grown from seed including beans, peas, squash, courgette, melon, tomato, sweetcorn, and a variety of herbs and lettuce. As the plants get bigger we are starting to plant them outside in the raised beds that our volunteers helped us to build and fill. The participants are also completing their John Muir Discovery award with us so have been pond dipping and making bird boxes and feeders during their sessions.
First Aid
Before long I was travelling again, this time up to Scotland for an outdoor first aid course. It was a great chance to catch up with my fellow trainees Lucy and Giovanna who were also on the course as well as Emma who kindly let me crash at hers overnight! The course was fun with lots of time spent outside and it was good to refresh my first aid knowledge.
Forest School
The Tree Life Centre Forest School area has been looking very green this month with wildflowers popping up here and there. I have started leading forest school sessions which I am required to do for my level 3 qualification. So far we have been lounging in hammocks, toasting marshmallows, pond dipping, fire lighting and playing in our brand new mud kitchen! It’s a hard life!
Corporate Days
We have hosted two corporate days at the Tree Life Centre, in the last few months for RBS and OVO Energy. Both groups were great and got loads done on site. RBS built us a mud kitchen for our forest school area (basically it’s an area that children can use to make mud pies and mud potions) and landscaped a large area which we will use as an extension of the forest school area. OVO Energy volunteers worked with our Growing Wild Group and did loads of tasks including painting planters, repairing a polytunnel, making raised beds and weeding.
Bushcraft Sessions
The Tree Life Centre has started working with a local youth group doing bushcraft activities on Friday evenings. The group have done really well learning how to make fires using fire steels and cotton wool, making shelters in the woods and whittling wood to make bows and arrows. We will keep you up to date on what we get up to next!
Stay tuned to find out what next month has in store for me!