NB: The notes before Easter have been written in retrospect, which means they lack detail. In future, I’ll be writing notes immediately afterwards, and also asking for immediate & short feedback from students and participants.
This workshop was a riot, in the best sense of the word! I made a quick introduction about Stori Wyllt but I was a bit worried about the rain, so we headed off to Molly‘s field Cae Ysgubor. The route is via a public bridleway by the side of the nursery and campsite. However, it was very wet, with some localised flooding! The path also turned muddy going uphill, with some surface water. But everyone seemed very positive.
Our arrival was heralded by cries of “Molly!” from the students who had spotted our artist Molly Gilbert by the entrance. We dried off for a short while in the stables, and Molly gave an inspirational talk about the food web and wildlife, and showed her sketchbooks. All of the students have their own sketchbook, and they have decorated the covers already, which is magnificent.
We headed to Cae Ysgubor, which is actually a beautiful forest garden, planted up with fruit trees, shrubs and vegetables.
The worm hunters gather in groups with naturalist Jo Dainty
Naturalist Jo Dainty took the lead with an exercise to find worms, by wriggling garden forks in the ground and stamping gently to bring the worms up. Despite the recent rain, I think it had been relatively dry, so there weren’t a massive number of worms. Students started resorting to opening up the ground with forks and picking out the worms! Molly searched for some mycelium and worms in the straw mulch.
Molly digging for clay with students
After some more exploring of the garden, the focus shifted to digging up some blue clay from a rich seam by the side of the stream in the valley. Clay was hauled up, and transported by bucket to a big table where various creations were created. And then some brave souls daubed paint on their faces, and a slate table was covered in clay handprints.
We had to reluctantly rush back so that the students wouldn‘t miss lunch, and Molly brought up the clay creations to the school by car, and stored them in a covered space.
Oriel Gallery
Reflections
Jake
- Was a fantastic session, very high energy and lots of mud!
- A couple of the students didn’t want to get their hands dirty with the clay, so maybe an alternative activity?
- Maybe organise class into couple of ‘stations’ to help focus energy? Was a lot of chatting (via Jo)
- I love the idea of soil as the foundation of the food web, very elemental, along with the sun and water. Philosophical questions about whether the soil is alive
