Coconut Ice, Whisk Benders & Sun Catchers

The sub zero temperature on the mercury had covered every surface with a feathery, crystal-white shimmering hoar frost. As we crunched the icy puddles our warm breath made hot puffy clouds in the sky.

Fox's car was the first to arrive and she was greeted by a lone red kite sitting on the fence overlooking the freshly drilled field to the side of the farm track. His keen eyes looking for a tasty morsel. Meadow pipits and seagulls were also delighting in the freshly turned soil.

Shards of ice floated on the pond and on both days we quickly got to work on assembling a waffle lay campfire to make a warming coconut rice pudding. 

The 'Whiskers' were hard at work - tenancious, resilient and with great attention to detail. The whisks had reached the stage where we could heat treat them so that we could bend the whorl to create the 'blades'/arms of the whisk. The barkless tops were plunged into boiling water and placed over the fire for roughly 10 minutes then the arms were bent back and tied with string. 

The children wondered why this worked.....Steam bending is the process of soaking a piece of wood in hot water at boiling point for a certain period of time in a steam box, softening the fibres to make it pliable and stretchier. Once the timber cools down and the fibres dry once more, it will retain its new shape.

Othere activities included: Making sun catchers out of ice; den building; fungi hunting; fairy houses; tiny town refinements; ice smashing down on the lake.

Dogwood Group also had a special visitor...Oaty, Broad Oak's newest resident, Rosehip & Farmer William's 10-week-old yellow labrador.