Cattle And Caterpillars.

I couldn't resist posting a picture of my class' colour -mixing caterpillars as I think they look so colourful. (The dangly bits on the left are the canopy of our Jungle Explorers' Camp.) I'm so looking forward to Arts' Fortnight when we can do some really big projects.

The children found a web of tiny newly hatched ? spiders, each about 2mm, on top of one of the fence posts in the playground. Perfect timing for our minibeast investigations.The journey home is as beautiful as ever with the bright glow of the buttercups shinning through the cow parsley.

Here are some more views from yesterday's walk at Velator.

Beyond the meadows is the 'Big Sand Dune', ( we're a very imaginative family when it comes to assigning names). Over the 15 years we've been coming here it has shrunk in height by about 50%, due to the wind and/or people jumping and leaping down the almost vertical face. It is irresistible even if you do end up with shoes full of the soft sand. It was scary the first few times standing at the top ready to launch yourself downwards but even I, total wimp, love the experience.

These walks on the marshes have whetted my appetite and I'm going to try and find time to have some proper walks on the Burrows. This would be a good time of year to spot the specialised sand dune plants that are totally different to the lush hedgerow plants I see every day.

Once the rain had set in these cattle had wisely found the sheltered side of a ruined stone barn.




Finally, I took this picture because a morion is not an everyday object in most people's homes. This helmet was borrowed by Romas at last weekend's muster and he'll be returning it when he goes to a Major muster near Guildford this Bank Holiday weekend. He would love to have his own morion and armour but they're quite expensive. Peter's old armour and morion have been passed onto Vytas who has made good use of them. (Spellchecker doesn't like the word morion and is suggesting I use moron instead!)

Today was the last day before the holidays for the children at school. I shall be spending my holiday putting information into the children's e-profiles and doing all sorts of other paperwork. Tomorrow, with 3 other teachers, I'll be going for a day course on Forest Schools. As far as I can make out it's all to do with using the outdoor environment and I'm expecting a combination of field trip activities and scout camp (many happy years spent there). We have been told that we'll be cooking our own lunch,presumably over an open fire. I'm just wondering how it will fit in with the current risk assessment culture, once upon a time there was a thing called common sense which people were credited with but not any more.