Words from the Woods November 2016

22nd November 2016

The leaves are dropping and with it comes the beginning of the coppice and Woodshare season. We're spending time in the woods with schools exploring, creating, time travelling and more.... There's plenty of greenwood carving courses coming up for adults wanting to create beautiful things... . best wishes Gareth and Ro

Special Present for Christmas?

Christmas vouchers...is it allowed yet?...its nearly December! Anyway if you'd like to give one of our courses as a christmas present (or would like to drop a hint for yourself) we can make you a festive voucher to wrap up under the tree. Adult/sensible teens for greenwood carving; kids, families, or adults for woodland camps. See our full list of course listings.

Woodshare begins

The frost is here and Woodshare season begins with a full complement of 35 households coming out on days in the woods coppicing, warming ourselves with blazing brash fires, socialising and taking home firewood to stack

Meet Cedric the Centipede

Cedric is one of the wonderful woody creations which have been made by the children at St Cuthberts during our 6 week Natural Connections Arts project. Their creations now adorn their outside space at school with the aim of stimulating an ongoing link between them and the beautiful woods at St Catherines NT.

Silver Award for Full Cycle

Yippee!! The Royal Forestry Society awarded silver to the Full Cycle project that Woodmatters ran in partnership with Rusland Horizons and LDNPA. Here's some nice things the judges said..."an approach that was both highly innovative and heartwarming." "It has demonstrated significant positive impacts in terms of helping participants learn, develop new skills and gain confidence as young adults"; "Judges were impressed by the passion and enthusiasm of all involved." As a result, the pilot has secured funding to continue for at least 3 more years. More info

Living Willow

The willow leaves are dropping which means its the time of year to plan new living willow structures and maintain those already planted. Get in touch if you'd like us to come and plant a structure, dome, teaching space, play space for you or need help with maintenance.

Stone Age to Iron Age and new Vikings and Anglo Saxons

There's a few dates still available for any schools wanting to book their Stone Age sessions before christmas. Spring term sessions are available in the woods and also making use of the cosy strawbale Footprint building for those really chilly days. We are excited to announce a new Vikings and Anglo Saxons day with options for weapons training, metal casting, weaving, thatching, archery and ancient writing.

Rusland Horizon Events

We're excited to be working with Rusland Horizons again. There's lots of opportunities to get involved in talks, courses, volunteering, archeology, heritage skills, fell care days. Check out their website for more info

Tree Art

Beautiful, bumpy, peaceful, nice, big, energy, awesome, friend, love, strong, oxygen, giant, sleep, gigantic, fantastic, happy...tree inspired words from the children in English, Romanian and Polish representing the amazing cultural mix at St Cuthberts.

Woodland Explorer Places booking up!

Places are whizzing out for next years Woodland Explorer (27-29 May). An exciting and fun THREE day residential woodland experience for 8 - 14 yr olds. The days will be an inspiring mix of bushcraft, greenwood carving, fire lighting, natural arts and crafts, woodland games, shelter building, storytelling, adventure and sleeping out under the stars. More info

Inspiring Woodstacks

Definitely something to aim for, although this is definitely more sculptural than practical...feel free to send in any woodstack art you get up to. Some more amazing pics here.