Nostalgic Themed Week at Cobleland Campsite

After a busy week, we found ourselves having an even busier and fun weekend at Cobleland Campsite!  The Camping and Caravanning Club have been running a nostalgic themed week, so we added to our usual ranger activities programme 'Games & Traditions of Yesteryear.'
This included face painting, party games including: pass the parcel, musical statues/bumbs, Simon says, sports day races, willow weaving crafts with Tricia from Dragonfly Willow, who's session helped to raise money for the Bat Conservation Trust & Glendrick Roost, 'end of May'-pole dancing and tug of war - Team Pineapple beat team Strawberry!
The day ended with a Dusk Walk (where we saw loads of bats munching on midges) which finished at 10:30pm so it was a long fun filled day :-).

Jasmine & Darah show off their vampires and bunny faces

 

Lesley the Site Manager, me and ten other happy campers helped to plait the maypole. We didn't quite get as far as dancing around it, it was a massive achievement remembering to go the right way!

Bushcraft & Survival

As we had to cancel the session planned for Monday at Forest Hills we re-scheduled for today, thankfully it stayed dry!  We were joined by a lovely family, Dave, Jane 'Issac' (a popular author), daughter Ella (Goldfish amongst other entertaining nicknames) and friend 'hairy' Mike :-).

 Ella was flora mad, especially anything medicinal and everyone loved digging for pignut - well except for Mike as her said it was best to just go to Sainsbury's.

Will lights his favourite bit of kit at the moment - a fire tin made from recycled card and old ends of candles. It burns for ages and it's free!

Litter can be good if it's up-cycled! A shower and a hobo stove made from tin cans and an old lager tin.

Look at all that pignut - get digging (with the landowners permission of course)!

Dave the pignut digger, it was worth all of the effort!

Kids Bushcraft at Tigh Mor

Brilliant bushcraft session today. Young Alice, Sophie, Neil, Thomas and Emily all enjoyed the activity (especially the pig nut digging, wood sorrel lemonade and marsh mallows). Mum's and Dad's had Douglas Fir tea as their refreshment. Despite the wind we managed a group shelter/tarp too.

Wood Sorrel with heart shaped leaves and droopy white flower in the Spring. Don't eat/drink too much due to the oxalic acid in it and always check further if you have any medical conditions.

Sorrel Lemonade

• Gather about a handful of sorrel, add it to about 2 pints of boiling water and let it infuse.
• Leave to cool
• 'Sodastream it' optional!

Forest Hills Activities

Magick Wands

Great wands made in Merlin's cave/corridor at Forest Hills this bank holiday Monday.

From Left: Annabel's Hazel, Camille's Oak, Harry's Rowan, Joseph's Oak, Samuel's Oak (and mini wand!), Caiden's Rowan, Tierney's Silver Birch and Jacob's Hazel - big brother got a wand for his birthday too.  You guys went before I gave out your spell making scrolls, if you didn't get them at Reception visit www.nixinnature.co.uk for a copy. (Website launch later this week).

Bat Walk

The first bat walk of the season here went well too, loads of bats hunting above the pond.  We met a lovely family who we are later taking out for Bushcraft as it was rained off (although after we cancelled it, there was not a drop of rain - typical)! Dave made a great bat although he hugged his victims rather than eating them :-).

Magick Wands at Tigh Mor

Luckily we were making wands indoors today at Tigh Mor as it was hoofing down!  The new magic makers were keen to get going with the spells so these lovely magical tools should help them with their wishes.

From left: Thomas & Elsa chose Hawthorn, Sophie & Neil chose Hazel.

Alice chose Hawthorn too, which was quite ironic her Mum said as this wand can help teach the importance of patience!

Wacky Forth Races

Despite a bit of rain overnight the river was still low enough to race the rafts - just as well as there were ten rafts this week which meant I had to get in the river too. Thanks to everyone who entered, really creative rafts :-).



From Bottom;

•  Darah - Ninkinpoop III
• Jasmine - Elizabeth
• Leah & Angus - Daz
• Isla - Titanic II (1st Place - no icebergs to negotiate just rocks)!
• James & Cara - Tank
• James & Cara - Flower Power (here's one I made earlier)
• Adam, Marcus & Katie - Sweet Relief
• Lucy - Milk Float (3rd Place)
• Zara & Lois - G56
• Erin, Finn & Katie - KFE Bottle Craft
• Calum, Lois & Matthew - HMS Rubber Ducky (2nd Place)

A much slower race compared to last week with some needing a little nudge out of the roots and rocks.

Cara & James made 'Flower Power' - very pretty and designed to attract the faeries!

Cobleland Activities

Well, it's tipping down right now but the sun did come out for a lot of the weekend, just to prove it here's another nice picture of the bluebells near the Douglas Fir trees.

The weekend started off with the Chocolate Quest, Jasmine and Darah (aka Chaos & Mayhem) are getting a dab hand at this.  This week's quest involved answering questions about bats.  If you get a question wrong after hunting for the chocolate ticket in Teapot Wood you have to do a forfeit - they are not all bad though!

Teapot Lodge is nearly finished, just the roof to thatch and a door.

Jasmine's forfeit was to hug a tree, not really a forfeit as it's always a good thing to do :-). This Willow tree will be more than happy to get a hug!

 



Bushcraft & Survival

Here's Will explaining the edibility test for plants to the group - just for survival situations and never for mushrooms! Also, as a young lad, I think James, stood on a young Rowan tree Will had to explain about the dangers of uprooting or cutting down this superstitious, magical tree.

 

 

 

We managed to avoid the rain on the Dusk Walk and saw lots of bats amongst the trees.  We had to go out quite late though, it wasn't even dark at 10:30 when we finished, so well done kids for staying awake!

Magick Wands

Lovely wands made in the tent this week, we need to work on a spell to keep the midges out of the tent though!

 

Wands from left: Abby's Hawthorn, Andi's Rowan, Isla's Hawthorn, Angus's Hazel and Leah's Hazel.

Wacky Forth Races

'Wacky' was pushed to the limits this weekend after all the rain in the Wacky Forth Races.  Four lovely rafts were made, but despite Will's efforts in saving them at the finish line, two escaped, one was later captured but Jasmine's raft was off to Edinburgh - there was no stopping it!!

From Bottom; Zoe's winning raft 'Zoe The Cheeky Monkey, Josh's Devil Warrior got caught up not crossing the finish line (may have been something to do with the 'evil plan tactics' of spearing the other rafts :-)), Darah's Ninkinpoop Version II came second with Jasmine's 'Jasmine Elizabeth coming a close third.

Here's Darah and Jasmine just before the traumatic race, but there were prizes for all to help cope with the stress of it all!

Cobleland Activities

Despite the rain, we still managed to have fun in nature - in fact it made the bluebells smell even more amazing!

Will keeping himself busy making 'Teapot Lodge' in Teapot wood - I can fit in it haha!

I wish I caught Will's face when he first pulled this out of the ground on the Bushcraft session! It's the biggest pignut we've ever found and tasted yummy :-).

Fraser's lovely Hazel wand, complete with gems and a spiralling snake.

 

 

We got some bats on the Dusk Walk, unfortunately the midges too but the bats love 'em. This means we will be starting the bat walks next week.

Bushcraft at Forest Hills and Tigh Mor

We have started to do Bushcraft & Survival walks at both Forest Hills and Tigh Mor.  At Forest Hills we offer session for all ages on a Monday, Tigh Mor is just for the adults and older kids on a Thursday outside of school holidays (Arthur will continue to offer kids bushcraft during the holidays at Tigh Mor) . 

We were joined by a lovely couple at Forest Hills braving the rain (which died off thankfully) on Monday who seemed quite impressed at all the wild foods that are out already. Lots even on the roadside and along country lanes. I think they are looking forward to showing their nephew what they had learned as he is bushcraft mad apparently!
Thursday we were joined by five lovely eager to learn adults and young Brendan with his Batman figure for added enjoyment at Tigh Mor.

Will over ran a bit again, sorry, I can't stop his passion for this session whilst he is in full flow!

Daisy, or the Day's Eye. Edible and good used as an astringent.

Pignut, not Daisy the dog (although she is a bit like a hairy piglet), but something to look out for as it is just starting to come out up here in the Trossachs.  Dig down following the stem and at a 90 degree angle you will find a nut, edible and really scrummy.  Nothing to bark at really so get grubbing for nuts!!

Bank Holiday Weekend at Cobleland

The weather wasn't too bad for a bank holiday thank goodness! Not as busy as Easter, but lots of fun and a couple of new sessions launched.

First up, Anna chose a bright pink cat for me to paint on her face, matching her top of course.

Three lovely wands, Cameron chose Silver Birch, Grace and Cara Hazel. Then the next day young Rhona was bored so she popped over to the tent to see if we could help.  She ended up making this lovely Hazel wand complete with gems and a gorgeous pendant.

Rhona's hazel wand - her birthday tree is Hazel and her sister is called Hazel too!

We launched the Chocolate Quest this week, attracting eleven hungry chocolate hunters. Sixteen tickets were hidden around the site, when one was found you had to come back to the Ranger's Tent to pick a task from the pot.  My favourites were; 'Do ten press ups' (impressed with Harris's one legged version!) and 'Hug a Tree'.  No-one found all the tickets by the end of the hour, but bonus prizes were given for a task completed successfully. Of course they had earnt their big choccy bars after all that exercise!
This game will change periodically with updated tasks all the time.  We should have made it a Star Wars themed game - May the 4th be with you and all, snort!!

Our first Dusk Walk of the year was fun having not done that version there for a few years.  Just a bit of rain, but lots of folklore to talk about with all the lovely plants coming up and we saw bats towards the end! Bat walks will be making a return soon now that they are starting to wake from their long winter sleep.

 

Primrose; said to be used to see into the faery realms, traditionally used on the graves of children in Victorian times :-(, and thirteen flowers were brought into the house at Easter to ensure a good clutch of eggs on the farm. 

 

OK, the Wacky Forth Races made a nail biting return this year- literally as Darah (the winner in pink) watches the close finish of the rafts nails in mouth!  We very nearly lost the rafts over the rope at the end as the river is still a bit high, but after getting a wet bum myself, we saved them all.  I need some waders this year! Apparently Orla's Mum has a picture of this ;-z.

 

 From bottom: Stringy thing by Lewis, Rhona snd Steele, Darah's winning raft Ninkinpoop (with the willow pentagram star), Jasmine's Rossetta, Emma's Flower, James and Evan's Diet Coke, Daniel's Dday Yday Raft, Kiana's Daisy Chain, Orla's Tansylee and Anny and Niamh's Vintage.

 Rafts pictured bottom to top

 

It's a close one - well done Darah!