A bit washed out at Cobleland

Cobleland had a wee bit of the old rain this weekend to help keep things lush but it was so heavy not even the midges could come out!  We still managed to do some face painting in the morning and make a couple of wands and rafts, although we couldn't race the rafts as the river was a bit high.

Imogen's Oak and Eilidh's & Keira's Hazel wands. The small one was Will's!

Lewis is making this fine craft with Will so will keep adding things to it throughout the Summer.  Lewis's Sister Abbie made 'Pink Polkadot' with Mum but they will have to race it next week too. Will made the small one - he's got a thing about 'small' at the moment? 

Wacky Forth Races

These races are getting bigger!

OK, from left (from pic above - vice versa below):
Morgan - SS Minecraft
Katie & Leah - LK The First
Jack & Josh - The Josh
Tommy - Tank Carrier
Charlie - Black Sail
Rosie - Big Raft
Daisy - The Good Daisy Ship (3rd Place)
Darah - Ninkinpoop IIII (2nd Place - always seems to be a good runner despite being re-designed every week)
Jasmine - Jewel
Grace - Grace for Race
Eva - Excellent Pirate Eva (1st Place)
Amy & James - Nine J
Cameron - Dark Hat
Will - Bunty
Sam - Speedy

I think I need to get some waders too to help catch all the rafts at the finish line!

 

You can never tell who might win - Eva's raft ended up a sorry mess by the end but was a clear winner!

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!

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.

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!





Happy Easter Cobleland Campsite

Wonderful weather here in the Trossachs!  Perfect for our Easter Activities which kicked off on Saturday with wand making - look at these magnificent magickal tools!  Mostly Hazel wands chose their new owners, followed by a few Silver Birch and one Holly for Mum Joyce :-).

16 wands sparkling with magick



 



 



Easter Sunday was of course the egg and spoon races, then the hunt itself - a bit more tricky this year in that the kids had to follow a number of clues around the site before cracking the code (not the egg) to find the password for the chocolate egg.

Go Mum's!

The Dad's race was a thundering one, the 'nearly' winner dropping his egg at the last minute and drop kicking it over the line - bad luck old chum!

First back cracking the code was Orla and Natasha in just 14 minutes! It didn't take long for the other 31 egg hunters to get back :-).

Next it was off to The Lodge in Aberfoyle for more wands and face painting!