Willow Weaving

The British homeschooling group set up a Willow weaving class last week at a garden in the Peterborough area. It was a very colorful and interesting place. My kids loved it. It is a public garden within the city that encourages volunteers to come in to plant a garden. The rules for this public garden as it was told to me were if you come in and work in the garden for 3 hours you are able to take home a basket of free fruits and vegetables. This is to encourage city residents to get outside and commune with nature and learn about gardening. I thought it was a great idea.

In addition to gardening, they offer classes on Willow weaving and wood working. I can't say this was a beautiful garden, definitely not your typical British garden but it was unique and the kids love exploring it. Being in the city they had graffiti decorations and junk sculptures through out. For some reasons I didn't take pictures of these things, probably too busy running around after my children:)

My son tried to do the weaving but found it too challenging so after completing one he left the group and went out to play in the garden. Thankfully there were a few Home schooling Dads present who were outside and willing to watch the younger children run amok, so the rest of us could learn to weave.
Kids working together to make the first project a fish.







Completed garden art a fish on a fishing pole. By this time my youngest lost interest and headed out to play.







Making Garden stars









This gentleman made it look so easy, I can assure you it is not. Here he is making a baby's rattle. He said there is documented evidence that this was made but he didn't say where. I didn't take a picture of the one we made cause quite frankly it didn't turn out anything like his:) My daughter was very disappointed.



Throughout the gardens willow is use to decorate the garden as well as make boundaries such as fences. Here are a few things we found that were interesting.

This was called a hide and I have seen this in some play parks locally and the kids love playing inside them.











Dragonfly and flower











A horse and a Rooster!








This is 100% natural art and it was fun although a bit tough on the fingers. Now to find a place in the garden to place our garden art.

Please join Tracy, Lynda and I at the No Ordinary Blog hop. What are having a give away at the end of the month. Hope to see you there.