We welcomed a whole 3 generations of family, Olie and Alfi from our Tuesday tribe bought along their parents and grand parents. Lysandra and Casper and Rosie returned as did Het and Jack. And Serena arrived for the first time. We missed Shona, and Dean, both ‘under the weather’ talking of which the bright sun gave dappled light through the greening oaks and hornbeams.
We gathered introductions, and found Oli and Alfi’s grandparents and parents had converted 70 acres of traditional farmland in to something more revolutionary, ancient and natural. They had planted hundreds if not thousands of trees. Naturally they were interested in our modest 5 acres. Serena fresh from having her hip replaced was hardly needing her crutch. We introduced who and how we were. For some it was the late arrival of the sun, for one, discombobulated, another after a fraught morning looking forward to 2 hours of relax, hopeful, chilled, and solar powered Casper!
We moved immediately meandering through the wood at our own pace to the ponds. Here we rested, formed a circle and Naomi guided us with Tai Chi. Oh how glorious under the hornbeam trees, beside water, under Neptune. Here we opened the dragons mouth and looked through the window. 8 brocades..
Our challenge this week was to write a riddle or exchange our games. The riddle was not popular – although Gabrielle did a good one. The game exchange however, was full..
Riddle and game exchange
We started sharing round the fire circle firstly with a riddle that Chris read out made by his group
I am 60,000 in June
10,000 in December
I can give you light and sweetness
Rachel – demonstrated a game of jacks, throwing the ball up and picking up jacks
Kally – story cubes, rolled four of the dice and made up a short story sentence triggered by the images on the dice…. Trap door, goblin, cactus, angry face
Alfie – hungry hippo, where hippos grab all the balls
Ollie – Buckeroo, a donkey or horse? Load with different things like hats and stuff, it rears up and a certain amount stays on the animal
Naomi – Snap, a card game
Serena – Racing Demon, 13 cards facedown, lay four face up build on them, pick up in threes, every time an ace comes up build up from that, variation on the patience card game except its competitive as several people play with a deck of cards each.
June – Cards, Dominoes
Elizabeth – cats cradle
Armarol – Skipping
Richard – Crib, a card game with a board you slot pegs into, snakes and ladders
Peggy – Monopoly it would go on for ever if there hadn’t been bouts of upset when we were younger
Clare – cats cradle and feet elastic, heres the church steeple people reminiscing with Serena demonstrating
Brian – Monopoly, Poker and the competitive game of canasta also called grab a lot play with 1 or 2 decks
Jack – The mind extreme, using two sets of cards black and red, each deck has 50 cards, there are 12 levels, one colour is stacked 50 -1 the other 1-50
Het – she likes playing in the car variation on word association.. word disassociation ie ie if word is kettle next person chooses an entirely different word. Don’t step on the cracks, a forest version like nothing green
Casper – dust the forest
Charles – battleships played with his sister
Virginia – hopscotch
Meanwhile, as there were only 2 of us today, Gabrielle introduced the loom to the new people to the woods, (Rachel made scones and tea – nettle gathered by Chris)
Our words in the woods that made us smile were were Jam and mud, accepting of Casper, everything and the dog, birdsong and listening after Tai Chi, lovely day, children, looking up at the canopy, swing, not stopped smiling (even in Tai Chi) Wafty nettle tea, humanity, the joy of explaining a game, when Armoral heard Red current rather than regular tea, opening the dragons mouth and looking through the window. And Chris said: Making Memories. And gave me a gift – a stunning details charcoal drawing of the cabin.
The thrush sang all day long
Kinda Forest School 
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