We honestly couldn’t have picked a sunnier, more beautiful day for our ranger visit to Corsewall Estate at half term. We spent the most glorious afternoon last week with freelance countryside ranger, Elizabeth Tindal, creating mud faces and making tepees.
Elizabeth collected the mud/clay from down near the shore – it’s been so dry of late that she had quite a job digging it out of the ground. Then the children added water to make a wet and malleable consistency and then they set to work creating faces on some of the tree trunks at the end of the lawns. Some children used it as body paint – see below! They all came up with some brilliant and inspired creations – which I hope will last on the trees for a good few weeks.
Mixing up the mud
Elizabeth shows our guests how to make the mud faces
Another wonderful creation
And another one.
After mastering the art of tree faces, Elizabeth then showed the children how to make mud models.
Elizabeth shows our guests how to make mud models too
After a break for a refreshing drink and an ice cream or two, using sticks, string and tarpaulin, the guests were highly successful at erecting tepees. The key to building a robust one is all the knots apparently. The children certainly mastered the art of securing the sticks as I had a tough job at the end of the day dismantling them!
The tented village at Corsewall!
One of the children enjoying their tepee
And finally after a hard afternoon’s work, we rounded off the day with a deliciously refreshing dip in the sea at Killantringan.
A refreshing dip in the sea
A huge thank you to all our guests for taking part and to Elizabeth Tindal for keeping us all so well entertained.