Our Garden

Our Garden, originally uploaded by willowpool.

here is a picture of our garden in summer

Willow In The Snow

last week we worked with a school in Manchester to create a living willow tunnel. it had snowed quite a lot but the ground was still quite soft as there had not been prolonged from. the children enjoyed being out in the fresh air.

Willow Weaving Session and Dentdale Beer and Music Festival

we will be running willow weaving workshops again this summer at many of the fairs and festivals that we are attending. the picture is of a workshop at Dentdale Beer and Music Festival from last year. we had a lovely time and enjoyed the music. Our event workshops are drop-in sessions where people can try willow weaving and make something to take home.

Forest Prepatory School, Altringham, Askham in Furness C of E Primary and Dolphinholme C of E Primary

We have been working in 3 schools this week and avoided the bad weather quite well. We made a dome with the children of Forest School and the weather was bright but cold. On Tueday we moved on to a local Cumbrian school where we worked in a tired, worn out part of their playground garden to create some arbours and also a small play dome in their nursery garden. Years 4, 5 and 6 helped, enduring the increasingly cold weather. No snow or rain luckily.

Then on Thurday we had a nice indoor day at Dolphinholme School near Lancaster when we made one of our giant trademark suns and a deer creature. The sun will be displayed in the hall and the deer will go outside after being treated with wood preservative. It was nice having the children coming into the hall in groups to help with the weaving. A good time had by all!

Willow Workshop

We have had another busy willow week working outdoors in the rain and wind suffering for our art with sore throats. Luckily we always travel with a couple of changes of outdoor gear so that we can continue working outside even when the toughest builders have retrated to their vans. We made a new domes at Dolphinholme (lovely name) C of E Primary school and Faith R C School in Liverpool. Next month we will creating a willow area with local volunteers and The National Wildflower Centre at a park in Everton. This is to make a cosy area for families to relax in.
On Wednesday we ran a willow workshop for Wigan Groundwork Trust. This was for local people to have a go at willow work and it was nice that we had 2 lots of father and sons as well as other students. We were relieved that this workshop was held indoors at a local sports centre.

Then it was 2 days at Bootle, Liverpool doing repairs to willow structures that we had built about 4 years ago. we reduced the height of one dome to make it easier for ongoing maintenance. The last day was dreadful - hail, torrential rain and dark, dark skies.

Willow in North Yorkshire

Last week we worked at Sowerby Primary School, Thirsk. We were at the school for 4 days doing some living willow repairs and making a woven wishing tree for their new sensory garden.
The ground was frozen for 2 days so we needed to make planting holes with a hammer and stake. We repaired 3 tunnels and a dome that we had built with the children about 3 years ago. Then we made a snakey tunnel for the reception playground. All the children from reception planted a willow rod and tried out the finished tunnel.
The we moved indoors, working in the school hall to make a tree with the older children. We made the trunk and branches separately for assembly outside so that we were able to get the sculpture out of the school doors.

Of course it rained when we were outside putting the woven tree together!

more living willow projects

The week we were working in the south of the country so managed to avoid all of the bad weather that our home county of Cumbria suffered.
we worked at Graveley Primary School near Stevenage for one day. the weather was sunny but cold and very windy. the children helped to create a large living willow dome and had great fun making the planting holes and selecting the willow. we stayed in a nice Travelodge nearby.

on thursday we started work at Tyssen Community Primary School in Hackney, London. we first met the school when a class came to the Countryside Live event in Lea Valley Park. the site was in the nursery garden in a tight space so we designed a lovely small dome with tunnels to fit in with the existing layout of the garden. the ground was bone hard and required a hammer and bar to make planting holes.  the children got involved by helping to plant the willow rods. because of the hard dry ground the children will have great fun watering in the newly planted play structure.
simone made stars for each child as christmas presents.