What a gorgeous day.
It’s been 4 0r 5 days of sunshine and I’ve gone kind of kiddy … outside all the time.
William, Ella dog, Coco pup and me went to Garadice Lake on Thursday … so beautiful as the sun wandered down.
Coco and Ella love each other and just run like mad things.
Yesterday was Rossinver Organic Food Growing Day … promise to do the Page tomorrow with notes and photos … I’m having an amazing time.
We had the first Sunny Funny Garden day on Thursday … some new children came along … everyone is welcome.
Thanks to Janice for staying and having fun with the kids.
I brought down wooden pallets into the sunshine and asked the kids to paint their names and just have fun with colour … you can see the results.
And here are the kids singing out who they are …
‘We’re the Sunny Funny Garden Gang’
I’ve heard that a couple of other children will be along next week … they’ve asked their parents if they can change their other Thursday activities to other days so they can come along to Sunny Funny Garden.
So … it’s Saturday and sunny … what’s a woman to do but go outside and play.
My new neighbour William helped make some stands for the beans , peas, sweet peas and other things that grow up and climb … thanks mate.
I’ve been clearing space of weeds to put down leaf mould … newspaper … and vintage moo poo … that’s my no dig method … and they will be raised beds.
So far I’ve made 3 planting areas and then put little teepees at the end of each one.
And just for the craic I made 2 teepees for the kids … draped them in a couple of old sheets … pegged them and held the sheets down with stones.
It’s funny … I can move very quietly into the garden … and the kids have a kind of bat signal … they just turn up out of nowhere.
So we had an impromptu Sunny Funny Day today … I brought out all the paints and the kids just had a great time playing … as I dug weeds.
photo taken by Thomas
They asked if they could paint the teepees … of course they could.
My only 2 rules are:
- everyone (including me) says please and thank you … manners and respect are core to a happy group
- be kind to each other … and that embraces appreciating each other
After that … I’m happy with a kind of democratic anarchy.
They painted stars with smiles … dolphins … hearts … abstract colour … painted stones … sparkle … all gorgeous.
And then they played pretend in the teepees … I’ll be building a couple more.
William and Ella dog turned up later with willow … he will be helping me build a fence of willow for the garden.
Coco was out all day and loved it … sometimes she was linked to the pole … other times I let her go free … scarey but necessary. She kind of comes back but she runs away if you get too close … I’m becoming a lot more sneaky at catching her.
She was great around the kids.
When people say ‘well done Liz … creating this for kids’
I say ‘ I’m a big kid at heart … so I love all this play … it is so much fun for me and it’s great the kids love it as well”
Life is good … and Ballinamore is great.
Slan
Liz
Liz, What you are doing with these children and the Sunny Funny Garden is the very heart and soul of teaching (without any formal curriculum – thank goodness!) children to love the place where they live and to love the outdoors. These immensely fortunate children will have these memories forever. Isn’t it just amazing that when adults remove nearly all barriers, save for just a couple of rules, and let children be themselves the creativity that erupts/emerges teaches us all more than we ever thought we could possibly learn from such experiences. The good memories, the good feelings, the lasting friendships, the bonding and caring for others that come from all this is beyond anything that can ever be taught in a regimented classroom. BTW – I include the 4-legged members in this as well. I truly believe our animal friendships are just as important and the animals receive as much from this unrestricted (almost) time as the humans do.
Before long you will have all of Ballinamore involved in the Sunny Funny Garden. Thank you for this marvelous sharing and caring. The world is a better place – too bad we can’t convince our politicians and military to build gardens, build peace instead of being hell-bent on destruction.
Lindy
Thank you so much for your lovely and thoughtful comments.
I get a whole pile of fun from the Sunny Funny Garden … and really like the kids … they bring so much to the whole garden.
slan
Liz
Liz, as always, great pictures. I can’t wait to see the progress in the sunny funny by the time we’re back there!
Hey Lynda
I am having so much fun putting the learning from the Rossinver Food Growing course into the Sunny Funny Garden.
We have teepees now and so much more planned.
You’ll be surrounded by food when you come here in July … and can’t wait for that.
xx
Slan
Liz
lovely photos the garden looks wonderful.
LIz, what can I say?
I had a conversation with one of my clients last Thur. ( A recovering drug addict))
She said ” I just got my new house last week. I can’t wait to get satalite Tv in ‘cos my kids are so bored. You can only put on dvd’s so often. How am I supposed to keep then from being bored without all the TV channels?”
I rest my case!…love Pam
Magnum lady … lovely photos on you flickr site.
Hi Pam
Find out where your client lives. If it’s in the north or south inner city … they have some really fantastic youth groups and youth leaders and afterschool activities.
This is where I think community gardens for kids and adults are amazing … it’s fun and they get to be part of growing their own food. There might be one near her … or maybe she could mention it if she belongs to a community group.
Dublin inner city has a pile of community organisations that would probably leap at the chance to develop gardens.
Hope all is going well for you Pam.
slan
Liz
Beautiful day & nice photos!
What a great job the Sunny-funny-garden gang is doing.
Then fun everyone is having in the pictures
I bet those will be the tastiest veggies ever…. grown with
fun and care.
made me smile.
I also enjoyed the photo of you… your happiness shows… You shine brightly!
~Kimme
Thanks Kimme
An interesting side effect of having Coco and doing all this gardening stuff is that I’m really healthy and have lost about 10 pounds in weight.
I don’t want to lose too much more as I love being a curvy woman.
The kids and I and Coco have such a good time … it shows in the photos.
After 5 days of sunshine we’re back to normal with cold and wet and windy day.
Just as well … I was getting a tad giddy with all the sunshine.
I’ll get the fire going and do some work.
xx Liz
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