This week I have mostly been building the bird hide at Herringthorpe Junior school. With plenty of help from the Y4s, all the cedar shingles were nailed on by Thursday. We also had a chance to rummage in the pond. Even though it's only been full of water since November, we found tadpoles (thousands!) water boatmen, whirligig beetles, diving beetle larvae and bloodworms. These are wooden tiles imported from Canada, which are nailed on to the frame. I have used black recycled plastic to create the rest of the frame and the windows. These are at different heights to cater for the different age groups in the school. I've built a letterbox into the door, so children can write letters to the birds and animals, and I've attached a periscope so the meadow roof can be viewed from inside. A quiet weekend to recover from sun burn (in March!) before getting stuck into a Wildlife area at Southey Green Learning Community in Sheffield.

Busy at my workspace in Swinton. I'm making a bird hide for Herringthorpe Junior school in Rotherham. Y3/4 children helped design a hide for their wildlife garden. It will have a wild flower meadow on the roof, with a periscope to see the flowers and plants above your head! As you can see I'm making the windows at the moment. They're made from recycled plastic lumber- brilliant stuff- rot proof and really strong. Jim and I made the pond dipping platform from the same stuff last year.
If it looks a little draughty that's because its not finished! It will all be clad in cedar shingles- wooden tiles. They will be nailed on to the horizontal timbers you can see. Ill do that when I take it all to the school next week. At the moment its all slotted together so I can dismantle it.

March 2012.

Went back to St Augustines school in Worksop. 2 lovely mild days (the ladybirds thought so!) to do some tree and hedge planting with the children. 25 trees planted and over 100 hedgerow whips- all native species. managed to fill the pond too- we had the tap running 2 days to fill it!