April has certainly been a busy month for us all at Gruff Outdoor Learning! At the start of the month we hosted a nursery trip from a fantastic group of children and their parents and teachers. As well as meeting all our farm animals and enjoying lots of free, imaginative play we read The Three Billy Goats Gruff story and they each made a troll face and a goat puppet to take home. We are really looking forward to hosting more school trips in the coming summer months.

Easter weekend was warm and sunny helping to make our Easter Gruff a fabulous, fun morning. we introduced our visitors to some new arrivals on our farm – our gorgeous Boer goat kids who are sooo cute and our two beautiful french lop rabbits. we asked the children to suggest names for our bunnies and so we now have Raheem rabbit and Betty bunny!

The unusually warm spell of April weather brought farmer John’s tulips into bloom earlier than anticipated but we managed to hold onto a few for our Spring Tulip workshop. Florist Jilly demonstrated lots of ideas on how to arrange tulips more creatively than just popping them into a vase. We hope to hold more floral art workshops throughout the year, the next one will be in July using the cut flowers grown on our farm by Grown & Made. Get in touch for more information or keep an eye on our website for dates etc.

Our mini farmers sessions returned at the end of the month and we have also added our afternoon Stay and play sessions, a chance for slightly older siblings to join us for some free play in the Gruff garden, an opportunity to unwind after school. Jammy toast and apple juice and a cuppa for adults too!