Well we are now all getting used to writing 2023 instead of 2022! With a new year often comes new year resolutions… not something I’m  great at but I’m going to make an effort to be more consistent at writing a monthly blog!

January can be a difficult month, the changing climate from freezing to warm and wet doesn’t suit our animals. Our little goat Nessa struggles in the cold and doesn’t always make great choices such as going into her straw filled barn to keep out of the cold and wet! She is now sporting a cute little goat coat which seems to be doing the trick.

Our hens are spending another winter in the barn, all birds in England and Wales have to be housed to protect from bird flu. We are never quite sure how long this restriction will last, when the days begin to lengthen it seems sad to see them ‘cooped up’, currently they are probably enjoying the absence of wet, soggy feet! They are none the less gracing us with a few eggs which are always very much appreciated.

Farmer John of Grown & Made is busy planting the last few bulbs, rose plants and foliage shrubs in anticipation of a colourful blooming year ahead. The Christmas wreath making workshops were fabulous, I was allowed to squeeze on one of the workshops and produced my own wreath that I am so proud of… so much so that I can’t bear to part with it, it is now hung to dry in a warm shed. For those of you who would have binned theirs at the end of the festive season Grown & Made wreaths are totally compostable and will go straight in the green bin or your very own compost heap. Remember when visiting Gruff there are always treats to be found in the Grown & Made horse box at the farm entrance.

We are really looking forward to welcoming our mini farmers back to Gruff when we open our doors for 2023 at the end of February. In the meantime we have a couple of exciting new activities for the Gruff play garden to create!

We can’t believe that we are now in the run up to Christmas! The trees are beautiful autumn shades of gold, russet and crimson. Farmer John’s flowers in his cutting patch have come to an end and he is now preparing for gathering fresh evergreen foliage to make Christmas posies and door wreaths, along with handmade wooden festive decorations. All these items will be on sale from our farm gate in the coming months.
After the year we have all encountered and are all still battling through it is important to support local small scale businesses. Here at Gruff Outdoor Learning we were so thankful to be able to open our doors to our mini farmer groups in August, albeit a smaller group of 12 children creating a ‘bubble’ group on both mornings and due to high demand we added a Tuesday morning too. The Tuesday morning is now here to stay! September arrived and we were able to begin our new 7 week term, again with restrictions in place and limited numbers, which we just managed to complete before lockdown was upon us all once again. We made a few changes to our schedule and focused on being outdoors which after all is what we are all about. We set out bales of hay on our back field near to our animals for seating and gave every family there own ‘craft bucket’ . We had lots of fun and the weather was pretty kind to us. I know that regular visitors to our mini farmer sessions are missing the jammy toast and apple juice.
Sadly Christmas at Gruff this year will be a quiet one. So as not to disappoint too much we have had an idea! We have created a Gruff Christmas craft box – inside there are a couple of crafts to make, including all the materials, something to grow, more ideas for getting creative with all those Christmas card envelopes and we’ve created a cute little Christmas poem too.
Finally, the Gruff team would like to thank you all for your continued support during this difficult time, we hope that we were able to provide a safe place to escape in the fresh air, animals are such a great distraction! Don’t forget that our tickets for mini farmers sessions starting in February will go on sale in January 2021! Take care Gruff friends.

They say time flies when you are having fun!

Our final term of mini farmers for 2019 began in September, this has to be my favourite term, so much to investigate, explore and gather. We harvested blackberries and apples, gathered conkers and colourful, crunchy autumn leaves. Farmer John harvested his homegrown pumpkins, all sizes, shapes and colours…even a massive prize winning specimen!

The weather has been a challenge! Gruff Halloween had to be postponed due to the lane turning into a river! Fortunately the following day was a dry, sunny one and we had a fabulous, fun morning stirring up a witches brew, playing in the spooky Gruff garden, making spiders and webs and eating pumpkin cake and bat biscuits.

November saw the start of our annual Christmas wreath making workshops. We ran a couple of garland making evenings too and new for 2019 a mini Christmas tree, all made from freshly cut winter foliage gathered from our farm. For a few weeks my morning walks with my dog included my secateurs and trug.  Jilly my talented florist friend lead the workshops and inspired attendees to produce such beautiful creations …it is so much nicer to decorate your home with something that you have created yourself, whilst having a fun evening with friends consuming mulled wine and homemade cake.

We had an exciting surprise at Christmas Gruff this year! Rudolph turned up on a quad bike in search of Father Christmas who was having a sneaky snooze in the Boer goat shed …apparently he had mistaken the goats for reindeer! Every child received a handmade wooden tree decoration to take home and they created their own beautiful twig stars and foliage decorations. One morning we even had a flurry of snow!

It was fantastic to host a couple of school visits just before Christmas, the children loved our new mini Gruff theatre with our homemade, simple Christmas themed wooden puppets. We spent lots of time outdoors meeting the animals, on a winter scavenger hunt and being imaginative, playing in the Gruff garden.

We are looking forward to another year of Gruff with old friends and new. Happy new year everyone!    

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!

Last week we had an amazing three days working with classes form Prestbury CE Primary School. The children practiced their creativity, imagination and CDT skills working in groups to produce a collection of amazing ‘ Recycled sound cubes’ to take back to their school. Farmer John constructed hazel stick cube frames and the children worked in teams of six. Using collected objects that we find in nature or normally discard and throw away, they used their skills to assemble a selection of sound producing objects that they then attached to their cubes. Each group completed their mornings work by presenting their cube in an imaginative way to the rest of their class. This was incredible to witness! The originality and inventiveness of each group was inspirational, their cube ‘themes’ included Natural disasters, Nature walk and Stormy beach. Each day we ended by visiting our animals and feeding the chickens – Bob the pygmy goat provided some lively entertainment! And of course there was plenty of time for free play in the Gruff garden.

Thank you to the children, teachers and parents of Prestbury CE Primary School for visiting Gruff Outdoor Learning once again, we look forward to your return visit in a couple of years…enjoy your ‘Sound Cubes’!