Happy new year!

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!