Everyone has sweet dreams at Castle Kennedy Garden
The Garden Ranger activities have been going really well, especially this season’s new activities. It was not just children who made our dream catchers and windsocs, everyone got involved so it became a real team effort. I even made one to hang in the Gardens, so that everyone visiting will get a good nights sleep. Dream catchers catch all the bad dreams and allow the good dreams to drop down when you are asleep. First we tried out branches from different tree to see what would work best to make the dream catchers hoop. We found that sycamore worked best. Once we made our hoop we wove wool and thread around these creating a fantastic web. The Garden’s geese moult their feathers at this time of year so I picked them from the sides of the Lochs. We used shells, cones, leaves and the feathers to decorate the webs and add the hanging tails where the good dreams drop down.
Dream Catchers at Castle Kennedy Gardens
I brought some of my old windsocks for people to try out and their favourite was one that looked like a fish. We helped the environment too by recycling newspapers and plastic bags to make our windsocks. Everything we used had to be light to help the windsocks fly. The newspaper has to be rolled up tight to make the hoop for the mouth of the windsock to keeps it open which makes it look like a fish. There was a choice of bags to make fringes and our new windsocks were really colourful. It was lovely to see the children run with them around the castle as they flew in the breeze.
Windsocks are fun
Having had such lovely weather for all the other activities it was not so good for the campfire. However our Father’s Day fire crew still enjoyed themselves and we got the fires safely going despite the rain. Everyone helped by collecting fuel for the fire and even holding a tarpaulin above the fire as it was light for the campfire cooking. We used our shelter building skills to make a shelter to keep everyone out of the rain while they enjoyed their campfire food. It was fun to be able to hear the fire hissing as the rain hit the embers while we were cooking. There were even special biscuits for the Fathers to enjoy too.
Enjoying marshmallows in the safety position around the camp fire
During the Summer holidays there are lot more Garden Ranger activities for you to take part in. The next family activities that I am leading will involve looking for millipedes and building a new bug hotel for them to live in. It would be great to see you there!
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