Christmas Dinner and a feast for the birds

 On Wednesday this week we filled all our bird feeders to help the birds cope with the cold weather

 Nuts, seeds and some fat balls too.

 After that, we decorated the shed ready for our Christmas Party!

Trying to decide where to hang a string of Christmas beads

 Meanwhile Dale adds some sunflower seeds onto the bird table

 All ready and feeling festive - Danielle, Simona, Sophia and Anaya.

 Seeing how high they can jump (not sure where that came from!)

 On Thursday, Danielle and Dale helped Miss Swallow set up the table in the shed.  We emptied all the big tools out and swept the floor first.

 After that, we started cooking...Danielle has the garlic and bacon frying on the stove...

 ...whilst she gives the walnuts a good bash with a rolling pin!

 Actually, it was more effective to just roll over them in the bag!

 Dale took the relaxed route and sat down to chop the brussel sprouts and peel potatoes.  There were LOTs of them...we were cooking for ten people!

 We had potato and parsnip mash, with grated cheese stirred into it - yummy!  Dale got on with the washing up too.

 Danielle at the ready with the potato masher!

 Do you like her new "robotic" hand?

 Once lunch time started, the others came down and helped to carry everything out to the shed.

 Amy carries a full jug of gravy very carefully!

 We started with crackers and jokes!  "What sweets do frogs like?...

 ...Lolly-hops of course!"  Also, "What did baby corn say to mummy corn?...

 ...Where's popcorn?" (Get it?)  Sophia served up the mash, and Simona dished out the garlicky bacon and sprouts.

 Everyone enjoyed it served up with gravy, and there was enough for seconds all round!

 "Smile!  And Happy Christmas everyone!"

 Dale had a "fortune fish" in his cracker - is Danielle jealous or in love??

 Look...empty pots and pans!

 Cheers to DiGGers!  Everyone found the Ginger and Lemongrass cordial a bit on the strong side!

 Our mini Christmas Tree (sorry, it's not a real one!)

 Clearing up afterwards...

 ...everyone helped to pass the tools back into the shed (this is why we need our store shed to be finished!)

 Who can jump the highest?

 There was food on offer - did you notice Mr Macfarlane was there lol!?  It was great to have everyone enjoying the festive spirit.  Unfortunately Connorhan and Anaya were both off ill - Dale will have to cook the remaining potatoes in the New Year and make us some soup for another feast!

 Almost back to normal in the shed

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WINDY weather and some excellent news!

 We had some extra help in the garden this week.  A group of boys who usually go to Evanton woods to learn bush-craft skills and ecology had their session cancelled last minute due to illness, so I roped them into helping dig up some of the trees at the top of the garden...

 ...we are clearing the patch to create more growing space.  They worked really hard despite the extreme cold - well done boys!

 The main theme of this week has been WIND - lots of it.  You can see here, sheets that have blown out of the greenhouse, along with several pots that had blown away.

 We managed to fix them back in - but really need to find a better way of securing them as the wire clips just don't seem to manage!

 There were some birds bobbing about the garden on Thursday - we saw a sparrow, robin and blackbird.  Simona put some seed out for them.  Next week we hope to clean out the feeders to refill them, and make some fat balls for the birds too.

 Meanwhile, Simona, Sophia and Anaya rake leaves...

 ...they are a great resource!  We have a big leaf mold pile that will rot down and give us free soil conditioner next year.

On Thursday after school, Miss Swalllow visited a local Herb Nursery and was very pleased to be shown around.  The owner Mr Ross is happy to help with the "Certificate in Practical Horticulture" next year by giving us a tour to see a working nursery and also showing us how to take hardwood cuttings in the Autumn.  It will be good to have a nursery area of our own to bring on young plants from our stock here at the Academy.

Oh yes!  The "excellent news" in the title is that we are proud to have achieved the RHS level 3 in their Gardening for Schools Benchmark scheme.  This is not only due to DiGGers' activities but testament to the fact that more people now use the garden for different purposes - for example, S2 gardening, S3 computing studies (for their photography work) and the Autism base.  Also, the fact that the Parent council now help us raise funds, and that our volunteer team came in over the summer holidays to look after things.  It also acknowledges good practise within school like composting, using mulches to reduce water loss from the soil as well as improving it, collecting rain water in the butts for watering the garden and creating bug-hotels and habitat to encourage more wildlife onto our site.

Our well-won prize is a voucher for a "large vegetable garden".  We can redeem the voucher when we are ready next spring - and will receive 242 plug plants - a whole range of vegetables, salad and herbs from rocket to runner beans, cauliflower to sweet corn!!  So watch this space to see them arrive, get planted and grow next year!  A big "Thank You" to the Royal Horticultural Society!

The plants will come from "rocket gardens" - you can see more about it on their web site:
www.rocketgardens.co.uk

Tasty treat after a work session!

 On Wednesday this week, we worked to harvest the potatoes we had growing in bags.  Just before the bell was due to go, Dale unveiled his secret treat...he had used our Kale, Onion and Garlic in a simple flan recipe the day before.

 It was delicious and there was plenty to go around - back in the base, everyone enjoyed tasting what was left too and were surprised at how tasty the bright coloured chard was!

 This was us getting potatoes out of the growing bags....

... Anaya and Vicki meanwhile were weighing them into bags to sell to staff next week.

 On Thursday, we finished them, and there were lots of worms underneath where the bags had been standing, as well as in the soil.  We threw them back, to keep "working their magic" on the soil!

 "Oh no, I've got worm soup!"

 Sophia with enormous muddy gloves!!

There are still lots of leaves around, so we might rake some up next week...

Also this week, Dale planted an acorn that the Forest School class had found in Evanton Woods, and we also planted a couple of walnuts taken from the oldest Walnut tree in Scotland!  It's quite close to us in Dingwall, so we must try to go and see it one day.

Conkers,burnt-sugar-scented leaves, flower seeds and news of a Community Garden!

 On Wednesday this week, we took all the runner beans out of their dried pods...

 ...as you can see, we got loads!  We'll store them somewhere dry and plant them next Spring.

 Amy took a picture (and yes, the shed is quite messy behind us!  It has now been tidied so we have a little more room to move!)  We also planted some of our conkers in pots and put them outside in the rain.

 Sowing more wild flower seeds on Thursday (mixed with sand) which hopefully will come up next Spring.  We really want some lovely colour to attract the butterflies and bees.  The others were off watering the barrels by the front school entrance.  It was a very wet week, so we haven't yet cropped all our potatoes and chard - hopefully next week!

 We had an extra meeting on Friday, for Katy Green to visit us.  She is from the Conservation Volunteers group and brought a map to show us plans for a Community Garden.  It will be just across the road from school, so we are keen to help out with the planting and maintenance in future.  The focus is for it to be a wildlife garden with a dipping platform beside ponds, a boardwalk, lots of trees and wild flowers with long grass etc - watch this space for news next Spring!

 After the meeting, we all had a go at playing conkers!  It was great!  We were not very good aims though and there was lots of laughter!

 Danielle takes aim at Mr Macfarlane's conker...

 ...then he takes his turn.

 Miss Swallow takes aim...

...one conker starts to crack!  We had some more donated (thanks Primrose) so can string them up for more fun next week!

You might be wondering about the "burnt-sugar-scented-leaves" in the title?  Well, Connorhan has been familiarising with the tree Cercidiphyllum japonicum which we had been told has a fabulous "candy-floss" smell in the autumn.  We went out into the rain on Friday to test the theory, but the tree was pretty bare!  We tried our luck however and crushed a tiny leaf each that was left on the tree and "wow!" they really did smell of burnt sugar!