Christmas Feast!

This week, we enjoyed our very own garlic and brussel sprouts cooked up with bacon and cashew nuts and served with mashed potatoes and gravy. So close to Christmas, we also had crackers with the meal and mince pies for afters.

We prepared the vegetables on Wednesday - and yes, you need to get revenge on Charlotte for this photo Lewis!!

The outer leaves of the brussel sprout plants are a bit brown after all the snow and cold weather (and were ravaged by those caterpillars earlier!!)

Some sprouts were quite hard to get off the plants - a strong twist was needed.

There is still plenty of garlic left (in fact, the shed is filled with its aroma!)

Whilst Catriona and Lewis prepared the vegetables, Charlotte cut the pots from the fat balls. They stuck together perfectly!

A rich store of energy for the birds to peck at.

Without the wheelbarrows, there's lots of room in the shed.

Cooking the sprouts, garlic, cashews and bacon in the staff room. Miss Swallow carried the hot food out to the shed in a wicker hamper.

Reading the instructions for the crackers - they were not the usual type!!

Everyone had a whistle with a number on it. We had lots of fun TRYING to blow them at the right time to play Christmas Carols on the play sheet!

There were some gardening jokes in them. What's a gardener's favourite magazine?? "Weeders Digest" of course!!

Notice the musical hats (and we are wearing our new aprons too).

We all tucked in - yumm! The food didn't stay on our plates for long!! As we were eating, it went very dark outside and heavy snow started falling which made it feel very "Christmassy".

Danielle and Catriona pull the last cracker ready to play the whistles!

As the bell went for the end of lunch, we all parted - wishing each other a Happy Christmas. In fact, everyone seemed sad not to be meeting next week (as we finish early on Thursday) but actually I think we should meet on Wednesday - we can just check and fill the bird feeders and then check out the blog if it's cold or snowing! So, if you are reading this folks - see you next Wednesday!!

Udate: as the afternoon went on, the snow kept falling and settling on everything. This continued through the night and Friday as well, so the school was closed on Friday.

High Energy Food for the Birds

This week we had a go at making fat balls for the birds. Things however didn't quite go to plan! "Why?" You may ask! We tied string through the pots and melted the lard. After adding oats, bird seed and our very own sunflower seeds, we spooned the mixture into a pot and the molton lard immediately ran out of the bottom of course!!

We added more ingredients to make it a bit thicker, but in hindsight it would actually have been better to not punch holes in the pots for the string, but just use something like plasticine to attach it to the bottom.

At this point, we thought it would be a good idea to use the snow outside to cool the pots as the mixture was poured.Once cooled a litte, we left the pots in the shed overnight to set. Next week, we'll cut the pots away and hopefully they will hold together well enough to hang up on the bird feeder!Also this week, our new aprons arrived. We bought them with money raised at the Invermoriston Christmas Fayre - they donated their raffle money to us - thankyou so much!! They will help to keep us clean all year round. We also ordered a "Christmas Hamper" with the money which hasn't arrived yet - a basket with many vegetable seeds, trowel and fork and other equipment in. Below, you can see our logo has been embroidered onto the aprons:

Feeding the Birds as Winter Arrives!

This week as you can see, the garden is buried in snow! We were off due to the snow on Monday, but we didn't let the freezing conditions put us off on Wednesday. We assembled a bird feeder pole (indoors where it was warmer).

On Thursday, we put it out (in a temperature of minus 6 degrees centigrade!) We also put out a bird table that Miss Swallow made using old bits of wood, slats from an old cot and timbers used to pack the shed when it arrived!! Thanks to keyline for the wood cutoffs. Also this week, a parcel arrived for us - seeds for the spring and an "enviromesh" tunnel to protect the brassicas next year. Below, Charlotte and Catriona are trying to get the pack open!

Talking of brassicas - there are lots of brussel sprouts waiting to be harvested under that snow! We will have another cookup before Christmas using a recipe with bacon and walnuts too.

Below you can see the development of the bird table as it was being built - let's hope we get to see lots of birds feeding at it.

Barrels, Bulbs and (almost) Bird Tables!

This week was very busy. On Tuesday, school inspectors wanted to meet us so we gave them a slide show about all we have acheived in our first year. Well done to Lewis, Shaun, Catriona and Charlotte - you all read your lines very well!
On Wednesday we decided the barrels outside the front of the school really needed replanting - you can see why in the picture below!

We emptied them out completely and used new compost. They now have hyacinth bulbs deep in the soil, which should smell lovely in the spring. In the top are pansies which will get bigger and give good winter colour to brighten up the entrance of the school.

We were joined on Thursday by five members of staff and two first year girls who helped us plant yet more bulbs behind the school. There are now quite a lot of daffodils ready to come up in Spring. Thank you everyone!

We also used spare bulbs and some pansies to plant up two large pots for the garden - we will keep them a bit warmer in the greenhouse for the winter and put them out by the shed doors in the spring when they flower. Mrs MacLennan kindly donated some large pots that we can grow carrots and parsnips in next year - thankyou! Also on Wednesday, Danielle and Mr MacFarlane finished chopping up the sunflower plant remains into the compost. They also planted some onions.
If you are wondering about the "almost Bird Tables" bit of the title, well, Miss Swallow started to make a bird table just before lunch on Thursday using old bits of wood that we have. We want to feed birds during the cold winter (which started with snow just yesterday!) and be able to watch them from the shed. Things didn't go quite to plan - some of the bits are shown below - so hopefully, she can finish it over the weekend and we can put it up next week...watch this space!

Collecting Leaves and Planting Bulbs

Another week whizzes by and we still have lots to do before the winter sets in! On Wednesday we raked more leaves and started cutting up the dead sunflowers for the compost heap. On Thursday we had some help from Miss Forsyth and five S1 boys to plant a big bag of daffodil bulbs. It was a pretty cold day and the ground was stoney and difficult to dig, so everyone did well to plant what they did!

Happy Birthday DiGGers!

This week we got lots done! On Wednesday we carried on treating the shed. We were lucky as it was sunny though also very cold! Lewis's dad gave us some overalls - so you can see why we look as though we are on an episode of CSI!! Also, Catriona's mum came to help us. She continued after lunch with Mr MacFarlane and Danielle, then Miss Swallow made the most of the dry weather by completing the job after school.

On Thursday, we celebrated our first birthday by having a cake (carrot of course!). Unfortunately, Lewis was away at the dentist, so we saved a piece for him! We also opened lots of "presents" - parcels that have been arriving for us over the past few weeks. For example, we passed the Royal Horticultural Society "Campaign for School Gardening" level 1 and received lots of seeds and two wooden pot makers.

Next Thursday, there will be a "Bulb Planting Activity" for any pupils and staff to join in. We'll be planting bulbs all around the school grounds to brighten it up next spring. If you'd like to participate, meet at the main school office at 1.30pm.

Treating the Shed and Collecting Seeds

On Wednesday this week we had blue skies so started to treat the shed for the winter. The girls got going with the brushes whilst the boys worked with a marker to outline our DiGGers! logo using stencil cutouts.

Typically it rained on Thursday but we still had plenty to do! Below you can see us collecting seeds from the runner beans to sow next spring. Also, the seeds from the Sunflowers. We'll make a fat ball with some of them, to feed the birds in the winter and keep the biggest for planting again next year. We might even eat some in a salad next time we make garlic bread!