Our Tree...

Quite shockingly, one day we arrived at co-op to find our beloved tree severely pruned back to a tall stump. You can read more about it here.

We hadn't realised just how much of the magic of our little co-op had been wrapped up in that beautiful, shady tree. But it's something we've come to realise in the weeks since.

We'll be planning a yarn bombing project for the tree, to make it a cheerier place to be and to honour what was. We're hoping friends from our wider community might feel moved to join in and celebrate with us and look forward with us...

Fungi Walking

One of the fantastic things about co-op is the sharing of knowledge, within the group and across generations. By learning together, we share skills and new ideas and parents learn alongside children, meaning information can be delved into more deeply away from co-op as more questions arise… And it keeps us adults inspired to learn new things too!

One of our parents is an avid fungi enthusiast and offered to lead a fungi walk in some bushland just down the road from our cottage. We were a bit amazed by the diversity so close to town! Highlights included seeing a number of earth star fungi and some beautiful early orchids hiding along the bank, beside a creek. So much beauty around us everywhere and it's wonderful to slow down and acknowledge it together, if only fleetingly.

Strengthening community & new beginnings

We've been talking about community quite a bit at co-op lately. Wanting to strengthen what we have, we've made a slight change towards seasonal membership subscriptions, encouraging members to come along weekly for a whole season at a time. Those who can't make it weekly, we are hoping to see at our seasonal open days which will be big, beautiful celebrations of our wider community and a chance for new friends to check out where we are and what we do.

We're hoping the familiarity that comes from a regular bunch of friends will mean an even more comfortable, reliable and supportive community for all of us, but especially our wonderful children. In recent months we've seen friendships blossom and bonds form that we hope will be life-long.

Today we lit a camp fire and held a loose kind of loud and rambunctious circle around it as we marked the beginning of this new phase for our co-operative. 

We cooked baked apples, corn and damper in the coals as the children built bush shelters…

And then honed their skills in the skate park nearby...

The warmth of the fire, shared food and company and plenty of wild space to explore were just the antidote to a cold, wintry day. Almost certainly, it'll be the first of many such fires for the season, and a wonderful way to spend a few hours on a day that is an absolute highlight of our week, every week. 

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If you're keen to come along and try out our co-op, please don't hesitate to get in touch. We'd love to meet you! You can stay up to date with details for open days by subscribing to this blog via the email box above, or joining our Facebook group.

Springtime Explorers at Co-op

We were blessed with the most perfect of spring days at co-op last week. Beautiful sunshine, just the right amount of breeze and lots of open spaces to explore. We went on a scavenger hunt. We collected furry, shiny, sharp things. Flowers, sticks, rocks and treasures...



Then we headed down to the beach behind co-op for a paddle and a play in the sand.



And back to the playgound again for a last play...



We didn't want it to end! In fact the play continued at our house until bedtime. We're looking forward to Tuesday!

This week we are meeting wildlife carer Stephanie. She'll be talking to us about how to become wildlife carers and what's involved... She may even bring a furry friend as a surprise! If you intend to come, please let us know before Monday night (that's tomorrow!), so Stephanie can prepare. Hope to see you then. xx

exploring

Seeing as yoga was cancelled for this week, we thought it might be a good idea to have a wander around the surrounds of the cottage. Perhaps a scavenger hunt and wander through the gully, to the beach, or even a wander up the hill, past the community garden and skate park and down to the beach that way... or maybe all of the above! Some children might like to bring along or borrow a camera and document what they see... perhaps they can email in their photos for a blog post so they can look at each other's photography of the day?



Or perhaps they'll come home with a handful of treasure?

Here's some photography inspiration: Capturing Signs of Spring with Photography (kids, nature and cameras)

And a fab scavenger hunt I'll bring along, here.

See you on Tuesday. xx