Wild Wanderers Journal

Spring Edition  

Spring into Spring
We have survived the winter! Spring represents new life, the next chapter and the welcome return of feeling our fingers and toes. We are loving seeing the promise of warmer days through the daffodils blooming, the chatting of the birds in the morning and the days getting longer. 
There is something wonderful about seeing the world wake up again, we have included some tips and ideas to get outside and make the most of this next season.

Ideas for Outdoor Play This Month

Spring Nature Walk
A gentle reminder to look and not touch animals and their homes
Head outside with your magnifying glass, ready to spot different types of Spring promises. 

We created a PDF you can download to take on your Spring nature walk. HERE

Nature Treasures to collect this month to craft with:

BLOSSOMS: Spring is the time to collect fallen blossom petals. From flowering cherries, plums, magnolias there are so many options to choose from. 
We used pansies and camellias to create our flower stamping print. 

Blossom Hammer Stamping

You'll need:

• Fallen blossom petals (or go on a flower collection hunt at your local park, it’s amazing how many you can find when you’re looking)
• A piece of paper, calico, or fabric
• A hard surface to work on (a board, table, or tray)
• Wooden hammers (we have some available from our website HERE)

Steps:

1. Lay your paper or fabric flat on your hard surface.
2. Arrange the blossom petals face-down on top, spacing them out so they have room to make their mark.
3. Cover with a second sheet of paper or fabric to keep the mess contained.
4. Using your wooden hammer, gently but firmly tap over each petal, working from the centre outwards.
5. Once you've hammered the whole design, carefully peel back the top layer and lift away the petals to reveal your print underneath.
6. Leave to dry, then admire your one-of-a-kind blossom artwork.
   
   

Leaf Rubbing

Go for a journey outside, and see how many different leaves can you find? Use these leaves to make some leaf rubbings!

What you'll need:

• A selection of fallen leaves (look for ones with interesting veins or shapes)
• A piece of paper
• Crayons with the paper wrapping removed

How to do it:

1. Lay your leaves flat on your hard surface, vein-side up.
2. Place a sheet of paper over the top of the leaves.
3. Holding the paper steady, rub the length of the crayon firmly and evenly over the area covering each leaf.
4. Keep going until the shape and veins of the leaf appear clearly on the paper.
5. Try layering a few different leaf shapes or switching crayon colours for a more textured, layered print.

Seasonal Nature Notice:

We both live next to Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River. There are so many signs of a change of season in this area. Ducks and ducklings in the river, buds and blossoms on trees, the large willow trees turning green again, and lots of birdsongs in the morning. 
We recently have seen the white baiters fishing around Ōpāwaho. Its such an exciting sight (for our fishing mad kids) and for me, as it means longer, warmer days are near!

What’s happening in the Garden?

Labour Weekend is typically the time we plant our Spring vegetable crop. The risk of a frost has usually passed. This shouldn’t stop you from getting some seedlings ready inside where they can stay warm.
Some things we are growing inside that you can plant together that will do well in spring, and are always a hit with the kids: 

• Peas
• Cucumber
• Tomatoes
• Capsicum 
• Pumpkin
• Sweet Corn

Garden Activity

We made seed bombs for our garden, this is a great mess friendly activity that gets everyone involved. We can wait to see it come to life, literally!

You’ll need:

• 5 parts potting soil / compost
• 1 part clay powder (we used crumbled air dry clay)
• 1-2 parts native wildflower of veggie seeds (good Spring flower options for NZ are: alyssum, cornflower, nasturtium)
• Water 

Steps:

1. Mix the ingredients together in a bowl
2. Add water a little at a time until is holds together like playdough (not too wet)
3. Roll into balls about the size of a golf ball and let them dry in 24-48hrs somewhere out of direct sun.
   
   Once dry, kids can chuck them into a bare garden patches, a pot or a wild corners of the yard. No digging needed, the clay protects the seeds until rain softens it and they sprout.

New this month: 

We have been so busy during the winter months and have created a few new products to inspire you to get outside and explore.

Some of our favourites are our beeswax candles and cyanotype paper. We’ve loved creating things that encourage slowing down, getting curious and making something with your own hands.

We’re also planning to use the paper from our paper-making kits and cyanotype kit to make our Christmas cards this year! We love the idea of giving something handmade and a little bit wild.

Behind the Scenes + Fails:

We thought we would include some behind the scenes. We both run on a sprinkling of chaos and creativity. Then exhaust ourselves trying to keep up the appearance of “It's all okay, nothing to see here”. (who are we kidding, we have six kids between us)

Last month my Dad (who was visiting from Perth) cut down a rotten tree in the backyard. I’m drying the non rotten parts of the wood, ready to make more hammers for our shop and events. We also cut a whole heap into wood rings for our loose part trays.

There was also an almost unintentional Thermomix overheating incident while trying to blend up scrap paper. Don’t do it. It turns out a Thermomix is not, in fact, designed to blend paper. After that experiment, I decided it would be much better to soak the paper first, let it go nice and mushy, and then blend it. Much better! I then dehydrated the paper pulp, packaged it up, and it is now making its way into our paper-making kits.

A trip to the workshop was also needed to cut and drill the holes for the hammers. Cue a scolding from the love of my life when the drill started smoking. Apparently, drills need oil when working that hard. Who knew! Now you do. The drill survived and the lesson was free. 

See some photos of a little glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes. 
Context for the photos:

• Drying and making plasters outside
• Cutting wood rings
• Putting my Dad to work
• Watching my Dad work
• Paper pulp making (lots of kids drawings in there, shhh)
• Red cabbage in the dehydrator to make cabbage powder
• Saucy Mask (our uniform when making the plasters and potions)
• Hammer time
• Hammer time 2.0 
  

Spring Thoughts:

Spring is the perfect nudge to get back outside. The fresh air, movement, and connection to nature do wonders for little ones and big ones.

The washing pile seems to grow a little faster than the daffodils this season. That’s exhausting, but okay (they’re already wearing the next load anyway). It’s a nice reminder to be gentle, embrace the mess, and enjoy watching the world and the kids come back to life.

Love, Bree + Lara