holding
A bit washed out at Cobleland
Cobleland had a wee bit of the old rain this weekend to help keep things lush but it was so heavy not even the midges could come out! We still managed to do some face painting in the morning and make a couple of wands and rafts, although we couldn't race the rafts as the river was a bit high. |
| Imogen's Oak and Eilidh's & Keira's Hazel wands. The small one was Will's! |
 |
| Lewis is making this fine craft with Will so will keep adding things to it throughout the Summer. Lewis's Sister Abbie made 'Pink Polkadot' with Mum but they will have to race it next week too. Will made the small one - he's got a thing about 'small' at the moment? |
Nostalgic Themed Week at Cobleland Campsite
After a busy week, we found ourselves having an even busier and fun weekend at Cobleland Campsite! The Camping and Caravanning Club have been running a nostalgic themed week, so we added to our usual ranger activities programme 'Games & Traditions of Yesteryear.'This included face painting, party games including: pass the parcel, musical statues/bumbs, Simon says, sports day races, willow weaving crafts with Tricia from Dragonfly Willow, who's session helped to raise money for the Bat Conservation Trust & Glendrick Roost, 'end of May'-pole dancing and tug of war - Team Pineapple beat team Strawberry!
The day ended with a Dusk Walk (where we saw loads of bats munching on midges) which finished at 10:30pm so it was a long fun filled day :-).
 |
| Jasmine & Darah show off their vampires and bunny faces |
 |
| Lesley the Site Manager, me and ten other happy campers helped to plait the maypole. We didn't quite get as far as dancing around it, it was a massive achievement remembering to go the right way! |
Bank Holiday Weekend at Cobleland
The weather wasn't too bad for a bank holiday thank goodness! Not as busy as Easter, but lots of fun and a couple of new sessions launched.First up, Anna chose a bright pink cat for me to paint on her face, matching her top of course.
Three lovely wands, Cameron chose Silver Birch, Grace and Cara Hazel. Then the next day young Rhona was bored so she popped over to the tent to see if we could help. She ended up making this lovely Hazel wand complete with gems and a gorgeous pendant.
 |
| Rhona's hazel wand - her birthday tree is Hazel and her sister is called Hazel too! |
We launched the Chocolate Quest this week, attracting eleven hungry chocolate hunters. Sixteen tickets were hidden around the site, when one was found you had to come back to the Ranger's Tent to pick a task from the pot. My favourites were; 'Do ten press ups' (impressed with Harris's one legged version!) and 'Hug a Tree'. No-one found all the tickets by the end of the hour, but bonus prizes were given for a task completed successfully. Of course they had earnt their big choccy bars after all that exercise!
This game will change periodically with updated tasks all the time. We should have made it a Star Wars themed game - May the 4th be with you and all, snort!!
Our first Dusk Walk of the year was fun having not done that version there for a few years. Just a bit of rain, but lots of folklore to talk about with all the lovely plants coming up and we saw bats towards the end! Bat walks will be making a return soon now that they are starting to wake from their long winter sleep.
Primrose; said to be used to see into the faery realms, traditionally used on the graves of children in Victorian times :-(, and thirteen flowers were brought into the house at Easter to ensure a good clutch of eggs on the farm.
OK, the Wacky Forth Races made a nail biting return this year- literally as Darah (the winner in pink) watches the close finish of the rafts nails in mouth! We very nearly lost the rafts over the rope at the end as the river is still a bit high, but after getting a wet bum myself, we saved them all. I need some waders this year! Apparently Orla's Mum has a picture of this ;-z.
From bottom: Stringy thing by Lewis, Rhona snd Steele, Darah's winning raft Ninkinpoop (with the willow pentagram star), Jasmine's Rossetta, Emma's Flower, James and Evan's Diet Coke, Daniel's Dday Yday Raft, Kiana's Daisy Chain, Orla's Tansylee and Anny and Niamh's Vintage.
Rafts pictured bottom to top
It's a close one - well done Darah!
Christmas Weekend at The Lodge
A fittingly snowy last weekend at The Lodge in Aberfoyle this weekend. Intrepid Scotland were there too this week making some lovely Christmas Wreaths, along with young Kitty and Felix who kept us busy making wands. Also, David the amazing wood carver who kindly let Will have a go and Angela from AB Crafts - sooo clever with her adorable homemade crafts. All was very festive, especially as David Wilkie was keeping us entertained with his Kazoo! |
| Snow is falling, all around The Lodge! |
 |
| Magickal Stall |
Will is let loose with the wood carving tools!
Wands waiting for witches and wizards
One of David's lovely wooden carvings - a quill made from wood, so gorgeous I had to get one!
From left; Ailsa' ash, Iona's ash, Struan's willow and William's ash wands - most wanted power animals inscribed into the wands for extra magickal energy :-)
Another collection of lovely wands, mainly Kitty and Felix's wands - they will be busy magick making over the Christmas period then!
One prepared earlier by Will ready to sell, which it did :-)
Some fun cheeky face painting at the lodge, my first three adults (other than family) so nice to see everyone was feeling festively cheeky!
David Robertson managed to keep his snowman on all day whilst selling Christmas trees in the sleet outside, is it me or are there a lot of David's at The Lodge?
Merry Christmas everyone and best wishes to all for the New Year - a huge thank you to everyone that has joined in and supported Nix in Nature this year :-)
The Lodge Christmas Activities
Back at The Lodge again, weird how there seems to be certain favourite wand of the day each time we do the session. Everyone went for Ash today, even though the kids arrived at different times for a drop in session. |
| Lily & Benjamin wanted enormous wands - more like staffs really! Lily's is really festive and Benjamin clearly wanted his wand to keep an eye on things! |
 |
| Michael and his older brother Ben decorated these gems, infusing their wands with power animal magic too :-). |
Adam made this lovely wand (after sinking in imaginary quick sand a few times), then they were all off to make Christmas magic and scare away any snakes, just in case there happened to be any in the chilly forest!?
Ash wands were used apparently to protect people from poisonous snakes, native Americans wore ash leaves in their moccasins and baby cradles were made from ash wood too.
Face painting was a bit quieter this week as the weather was quite dreich outside, but Scarlett opted for a lovely Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, Luca a dinosaur and 'Spiderman' for Adam.
The Lodge Christmas Activities
Just warming up for Christmas with a wand session and festive face painting at The Lodge Visitor Centre in Aberfoyle.Katie was whizzing about all day while her Dad was busy getting all the Christmas trees ready for sale, so she joined us to make this lovely holly wand to make her whizzing about more magical
Sunday was face painting, Rose went for a butterfly face, Robin a small panda, Elidh a flower spray and Darcey designed her own smiley face. My favourite was this one, being that it was the 1st December :-).
 |
| Cara went for Santa's eight Reindeer flying through a frosty Christmas Eve night sky. (Do not use image for Facebook thanks). |
Forestry Commission 'Light Up the Forest'
What a brilliantly cold, crisp night! Perfect for the Forestry Commission's first 'Light Up the Forest's event in Aberfoyle. I was lucky enough to be invited to help out and offer face painting for the little ones and I managed 15 faces and four tattoos type paintings so hopefully I am getting faster and still maintaining the quality :-).The kids went mainly for foxes and wildcats, a wolf, an alien with a third eye, a pink cat, a skull that had been shot in the head, and two Darth Maul's! I hadn't done that one before, so Will came to the rescue with the phone - also with crowd control!
We just about had time to nip around to see the illuminated waterfall, gorgeous!
 |
| Autumnal tree - can you spot the hare? |
 |
| Waterfall of the Little Fawn, Aberfoyle. |
Spooky mirror people in the deep, deep dark woods....
Colour changing tree sculpture.
All Hallows Eve at Tigh Mor
Unbelievably the rain held off for the two hours so that we could all enjoy our Batty Halloween Walk at Tigh Mor, our last bat walk for the season. We had earlier been making magic wands and Charlotte kindly did a rain spell for us so thanks Charlotte :-)Thank you to all those that joined us today to help raise money for the Bat Conservation Trust. We will update everyone on the final count next week. There were 16 magic wand makers, 9 getting their faces painted and a whopping 39 on the walk.
Charlotte and Olivia show off their painted faces, a self designed pink cat and Olivia went for a tiger (again). Other faces were a vampire and his wife, Frankenstein, butterflies and cats.
Charlotte's wand was made from Rowan, the best for protection so great for Halloween. All were amazingly creative and individual :-)
To celebrate the Celtic New Year we had a few tricks and treats up our sleeve for this bat walk, the bats by the way were staying in if not already in their bat caves for a snooze though. Some excellent costumes and stories by those attending. Some had to earn their treats as they used to do traditionally, so there were a few jokes kicking around too, mostly from Sam, one of which was, "how do you get a tissue to dance? Put a bit of boogie in it!"
Death.......... just there to accompany you to the other realm!
Having to resort to wellies instead of my fluffy boots! I'm trying to represent where this custom originated, with the Celts on Samhain or Summer's end. They were said to wear masks, especially animal masks to confuse mischievous spirits and faery folk who could easily slip into our realm when the veil between worlds is at their thinnest on this day.
'Death' helps Stephen the bat find lots of moths the size of children to eat for his dinner!
There were hand made pendants with protective rowan berries and elder beads for the best dressed and best spooky tales, a few apple and divining games and everyone celebrated the Celtic New Year by placing a piece of ash while releasing something unwanted in their lives in order to start afresh. We had to remind the little ones that it didn't mean getting rid of your annoying brother or sister!
Batty Pumpkin
Thanks Lesley from Cobleland Campsite for the brilliant cat and owl pumpkin.
Pumpkins were an extension of the mask, to scare off unwanted spirits. They would have been carved from neeps or spuds though before the Irish travelled to America taking their customs with them. Pumpkins are easier to carve though :-)
Face Painting at Cobleland
It was like the summer holidays again this weekend what with a lot of the schools on a long weekend - great atmosphere on the campsite and met some lovely people and the sun even came out to play :-)Here are some this weekend's painted faces, I'm especially liking it when the kids design their own!
 |
| Hannah's very own butterfly design |
 |
| The adorable Adam opted for Mr Fox and agreed to me experimenting with some foxy eyes too! |
Ella designed a snowy blue wolf.
Ella's big sister Niamh designed a magical pink wolf.
And the wolf master himself, Logan, opted for a wolfy tattoo.
Face Painting
Cobleland was quite nice and busy for September, a few long weekends for various schools this month :-)It seemed a day for cupcakes, Lucy and Anna went for these on their cheeks, although Anna wanted to mix things up a bit and have a cheeky little fish as well. Then the Toop twins joined us again later on along with Katie.
 |
| Charlie went for another butterfly, a purple one again, the kids always have a knack the of matching the designs with their outfits quite nicely! |
Rosie wanted her blue tit again so she could fly around the campsite on her bike - again matching colours with her helmet!
Katie went for a vampire, here she shows both her serious and cheeky sides.
