We made benches!!

On Wednesday 15th November, we began with a lot of heavy lifting! It was a very cold morning but it was only a matter of time before the coats came off. Georgia and Lizzie began by taking the rest of the bags of bark and the pallets needed for the reflection benches from the car park to the meadow area and definitely worked up a sweat. Once we had got everything over, we began creating the remaining pathways using the soil we had previously dug up as last week, then laid the bark on the black sheeting.

Natasha started preparing the ground for the log seating area and whilst moving some soil she spotted a spiky visitor. A baby hedgehog was wandering among the leaves! We were really excited to see such a rare sight, however we were concerned that it should not be around in daylight but also that it was rather small. Not long after the discovery, Mrs Buncle and the gardening club children joined us and were able to see the hedgehog wander around the meadow site. We were very conscious not to get too close but managed to get some fantastic photographs to share!

Today the children did a great job filling the bug hotel with twigs, logs, pine cones, bamboo sticks, bricks and roof tiles to accommodate lots of different insects. They also planted some ferns which in time will spread to give the area a woodland feel.

Meanwhile Lizzie and Georgia worked on the pallet benches. We realised at first that the screws we had bought were much too long as they had come through the other side of the wood. Instead of continuing with these, Natasha went and bought some smaller ones that were just right. We drilled together the base of the bench, and began sawing wood to make the arm rests. We found this very hard work and it took quite a while! We then realised we were not too sure how we were going to attach the back rest onto the base of the bench, so we decided to reach out to Carl the carpenter who kindly said he would screw it on for us at a later date. 

That evening, Natasha called the Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital to seek advice about the hedgehog. Their advice was to weigh it to check it's a suitable weight for hibernation which sadly we guessed was unlikely, meaning it would have to be rescued. More sad news followed, when we were told that the mother hedgehog had been found dead. Fortunately, the baby hedgehog was found by Mrs Buncle and taken to the Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital to be looked after.