Gorgeous muddy cupcakes – A Winter Wrap-up

This winter with the 3-6 year old classes at Linley Valley and Colliery Dam the weather was so mild that water play never stopped.  We continued to fish and fish and fish and fish. Shout-out to parent volunteer Bradley Ruzkowski for bringing operational fishing rods - hooks removed!  Why didn’t I think of that? Imagine casting with a real baited line after months of string on a cedar twig.  Phenomenal. We enjoyed gorgeous muddy cupcakes at Colliery, too, with nature chefs really pulling out all the stops, adorning maple twig birthday candles with hawthorn berry flames, the mud beneath whipped to a stunning pudding – like consistency using carefully measured ratios of water, soil and sand.

Our Linley Valley class took catch and release to the next level, graduating from stick- fishing to magnet- fishing with a donation of magnets from Sound Heritage Music in downtown Nanaimo.  Looped with paracord and carabiners, these powerful beasts salvaged from broken speakers looked like robotic jellyfish or ancient scientific gear as they were cast into the Eagle’s Nest and drawn up dangling all the tongs, shovels, cups and clippers our Thursday/ Friday classes jettisoned over January.

At all locations, wildlife intrigues.  Worms continue to be a big hit, with collectors diligently cataloguing the different shapes and sizes: tubular versus flat, short versus long.  We observed plentiful harvests after soft spring rains and dug deep holes to find these squirmy little guys when they seek shelter beneath the ground.  I am always impressed by forest school students’ enthusiasm for slime.  Slugs by the handful, oozing iridescent cream, the captors all on tenterhooks exclaiming, “He’s gonna pop out his eyes!”

We’re loving it out here, running and climbing and making friends.  So much gratitude.  It’s an honour and a privilege to share the magic of our local parks with children as they grow.