Little nippers get muddy at Degibna woods

Degibna Woods at Penrose echoed to the sounds of 25 little voices as the youngest members of Nansloe Academy (aged 4 and 5 years old) explored on Friday morning.

With a remit to ‘get muddy and enjoy it’ from Teacher Steve Osborne, the youngsters really made the most of their morning, splashing in the stream, wading through the mud and finishing it all off with a welcome cup of hot chocolate.



Even with a full curriculum Steve maintains that it is important for the children to have free time to explore at their own pace and without a prescribed outcome to the activity.

The school will be continuing to use Penrose for its activities with more classes getting outdoors to explore and broaden their curriculum in future.


                  Nick

Volunteers take it one step at a time

The Trust’s Lizard volunteers were up at Penrose this week working to replace an old flight of steps that link    the car park to the estate.

Greg, Paul, Pete and Rob showed their carpentry credentials and the rotten old steps were replaced in no time at all with a perfect flight, that wouldn’t look out of place in Penrose House itself!

 

The replacement of these steps is just part of the improvement to the infrastructure to the estate that will take place over the coming years. The footpath signs and information boards will also be rationalised and updated.

               

 

 

There will be more joint working days between Lizard and Penrose teams in future, making the most of the team’s skills and offering the chance to work across a wider range of projects and settings.

If you are interested in joining us for volunteer work, then give us a call on 01326 561407 and we’d be delighted to get you involved.

Nick

Frightful Times at Poltesco

Half-term proved busy at Poltesco. Kids of all ages were to be found solving an egg thief mystery, dissecting owl pellets and/or getting covered in glue!

For 3 days we played host to the BBC Live 'n' Deadly Detectives Trail, organised jointly with Natural England. This involved searching out 7 clues, to solve the mystery of who or what had eaten a clutch of eggs. 100 kids took the challenge over the 3 days, earning themselves a badge and a passcode for the BBC's online Live 'n' Deadly game. Also on offer was the chance to make clay animal paw prints, and to dissect owl pellets. Thanks to Claire from NE and her vol team for their work in making these days a great success.

On friday, later in half-term week, 10 families joined us in the sunshine in the yard for a scary mask and halloween lantern workshop. For the lanterns, a frame is first made out of elm and dogwood shoots harvested from the valley, held together with tape.



Wouldn't like to meet him on a dark night!



Things then get messy, as the frame is covered in several layers of wet strength tissue paper soaked in dilute PVA glue. Finally add some decoration and colour if desired, or sandwich some leaves between the layers. Then the biggest challenge. Try to get it home without dripping all over the car!  Rachel

Pond dippers make a splash!

We joined forces with Cornwall Neighbourhoods 4 Change (CN4C) in the half term for peek at the wildlife in Loe Pool. The participants found a variety of pond life including water shrimps, mayfly larvae and water snails. One of the more exciting discoveries was a common darter dragonfly, easily recognisable by its bright red body.

Karen Llewellyn from CN4C said: “It was a fantastic day, with the children and parents really getting involved. Cornwall Neighbourhoods 4 Change (CN4C) and the National Trust are developing a great working partnership and if the Pond Dipping is anything to go by there will be plenty of fun wildlife events in the future for everyone to enjoy.” We also teamed up with Trudy Russell from the Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) who is encouraging more people to explore nature. Trudy supplied microscopes for everyone to get a closer look at the slimy creatures we uncovered in the pool.

Keep checking the blog to hear more about upcoming activities. Access to the pond dipping site by kind permission of the Trustees of Penrose Estate.