Seeing out the Seasons

Hi everyone. It’s been a wild and busy couple months and not always in the ways that I would choose, mainly due to sickness or injury, but that’s life right.

Especially when life involves small children and physical work outdoors.

While on the subject of life’s more challenging aspects, we unexpectedly had to say goodbye to our feathered friends recently, after our chicken coop was raided by a determined predator (most likely a fox or small dog).

Despite, initial confusion we decided that we would not sugar coat the truth or lie to our children about the sad reality. Our reasoning being tied to our emerging philosophy as a forest school, that this is a part of nature.

Like the seasons, death is intrinsically linked to life, and we do the children and ourselves a disservice when refuse to accept reality or attempt to hide the ‘uglier’ parts of life, that we might not like.

There is also a growing body of research that links much anxiety and depression to the trend within certain western countries that have embraced a culture of consuming only “Disney-style” happy endings rather than a more 'balanced'-perspective, one that is firmly rooted in reality.

Cognitive dissonance is after all no healthier for our kids than it is for adults.

We have not given up on including poultry into our little nature-loving family. I have been hard at work reinforcing our chicken yard against future incursions. Chelsea and the big bird kids have since setup the incubator with a new batch of eggs.

Even as I right this, we welcomed our first new chick into the world of the living only this morning.

Onto other news, I am delighted to announce that You the parents and families of our community, recently nominated me for the 2024 Stepping Stones Community Engagement award.

Having never in my adult life received an award (that wasn’t comedic in nature) I must admit that I was more than a bit chuffed. The feedback along with the news that some parents DO in fact read these blogs or the occasional newsletter piece, or picture on Facebook largely came as a surprise to me.

This award now sits proudly above the book collection in my bedroom.

I feel so grateful for this job and the opportunity to share my passions with you and these amazing children.

And receiving this award has inspired me to recommit to the task of writing about nature and the various ways that we can share this incredible world with the future generations, those that will be most affected and sadly left to do so much of the critical work that needs to happen of ensure our return as a keystone species and our natural place as stewards, instead of exploiters of this our beautiful planet .

With that said, I hope that everyone enjoys a well-deserved break over the holiday period and we all come back feeling renewed and ready for whatever awaits us in 2025.

With all my love, and until next time, enjoy the wild places wherever you are,

Dallas