Looking for wands in the woods. The joy of finding a good stick and some ideas on how to use it. Cutting a stick down and seeing what it becomes.
329 – Looking for wands in the woods
Thursday 6 February. Sunny, 5°C
We’re due a bigger challenge today. B has had a cold and we’ve been keeping close to home and using very little energy for the last few. Now she’s a bit better and I’m getting restless. She’s on her tablet more than she has been as a result of the bug and I’m intervening.
She promised yesterday that she would do a bigger challenge today so long as she could choose it.
Me: Yes, of course. What do you want to do?
B: I need to find a wand.
Turns out the school have challenged them all to find a good stick to make a wand out of as part of their Harry Potter themed term. I like this idea a lot. Finding things has always been a good starting point. I’d like a wand too! I plan a trip to the local country park (about ten minutes drive away) and reckon we can find some really good ones. The problem is, once B gets home from school and in the vicinity of the tablet again she loses all her momentum.
I put my foot down and with a mixture of carrots and sticks get her out to the car. She’s feeling headachy and doesn’t like the sun in her eyes. We get to the park and she starts looking near the car, clearly planning to find the first one she sees, jump back in and go home. Before she can succeed I start walking towards the woods. Thankfully a horse comes by which distracts her and gets her moving. Then we see some ducks. She’s still moping though.
B: I’m COLD. Can we just find one and go!
It’s a 5-10 minute walk to gets into the woody section of the park and it’s beautiful in there. The light is shining through the trees and the ground is covered in marvellous stick possibilities. We spend about ten minutes searching and find some lovely ones.
B wants one about 20 cm long and not too thick, so we’ve brought a ruler with us. The longest we keep is 38 cm but most are a bit longer than 20. I like best the ones with pointy ends and nobbles all the way down to make them crooked. We find one we really like each and another seven or so. We are ready to go but walk back the other way round the lake which is possibly a teeny bit longer (I didn’t mention that to B) but has squirrels and ducks usually.
As soon as B knows we’re going home she relaxes and starts to enjoy herself more. We meet a few dogs and find the sun shining on a tree trunk in a way which is perfect for shadow puppets. She tries a few new ideas. She’s interacting with the environment now, though still sometimes a bit moany. She finds some squirrels (we brought nuts). The ducks are completely absent but as we walk along the board walk we hear something underneath it and wait for ages to see if an animal will emerge.
Her headache seems to have gone and once home she’s in a really good mood. I’m pondering motivation for the next few days. I think we’re both in a bit of a slump and in need of some fun. Back to the drawing board again.
328 – Blowing bubbles in the cold and the dark >
< 5 minute challenges (331, 330)
342 – Finding a good stick
Friday 24 January, Sun and cloud, 10°C
Walking home from school, we decide to walk through the field where they do sports day. B’s found an acorn.
B: “Let’s see how high we can throw it.”
I find a stick. “Ok, you do the acorn and I’ll do the stick”.
The stick travels a reasonable distance, almost to the target. The acorn flies off into the grass somewhere and we lose it. B is upset and tries to find it. I distract by pointing out an enormous stick that’s lying in the grass nearby. It’s about a metre long and an inch thick. B is delighted and suddenly we find it’s ‘stick’ day. How did it take us so long?!
We start off throwing them, my little one and her whopper. How far? How high? Dodging sometimes when one of our aims is complete rubbish. Then she works out she can spin it.
B: How many turns can yours do?
Mine’s got a junction at the tip which means sometimes it spins but more often it just drops at my feet. We’re laughing now.
B gets distracted with the camera, trying to get photos of them as they fly through the air. I get bored after a while and go hunting for more stick options. I’m wondering if we can find enough to do a 342 picture with them but B has had enough and wants to go home. Its been a long week.
We take big stick with us of course. As she’s tired, I suggest she uses it like a walking stick and demonstrate, first as an aid to hobble and then as a smart type of cane that you can pose with. B takes it and it becomes a cheetah’s tail and runs fast and then a cat’s tail – which is pulled quite cruelly. I object with fake scratching. We settle on a dogs tail which wags and wags and wags (thankfully no one passes us as we probably look ridiculous and are a safety hazard at that point).
Once in the house we put it by the back door and plan to keep it for more adventures later. I got a wood carving set for Christmas which I’ve been looking for a chance to use. We have a go at carving the 342 into the side. It’s easy to do. The stick is very green and wet. We’ll dry it out and see what it turns into.
322 – The Return of the Stick
Thursday 13 February. Cloudy. 5°C
February is beginning to get us down. It’s been grey and cold for days now and we’re low energy and listless. Neither of us want to go out and I’m getting a bit lost for ideas. The stick we got for challenge 342 is still sitting in the corner of the kitchen waiting for us to be at a lose end. I reckon today is the day but I’m not sure what to do with it.
It’s dried out a bit since we picked it up but still quite green. I dig out the wood carving kit again and a saw and try and tidy it up a bit, lopping off the end and getting rid of any sharp bits to make it smooth. As I go it splits at one end. I was trying to make it into a stick shape but this brings me up short and I realise it looks like a crocodile now.
I take it up to the school for pick up (suddenly aware that most people don’t carry sticks around – without a child I’m getting funny looks!). B has been making wands today so I think she might be in the mood for a stick. She is. She agrees about the crocodile and we walk home working out different things we can do with it again. It’s longer and thinner now and useful for baton twirling. Then we take it out to the back garden and find that the ‘mouth’ of the crocodile will pull the rope for the pulley system (challenge 325 – putting a pulley system in the garden tree)
< 323 – Listening to night noises and finally seeing the full moon
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