news from monkton wyld court

summer 2010

This summer we welcome Noah, our community's newest (youngest, smallest, cutest) member, and wish our Stephen all the best in the big wide world of dance. Many wonders ahead for them both, and we're honoured to be a part of it.

In other news, the Court's programme of workshops, courses and events continues to grow and develop. Our social calendar's really starting to fill up, what with the Movies Night launching in June, the Dinner and Music events (performers wanted!), Local Lunches, Knit & Stitch, bimonthly Garden Work Weeks and more. In coming months we look forward to putting finishing touches on a residential programme for students, spurred on by successful visits from school groups of all ages. Garden and Kindy are blossoming as well (details below). All that and B&B, volunteering and camping: more than enough reasons to come and see us soon! We look forward to it.

Events Report

May Fayre

Despite the not so sunny start to our May Fayre, there was still a positive turn out of people and lots of fun to be had on the day celebrating Beltane, the pagan festival of the coming of summer, fertility, growth and change.

Many thanks, once again, to all the people who helped make it a magical day. These include Kit Berry (author of Magus of Stonewylde), Laienda who gave a fantastic performance of live gypsy folk music (Nina, I hope all went well with the birth of your baby :)), Sara Coffield – for her inspirational music, for ‘being there’ and for spreading ‘fairy love’!! To the Lyme Regis Morris Dancers, for their wonderful dancing, Mandara Arts – for Kate’s beautiful performance, to Jyoti and Dai for lending (and helping put up) the Marquee, to all the stall holders for coming and selling a wonderful array of ointments, jams, MW pottery, jewellery, weaved baskets, drawings, handknitted multicoloured jumpers and to Hannah, for the lovely food, but especially the delicious vegetarian chilli, wedges and salad (all organic!), not to mention the great selection of cakes!! Yummy!! :)

And, of course, to the MWC Community and Trustees for their consistent hard work and support,

Much Love,
Ali x

Gardener's Grove

by Rachael Moss

Summer is finally here, blessing us with much sunshine and heat, however, very little rain. The rain we have had, though, was such a joy to receive, and the plant-life has surged into growth, practically glowing with rejuvenation and life.

The first swallows were spotted on the first of April and they have now returned to their homes in the cowsheds and bat roost. Sadly, the nests in the toolshed have been abandoned. It is wonderful to see many bees, gladdening the ears with their gentle humming, drifting from flower to flower. Unfortunately, most species of butterflies, apart from the pesky cabbage white, seem to be a rarity so far this year. The gorgeous wild orchids in a neighbour's field, however, have been blooming happily.

Things have been moving forward here at the gardens in Monkton Wyld Court. We have had an area of land outside the vegetable garden ploughed and rotovated and it is now home to various varieties of spuds awaiting the arrival of leeks and yacon. This will increase the amount of vegetables that we can grow and we should hopefully be able to supply local people with a weekly vegetable box as well as food for our hungry residents and quests.

A new polytunnel has also been erected and is now home to tomatoes, to be joined with cucumbers, melons, aubergines and chilli peppers. These will be underplanted with lettuces.

Our other two polytunnels are currently full of salad vegetables and plants awaiting planting outside. These will be used for more unsual plants such as New Zealand Yam (Oca, producing edible tubers and leaves), Chinese yam (a climbing plant producing large edible tubers), Basella (producing spinach-like edible leaves), and salad.

We have many varieties of squash plants sprawling themselves about. Some of these will be wandering underneath the magnificent looking purple sweetcorn, helping to suppress weeds, hold moisture, and raise the yield within that vegetable bed. Peas will be added to the mix, climbing up the sweetcorn and also adding nitrogen to the soil. This particular form of plant companionship is common in traditional native American agriculture.

Our carrots are totally surrounded by onions which act as a barrier to repel carrot fly, whilst the ants are busy farming aphids for their sweet secretions on a guilder rose and a yellow foxglove, marching up and down, keeping everything in order.

Our broad beans are looking very glamourous, displaying themselves all along the garden path, enjoying the compliments they receive from visitors. Our stunningly beautiful red-flowered broad beans are shyly hiding in the forest garden to avoid cross-pollination from the rather ordinary white-flowered beans. We hope to save the seed from these.

The root vegetable bed is full of beetroot, parsnip, turnip, swede, salisfy, and scorzonera seedlings springing into growth, whilst the chard and spinach is also bursting forth.

Brassicas – broccoli, kale, cabbage, sprouts and cauliflower are almost ready for transplanting where celery and celeriac will join them to act as a repellent to cabbage white butterflies.

More globe artichokes are to be planted, chilli peppers, cucumbers and melons are to be planted, the runner beans are to be planted out and supported with sturdy bamboo canes and more flowers are to be placed around the garden to gracefully adorn it with more beauty and scent, attracting beneficial insects too.

The soil is now looking marvellous having been fed generous amounts of horse manure, leaf mould and compost, and this should hopefully be reflected in healthy strong, great tasting crops.

Kindy Corner

Charlotte Plummer

Well what a busy few months we’ve had, it’s hard to believe that spring term has been and gone and now were fast approaching the last half term of our summer term.

The children have all been busy and really settled in to their weekly rhythm of painting, baking and crafts. With numbers up to 11 on our busy day we have a good social group with children mixing across the age groups and enjoying some really inventive creative play: we’ve had rockets, horse stables, water mills and boats built to name a few! The children have also made some beautiful puppet plays finding props from our natural resources and performed them to one another – it really is wonderful to be able to watch this creativity unfold and see the huge nourishment that comes from telling rich stories and fairy tales.

A highlight of the spring term was our garden work day; this was great fun with nearly all parents and children turning up and pitching in to help build our new kindy garden. We dug out for a huge sandpit, made raised vegetable beds, created shrub borders and cleared undergrowth around a tree ready to later build a tree house and climbing platform, maybe with ropes, pulleys and slides.

At the end of our spring term the children helped to decorate the kindergarten for our Easter festival. This was a really special day with parents and children coming together for a celebration. We all made clay birds nests with little birds and eggs too and then outdoors for play in our new garden followed by a communal meal with everyone bringing something to share and seasonal biscuits baked by the children in kindergarten. The morning ended with a puppet play about the Easter hare and then children took home their crafts - little woollen hares they had made, paintings and seeds they had sown, all bundled up in a little basket they had made too.

For me the Easter holiday was a busy time with a 4 day conference at Michael Hall School in Sussex. This was a chance to meet with colleagues (around 20 kindergarten teachers and a further 80 lower and upper school teachers) and exchange ideas, songs, crafts and poems. We also participated in open discussion groups ranging from school readiness for 6 year-olds, setting up a new kindergarten and outdoor kindergarten days. We were lucky to have amazing speakers in the evenings such as Aric Sigman (author of Remotely Controlled) who spoke about the influence of the media on young children.

Our summer term started with welcoming a new 3 year-old and existing children enrolling for more days. The children love their new garden and have been sowing seeds, weeding, building dens and climbing in the trees. The outdoor space has transformed their imaginative play and they’re very busy and industrious and are having many adventures, finding treasures, flowers and insects. We have also made the most of Monkton’s lovely grounds and have had walks to visit cows, chickens and sheep and had picnics in the woods and by the stream.

We have had a busy time making May crowns and enjoying dancing around the maypole, it is so magical watching the children transfixed by the weaving ribbons! The kindergarten had an open day as part of the Monkton May Fayre; parents baked cakes, made crafts and went out and about with our ‘Lucky Dip Apron’ (soon to be ‘on the road’ at a town near you!!!).

Two of the children celebrated their 6th birthdays and we had a special birthday story for each of them. Parents are invited to join us for story time and the story tells of the child’s journey to earth from cosmic realms, and then important events in the child’s life are shared for each year, candles are lit and songs sung – it is a really special day.

Now the children are 6 they can be called on to help look after the younger children and be role models, and to do jobs like laying the tables, preparing snack and helping with sweeping and washing up. They have more challenging work in their 6 year old projects – at the moment weaving.

Last week we celebrated Whitsun, this was a simple but important celebration in which each child’s individuality is recognised but is also about community. The story for the week told of a little white dove who reminds us to ‘speak kind words and take care of one another’. We also sang songs about the white dove and danced with dove wing steamers during our morning ‘ring – time’.

I am looking forward to summer in the kindergarten, making elderflower cordial and strawberry jam. We will have a fire and songs for our midsummer festival and hope to bake bread over the hot coals. Also we’re going to find, prepare and decorate some hazel poles to make a wigwam for outdoor play, the fabric for it we will dye in reds, yellow and oranges with a sun pattern.

We are also talking about next year and in September we will increase to running 5 days with the possibility of a longer day for older children. It’s exciting times here at Monkton with the kindergarten growing every month!

All enquiries welcome as we may still have space for next year.
Leave a message for Charlotte on 01297 560342 and she'll get back to you to arrange a visit.