Spring Blossom Craft

One of the things that tells you Spring has definitely arrived is the blossom appearing on the trees, the children love running under the trees and playing in all the blossom as it falls on them like confetti or snow. So we thought we would recreate the spring blossom branches.

First we collected some small twigs or branches from the pile offcuts pruned back earlier in the year. Then I have cut out some blossom flower shapes from pink tissue paper, the cut out flowers and the twigs can be seen above.

Then take a couple of your cut out flowers and push down in the centre with the end of something like a paint brush and twist slightly, this gives you the blossom shape, as seen above. Once the brush is removed the piece left in your hand is the piece glued on the stick.

This can be a craft adaptable for any age group, as you can see above my daughter put loads of glue and blossoms on her stick. We have just used normal PVA glue.

Or you can use less blossom and try to arrange it naturally to try and look as much like a real branch as possible.

Above is a photograph of the finished spring blossom twigs drying in a vase, I think they will look lovely on the mantelpiece or on the window ledge, they really brighten the place up. The children had a lot of fun with this.

It even looks quite realistic close up.

Beach Love

How I do love the earth. I feel it thrill under my feet. I feel somehow as if it were conscious of my love, as if something passed into my dancing blood from it. --James Russell Lowell

A couple of days ago we visited the beach, an Autumn visit, to compare the difference in the things washed ashore by the sea at different times of year. We visited earlier in the year too, in spring, and went beach combing, the things we found this time were a lot different to the spring visit. It was wonderful to get to the beach again and we chose a really sunny day, even though we went to a beach with a town attached it was so quiet, hardly a soul to be seen strolling on the sand.

Spring

On the spring visit we found mostly young cuttlefish bones and some shark and ray egg cases. The photographs show a small sample of our finds. On our Autumn visit, there were no cuttlefish bones, there were a few egg cases (or 'mermaids purses' ) but this time we mostly found a few different kinds of shells. Mussel shells, dog whelk shells, some limpets and slipper limpets. Also much driftwood.

Autumn

We have decided to make some things from our finds to remind us of the times we spent on the seashore. I will post about the things we make at a later time but we have decided to use some of the small perfect whelk shells as jewellery charms for bracelets and to make some beach wind chimes with some of the other things.

Before leaving the seashore , while the children were playing, I took a little time to myself to feel at one with nature. Just for a second between the beach combing and playing I looked far out to sea and took a deep breath... with the wind in my hair and the sand between my toes, then as the breath left my lips I felt a kind of peace, a calmness spread over me... just for a second, I felt the freedom of the gulls and the wildness of the seals... then the call came to leave.

After our beach adventures, we decided to visit the sea life centre, which again we mostly had to ourselves. The children had the the touch pool all to themselves and the staff still gave them the educational talks. They got to touch a large crab, stroke a starfish and be cleaned by a sea anemone. There were some very happy children that day! We absolutely adore the seashore, my children especially, and often speculate what it would be like to live by the sea.

I wonder... does the seashore still hold it's magical quality if you see it everyday?

photographs numbered 1,4 and 5 were taken by my lovely husband.found here.