Kate’s Place, Autumn Event, 3rd November 24
By Mabvuto Hardy
We opened the gate to all for our Autumn all activity filled day.
Candy prepared the place and had recruited Lucy who has a background with working with Children to help. Annie, Maxine and Mabvuto volunteered.
It was a showstopper event with around 50 visitors during the session of all ages.
There were bug hunts again with magnifying glasses, and petri dishes for investigating the pondlife. There were some minute life forms that were uncovered and checked under microscope and using the books to identify the finds. Some adults were so engrossed in trying to identify all their finds even more than the little ones!
‘Fire up for Food’
We discovered we have our own health guru, Annie. Instead of roasting marshmallows over the fire, she brought ‘an alternative’: bread dough, no additives, sticks to wrap the dough balls and gently bake over open fire and once ready smoother with her homemade Strawberry jam’, yummy.
The fire drew everyone around. The ritual of molding the dough around the stick, was slowly becoming an artistic fun crazy challenge. Who could style it and how to roast right without burning?
It was very exciting for both the young and the adults too. There was plenty of communal chatter one can only enjoy around a fire.
Old Faces and New
Rachel, whose home garden was the last to be designed by our dear Kate with the work completed by Laura, was glad to revisit Kate’s Place. Stephen is a regular at the park, today he dropped in and mingled around the fire, as did Ian. George, our prince of parks, was back, with Dina, ‘tagging along’. He got to meet Patie, an assertive young girl full of energy. You would not know that she had jetted in that morning from Berlin dragging along her jetlagged mum, Lara. Lara meanwhile looked on with pride as her young tornado tried everything: from pond dipping, hand printing, stone colouring and firing dough on open fire. She asked a lot of questions and will be sure to return for other events in the new year.
Lucy brought out the roll of paper, a heap of leaves and pallets of colours for a leaf printing session. It was the best activity for our youngest visitor, baby Grace, one year old, who was such a charmer with a brilliant smile
Instead of painting the leaf first and then printing on the paper, Grace simply dipped her hands in paint and printed them on the paper, this soon became a trend for other young ones too.
The colours were more vibrant than some of the autumnal tints. There was artistry at work too. Lucy assured parents that the paint washes easily from the hands and clothes.
On leaving, some were happy to take home their painted stones and leaves too.
