Prunings

So what to do with those branches pruned off the fruit trees this winter?
We are slowly working away at cutting them up and making a sculptural form for the garden, to be used as fuel for the cob oven we will build in the (near) future.
But we were looking for something easy to make a couple of days back and this pile of natural, free resource in the garden seemed like an obvious place to begin.
From there our gnomes were born.

This wee project introduced Ruby to a whole new world of whittling.
A new love you might say.
Ever since she has had little stacks of wood by her side whittling away the soft bark (green wood is best for first timers). We now have an array of marshmallow sticks and she has plans for making herself a whittling knife.
I'm excited. A good pocket knife has always seemed like an essential item in a childhood full with possibilities.....but that's for another post.

Sky was more interested in the small task of hand sewing the hat especially when the end product really added character to her new playmate.

Now we are deep into a lot of new storytelling and discussions on the qualities of different wood. Sky has a few concerns about what the gnomes will get up to while she sleeps.