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At our wedding we sang Jon's favourite hymn "Somewhere there's a forest where you can stand and dream" We have been planning, saving and searching for land for a while. On 1st Dec, our 10 year anniversary of getting together, we all viewed this forest in Wales and are now in the process of buying it. Large areas have been felled so we will be replanting. Hopefully an edible forest.

6th Dec. The West Cumbria Rivers Trust are joining us in our bid to save Walkmill Community Woodland from being sold. They have some wonderful ideas for the woodland. Last summer they did a trial restoration project on a stretch of the River Keekle next door to Walkmill. Some years ago the river was lined with plastic in an attempt to prevent contamination from open cast mining. The plan is to remove it. Ever since I moved to the area 13 years ago my eldest son and I had walked by what was known by the local kids as "the plastic river". The plastic was degrading..unsightly, slippery and dangerous for dogs and would be peddlers.. also bits of the broken up plastic would eventually be reaching and polluting the sea..I was so happy to hear of the restoration and be invited to be a representative on the steering group as a member of Walkmill Action Group. On 6th Dec, along with others, we were invited to view and hear about the trial project. It has gone very well and next summer they will remove the full stretch of plastic. In the pictures you can see a stretch where the plastic has been removed and the river has started to meander and shift its travels naturally again..becoming better spawning ground for fish.

9th Dec... lovely walk with the aim being to create a nature collage we could photograph and use for our family Christmas card. It was afternoon and our shadows were so long!! The children gathered and arranged the collage. The sun started to set as we walked back through the woods. Back at the car park we saw the moon. Moon, light, shadows .. and nature art.

17th Dec. We were very excited to be asked to be at the unveiling of 2 benches made from some of the plastic removed from the River Keekle restoration project. These have been placed in Walkmill Community Woodland. Rosie and Willow helped to unwrap the first bench. They also helped make gravel paths to the benches. Here we are with some of the lovely people from the West Cumbria Rivers Trust enjoying the new benches.

17 Dec. We were interviewed for Look North for a follow up to a report they filmed about the River Keekle project earlier in the year. For that report myself and Rosie were interviewed to gain our opinion as local residents on the project. This time it was to show the benches and our reaction to them. 18th Dec. The report was screened and Rosie saw herself on television talking about the benches and Willow saw herself enjoying a mince pie :)

We have already got some frogspawn and daffodils in The Secret Garden. This is quite early compared to a lot of places in the UK. The temperature this afternoon was about 11 degrees and the sun was shining, so it was lovely working outside.

Today we have been using our ears to listen for all the different types of birds at our school. We looked at the RSPB's website and listened to some different bird calls. We decided to listen out for robins, seagulls and pigeons especially. When we went outside we saw blue tits, robins, seagulls and even heard a woodpecker! Some of us spotted some bird's nests that were already in the trees and we also made sure last year's bird boxes were ready for some new nests.