Flaming

Thanks to all who sent kind thoughts for yesterday. It seemed very strange coming downstairs this morning to an empty kitchen... I suspect in the fullness of time we will acquire another pet, but for the moment there is lots to be done in the house and garden, so we won't be rushing into it.

Most of my day was spent presenting the final two WALKshops in Stamford with KP. It's been very difficult to know how many to expect - today both were fully booked but on past experience we were told to expect at least 50% no-shows. 

The first session lived up to expectations, with only five people attending, but even this group was quite tricky to manage, as it included three interested adults and two rather hyperactive pre-teen boys who didn't always want to co-operate. Thankfully we had the organiser with us who was able to take them off during the art activity, so that they didn't disrupt the group too much.

On the second session, seventeen people turned up (five of whom hadn't booked), ranging from toddlers to a retired couple. The walk was along urban roads and KP and I had set an upper limit of eight to ten, so again it was quite difficult to manage.  

We curtailed the walk and lengthened the art activity which was moved to a gated netball court, so the children could at least run round safely when they were bored with drawing. Despite the large numbers, they were a lovely group, and we got 5/5 on everyone's feedback forms. At the end of it KP and I were both rather shell-shocked! 

It's been really interesting working with Art Pop-up and we've proved that the concept of combining an urban nature walk and art activity works. We learnt some valuable lessons regarding group size, audience and timings, so if we lead more next year they should be even better!