We have also ‘twinned’ our new toilet with a toilet in Nepal through Tearfund’s Toilet Twinning scheme, so a Nepali village has also benefitted from the installation of our loo! Rich and Elaine have a soft spot for Nepal, having spent some time out there in the early 2000s, so we loved to be able to support this brilliant scheme.

Mental Health Benefits

• Stress relief: Crafting can be a great way to relax and de-stress. The repetitive nature of many crafts can help to calm the mind and body.
• Improved mood: Engaging in creative activities can boost the production of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. This can help to improve mood and reduce anxiety.
• Increased self-esteem: Completing a craft project can give you a sense of accomplishment and boost your self-esteem.
• Cognitive stimulation: Crafting can help to keep the mind sharp and improve cognitive function.

Physical Health Benefits

• Improved hand-eye coordination: Many crafts require fine motor skills, which can help to improve hand-eye coordination.
• Reduced pain: Crafting can be a distraction from pain and can help to reduce its intensity.
• Improved sleep: Engaging in relaxing activities like crafting can help to improve sleep quality.
• Strengthened social bonds: Crafting can be a great way to socialise and connect with others.

Additional Benefits

• Creativity: Crafting can help you to tap into your creativity and explore new ideas.
• Productivity: Crafting can help you to be more productive by providing a focus and outlet for your energy.
• Mindfulness: Crafting can help you to be more mindful and present in the moment.
• Sense of community: There are many crafting communities online and in person where you can connect with other people who share your interests.

Why not come along to a Taleblazers session and try some of our crafting activities for yourself? 

The big task of the day was the tarp line and Karl and I arrived early to get the rope in place. We harvested some saplings from the newly-levelled car park area and the team got to work sharpening these into points to use as stakes. Chris meanwhile was salvaging some boards to build a raised fire pit, removing old nails and screws and working with Hollie to cut them to size. It was an amazing team effort with everyone chipping in and showing the children how to use the knives!

The results are fantastic, I can’t believe that this overgrown patch of woodland has become such a wonderful space in such a short space of time and I am so grateful to everyone for all their efforts.

The workshop is for all ages and experience levels and will feature a range of fun games and exercises that explore how we can create exciting art and theatre in response to a particular place. In this case, we will be exploring the spirit of Treacle Valley woods.

The workshop is part of the celebrations for Doorstep Arts’ upcoming show, The Inheritance – a new play created by Doorstep Youth Theatre taking place at Kent’s Cavern in July and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Please meet in the woods at the usual place from 6.30pm and we will have hot drinks and a campfire to welcome you. If you haven’t been to an Earthworks session before, please drop Rich an email at rich@taleblazers.org.uk and we will arrange to meet you at the campsite car park. We expect the evening to end at around 8pm.

Our lovely team also busied themselves in clearing a pathway between two big tress so that we could move the slackline into a better location. It now has a lovely long run and when the children came back from Tim’s session they loved bouncing and balancing along it!

Thanks to everyone who came, it was a lovely fun morning! Our next Earthworks event is on the evening of Tuesday July 4th when Doorstep Arts will be putting on a special session for us.

We intend to give people the opportunity to learn new traditional skills, such as carving and woodcraft, and to enjoy the great outdoors as a collective, working together to help a wild place in their local area. Our wish is to harness the help of the community to replant felled areas, to replenish the woodland with a more biodiverse flora, and to monitor and survey the plants and animals that inhabit the woods. We have a fire pit at the ready so that we can gather around the fire with a cup of tea and perhaps even some fireside stories as part of our Saturday sessions.

We would like to welcome families to this event, and children are always welcome to come along and be part of the fun!

This site is also our bushcraft site, which we use for workshops with young people who are offered alternative provision, outside of mainstream schooling.

We have already enjoyed early success with the project, with students and volunteers helping us to plant 200+ trees in the woods, donated by The Woodland Trust.

We’ve been lucky enough to receive funding from the Devon Community Foundation and we’re excited to see the community of volunteers grow – keep an eye on our social media for updates on our events!

Please note: we do not have any toilet facilities on site. The woodland site is a 15-minute walk from the parking area.

In a few weeks we have some new trees coming, so today’s mission was to clear some space for them to grow. There is a lot of clematis (clematis vitalba – also known as Travellers Joy and Old Mans Beard – and known to the French as ‘herbe aux gueux’ – the beggar’s or rascal’s herb) in the wood, and in places this has reached up and started to pull saplings down, and made whole areas of the wood impassable. Our plan for the day was to clear some spaces to plant saplings and to liberate some existing trees from the grip of the clematis.

It is highly unlikely, by the way, that we would ever completely clear the wood of clematis even if we wanted to! Those fluffy seed-heads that give Old Mans Beard its folk name blow everywhere in the autumn and our actives have, if anything, helped their dispersal. It does have anti-inflammatory properties, makes a good tinder and is enjoyed by pollinating insects and butterflies, so it’s far from undesirable in our wood. It’s just that its growth has been unchecked and it’s threatening to take over.

Despite the weather, everyone worked brilliantly and we all chatted away while we chopped, snipped and pulled the long wood stems out. We had to work carefully as we were right at the start of the nesting season and it’s a criminal offence to disturb nesting birds. Any potential nesting sites among the tangle were carefully avoided! Within about an hour of work, we had cleaned some really good areas and made a very satisfying pile of debris. Time for a brew and a story!

Thanks very much to everyone who came along and made a real difference with all their hard work.