The tawny frogmouths who freeze silently on the branches of the wonder garden were visible yesterday. Some days we can’t find them.

As the preschoolers arrived, I noticed a theme- many of them wear camoflage. When I mentioned it, the reply was ” my dad’s in the army” “So’s my dad” ” My dad is too” and I had a sudden realisation about cloth, particularly the kind of cloth that we’ve been making, covered in leaf prints! Our lives depend on it, yet we ignore its presence, history and power.

I noticed this time that as the children collected treasures from the wonder garden they passed on information about where they found things: the spotted leaves, the wild berries, and who had found them first.

preschoolers making a leaf printed silk play cloth.