Otford Primary School Maintenance (January 27, 2014)

Two years ago when I was here we installed three living willow structures at Otford Primary School. One as part of  living willow course (a small dome with 3 entrance tunnels) and the other two (a bower and a large dome) by John, Nigel, Mike, myself and my friend Sharon. Sharon and I had met during the living willow seats course that John ran at Bore Place and had also participated in the living willow structures course at the Otford school.

I will direct you over to my blog post from last time to see those installations...

Well, huh. Guess what?

It looks like I never got that posted. Goodness me... here they are

All three structures had done very, very well, don't you think?!! Each had a significant amount of growth in the last 2 years!. It was truly exciting to see something I had helped install still alive and well. Not only alive and well but growing vigorously!

The bower, pictured below had a lot of growth on the top that needed trimming off as well as a lot of growth on the sides and top that needed weaving in. 

Jake and I set about doing that while John tended to reattaching the end column that had been chopped off during the electrical work for the new school building.

This first picture shows very clearly the willow that had been cut off... never mind the fact that John is either texting someone or lamenting the fact that he's 'in another bad cell area'.

John set to work...

 and had it repaired in no time flat.

Jake and I tended to the trimming and weaving of the side and top growth.

That's the bower finished. Big, big smile. Can you tell I am thrilled to be here?

Jake bundling the willow harvested from the top of the structure.

Next up, the weaving in on the smaller dome with the tunnels... you can almost make out the new growth at the top of the dome with a bit on the tunnels...

a sarny break and then off to work on the large dome...

A wonderful day, weaving willow. I couldn't have been happier. I hope I get to see these three structures again sometime in the coming years...

love from amidst the willow-
susie

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