What's On
2023
June
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Nature Led Meditation
£20 - £30 Thursday 15th June 2023 |
A progressive series of nature-led meditation workshops, each with an individual flavour. Jonathon will guide you gently through meditations and natural connection practices designed to restore your connection with nature and to bring healing to yourself and to the land to which we belong. Take some time in our peaceful woods to find calmness and connections with the landscape.
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Medicinal Herb Workshop
£90 Sunday 25th June 2023 |
Learn how to use plants and herbal remedies to improve your health and wellbeing on this highly practical one day course in the Hampshire South Downs. Spend a day with professional herbalist, Sarah Hillyer, learning how to identify and use medicinal herbs growing in our gardens and the wider countryside to detoxify and revitalise the body.
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July
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Foraging, Fire and Folklore
£30 Wednesday 5th July 2023 |
A series of seasonal events, each one a special experience of wild food foraging, Celtic fire and folklore. Bushcraft and Celtic folklore specialist, Jonathon Huet, will take you on a guided walk to forage for wild food and impart his knowledge on different native trees in each season. The walk will end with a primitive fire-lighting demonstration and you will experience a Celtic Fire Ceremony around the glowing embers of the fire and learn the folklore of native trees.
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Clay Oven Course
£115 Saturday 8th July 2023 |
Learn the techniques to build a clay oven on this course at our beautiful site in the Hampshire South Downs. Participants will learn how to construct the oven from builder’s sand, clay, wood shavings and bricks. From puddling clay to constructing the oven you will get hands on with all stages of this eco building technique.
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Nature Led Meditation
£20 - £30 Wednesday 12th July 2023 |
A progressive series of nature-led meditation workshops, each with an individual flavour. Jonathon will guide you gently through meditations and natural connection practices designed to restore your connection with nature and to bring healing to yourself and to the land to which we belong. Take some time in our peaceful woods to find calmness and connections with the landscape.
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Advanced Knife Skills
£85 Sunday 16th July 2023 |
This knife skills training course will explore how to use a fixed blade knife as a wood craft tool. Throughout the day progressive skills will be taught working with both green and seasoned wood. Through gentle guidance and experiential learning, you will become confident and comfortable handling a knife, from basic skills to advanced carving techniques.
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Wildflower Meadows Course
£85 Saturday 22nd July 2023 |
This wildflower meadow course will equip you with the skills and knowledge to create, restore and enhance meadows, with a particular focus on chalk grassland. Whether you want to establish a mini meadow in your back garden or on a large scale, this course is for you.
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Mushroom Cultivation Course
£225 Reserve a place for £75 Friday 28th and Saturday 29th July 2023 |
This two day practical course in the Hampshire South Downs will provide you with a background in the fascinating world of fungal biology and the core principles and practices that underlie the art and science of mushroom cultivation. By the end of course you will have everything you need to start growing your own mushrooms at home, on your farm, or in your community, including the mushroom spawn to get you started!
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August
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Wildflower Indentification Workshop
£35 Wednesday 2nd August 2023 |
This beginners’ evening workshop in wildflower identification is suitable for anyone who wants to get more familiar with our native wildflowers. The course will include a tour of some of our beautiful wildflower meadows at The Sustainability Centre, where you will learn the names and defining
features of a selection of wildflowers and become confident in telling the difference between similar plants using specific botanical features. |
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Stool Carving Course
£130 Friday 4th August 2023 |
Learn green woodwork techniques and make your own rustic stool on this training course in the Hampshire South Downs. Our tutor, Phil Clayton, will teach you how to use traditional hand tools and woodcraft skills, to craft your stool from locally grown wood.
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Wildflower Meadows Course
£85 Saturday 5th August 2023 |
This wildflower meadow course will equip you with the skills and knowledge to create, restore and enhance meadows, with a particular focus on chalk grassland. Whether you want to establish a mini meadow in your back garden or on a large scale, this course is for you.
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Spoon Carving Course
£85 Saturday 19th August 2023 |
Learn how to carve a spoon, spatula and butter knife on this wood carving course in the Hampshire South Downs. Our tutor, Jonathan Huet, will teach you how to use a knife, saw, crook knife and axe to whittle items from locally harvested green wood.
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September
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Gate Hurdle Making
£130 Friday 1st September 2023 |
Learn traditional wood carving techniques to make your own sweet chestnut gate hurdle on this one day course in the Hampshire South Downs. Using a shavehorse and other traditional hand tools including drawknife, twybil, brace, side axe and hammer, you will learn to create your own hurdles, which you will take home with you. Your hurdles can be used as a gate opening, part of a fence or simply to add decoration and structure to your garden.
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Foraging, Fire and Folklore
£30 Wednesday 6th September 2023 |
A series of seasonal events, each one a special experience of wild food foraging, Celtic fire and folklore. Bushcraft and Celtic folklore specialist, Jonathon Huet, will take you on a guided walk to forage for wild food and impart his knowledge on different native trees in each season. The walk will end with a primitive fire-lighting demonstration and you will experience a Celtic Fire Ceremony around the glowing embers of the fire and learn the folklore of native trees.
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Art, Sound & Meditation
£85 Saturday 9th September 2023 |
An art and meditation workshop focused on the healing properties of sounds and pattern and the restorative qualities of the natural world. Spend a day focusing on your own wellbeing. We will explore the way experiencing sound and nature can spark our creative responses. The one day course will offer you a chance to connect to your creative and intuitive selves via a series of guided exercises, led by three different practitioners skilled in sound healing, nature-led meditation and mindful art.
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Nature Led Meditation
£20 - £30 Wednesday 13th September 2023 |
Join us in our Woodland Hall and learn how to deeply relax to the sounds of nature on this friendly evening session. Tutor, Jonathon will guide you gently through meditations designed to restore your connection with nature and to bring healing to yourself and the land to which we belong. Take some time in our peaceful woods to find calmness and connection with the landscape.
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Green Homes Talk & Tour
£10 (refundable on the day) Sunday 17th September 2023 |
In 2023, we are running a series of Green Homes Events to share information on how homeowners can reduce the carbon footprint of their property.
The UK has the most poorly insulated houses in the whole of Europe and a quarter of our carbon emissions come from our homes. We can make changes to reduce how much energy our homes use - this benefits our energy bills and makes our homes greener. The UK will not meet the carbon emissions cuts needed to stabilise our climate, without prioritising making our homes more energy efficient. |
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Unwind in the Woods
£90 Saturday 23rd September 2023 |
Combining meditation and an introduction to basic whittling techniques, this workshop will give you the time and space to get away from a hectic everyday life and connect with nature.
In the morning you will immerse yourself in learning the skill of whittling and carve your own spatula to take home with you. Following a warming campfire cooked lunch, you will visit one of our yurts for a meditation session incorporating woodland folklore. |
october
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Introduction to Permaculture Design Course
£330 Reserve a place for £75 Thursday 5th - Sunday 8th October 2023 |
This course is designed to introduce Permaculture principles but with an emphasis on supporting participants with designing their own homes and gardens. It is no ordinary 'Permaculture intro' course, and not quite a full Permaculture Design course either. Rather, through the course, Aranya will cover the key principles of Permaculture design theory and how we can apply them in redesigning our homes and gardens to be both more sustainable and abundant.
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Forest Kindergarten: Train the Trainer Course
£450 Reserve a place for £75 Tuesday 10th & Wednesday 11th October 2023 |
This two day course will teach you the principles and approach of Forest Kindergarten alongside how-to-deliver a comprehensive Level 3 qualification in Forest Kindergarten: Local Nature Play or a two day non accredited CPD course. By the end of the course you will have the knowledge, skills and resources to run your own training courses for early-year practitioners who want to work in nature with groups of early-year learners on a regular basis all year round.
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Supporting Children Through Anxiety and Trauma
£100 Saturday 14th October 2023 |
This CPD training course shares knowledge and opens discussions about how outdoor learning practitioners and teachers can support children through times of anxiety and trauma. The course takes place in our beautiful woodland site in the Hampshire South Downs. Renowned Forest School trainer, Jon Cree, will call on current neurological understanding and share practical ideas to help you understand and support childrens’ emotional wellbeing.
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Therapeutic Storyworking
£100 Sunday 15th October 2023 |
This therapeutic storywork course will equip educators with tools for working in a therapeutic way with nature based stories, storylines and storymaking, which can be used in or with the natural world. While this does not equip educators with counselling or therapy skills, it will provide a framework for educators to work with their learners in a therapeutic and playful way through story in nature.
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Natural Cleaning Workshop
£90 Friday 27th October 2023 |
This workshop will teach you how to make a variety of tried and tested recipes to enable you to start making your own natural cleaning products from simple ingredients that can be found in your cupboards or easily and cheaply bought. This workshop is hands-on, so you will have a whole variety of products to take home with you along with detailed handouts. Kinder to you, the earth these products will save you pennies and are quick and easy to make.
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November
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Coppicing Course
£105 Friday 3rd November 2023 |
This course will give you practical, hands on experience in the traditional art of coppicing. You will work on a section of hazel woodland here at the Sustainability Centre which is being coppiced as part of a wider woodland management plan to undertake conservation work on site.
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Hedgelaying Course
£115 Friday 24th November 2023 |
On this training course in Hampshire, you will gain practical, hands on experience in the ancient art of hedgelaying (South of England style). A local hedge will be laid using traditional tools i.e. billhook, broad axe and hand saws. The stock proof barrier created will then be trimmed by hand and secured with stakes and top binding. You will also learn about the history of hedgerows in our landscape and their habitat importance.
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Natural Cosmetics Workshop
£90 Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th November 2023 |
Come spend the day learning how to make natural everyday beauty/bathroom products from ingredients you can find in your kitchen cupboards, herb gardens and amongst the hedgerows. We will be making a variety of products including balms, oils, hair conditioner and toothpaste. Products that are kind to you, the earth, reduce single-use plastic and will save you pennies. Perfect to make for yourself or to give as gifts.
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