Mud Pie Making

Regular readers will know that H has been taking part in the National Trust’s 50 things to do before you’re 11 3/4 initiative.  The Clent Hills, which are only a short drive away, are running events through the summer to complement the initiative.  So far H has balanced on tree trunks; found a geocache; and hunted for bugs.  This week the theme was mud pie making and we were keen to have a go.

We started off by following the trail around the hill answering questions as we went.  As a side line to our walk we were also collecting things to use for decorating our mud pie.  We picked some wild flowers, some bracken stems, tree leaves, collected sticks and stones.  By the time we had finished our walk and the trail we had quite a collection.

At one of the stops on the walk H got to put together a mud pie from pictures, which was a good way of introducing the children to mud pies and getting them to think about their decorative scheme.

When we reached the end of the trail, we were directed down to the natural playground and there was a volunteer waiting for us with a bucket full of very black and slimy looking mud ready for mud pie making.  H was quickly in there transferring handfuls of mud over to his mud pie base (an old tree stump).

Once the base was completed, H started his artistic, finishing touches.  To start with he covered the surface of the mud pie with the bracken fronds.  Then the sticks, flower and grass stems were stuck into the pie.  As a final flourish we poured over the loose petals and flower heads to add a last touch of colour.

We’ve uploaded our mud pie picture onto the National Trust Clent Hills Facebook page – feel free to have a look at ours and the rest. Why not make your own mud pies at home?