Yesterday a couple of Westminster Moms and their children helped to build a new addition to our garden. We now have an arched structure made of saplings, baling twine and garden love. Emily Lisai, parent and former teacher at our school brought saplings cut from home that she managed to cram into her car along with kids and car seats. Declan was back for more sawing. Andrea Carlson and her two children, Bayley and Maya Sbardellati joined to measure and cut the saplings to the right size.

We couldn’t have put our shade frame together without a generous donation of baling twine from Jason Goodell at the Goodell Dairy Farm. What a great community of helpful parents! Jason also gave us a tarp that lets air through while blocking the sun’s rays.

Bayley found a clever way to measure the length of our structure and he thinks the picnic table and benches will fit underneath! Now I have to sew two lengths of the material the Sherrods gave us for the final touch. It’s easy to imagine students using this shade space for writing, reading or painting their impressions of the garden this fall. There is nothing so wonderful as an outdoor classroom.