Kinderworkshop 'Onder onze voeten' ('Under our feet')
Where?
Arboretum Trompenburg
Honingerdijk 86
3062 NX Rotterdam
When?
20 t/m 22 oktober 2021
Today we went to the workshop "Under our feet" in which illustrator Veerle Roest goes out with a group of mini-monsters, in the beautiful Trompenburg Autumnal gardens. What is the workshop about? Our mini-monsters are particularly captivated by the question: Where do the mushrooms come from? Veerle knows the answer to this question but she also teaches them where fallen leaves, pine cones and chestnuts go, after autumn.
We first go to De Overtuin, to the Food Forest, where Veerle has made an art installation, in the Little Red House. The installation is about the importance of mycelium, a fungal network of small, white, communicating threads that pass information and nutrients from tree to tree.
This is also our first time in the Food Forest, we are very curious about it! The entrance alone is very beautiful, you scan your ticket and the gate opens...exiting!
When you enter the Food Forest you first see a large sign with an explanation about the Food Forest, and then the beds. In the beds are herbs, shrubs and trees with fruit, only now there is no more fruit. We find another sign explaining how and why the food forest long ago came into being and the connection with sustainable agriculture now.
But then ... in the Red House the mini-monsters can just walk through the art installation, under and in between the Mycelium. They think it's beautiful! Then we go outside,looking for leaves, but what do we come across first? Mushrooms, red with white dots! It looks like a fairytale lane, the mushrooms stand in a long line :))
It is very beautiful out here! The kids wander happily through the Food Forest, searching for the most beautiful leaves. They need those leaves to make a beautiful art work later on, together with Veerle. There are plenty of fallen leaves, so we quickly find what we're searching for. We head slowly back towards the exit, back to the Trompenburg Garden.
We can't stay outside because it's raining hard from time to time today. That is why we are going to make art, warm and cozy, in the cactus greenhouses. The mini monsters are really into the it. They have listened carefully to Veerle and they are doing their utmost to make something very beautiful. Looks like the art tuns out awesome! Then the workshop is over and we go happily to the Tea House.
After tea and delicious pancakes in the Tea House, we walk back to the exit. That is not a problem because the Trompenburg garden is stunning in every season. There is so much to see, especially in the fall! Stunning Autumn Anemones, Dahlias and Autumn Asters, in various sorts and colours, who doesn't love them?
Along the way we see very cool scaly ink mushrooms, Judas penny (Lunaria), the Callicarpa (bodinieri 'Profusion') with lots of bright purple berries and an unknown shrub yellow berries. At the exit we see the beautiful autumn colours on the trees and the last Monkshood (Aconitum) flowers of the year. But the mini-monsters run happily over the paths, they are overflowing with energy and have no time for all this beauty ;)) It was a really fun day, Veerle was very sweet and we learned a lot, but now we are going home again.
Happy Autumn!