Wildly Curious is ONE!

So, Wildly Curious is ONE! I was reflecting on the whirlwind that has been the last year; setting up a new business from scratch and hitting the ground running in September 2016. Firstly a HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped and encouraged me - my family, my friends and all the new friends that I’ve made in the last 12 months. From the 7 of you that helped build the bushcraft shelter (consuming 28 sausage rolls during the course of the build!), to the 8 of you that helped run activities at Parklife17, not forgetting all the ones in between, like the sewing of the 48 pirate and medieval costumes. A special mention goes to my husband, Richard who helps to run parties with me most weekends, after working full-time all week.

I’ve compiled a few statistics which go some way to quantifying our achievements this year, so I thought I’d share them with you.

We do a lot of birthday parties at Wildly Curious, as well as holiday clubs, Saturday clubs, family sessions, events like Parklife17 and work with youth and charity groups. In fact over the last year we have held 36 Wildly Curious parties and worked with a total of 1039 people of all ages.

Being outdoors in the fresh air makes for a healthy appetite – our guests have munched their way through 896 hotdogs, 680 marshmallows, 928 chocolate biscuits, 122 cheese scones, 32 campfire wraps and 1 ponassed salmon (mmmmm… I remember it well!). All this has been cooked on 151 fires, made up of 34 wooden pallets, numerous logs and countless twigs. There have been some amazing themed birthday cakes too.

We don’t just sit around cooking over the fire; there are skills to be learnt, activities to participate in and games to be played. 72 trainee wizards have been sorted into houses before rescuing 96 dragon eggs and hatchlings. 60 spies have cracked codes and de-fused 25 bombs. 7232 arrows have been shot (most of them into the targets!) in the Great Barn by 226 people. We have taught 242 people how to use a fire steel and they used 586 cotton wool balls to practise on.

Wildly Curious also attracts large numbers of feathered friends – during the last year we have fed them 8 kg of bird seed and 300 fat balls.

We are looking forward to our second year of Wildly Curious with excitement – there are plans afoot to run more sessions for adults, to collaborate with the farm offering bushcraft and camping weekends for families, develop our own skills further and continue to bring outdoor skills to the young generation.