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Kids cook up some mud at Lady Cathcart!


By Alan Beresford

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MUD, mud, glorious mud is now very much the order of the day for creative kids at Lady Cathcart Nursery in Buckie thanks to the efforts of a local Men’s Shed.

Alistair Webster from Cullen Men's Shed accepts a cheque for £150 from Lady Cathcart nursery pupils (from left) Kaydee Green, Mya-Rose Dougall, Alec Petkov, Abbie Sutherland and Anna Danailova. Picture: Becky Saunderson
Alistair Webster from Cullen Men's Shed accepts a cheque for £150 from Lady Cathcart nursery pupils (from left) Kaydee Green, Mya-Rose Dougall, Alec Petkov, Abbie Sutherland and Anna Danailova. Picture: Becky Saunderson

With funds gathered from various events organised throughout the year by parents, such as a daffodil tea, it was decided to build a mud kitchen to the rear of the nursery. A parental contact with Cullen Men’s Shed saw them brought on board to construct the kitchen from reused pallets.

In return for their efforts, the Men’s Shed was presented with a cheque for £150 by grateful nursery pupils and staff.

Nursery manager Elaine Sidney explained some of the uses of the mud kitchen and how it can serve as a gateway to stimulating young imaginations.

“The mud kitchen is an outdoor resource which allows allows the children to use natural items like mud, bark and leaves to make ‘potions’ and ‘soups’,” she said.

“It allows them to be really creative and use their imaginations.

“We’re delighted that the Men’s Shed were able to help and also to give them this donation towards their funds. Mud kitchens are available to buy but they’re very expensive.

“As a new nursery which has been running for just 16 months and one which isn’t attached to a school it’s very important to us to be part of the wider community and to reach out. We’re very keen to develop good relationships with different groups.”

Ms Sidney added that the next target for the nursery, which currently has 52 youngsters on its books, is to buy a workbench and tools to help develop an appreciation of real life skills.

Accepting the cheque on behalf of Cullen Men’s Shed was member Alistair Webster.

He said: “We were delighted to have the opportunity to make a mud kitchen for the nursery group and help out another local group whilst raising some funds for ourselves at the same time.

“This was also a chance for us to show some of the things we can do.

“It’s always nice to find a win-win situation that greatly benefits both local groups, young and old, it was a good chance for some inter-generational work.

“We’d never heard of mud kitchens before when we were first approached to ask if we could make one, so it was first for us and nice to see that its generate some local interest.”

Cullen Men’s Shed, which is situated to the rear of the community and residential centre in the village, is part of the Scottish Men’s Shed Association which aims to tackle social isolation among men.

The group are relative newcomers to the local scene, having started up earlier this year, and have a stalwart core of 12 members plus others who drop in.

The shed itself is just an informal place to socialise once a week over a cuppa and have a laugh while dreaming up new ideas together to help further the aims of the shed and any other projects within the local community.

The shed meets on Wednesday evenings from 7pm-9pm.


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