Third Comenius Project Meeting - Gaziantep, Turkey

Dates were 4 - 11 October 2009

Life in the Past

How did we have it earlier?

(Oulunsalo - Finland)

It is custom to the pupils in our school to visit the local village museum. Sometimes there are older people telling the children how it was on the 20th century when they were young. In the museum there are several items that were made at home for everyday use.

The first thing to be able to live in the countryside is to build a well to draw water from it. One could find tall trees in the forest and use them to make a pump. It had to be light enough for the women to sink the bucket and to lift it up with the water. These pumps are to be seen even nowadays in the country but most often they are not in daily use.

The fathers often were industrious and had learned to be good carpenters. They didn't have electric light but had self-made kindling chips to give light to do objects to the mother, household and children. Houses had shingle roofs, the furniture was made of wood.

In the farmhouse livingroom there was a large table and benches made of treetrunks. Larger houses could have even a finer room with decorative furniture for festive occasions. Rockingchairs were and are favourite places to ease the mind. And long thin trunks were placed up near the ceilings to hang the bread for the week.

Some fine pieces of furniture were the cradles that are nowadays the valuable heirlooms of many families.

The mothers were in charge of the clothes. Many households had a handloom to weave fabric first. These looms were also used for making carpets and Finnish rugs for the walls.

Wooden Products Now

Information centre, Staircase,

Wooden earrings, Kitchen utensils

Wooden toy,Wooden door,

Wooden fence, Sauna

Wooden Products in the Past

Ski and sleigh, Butter form, Lateru,

Tool for making cottage cheeseOld wooden table and chairs,

Old wooden clock, Piano, Zither, Wooden sleigh, Tools

September in Oulunsalo

Our new tree is Mustakuusi, 'Picea mariana'. We planted it the 3rd of September, just one month before our trip to Turkey. The tree itself was about 120cm tall and has beautiful small cones. Our janitor had dug the hole ready when the pupils and some teachers and grandparents arrived to the ceremony. We had new soil and fresh water for the roots. The children sang two songs about trees, one of a finch that makes a nest in a birch and one of a squirrel that has its soft home in a fir. We are happy with our new ever-green tree. The children have looked after it well and have placed stones around the root area.

It is September 2009 and our first Comenius tree, Pylväshaapa, Populus tremula Erecta, is still alive and growing. The pupils have taken good care of it, no branches broken. At the moment it is green but we are waiting for the leaves to turn to autumnly colours, more or less reddish.

UK Woodland Seasons (Chapter 4 - July)

The wild cherry has now started to drop fruit onto the woodland floor and it is supplying good nutrition to birds and small mammals. See the difference in size between the ripe fruits and the stones inside! It isn't much of a meal really.

In July the canopy is as full as it can be and the amount of light reaching the floor of the woodland is very small for 90% of the woodland.

However, there are a few clearings bringing in sunlight and in these the wood grasses and dog's mercury grow very well. Several species of butterfly flit across these clearings.

On the edges of clearings the bramble continues to flower and insects of many varieties abound. Pollinating flies, butterflies, beetles and bees are among the visitors to the flowers. Here on the left is a red-tailed bumble and on the right a honey bee.


Slightly further away from the clearings new flowering species appear. Among these is the dock (left).

Martagon lily (right) is now showing its ripening seed pods.

Dangling from the lower branches of trees is the climbing Old-Man's Beard or Travellers Joy (Clematis vitalba). This creeper indicates alkaline soil conditions.
















Old-Man's-Beard is the name given to it due to the untidy hairy-looking white fruits seen in the autumn. Here the flowers are just beginning to open.

UK Woodland Seasons (Chapter 3 - June)

Looking upwards in early June we now see wall-to-wall foliage and very little light reaches the woodland floor.
















Only on the woodland edges do we see any sunlight. Here on the woodland edges the growth of vegetation is amazing, with bright white flower heads of Elder and pink wild roses.

Wild Roses

On the ground we see very little colour, other than green. Gone are the bluebells, except for yellow leaves and swollen seed pods.

Bluebell seed pods

Where there is light the Nettles and Dog's Mercury are growing tall. Other plants in flower are the Wild Privet and the Bramble (Blackberry). Martagon Lily is almost in full bloom - just a few more days.

Martagon Lily

Flowers of the Elder tree adorn the woodland edge. The scent is like honey!

Elder flowers in closeup

Greater Burdock on path edges. This species has the largest leaves of any native British plant.

Bramble in bloom

Nettle in flower


















Wild Privet in flower. This is a calcium tolerant indicator species (indicating the high pH of the soil)

Impenetrable growth quickly filling any clearings.

Where there is light Nettle and Dog's Mercury grow luxuriantly













Bramble growing rampantly in a clearing. Only two years earlier this very patch was rough grassland with two species of orchid present. Clearly some conservation work needs to be done.