Children at a Forres nursery enjoyed a windfall with a difference yesterday as their fledgling outdoor classroom was transformed into a thing of natural beauty.
The youngsters at the Rainbow Childcare and Education centre were left devastated in December after thieves made off with a large tree trunk brought down by gales, which had been earmarked as the centrepiece in their new adventure garden.
However, their disappointment was short-lived as community leaders and local workmen promised to come up with a replacement.
Now a team from Moray Council have made good on their promise, delivering a 5ft length of tree on Tuesday morning.
And with the help of Robertson’s Construction joiner, Alex Clark, who has a relative on the Rainbow staff, the children were able to put their new outdoor mud kitchen play station into action yesterday.
The kitchen is made of wood from pallets and houses a steel sink, donated by Robertson’s and assembled in the workshop at their Elgin site.
Mr Clark said he was happy to help, and looking forward to doing more work at the playgroup with donations from the Elgin Wood Centre.
Playgroup manager Denise Gibbon said she was delighted with the backing of the local community in developing the project.
She said yesterday: “It’s coming together. The kids love their new tree. They have already been walking on it. There was a little boy off on yesterday when the council guys delivered it, and when he looked out the window this morning he was so excited and shouted, ‘the tree is here,’
“I have been in touch with Kinloss Barracks, and we are just waiting for the engineers to build us a dragon climbing frame using embedded tyres.
“We are just really happy that the plans we made a couple of years ago to develop this garden have finally come to fruition.
“We are so grateful to everyone in the community who has helped us improve the outdoor classroom, it’s the children who are going to benefit, which is the main thing.”
Last night, a Moray Council land and parks spokesman, said: “We are only too happy to have been able to help and hope the youngsters enjoy their new piece of play equipment.”