Petits Haricots

i am getting a bit behind with this blogging thing! and chris is being even worse. actually chris and the girls have been having a v busy time of it. anyway, after finishing work on the friday, in some crazy plan we drove here! the sustainability centre it was on the crazy side, as even with not so much of a traffic hitch we still only just got there in time to put up our tent before it was pitch black! good thing we had friends there waiting for us, who helped out! We chatted to the parents whilst SB, BB, monster and teeny all caught up, ds-ed, played etc.

the next day was a lazy day. the children adventured and played, in fact the 3 oldest adventured for so far and long that i got a bit worried, so with bb went around the site calling for them – to no avail. TBH i was sure they were ok, but had that frisson of fear thing, so Nic and Ady also looked too – this time they allowed themselves to be found got to have a really good look round the site, and it had interesting looking tipis and yurts, and a v interesting composting toilet. bb absolutely and resolutely refused to use this at anytime. i wasn’t that keen as you couldn’t lock it! BB was fascinated by the tennis court covered in chalk flints, and investigated these alot until she eventually found one with a fossil, so was v happy. she also did some of her painting by numbers very carefully. so we had a really lovely happy day. The older 3 went back to adventuring after lunch, all carefully packed, and told this time if they heard us shout to PLEASE respond! [but mobile phone as a backup] and were v proud and happy to be going off doing their own thing in the woods. nic me chris and BB also went for a longer walk through the woods and burial area and thought it pretty idyllic.

there was one blip, and such a shame. the older ones played for a bit with an older group and both sequentially came a cropper from bullying games. i was most upset when sb recounted her tale of woe, but did manage to thank the girl for bringing back her glasses, and 3 of the children involved did come and apologise. grrr. luckilly they had better and kinder friends around. calmess prevaled!

chris and ady sorted out something with our ad hoc washing-machine-fire-pit, and what with wafting and oil pouring we eventually got a good blaze going to keep warm on and the kids could toast marshmallows. one of ours was v not tired, and the screams reverberated around the campsite! but we adults had a lovely evening, giggling as each loo stop resulted in ‘kindling’ being brought back – i think ady chopped a tree down in the middle of the wood! oh, and i saw a shooting star.

the next day i was woken at too-early-a-clock by a v sad voice saying she felt all hot and cold at the same time and not at all right. opning my eyes, SB was looking pale and interesting, though didn’t feel hot. a quick check and i thought she would be ok, but she did say he was sickly, so after a bit of recovery time finishing off The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina: Roman Mysteries 6 (The Roman Mysteries), we then decided to pack the tent up before 9am, so that we could get it in the car in case we needed a quicker exit than 6 pm [when we would next be allowed the tent in] chris and i were surprisingly speedy and all done and dusted. i think it is due to plan b. i tidy inner and gradually pack away all inner things and tent things [apart from 'grey box' and cooker] and then take tent down until the delta pegs. meanwhile chris is packing it all in. as taking and tidying seems to = actually getting it in the car time. so we gave the lie to Nic’s statement that we are the most laid back tent uppers and downers – though it is generally true, as why ruin a good holiday about stressing over upping and downing!

after all of this, when chris and i felt like we should be only just getting up, rather than having finished tent down, SB perked up. which i AM glad of, but… anyway we set out to the green fair and loved it [thanks N and A for organising the weekend] BB and i wandered over first as it was being set up to chat too the stall holders and eye up places to go to, then with the monsterteenies we wandered up to the story teller, who i did enjoy and then to the firestarters! moving on to have an icecream and more of a wander. we ended up at the area of the steward community woodland which had hunks of clay, dangerous tools and hunks of chalk. both girls were attracted by the chalk and spent over an hour hammering, chiselling, drilling and otherwise shaping it. v happy! this was BB’s most favourite bit of the weekend she said. the other fav – for both girls was the pond dipping bit. SB dipped an emperor dragonfly, and BB a newt [she loves newts!] and these were then caught on a camera rigged up to a ‘puter and screen so could be seen in BIG. gradually the fair came to an end and we were then pleased to have already taken the tent down as we had a long drive ahead! so good bye to friends and we were off home, relatively easily. so thanks for a fab weekend camp – i really do love camping.