1940s weekend

We had intended to go to Framlingham Castle on Friday to do a bit more time travelling but in the end the children decided they fancied a day at home instead, with a visit there next week if we can manage it. Big Alice came over and they showed her how good they all are at riding bikes (L still can’t start by herself except going down a hill, and isn’t quite reliable on steering or stopping, but both boys have got it sussed to the point of practising tricks and stunts now) and did lots of playing on the field, then came in and let her sit for a bit while they played a few board games. I went out on a (sadly fruitless) quest for plastic storage drawers for the bathroom and x10 lenses, which we had been told came from the £1 shop. We don’t have a £1 shop in our nearest town, but we have a couple of similar places, so I was hoping, but the nearest I could find was a set of x5 and x3 – put them together and you get x8, which is getting there, I guess… Alice stayed for tea and we initiated her into the delights of roll-your-own sushi :mrgreen:

On Saturday our plan had been for me to take the children to the 1940s event at RAF Upware, leaving Bob behind to get lots of jobs done (like cementing in the manhole cover frame in our driveway, which has been sitting precariously ever since we decided the old one was just too rickety to be safe) but we were a bit late leaving and then we got side-tracked, having missed a turning and ended up in the rather lovely village (town?) of Ramsey. We found a lovely higgledy-piggledy charity shop, where everything seemed to be £1 or less, including a couple of bike helmets so that the children now have one each, and a discount shop which sold completely random things in odd quantities for small sums – spent £7.50 there and came out with tins and packets galore! We parked up by the Abbey gate and read the national trust plaque there (but since it wasn’t an afternoon of the first Sunday of the month we couldn’t go in), admired the Parish church, walked back through the main street admiring the 1940s shopfronts (and occasional passer-by in costume) and browsed the stalls that had been set up along the pavement, including a tombola run by a man so desperate to get rid of things that he let the children have 5 tickets each for £1, then made sure that they each won something – they were chuffed but I can’t help thinking that’s more tut to get rid of 🙄 By now it was chucking it down so we sheltered under the awning of a greengrocer’s stand and chatted to him about his produce, which included apples and plums from the farm we had visited for the plum festival 🙂 We bought some more apples (Discovery – one of my favourite varieties) and a few other bits and pieces as well, including a romanesco broccoli/cauliflower, which the children ate with great delight both raw and cooked for tea. Another thing to add to our list of veg we’d like to try growing 😉
We got home to find that Bob had had to dash out and buy cement, since what he had bought before was concrete and not really suitable… The frame was embedded though, and looking quite neat, just waiting for the cement to dry enough so that the lid could go back on 🙂 J, K, A and I went out again still in search of plastic storage drawers, but this time to replace A’s tut drawers, which we had decided to use in the bathroom. She wanted pink, so was happy to give up the blue ones which we had actually got for M to use when he was here. The boys dashed in for bike lights, while I stayed with A in the car park to avoid having to pay for a 5 minute stop, coming back with something which was not at all what I expected and I am not convinced will work, but we’ll see. Then we looked for drawers and water butts. We were intending to move the slightly leaky one which is currently outside the kitchen door with a larger one and move the current one to the workshop, where there is a connector spilling water onto the new fence each time it rains 🙁 Also hoping that a new tap will fix the leak and make that butt as good as new anyway. They had no large water butts left, but did have slimline ones on special offer, which can be connected together to give more storage and would fit better in the space available anyway, we thought, so we got those – after huge amounts of waiting for staff to get back to us with various bits of information. No taps, and no suitable drawers either, so we ende dup having to go elsewhere in any case, where we managed to get silver drawers, which A decided were acceptable even though not pink, and a water butt tap 🙂 By now it was getting late so we popped into a supermarket to pick up stuff for quick tea and came out with lots of reduced tasty veg pots which salved my conscience a little on the feeding my children ready meals front 😆 Oh, and also a large chocolate mousse which is the first shop bought mousse I’ve ever found which was veggie – perhaps not healthy but oh so yummy!

Today we decided to do the RAF bit of the 1940s weekend, and Bob wanted to come too, so we all set off together. It was a very expensive day, as entry was not cheap by the time we had 5 of us to pay for (but we were hopeful it would be worth it, as the event promised much in terms of numbers of re-enactors and things going on) and then practically everything once you were in was extra – we managed to keep it down to ice-creams (it was a stinking hot day!), a ride on swing boats, a ride on a miniature steam train and a few bits and pieces for mementos, but still spent far more than we had intended! We could have spent far far more, as there were stands, stalls and things to do on every side – but 9 out of 10 of them to be paid for 🙁 J wanted me to be made over 1940’s style, with back-combed hair and bright red lips, but I resisted. We might try it at home sometime though 😉 There was an airshow going on above our heads, which looked good (and probably accounted for a fair chunk of the entry price) and lots of clearly very knowledgeable people about, but somehow it wasn’t as lively or as involving as I’d expected – perhaps I’ve been spoilt by Kentwell and their very interactive approach! Definitely worth having been to once, but I’m not sure we’ll bother again, or at least not for a few years, until all the children are old enough to get more out of it – perhaps when we get to Book 4 of Story of the World will be the right time. It may also be, of course, that I’m just not really into the militaria and the WWII stuff, so perhaps I’m not the best person to judge…

Having said all that, A spent a fair bit of time chatting to a parrot 😆 and there was one rather lovely little corner, where a bit of everyday life at home was being recreated, including two small children playing in a tin bath full of water – the best place to be on a day like today, I think 🙂 – watched by a young woman while another woman was washing clothes by turning the handle on her machine and then running them through a mangle before hanging them out to dry. I think that kind of cameo of real life is much more to my taste and I’d happily have spent longer there. L, A and I stayed for a while watching them and looking at the toys and everyday household items, then realised that Bob still had the camera and he and the boys were across the yard from us trying on fireman’s helmets (another highlight of the day: lovely old fire engines and pumps, including a steam-powered one). L ran across to tell them we had found something they should come and see, tripped and fell, badly grazing her knee and shredding the palm of one hand 🙁 Unfortunately the wounds were very dirty and full of small bits of gravel, and there was nowhere to get her cleaned up, so having dabbed with a wet tissue and failed to make much progress we decided to seek medical assistance and took her to the St John Ambulance, who cleaned her up very efficiently, dressed the wounds – and took lots of personal details 😕 – and then the airshow started and somehow we never did make it back to that lovely little area, or even to the fire engines 🙁

Eventually K and L were just too tired and fed up to keep going, so we made our way back to the car and came home for a revivifying water fight 😆 which ended up in a bath before tea and then an early night for the children… and I think I might follow their example…

SATS and secret agents

This has been a catching up kind of week so far. J tried an English SATs paper, to see how it went – reading first of all. He didn’t do as well as I’d hoped (level 4A, so fine for age) but we realised when we went through it together that it was largely because it was the first time he had done anything like that and there were several questions that he had answered but not quite in the right way. It was clear that he had understood exactly what he was reading, but he didn’t get the marks because the mark scheme requires you to answer in just the right way. A little exam technique practice wouldn’t go amiss, I think 😉 He has had a similar problem with the short writing paper – he produced a rather lovely piece of descriptive writing but didn’t stick to the brief, so much of it doesn’t count 🙁 (and we *still* need to work on consistently using capital letters!) – and the first Science paper – with a couple of marks lost because he was (correctly) answering a far harder question than they were asking! Having gone over those, I’m hoping he’ll tackle the remaining papers next week and try to put into practice the things we’ve talked about when it comes to answering questions 😆

L, watching J do papers, wanted to try too, so we had a look at a Maths Level 2 paper from 2004. Despite occasional tears and tantrums *sigh* she got through it and scored highly enough to be worth looking at Level 3 when I can summon up the courage 😆 We might try some English papers too, I think, and maybe get K to do some too, although I’m not sure whether to jump him up, drop him down or attempt to find something aimed specifically at his age. Perhaps we’ll start with the Level 3 stuff to build up his confidence and then move up from there…

We also spent a couple of happy hours doing a Sculpey kit which worked really well – there were a number of different things to make, so each child could choose what they wanted to make. After we’d baked them they spent another couple of hours happily playing tea shops with the results 🙂 Double the fun – thanks Merry 😀

Wednesday was Latinetc, but a rather depleted one, with no Beans and no Puddlechicks. We did have the pleasure of Zoe and her girls, though, and a last session with Michelle and C for a while (although you’re always welcome to come along anyway, Michelle 😉 ). No science, but we managed some French (pencil case vocab game – rather wild but fun!) and another quick whisk through Minimus chapter one for S and P’s benefit, followed by some chatting about Roman dinner parties and rich and poor households. I rather like doing half Latin and half Classics 🙂 J and J did some GP Latin too, while the others played on the field. Some Music Theory happened, I think, and some recordering, and we all ate cake (J wanted to make one for C, including a little Eiffel Tower on the top, which he made very painstakingly, and occasionally painfully, out of cocktail sticks, only to find the craft sticks a few minutes after he had finished. Ah well.) and yummy crumble, which E assured me had been made by Gina “all by herself” 😀 Zoe had brought along lovely craft idea, which all the children managed to do, some with more help than others, making little felt brooches (or stuffed toys) with buttons and beads sewn on for decoration. They were all very pleased with their efforts, I think, and it worked well because the shapes could be pre-cut and then as many or as few buttons added as child (or parent) had patience to sew 🙂 Gina’s glue came in useful too, for those who were tired of stitching 😉

Today we went to a lovely birthday party, on the theme of Secret Agents, so the children spent yesterday tea-time coming up with ideas for different kinds of agents they could be. In the end, L opted for taking an inflatable globe with her, to be a secret travel agent (sidling up to people and saying “Psst, wanna buy a holiday?) while K toyed with the idea of taking lots of pictures of houses with him to hide under a raincoat, but decided instead to dress in black and take a newspaper with eyeholes. A thought this was such a good idea she had to do it too 🙂 The party hostess had had the happy thought of providing eyeliner pencils and a mirror so that they could draw themselves false moustaches (there was even a sheet of different moustache types to try) and that was great hit with all the children 🙂 They also had secret phones with code words to work out in order to get their cake. The weather was kind to us, so lots of playing in the garden ensued (and the hosts do have a wonderful garden for playing in!) while A got to do lots of bouncing on the trampoline because it had been reserved for the three littlest guests – a lovely idea, thank you Emily 🙂

Mamgu’s recipe for gingerbread

before I lose the piece of paper!

(heavily adapted from a C14th recipe)

1 cup of honey
a generous 1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground liquorice
1 3/4 cups dry breadcrumbs
1 tab anise seeds

Heat honey carefully over low heat.
Add spices (except anise) and blend.
Add bread and mix thoroughly.
Cook for about 15 minutes or until starting to set.
Press onto a plate or tin and sprinkle with anise seeds.
Leave to cool before serving.

Dashing through the holidays!

Time seems to be rushing past again, with the weeks galloping by…

The “holidays” began with a First Aid course for K and L on 23rd July, while A and I popped over to visit friends in the same town. J decided to stay at home, which was fine since Bob was working from home that day anyway. The course was done by Guardian and the woman teaching was excellent; both K and L came out having had a fantastic time and feeling confident that they would be able to deal sensibly with a minor emergency and to get help for a major one. We came home and packed for K’s Cub camp, then Bob took him there (he and J had been there the evening before, helping to put up tents ready for the camp) after tea. The rest of us went to the sports and arts festival day, as already blogged.

A week of Oliver! workshops for J, K and L followed, 9 – 1 each day, culminating in a performance on the Friday. Apparently it was great fun – they certainly did well to produce a very watchable mini-show (condensed to just under 30 minutes) by the end of the week, and they all worked very hard learning words, choreography and songs, some of which (mostly dances) were cut from the performance because there was an awful lot for such young children to learn (they ranged from 3 to 10, with J being the second oldest child there, I think) – it was originally planned to be 40 minutes long. All of the children (including A, who was quite put out at not doing the workshops) now want to join the drama school run by the same woman who did the workshops (although it would actually be different teachers on the day we could make) but that means we will need to look at the time and money budgets and see what goes and whether they really want it that badly… I feel we are a little overstretched as it is! For now, we have promised that they can definitely do another holiday workshop 😉

Unfortunately only A and I were able to get to the performance, which both Bob and the children were rather sad about, so we decided it was a good time to buy the digital camcorder we have been humming and hah-ing over for a while – only a little Flip, but it did the job (and was on special offer in Tesco’s, handily enough).

Thursday 29th July found us hosting a church coffee evening, which meant much tidying and not a little baking in the days leading up to it, as well as work on Oliver! It went well, I think – and £88 was raised, so worth the effort 🙂
Also that week we spent much of an afternoon looking at pictures by Kandinsky and then first having a go at making our own concentric circles and then choosing a favourite image or style to imitate (thanks to Merry and Zoe for the idea). K and L in particular were very taken by the apparently abstract pictures which on closer inspection were full of odd things, or impressions of odd things…

Then, of course, on Saturday it was the wonderful Beans party 😀 The boys went to Astronomy Club in the morning, while the girls and I did lots of cooking and a bit of costume finding to suit an Africa/safari/animals theme – it all became more and more vague as the children looked at random assorted ideas! In the end K dressed in green and went as a frog, L wore her silk wings and became a butterfly, A wrapped herself in a blue silk scarf and wore a matching elephant hat and J opted for his beloved Oliver! tee shirt. Having found the galabiyas Bob and I brought back from honeymoon in Egypt I was persuaded to wear one of those and only then remembered that Michelle was relying on me to act as translator and general persuader to C’s French family… Michelle was waiting for me as I walked in 😆 but needn’t have worried; they were lovely 😀 The weather was cooperative, the company delightful, the children splashed and frolicked in paddling pools and round the garden and we all had a lovely time – so much so that we decided to ask if we could go back again the next day, bearing cinnamon rolls and cheese stars to ensure a good reception 😉

There followed a week of swimming lessons for J, to help him catch up a little from having done next to no swimming whilst away. At his request we went for a pool a fair distance away, but small and friendly, and known to him through having done lessons there before. Since it was handy for Gina and co and J happened to be signed up to the same classes as E we managed to combine forces a couple of times, fitting in some piano, music theory, French, Latin and even science between us all over the course of a few days, as well as helping out with lifts while Gina’s car was being MOT’d. The week whizzed past, with all the things I had planned for afternoons being set aside in favour of bike riding in the field. J and K are now both quite happy on bikes, with L not far behind; she was cross at being left out so J sorted out a bike for her, pumping up tyres, checking for punctures, lowering the saddle and so on, then taught her to ride it!

On Sunday I was preaching, so Friday and Saturday were full of preparation for that. The boys both wanted to be involved in the service, so we practised readings together, but in the end they both decided that Sunday school, which they had been uncertain about in a strange church, looked too good to miss, so Bob and I reverted to Plan A and shared the readings out between us 😉
By Monday we needed a little r and r, so that was earmarked as a bit of a catch-up day, but then a friend emailed and asked if I was able to sign passport applications, which I am, and if we were around to do it urgently, which we were, so it turned into a having friends round to play day…

Tuesday started with piano etc and went on to include singing folk songs at an old people’s home in the afternoon, which began with a little panic as the organiser was nowhere to be found and that left two adults with a vague idea of what we were supposed to be singing, based on a list of words and some hastily googled tunes, plus 5 children aged 10, 8, 6, 5 and 3 and one tiny baby, none of whom knew any of the songs securely. We had all been intending to rely on the organiser to lead the singing… What made the whole thing rather surreal was that the staff were certain she had signed in a few minutes before we had all got there, and so must be somewhere in the building, but they couldn’t find her anywhere. It was only when somebody asked if she might be sitting in her car for some reason and I said that she hadn’t got a car that we started to wonder – apparently the woman who had signed in had also put a car reg. Then we checked spelling and realised it wasn’t her at all, which at least solved the question of “How on earth have we managed to misplace an entire family in an old people’s home?” but still left us with the problem of “How on earth are we going to sing all these songs we don’t really know with no music and nobody to lead us?”!

We quickly went through the list of songs and poems and decided which ones we would have to omit (actually only about 3) and which we could struggle through, while the children agreed to read some of the poems, then the staff led us through to the lounge where lots of elderly residents were waiting to be entertained and more were being brought, very slowly, to join them. All of a sudden there was a bit of a commotion and the organising lady arrived – phew! – having decided to just pop home and change herself and her daughters because they had been soaked by the morning’s downpour. It didn’t seem to have occurred to her that arriving nearly 30 minutes late might have made us start to worry, but in fact we were so relieved to see her that we didn’t say a word other than “Thank goodness you’re here!” 😆 In the end it was actually a very worthwhile afternoon, and one which I found quite enjoyable, although I fear the children had used up most of their patience in the 30 minute wait for organising lady to arrive and then the extra 15 minutes or so that it took for all the residents to be ready for us to start after that. They made a good stab of reading their poems, but gave up on the songs apart from the ones they already knew or the ones with lots of repeats of the chorus. I have to admit, there were an awful lot of words there! I think we’ll try to sign up for Christmas carols as well though 🙂

Wednesday was Latinetc, which was to have been a normal morning session and than an arty afternoon session, planning for a nature walk and then some sketching. Unfortunately Zoe wasn’t able to come 🙁 and the art was a little less focused than we had intended, but I think each child still had a go at something, including using Merry’s rather lovely gel pens. The chemistry session Helen did, trying to work out what the mystery substance was (found in the fire pit after use), went very well as far as I could see, and there was also music theory for middle/older ones, French for younger/middle ones (playing a game which should have used a tape but in the end just had to use me, as the tape player refused to work; it was probably better that way really, though), cello trios, rounders, lots of playing, blackberry picking and crumble making for very little ones and a quick dash through Minimus chapter one for all those on the Latin list, followed by looking at how Roman towns were designed (all on the same pattern) and then designing our own. It was lovely to be able to fit so much in, largely thanks to having the afternoon to spill over into – thanks all 🙂

Gina’s J stayed over afterwards, which all the children were very happy about, but especially my J, and we gave him back to Gina the following day when we met at the Norris Museum for a garden art event. Having worried about the weather it actually cleared up just when we needed it to, but in fact we spent far more time indoors making 3D items for the collage they were preparing for the St Ives centenary (900 years!) and ended up with Gina and S outside, collecting children as they finished, while I stayed inside with artists until they were done. Luckily I had remembered the camera, so was able to take pictures of finished works as they went onto the collage (which is apparently to be displayed in the Free Church) – Gina’s J in particular spent a lot of time and effort making a rather lovely shop, while J made a swan (with help from Gina and S collecting feathers), K a boat, A a goldfish and L and E a collaborative sparkly fish for the collage and boat for S 🙂

We didn’t actually see much of the museum itself, although it looked interesting enough to merit another trip, I think. It’s very small and a bit higgledy-piggledy, plus you never quite know what you will see, since they have enough collections for a display four times the size (it’s rather a pocket-sized museum 🙂 ) so they alternate what goes out. One thing which caught our eyes though was a display of Roman remains from our town, including a skull from a burial site not far from our house and a stone from the old Roman wall which we didn’t even know had been there, but when we stopped to think about it with our Roman Town Planner hats on must have been, because all Roman towns had a wall round them! There was even a plan of the town as it was in Roman times and another showing how it is now, overlaid with the main features of the Roman town – fascinating stuff, especially as it built so serendipitously on what we had just been studying 😀 We were able to trace all the key features we had read about and see where they fitted in, and even to see how they might fit with the shape of the town now. When we first moved here I remember seeing posters for history tours we had just missed; I hope they repeat them some time soon…

Outside they were bug hunting, which J really enjoyed, especially once he found he had a talent for creeping up on creepy crawlies and catching them in his flask 🙂 A and S made little bugs and K, L and E made dragonflies from pipe cleaners with oht wings – very simple but very effective. By now S was pretty much out of patience, so we let the real bugs go, took the model ones with us and went to find some lunch, somewhat overwhelming a little church cafe with requests for toast when they didn’t have enough sandwiches for all of us. A good cup of tea made up for a lot though, and then Gina and co had to go and the children and I hit the charity shops. Our mission was to find respectable jeans for Bob, so he doesn’t have to wear his old holey ones to work any more, which we did, but we also found a few tapes for the car (including a Joyce Grenfell “George, don’t do that” 😀 ) and a Cluedo game which J and K were instantly entranced by and have now taught L to play as well 🙂 The afternoon ended with a cello lesson for K, to keep him going a bit over the long holidays.

On Friday we met up with J’s godparents and their family at Audley End, in some of the most horrendous weather so far this summer! We arrived in rain torrential enough to keep us all in the car for a bit before venturing out, and the day continued with alternating bright sunshine and thunderous showers. Undeterred we went to the stables and saw old fire engines, then met a couple of very nice retired horses, listened to some stories and tried on some hats. A trip to the toilets turned into an extended stay at the play area, with handy tables and umbrellas nearby meaning it was a good place to eat lunch as well, while the children ran off to play whenever the sun appeared and back under the umbrellas as soon as it rained. J was waiting for the Time Travellers event advertised for 1 o’clock – the execution of Charles 1 – but when he and I dashed over to see if it was on (earlier events having been rained off) we arrived to find them making the most of a few minutes of sunshine to do a musket drill. By the time we got back with the news we were soaked almost to the skin by another downpour – thank goodness for raincoats and trees with a high leaf index!

The house beckoned, we thought, and all made our way over there, but on the way the children and I decided to check out the Time Travellers one last time, and the promise of an assault course was just too tempting to pass up, so we went and got passports, picked up a Roundheads and Cavaliers treasure trail and decided to brave the showers and stay outside, while Paul, Carol and co went inside.

The assault course was as good as it had promised to be, involving teamwork and timing to carry a cauldron containing a “bomb” round the field, under and over various obstacles (with 2 team members carrying the cauldron and the rest wooden “muskets”; all to pass under/over each obstacle), plant the bomb outside a castle door and then race back again via the same obstacles – as it happened ours were joined by a blind girl, so their task demanded even more teamwork than usual, but they did well 🙂 While they rested from their efforts one of the travellers showed them his musket and talked them through how it was put together, what each part did and how it worked, as well as what could go wrong. He was very good, letting the blind girl feel what he was talking about as he said it and then passing each part round so that the others could also feel it and see it close up. They were joined by quite a crowd in the course of his talk, including a slightly obnoxious young boy who kept coming up with silly suggestions and then insisting at great length that he was right. Again the chap dealt with it very well, eventually saying “That’s a good idea – why don’t you put it down in a letter and send it to me?” and then each time after that cutting him off with “Great! Put that in the letter as well!” so that he could get on with what he wanted to say. Looking at the musket led quite naturally to musket drill, with the blind girl next to L so that she could hold onto her shoulder and feel where to go. I was rather proud of K, who spotted that there would not be enough wooden muskets to get all the way to the end of the row (where the blind girl was) and so volunteered to use a stick instead, so that she could have a proper one 🙂 They practised holding the musket and the match in different hands (a useful skill!) and then stepping forward to fire, and then finished with firing in a battery, with two rows so that the back row could be loading while the front row were firing and vice versa. By now it was chucking it down again, so the Time Travellers hid back in their tent and we took our completed treasure trail back to the desk to claim a prize – a packet of sweets for each child – I’d so much rather they’d had a pencil, but there!

We met up with Paul and Carol again and had a wander round the amazing kitchens while the weather outside did its worst. As it eased up a bit the children went outside to splash in puddles and dance with umbrellas and then, as soon as it was clear enough to walk through, we made our way back to the car park – of course by the time we got there it was brilliant sunshine again! – said goodbye to Carol, Paul, T and grandparents and made our way home just in time to avoid the worst of the traffic.

And so we come to this weekend, and the Plum Festival 🙂 Yesterday we dropped Bob off at an orchard for a talk on growing top fruit without artificial chemicals and went on to talk to some beekeepers. The children all got to try some locally produced honey (so delicious we bought some) and we found out how to make polish from turps and beeswax (we bought some of that too), then J, K and L tried on some beekeeping equipment from different ages: a modern coat with hood and veil, an older hat with veil and a linen robe with woven basket face piece, a style which they think was first used thousands of years ago. We saw how a hive is put together and found out that there is a meeting at a park near us every Sunday which we could go to if we want to see the hives being opened up and inspected, and if we ask there is a good chance that the children could have a go at handling the bees themselves. Since J has been keen for ages to keep bees this might be a good opportunity for him to look into how feasible that really is 🙂

In the next room we were able to admire some pictures by local artists and to try some different varieties of plums and apples, as well as some apricot yum yum – sort of set fruit jelly. Then we wandered into the graveyard at the back of the church to find out where the boys’ workshop was to be in the afternoon, found a nice bench and had our lunch. Bob arrived in time to take over the children so that I could dash to the orchard for a walk and talk on bees, which was fascinating (must make notes while it’s fresh in my mind, but not now, I fear) while the boys did an Opal workshop on lichen and moss and Bob and the girls explored a little more, including trying some delicious icecream. We bought lots of fruit (plums and apples) then came home for a quick tea and early night for the children and some plum and rosewater compote making for me.

Today the plum festival continued, although we set off later than planned because the boys felt the urge to go out and look for samples of mosses and lichen to examine first. We still managed to fit in a trip to a plum specialist to find out about the plums in the field behind our house (cherry plums, edible but not necessarily very exciting, probably there before the field was turned into a playing field, as they used to be planted as a screening hedge round orchards), a quick peek in passing at the self-sufficiency lady with her ducks and chickens (she was too busy to be worth waiting for, we decided), a play in a rather nice old-fashioned playground, ice cream for the boys (who missed out yesterday), trying and then buying some freshly pressed apple juice and chatting to a lady about her farm and the various farmers’ markets in the area. Then we moved on to screenprinting some bags, which was excellent fun, starting with designing an inner section to fit inside an already made-up outer section, then putting the design together, adding the ink (with help from the artist in charge of the activity) and pressing it through the screen to make the print. It was so cool that I had to do one too!

We left the bags to dry while we went on to our last stop of the day, an orchard where they were offering sensory tours for the children. We began with a biodiversity game, each being given a card with a plant, insect or animal on it, then using wool to make links between us. Then we walked on and looked at the textures of the trees, bark, trunks, branches, leaves etc and did some rubbings to see how they varied. We sat and listened for a few minutes and drew a sound map of what we could hear and where it was in relation to us. Then we did some tasting of different types of plums, culminating in a blindfolded tasting to see if we could identify which ones they were of the ones we had tried. By the end we knew which ones we wanted to buy 😉

The orchard tour ended just in time for story telling (it had to, as it was the same person doing both!) and we sat on blankets and listened to some stories we already knew (Each, peach, pear, plum, for example) and a few we didn’t (including the Frangipani Fairies, which I need to look out for, I think) while Bob nipped back to collect the bags, which were by now just about dry. (We still need to iron them to set the colours.) The children still wanted to do some picking, so we collected a punnet and set off round the orchard in search of apples ripe enough to be worth picking (to please L, who doesn’t like plums) and all the kinds of plums we had most liked on the tour. Despite worrying about how full our punnet was it didn’t come to much really 🙂 I will have some work to do tomorrow to preserve all the ones we won’t manage to eat fresh though!