I’d intended to sleep in this morning but Scarlett and Ady were awake early as usual and Scarlett’s excitement at going to the duck house and finding a third egg was rowdy enough to wake me. She brought it up to show me and snuggled up with me for a while by which time I was thoroughly awake so stayed in bed and read for a while as it just felt too early to be up on a Sunday morning.
We’d been planning to go to the local Apple Day as we’d had such a good day there last year and had mentioned it to my parents who’d said they’d join us so my Mum rang to ask what the arrangements were. I’d not really thought of any so suggested they come over to us for 11 and we’d head over there, it was pretty chilly and not really sitting around picnicking weather so I suggested we not take food but just grab some tea and cake over there to sustain us.
Mum and Dad arrived and we had a quick 10 minute sit in the van as their previous look at the inside had been on the drive of the sellers last weekend so I wanted to show everything off a bit. 🙂 Then we drove over to Stanmer Park for Apple Day. They had marshalls at the entrance directing you to the carparking area and pre-warning that they were asking for a £2 per car donation as the event is free. I thought this was a very fair ask as the money goes towards Brighton Permaculture Trust and other worthy local organisations who operate on a similar basis but all of the cars infront of us were either refusing to donate or kicking up a fuss. The poor girl with the collection bucket looked so relieved when we just chucked our money in and said she wished everyone could just be like us.
It was actually quite disappointing this year compared to last year when there seemed to have been far more happening and the weather was pretty ropey, cold and cloudy rather than the gorgeous sunshine I am sure I recall last year. We walked all around the stalls set up but most were selling stuff, with fairly tenuous links to apples in most cases, the kids had a go at the all in one peeler, corer, slicer apple gadget which is one of those impressive at demo but unlikely to ever be used things that requires two pairs of hands but is fun to make apple spirals with. We avoided the kids activity tent but it looked like colouring in apple pictures and some trying to bite apples on a string, Davies and Scarlett did some apple rolling and then we walked round to the well. We stood under a conker tree for a while trying to catch them as they fell from the tree when the wind blew and the kids both collected a pocket full of conkers.
We walked back to the cafe and got teas and coffees and a couple of portions of apple crumble which we shared between us before joining an orchard tour. It was the same tour we’d done last year but interesting enough to listen to again :)We then popped in to the rural museum which is on site and has all sorts of old curios from the past, many of which myDad looked at fondly with memories including freestanding mangles, blacksmiths bellows and more. Dad grew up in a remote North Wales village at the end of the war (the Hiroshima bomb fell on his seventh birthday) in a little one up, one down cottage with an outdoor loo, no electricity where the fire was kept burning year round and used for all cooking, heating, drying clothes, warming the Friday night bath water etc. I can see why he thinks we’re bloody mental wanting to go off in our van for a year :lol:. There was also a really cool gypsy caravan for pulling by a horse that had a little cage on the outside with some straw hens in it which of course had us all speculating about something similar to bring the birds with us :).
We walked back through the park, avoiding some people we saw a bit of last year (the woman who looked after the kids a few times and mislaid Scarlett) but I’d let the friendship lapse. Fortunately Davies and Scarlett merely smiled and said hello to the boys and we all carried on walking so I didn’t even see which parent, if either, was with the boys, avoiding a potentially embarrassing reunion.
We called into Asda on the way home as we needed to get something for our Sunday Roast. Mum suggested some french bread for a late lunch so I picked that up too and quickly realised if we were not eating lunch until nearly 4pm we certainly wouldn’t be having a roast dinner so that has been shelved until tomorrow. We all had very late lunch and my parents stayed for a couple of hours chatting.
We went on amazon and ordered Davies’ birthday present – he wanted a Harry Potter lego set which Mum, Dad and Frazer were getting him. He had hoped he had enough for a second, smaller set he also wanted but he has £20 and the set was £40. Scarlett sat very quietly and then suddenly announced ‘I can help you Davies’ and went to her room and brought out her own £20. Even Davies said ‘Scarlett you don’t have to do that’ but she was fiercely insistent that it is her money and if she wants to spend it on that then she can and that making Davies happy makes her happy so it’s money well spent. The last time she saved up a stash of cash she spent it on something for Davies. It was very touching :). So touching infact that I said she could pay £10 and I’d match it so she could keep £10 of her money. Mum was then so touched that she gave Davies back £5 of his money and gave Scarlett her £10 back too saying she had not given Scarlett a present on Davies; birthday as she usually does so she would give Scarlett £10 which means the lego is still partly from Tarly but she is not out of pocket. One of those lovely, proud of everyone moments usually seen only on American sitcoms ;).
Ady took off the side gate which we had put up to stop the children running all around the house when they were small (our garden goes all the way round our house but we closed it off so we could keep the kids in the back) but we now need open as our previous path for moving wheelie bins out has been through the garage which is now blocked by the van in the drive. The kids had duck egg pankcakes for tea and we all watched Countryfile, which threw up some more questions about the whole WOOFing thing from my Dad who still thinks the whole idea is crazy bonkers ;).
Mum and Dad left, the kids and I watched X Factor and then they went to bed. Ady and I had dinner and pondered over what a long weekend it seems to have been.