One word? When seven would do…

We’d arranged to go to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum today with my Mum. We’ve been meaning to go for ages and had decided a while ago to get a ‘friends’ ticket which gives free entry for the year for the price of just two visits.

The weather was looking a bit on the dodgey side but we went for it anyway and actually although it was overcast most of the day it didn’t actually start to rain until we were driving home.

The museum itself is very good – a selection of historic buildings taken down from their original location and rebuilt within a big slice of Sussex countryside along with authentic interiors, gardens and in many cases volunteers in traditional dress talking about the relevant historic periods. There is a lake and millpond with water mill, various animals and lots of activities to do. Our main reason for joining though was the various events that run through the year at weekends and school holidays.

Davies and Scarlett have both been there a couple of times but not for a few years and I thought it would be a good place to have access to for a year and get familiar with. For that reason I was quite happy to have a wander round today and not be desperate to do the whole thing and milk every last educational drop out of the day. I think we did go in all of the buildings actually but we didn’t worry about reading all the posters or taking note of everything we saw, just found out more about the things that took our interest.

We liked the maypole and I’d love to see it in proper use with dancers. We had a bit of a go and were joined by another little girl and her mummy and granny in having a bit of dance round it which was fun. I remember having a maypole set up in infant school and being part of the team who danced round it to make patterns with the ribbon :).

We looked at a display about woodworm and woodbeetles and wood wasps and the damage they can do and learnt aboout heartwood and sapwood layers in tree trunks. Then we went into the building with activites and spent ages building a timber house frame with struts, braces and pegs.( As usual flickr is playing up so I’ll drop pictures in here when they are finally uploaded)

Davies and Mum did some experiementing with weights and measures while Scarlett and I looked at seperating grades of stones, gravel and sand and built some walls using miniature bricks in different bricklaying styles. Davies and I looked at using braces to tie building walls together and he showed me the arched bridge he and Mum had built.

The volunteer running that area told us the water mill was about to close for lunch so we headed over there to look at that. Davies remembered loads from our windmill visit but hadn’t realised what was powering the mill so went back outside to check for sails and realised it was a watermill :). They bought some duck food in there along with a cookie each made with flour from the mill.

We were then assaulted by the ducks 😆 loads of ducklings at various developmental stages from small and cute and fluffy to fully feathered but small and noisy. The children really enjoyed feeding them 🙂

We had a quick look at an area about plumbing and masonry but we were all getting hungry so retired to the cafe for lunch. We bought sandwiches and went back to the pond to sit and eat at a picnic bench. We spent the whole times with ducks under our table begging food, much to the kids’ delight and then both of them managed to catch and hold a duck 🙂

After lunch we went to walk round some of the buildings. Unfortunately we got tangled up in various school groups despite my best efforts to avoid them. I hate the way the teachers talk to the children and the way the kids don’t actually seem to get much out of these visits and are so bloody rude and oblivious to other people around. Way too much pushing, shoving and no respect for others 🙁

We managed to get away from the group and spent some time looking round the buildings. We all decided we really liked the simple lifestyles they suggested, particularly the gardens all planted up with fruit and vegetables. I was so impressed that Davies and Scarlett were able to name so many of the plants even the roots or those not yet showing fruits including onions, leek, carrot, potatoes, broad beans, peas. Actually, sod the kids I was impressed that I could identify them actually because I couldn’t have done six months ago! 😆

We had a good wander round before returning to the pond again where Mum and I sat on a bench while Davies and Scarlett went off to watch the ducks again. When we walked over to tell them it was time to go they were most perturbed about a small duckling that had jumped into the pond (I think they had chased it, non maliciously but were feeling bad) and then the mother duck had jumped in too followed by the other two ducklings and now none of the 3 ducklings could get out again. The volunteers were alerted and we watched their efforts to rescue them for a while (it was all very Springwatch) but had to get going and were assured they’d get them out even if they had to wade in to rescue them (it was fairly shallow knee height water).

As we started to drive home it began to rain so we’d definitely had the best of the day. We played the Yes and No game (where you mustn’t say yes or no) in the car on the way home. We dropped Mum home and just had time for Davies and Scarlett to have a quick tea and get changed before heading back out to Badgers again.

Ady pulled up behind us in the carpark so we both took them in and then we went off to Waitrose to get some milk and sat chatting in the car for a while before I headed off to Shoreham library for an author event with Andrew Crofts . I’d not been sure whether or not to go and had only told Ady about it on Monday and mentioned if he got home in time to collect the kids from Badgers I might quite like to go. He’s a ghost writer for celebrities, business men and lost of those white cover books about childhood abuse. I got in for free as my money was waved away by my boss who was on the door and it was a very enjoyable 90 minutes. He was an excellent speaker, very entertaining and amusing and I really enjoyed it.What a cool job he has! He gets to ask every single nosey question, write a book and get paid for it! I was by far the youngest person there, I imagine everyone else was of pensionable age but I’m really glad I went :).

There were more drinks, some of his books for sale that he would sign and quite possibly further questions and chat with him but I left then in an effort to get home to say goodnight to the kids and have dinner at a sensible hour.

I helped Davies plait and tie up some strips of leather he and Ady had cut to make an Indiana Jones whip and then D and S went to bed, I had a bath and Ady cooked a lovely steak dinner complete with our own potatoes :).