One word? When seven would do…

On Monday we were all singing ‘welcome to the blue house’ (theme tune to Bear in the Big Blue House) in honour of the many coloured shops and houses along the coastline here in Tarbert. Interspersed with the theme tune to Balamory obviously :). Yesterday and today we changed it to ‘welcome to the new house’ as we spent time at Ed and Carina’s new house, 20 miles down the coast. A new build with stunning views over the Mull of Kintyre to the south, Northern Ireland, the isles of Gigha, Cara and Jura to the east and the coastline sweeping back towards Loch Fyne and Tarbert in the north. Before we left yesterday Scarlett told Davies ‘we’re going to Newhouse’ to which he replied ‘there is no such place as Newhouse, do you mean Newcastle?’ 😆

Ed drove us along there and pointed out various landmarks along the way before giving us a guided tour of the house. It is very lovely; ground floor includes the hall, utility room, boiler room (it will be heated by a biomass wood pellet boiler), wetroom & loo, large hallway and front living space with woodburning stove, kitchen area and three massive windows out over the views. Upstairs are three bedrooms, a smaller bathroom and a large landing which they intend making an office type space with desk / PC etc. Built onto the south side of the property is a conservatory and a greenhouse to make the most of the heat, the roof has solar panels. Water comes from a bore hole, greywater drains out over the land which is just under an acre including a wildlife pond, loads of beds with crops growing to permaculture principles and a summerhouse.

Some pictures, which don’t do it justice but hopefully give a taster:

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I have to concede the house is not entirely to my taste and I think some of the green building materials used are costly, not actually that good and there are things I would have made features from that they have not and vice versa but that’s bespoke house building for you – very much about the people who are planning to live there and no one else! 🙂 The views are just spectacular though, I cannot think of anywhere more beautiful to have a home that I have ever been. In the few hours we have been there we have seen all sorts of weather conditions and differing levels of visibility, seen the sky and sea rainbow in shades from grey to white to bright blue and watched boats, people, wildlife and an ever changing landscape constantly flitting across the windows. It’s like living in a kaleidoscope!

So yesterday once we’d had the tour of the house Ady and I did some filling holes in the walls and ceilings ready to be painted and then it was declared time for lunch so I sorted that out. The kids had free rein to play with Peter’s toys which have already been moved over there, sitting next to the window to look out over the view. After lunch Ady and I had our first encounter with midges as we stacked the wood we’d helped cut up the day before on some pallets and built some sides to keep them contained. We were both bothered by them swarming us but only I came up with any bites – I am suffering a bit now from little raised, itchy bites and will need to use something against them in the first place and something to treat where they get through.

That was the end of our day and we came home and had a couple of hours relaxing around the house while the kids played with Peter. We are helping with meals / clearing up but that seems to be more because we keep offering than because it is expected. We are barely working the 4 hours a day we were expecting, let along the 7 or 8 hours a day we have been used to at previous hosts.

Dinner was stuffed marrow, rice and potatoes which was nice, if smallish portions. Again a bottle of wine came to the table 🙂 After dinner we sat and chatted and peeled some apples to make some apple crumbles before retiring early to bed. Everyone seems to turn in around 10ish which means I get to sit in bed and laptop which is great :).

Today Carina was off (she works part time as a GP in the village practise) so she drove us to the new house while Ed caught the bus (not room for all of us in their car). Ady and I were set to work digging up a bed of potatoes – we got about 3 buckets and it took a couple of hours, but working at a very leisurely pace, mostly because we kept getting distracted by the view.
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We went in for lunch which was a lengthy and leisurely affair and then only had half an hour before Carina wanted to leave, which was just time to spread out about a third of the potatoe crop to dry out in the boiler room and carry an armful of cut grass each over to the compost bin. Hardly a full and taxing days work! Carina wanted to take us to the beach but armed the kids with a bucket and spade and said she was wandering off in one direction and would see us in 40 minutes! So we rockpooled, walked along the sands and clambered on rocks. We saw jellyfish, crabs, fish, cormorants, herons, gulls, swans (!) and lots of seaweed and curious sinking sand which bubbled up gas when you stood on it.
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Back to the house where Ady and I did some proper research into getting to our last planned host in November on the Isle of Eigg, having realised the van would not be allowed on the ferry and some debating whether we should do the penultimate host which is back south and deciding what we do and don’t have the budget for in terms of island hopping. I am of the opinon we will probably never have the change to do this sort of trip again and however stretched our finances we should explore as much as we can. Ady agrees but is far more sensible in approach 🙂 We’ll see!

Dinner tonight was pasta with veg. I know Davies wanted more pasta and I am sitting here feeling very hungry – they are certainly not big eaters, although I think they do a lot of snacking. It’s really interesting seeing how different people eat – I know we over ate but we didn’t have room in our diet for salty / sugary snacks between meals like so many of our hosts do. Not sure which is the better option really.

Ed and Carina are real characters – they are Quakers (our second host so far!) and this is Carina’s second marriage, she has a 27 year old daughter who lives in London and has a high powered career in the music industry. She is a part time GP and seems very shy – she never instigates a conversation and rarely asks questions in return although she seems happy enough to answer them. Ed does lots but I’m not sure he earns much – he does teach permaculture and seems to be involved at board level with lots of local and community initiatives. He is totally over enthusiastic about everything and peppers his speech with loads of ‘Fantastic! Excellent! and Great!’ (I know, pot, kettle!) which causes Ady and I to get the giggles. He never finishes a sentence himself but always jumps in to finish yours for you and is quite possibly the most disoragnised person I have ever met. But they are both very lovely and kind and their son Peter is really sweet too – Davies and Scarlett are really enjoying his company and he is appearing to get lots out of playing with them too, despite being nearly 13.

We’re off tomorrow and are planning some fishing which we’re looking forward to lots. I’m not sure when else we will be off although frankly this is hardly working anyway so we’re not too worried. There is a beaver trail in the nearest big town which we defintely want to do while we’re here and there has been talk of going out in the family canoe too so we’re happy to work as and when if there are things like that on offer really.

We went downstairs this morning and had breakfast. Peter and Carina had already left for work / school so it was just Ed and us. Ed said he had some stuff to be getting on with this morning so we should go and explore the village and work this afternoon instead.

He pointed us in the right direction to walk past the castle (just a ruin now) and down into the village. It is incredibly pretty, very much a tourist hotspot and apparently rather deliberately trying to look like Tobermory which is where Balamory is filmed. There are loads of gift shops, cafes, restuarants and shops, a very cool outdoor exercise area type playpark and the gorgeous quayside, the ferry area and loads of wildlife – we saw all sorts of gulls, gannets, herons and buzzards flying overhead – no golden eagles yet though!

We had a good wander round, took some photos, had a look in the shops and sat for a while just looking out over the loch and watching the ferries come in and go out.

We went back for lunch, which was soup and we helped cook it. My heart sank at the thought of soup but actually it was delicious (very large chunks of carrots, potatoes, onions and spinach cooked in chicken stock from yesterday. Everyone, including the kids had seconds and would have had more I think. We finished with oatcakes and cheese :).

It was about 3pm by then and we’d still not actually done anything other than eat our third meal here but finally work kicked in. First we carried some wood up the hill. A neighbour is cutting down some rhoddedendron trees and had given the bigger branches to Ed and Carina for fire wood. I loaded Ady, Davies and Scarlett up and they walked it up the hill and put it in a pile. Next we were to chop it up but Ed realised his ear defenders are at their new house (they are about to move out of this house into a new build 20 miles along the coast, which is where most of our actual WWOOFing work will happen) so he cycled off to collect some from a friend the other side of the village and left us to mow the lawn. We had use of a mower which actually started, cut grass and did the job which was a real change from the norm! We’d finished that when Ed arrived back and I spent time feeding him the lengths of wood as he chainsawed them up and Ady lopped off stray branches. I had a go with the splitting maul to split some of the larger logs and Ady helped the neighbour a bit too. We stopped for a teabreak, had loads of time just chatting to Ed and were still finished not long after 6pm – so far from hard work!

Davies and Scarlett had gone off to play with Peter when he arrived back from school. We had time for a quick shower before dinner (which we were ushered away from when we tried to offer to help with ‘no, you should be resting!’) and then ate – salad mostly from their garden, cold chicken from last night, potatoes from their garden and some courgettes, mushrooms and onions fried up which looked nice but I didn’t try due to the whole mushroom element to it. Again we had a glass of wine each with dinner and there was leftover crumble from yesterday or apples from the garden for dessert.

Ed went out to choir practise after dinner, the three kids made biscuits and we sat chatting with Carina. It was all very nice and even better everyone heads off to bed at 10pm which lets me sit in bed and catch up online :).

Can’t quite believe we’ve only been here one day. Davies and Scarlett are loving it, the scenery and location is just stunning and the hosts seem really very lovely indeed, the work is easy and with the exception of the house being very cold (old stone house) I can’t think of anything to complain about 🙂

What a mad day!

It felt very strange leaving North Wales on Friday, waking up in Motherwell on Saturday and finding everyone speaking with broad Scottish accents, particularly as Hamilton looked like any British town really. Today we really hit Scotland proper, travelling through breathtaking landscapes, ferrying across peninsulas and approaching a fishing village that looks a bit like the opening credits to Balamory!

Last night had been a late one with Ady sitting in the awning watching iplayer and me sitting in the van on my laptop, occassionally chatting and drinking lots of cider 🙂 So this morning was a fairly late start. Ady got up, fed the kids and then came back to bed! We finally all got up and started packing up at about 10am. It doesn’t take long and having the awning to put things in, particularly if it is raining is a huge help. We are loving our trug for washing up too, don’t know why we left it so long. I know it’s funny to be pleased with an awning, a trug and a little chopping board but these are the things that make such a difference to living in a very tiny space :).

We pulled away about midday and the satnav said the journey was 76 miles and included a ferry. Unsure about the cost of ferries I asked it to reroute without including the ferry and it said it woudl be 114 miles. We decided to head for the ferry port and aslong as it was under £20 it would be worth the saving in fuel and travelling time / wear on Willow. We had a bit of a drive around Hamilton to find a supermarket to get fuel as our satnav is rather old and tired and has not had updates so is not aware of some places, new roads or different road layouts and gets confused. We decided today a decent map is in order really so we can properly be aware of where we are. We have a little map in our C&CC book and a great big Childrens Map of the UK with lots of interesting facts but not much in the way of navigation assistance. Sat nav is fab but I think being able to look at our journey on a map too and plot it more would be good, particularly for this leg.

So we headed off, through Glasgow and then alongside water for ages, trying to decide if it was sea or loch and if so which one (see, map would tell me that!). We reached the ferry port (Gourock to Dunoon) and had to borrow cash off Davies as they didn’t take our debit card. Must remember that and carry cash in the van! It was £18 something which made us feel it was worth it and the crossing was mad. The wind and rain and sea spray made for a very rocky and wet crossing. The kids and I got out and stood for a while and then nipped to use the loo. Getting back in was almost impossible for me as I struggled to hold the door from swinging out my hand into the car next to me and swing in / climb up into the van. The bloke in the car next to me was wetting himself laughing at my antics!

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We then travelled from one peninsula coast to the next through some incredibly beautiful landscape, barely seeing another car. We did see loads of roadkill though including pheasants, a baby deer, rabbits… we’ll certainly not starve on our foraging missions here! Loads of gorgeous places to pull over and spend the night too. Really looking forward to all that :).

The summit of the drive was at Tighnabruaich view point which was gorgeous. We stopped and took photos of the amazing view and then decided it was cup of tea o’clock to recover from the crazy ferry trip so put the kettle on and had tea or hot chocolate and biscuits, appreciating both the view and the antics of various people who stopped to take a photo. Ady jumped out to take a few shots for some people including a beautiful and very friendly family who are holidaying in the UK from Africa (two of the most gorgeous children I’ve ever seen). We caught up with them again later in the day at the next ferry point.

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The battery ran out on the satnav so when I restarted it it found the new route and asked again about ferry crossings which when we realised we had a second one to make. At that point we were just 15 miles away from the hosts but feeling poor so rereouted for not using the ferry and it quoted 76 miles so we decided ferry it would be! This time it was even more at £28 so we won’t be doing ferries again every time, although when compared to fuel it is not really so pricey I guess. Our hosts said the locals rarely use the ferries though…

This crossing was equally rough and wet but we just had to get a self timer. Love that you can see Willow’s roof in the bottom left corner.

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How we didn’t lose the camera overboard I don’t know! 😆

The ferry pulls right into Tarbert and although our hosts are not right on the front they are up high so can see the ferries from the windows. We arrived to find a note to say to come in and they would be home about 630pm so had a quick explore round the house. We’d not actually discussed where we’d be sleeping but it’s a four bedroomed house and all the beds were made up looking ready for us and sure enough we are in the house. The kids have a bedroom and so do we, complete with basin in the room, comfy bed and gorgeous views. Couldn’t be better.

We grabbed some stuff from the van and unpacked and then dinner was ready – roast chicken which the kids devoured. Davies having second and third helpings of the carrots and cauliflower and the kids both saying how much they love cauliflower. This is my kids, who only used to eat smooth peanut butter in white sliced bread!!! If *nothing* else WWOOFing has done wonders for their diet! 🙂

We had apple crumble for dessert and were told working hours are 930 til lunchtime and that’s it. Days off will definitely be Thursday this week as they are both out working (Carina is the village GP, Ed is a permaculture teacher and also writes for Ecology and Archaeology magazines). They are adamant we spend time off and exploring! They have a nearly 13 year old son who is very lovely; friendly, loves having WWOOFers here and particularly was excited to have children near his age. He won Davies and Scarlett over by chatting to them loads and they spent an hour or so after dinner all playing in his bedroom with a toy pirate ship. He seems very sensitive and ‘nice’ and happy to still play despite his age – I think the three of them will get on well.

Ady and I helped dry up and chatted to Ed and Carina, learnt that they know our hosts from Cookes West Wood Farm pretty well, Ed and Wilf have done courses together. Small world 🙂 Everyone retired to bed at 930pm and I have full signal on phone and mifi so have been able to have some computer time to upload pictures, blog etc. No real idea what the work will entail yet but first impressions are very favourable – kids have already declared they ‘love it here!’ 🙂

I think we’ve had more rows since we arrived in Scotland than since we left home! All sorted now but certainly the spirit of fighting in the air affected Ady and I!

Yesterday morning we had a leisurely start, packed the van up, put the awning away and the kids had a last play and explore with Jack, Maisie and Lorna. It was so lovely to see them all, it was like the last few months melted away and we’d been with them just the week before. I do miss Julie lots and Davies & Scarlett miss Jack and Maisie too.

We pulled away at midday with a plan to get as close to the campsite in Motherwell that we had booked for Saturday night and just pull off / find another campsite for the night. It was 250 miles to the campsite so we didn’t expect to get to it but were hoping for maybe 150 miles cleared before stopping. We drove for a couple of hours and everyone was getting hungry and the radio travel reports were getting increasingly hysterical – I think every motorway in the country had queues with it being towards the end of the summer holidays, the day before the last bank holiday and according to a snippet on the Chris Evans show in the morning the most popular day of the year to move house – all contributing to the roads being traffictastic! Once we learnt the M6 was actually closed with delays of over an hour we decided to pull off and spend a couple of hours in a retail park rather than a couple of hours sitting in traffic. We ended up in Preston in a very packed retail park indeed. Davies and Scarlett had been given money from Lynda so were rather delighted to spot a Toys R Us. With strict instructions to think about available space and us Living In A Van we went in. Davies found some Pirates of the Carribean lego and Scarlett some animal Playmobil. I found another of each to sneakily purchase for birthday gifts :). I got some flip flops and some more anti histimine tablets (Nic face keeps flaring, once we are settled I will definitely get it looked into properly) and we went into Brantano to try and get some Croc buttons as Scarlett’s croc strap has broken and a button can fix it. The woman presented both kids with a packet of about 8 each for free as they went on some shoes they had sold out of (Sketchers branded) so that was good :). We made sandwiches for lunch but treated ourselves to a cake each from Greggs. Next we went to Sainsburys for fuel and I managed to get a couple of bras as I killed one in the tumble drier at the campsite (underwire popped out 🙁 ) and we picked up a half price cigarette lighter to mains plug adaptor which will come in very useful for charging laptop and cameras while we’re on the road. The solar freeloaders work well for charging phones and DS etc but are not up for anything bigger. Feeling very retailed out we decided it was probably safe to hit the motorway again so headed back off.

The M6 was just fine by then and we chugged along at a steady 50mph meaning we were on track to arrive for 9pm so I rang the campsite to check if we could get in and they said we could if we got there before 930pm. This seemed easily achievable so we decided to head for there rather than start looking for somewhere to stop overnight which had been our original plan. We would have made it too except suddenly the motorway signs declared a road closure after Junction 9. We were diverted off the motorway, Sally Satnav getting in a right paddy with us and hit traffic 🙁 The minutes ticked by, the temperature on Willow got higher and higher and the outlook got bleaker and bleaker. We eventually pulled up at about 945pm. The campsite is on the wrong side of a 15mph with regular speedbumps which cause chaos in Willow even at 5mph. We thought we were scuppered and started discussing what to do next as the barrier was down and very securely padlocked. We thought perhaps just parking there would be the best option and going in as soon as it reopened in the morning. But Ady went to look at the reception office and there was a late arrivals telephone number so I put on my best helpless female scared in the dark voice and rang it, getting through to a burly sounding security guard who promised to come down and let me in :). He arrived a few minutes later, let us in, gave us keys to the toilet block and barrier and said to just see the reception in the morning about paying :).

We found a space, parked, hooked up to the electric and decided all was well with the world. We had bacon in the fridge so everyone said they’d be happy with pesto pasta with bacon. Ady cooked Davies and Scarlett’s first and so they were eating by about 1045pm and then the gas bottle ran out. This has been expected as we changed it over at the very first campsite we parked at before we actually started WWOOFing so we knew it was due but that was *not* the perfect time. Ady was convinced the correct tool was on top of the spare gas bottle though so he went outside to change it over. The tool was not there though, so I started unpacking the bench seat in search of the tool kit while he started rummaging about in the front (made harder as I had just moved all our bedding into the front so Davies and Scarlett could go to bed. The tool could not be found, the tool I found did not suffice so in the end the dinner was finished off on the little portable stove. We ate about midnight, the pasta slightly slimy from a lengthy half time break in the cooking, tempers frayed and a barage of questions from the bunk regarding errections and freckles being fielded. The wine finally kicked in and all was well with the world by the time we went to bed at 1am.

This morning the wine had worn off and when Ady confessed he had realised the tool he’d been searching for and swearing blind had been there earlier this week was infact still in the tool kit I’d told him to look in I was less than understanding and ranted, at length, about logic and order and lack there of in the van. It was quite fraught. Swearing may have happened. I may have gone to stand outside in the rain to calm down for a while. Fortunately while my rage may burn bright in the moment it rarely lasts for long so I went back inside again quite quickly 😉

Davies and Scarlett were on a promise for a KFC – the only real fast food I will eat and now their favourite too so we planned to walk into the town – Hamilton – and get that for lunch, find a jewellers as both my watch strap and watch battery were needing replacing and we needed to pick up something for dinner tonight.

The walk into town is about 3 miles, just over an hour and is mostly alongside the Strathclyde Loch which is very beautiful. Also on site is a themepark, M&Ds and various other water sports based attractions. M&Ds rollercoasters looked very good and had us all being wistful for the Wickstead weekend which we missed this year – the kids and I do love a good ‘coaster 🙂

In the town we had a quick peruse of the charity shops – very expensive and with nothing of interest, checked out Poundland – I got a very lovely little glass chopping board which is something I had felt Willow was lacking and we listened to a busking bagpiper for a while in full Scottish dress.

We had our lunch, the kids and I had a look round a Pets At Home store so Tarly could get an animal fix (she is hankering after a house rabbit, poor child is so pet deprived!) and we had a quick wander around the Low Parks Museum which was very good and had loads of interesting and interactive displays. There were lots of dressing outfits for kids which D&S made the most of 🙂

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while I took a call from Jill. We’ve been playing phone tag for the last two days and had finally caught up with each other. We’d been keen to see if we could stay with her in the winter but last time we talked she had found someone to move in already so we didn’t suggest it. She left me a message yesterday to say she now had accomodation if we wanted somewhere to stay though and that has fallen through. I suggested mid December for up to 3 months and she jumped at it with the idea that they can go on holiday and as it’s a quiet time maybe we can all get cracking with some exciting changes there which was precisely what we were hoping so it’s pencilled in and we’ll talk more over the coming weeks to sort out finer details. From our point of view it gives us breathing space over the cold dark months when living in Willow would have been a bleak option, the house is still rented out (and without jobs we couldn’t afford to live there anyway) and WWOOF hosts are hard to find, let alone ones with accomodation for four people so we would have been rather stuck. We did have contingency plans but this was our prefered option so we’re really pleased it looks like a definite possibility (not taken anything as guaranteed this far in advance!).

We called into Asda for some food for tonight before starting the long walk home again. We stopped to feed the swans – an old man kindly handed over his big bag of bread to Davies and Scarlett so they got mugged by arm breaking birds 🙂
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Back at the campsite we called in to pay (Ady had tried to pay earlier but they prefer cash so we had got some out in town) and put the awning up. It takes less than twenty minutes so was worth it even for the one remaining night as everyone else has sat out there this evening to eat and watched stuff on iplayer – I meanwhile have enjoyed the peace to laptop inside on my own :).

We had dinner, I ordered Davies’ birthday present and have enjoyed littering friendfeed with posts and comments. We’re slightly nervous about new hosts tomorrow, although we are now old hands enough that we probably shouldn’t be, but very much looking forward to this chapter of the adventure, particularly with the next chunk now taken care of so the scary ‘but what about when it’s snowing?!’ question answered we can relax and get the most out of this bit. Bring on the dolphins, Northern Lights, golden eagles, leaping salmon and gorgeous rugged landscapes, don your best tartan and fling like you’ve never flung before :).

I seem to have forgotten to blog! 🙂

Wednesday was a chilling out doing very little day for the adults. Julie, Lorna and I drove into Llangollen to do some supermarket shopping and pick up various odd things we wanted from the town – Julie’s list included dishcloth, veg peeler and socks for Jack, mine included trug to use for washing up and rock pegs.

The kids hung out at the campsite having a great time. I know 6 months isn’t really a long time but in the life of a child it can seem such and it has been fabulous watching the cousins all fall back into their easy, relaxed and close relationships and get so much joy out of each others company :).

We fell into a pattern of Julie putting Jack and Lorna to bed while we had dinner, then Maisie coming over to Willow to watch a film with Davies and Scarlett while Ady and I took our dinner over to Julie’s trailer tent to sit and chat. Maisie needs far less sleep than her siblings so that worked out well all round :).

Thursday was our last full day and we’d decided we would do the Horseshoe Falls walk. This was something we knew no more about that it being marked in the opposite direction along the footpath to the town. We had a relaxed morning of doing very little, ate lunch and then headed off.

The Horseshoe Falls turned out to be a rather disappointing horseshoe shaped large waterfall with a teeny tiny actual fall of about a foot! It was a nice walk along the towpath though and we enjoyed a clamber down some steep and rusty iron steps to the rocky banks of the River Dee where we scrambled about and slipped and slid. We thought we could reach the chain bridge so with Davies and Scarlett intrepidly leading the way, Jack and Maisie rather more nervously following in their wake and me clumsily bringing up the rear the five of us scrambled over slippery rocks while Ady, Lorna and Julie more sensibly stayed on the larger rocks and looked at the minnows and sticklebacks. Scarlett fell in to waist depth so was utterly soaked and we got within spitting distance (we didn’t check, but trust me it was that close ;)) of the bridge before realising not only was the bridge not operational any more but we couldn’t actually reach it after all and had to go all the way back. Scarlett waded on the basis she was sodden anyway. Davies marched on ahead, Jack and Maisie are not on the same spectrum of adventuring as my two but made valiant efforts to follow in their footsteps with a little assistance in retrieving lost flip flops and not being sure where to put their feet.

We eventually reached the Horseshoe Falls just as the gathering clouds decided to burst. Scarlett was starting to shiver and rejected my suggestion of taking her wet trousers off and walking in her pants with a sneering ‘I’ll look like a mentalist!’ I pointed out that actually she *was* a mentalist to which she replied ‘yeah I know that, but I don’t need to look like one too!’ I suspect there are elements of spending so much time in adult company this year that are both amusing and not entirely appropriate 😉

At this point I deduced that we must be about level with the campsite as the walk took us east and then double backed west, so declared that I would seek out a shortcut return to the campsite with now turning blue Scarlett. The others decided they would come too but were not walking nearly fast enough for my liking. I was chivvying Scarlett who had Maisie walking alongside her and was therefore chivvied too, Jack and Davies were behind me, followed at some leisurely pace by Ady, Julie and Lorna. I spied a footpath stating Vale Crusis Abbey which was where we were staying so guided the girls infront and the boys behind that way leaving the others to sort themselves out and ended up with the four older children. We marched onwards and upwards and found ourselves climbing up, on a rather narrow footpath through lots of bracken and ferns in the rain. Scarlett was chattering of teeth, Maisie and Jack are not used to such adventures but Davies and I worked together to get everyone moving along and suddenly realised we were high enough and in the right spot to be looking down on a rainbow. It was the most magical and amazing sight :). We all five stood in awe of it’s beauty, spread below us on the the opposite mountain and agreed it was worth all the climbing and getting wet :). We pressed on and finally caught the awaited glimpse of the Abbey. Slid down the hill and crossed the road and were back at the campsite.

I made hot chocolate for everyone and about half an hour later the other 3 finally arrived. Some of us showered to warm up and we parted to sort out dinners before reconvening for movies / chatting and so on.

Today deserves a blog post all of it’s own but it is 1am and I need to go to sleep so that will have to wait!

Jack and Maisie arrived at our van this morning while we were still breakfasting (acually I was still technically in bed but I was awake and in the process of putting make up on, so sort of up). Lorna joined them while Julie was washing up and then the four big kids set off to climb a mountain 🙂 We are surrounded in all four directions by mountains or very large hills and they had decided they wanted to climb one. So they set off with water supplies and a rucksack packed with essentials and Julie, Lorna, Ady and I put up Julie’s awning and then settled down to drink tea and chat. Davies kept me updated by phone on their progress including a picture message of the campsite from above and a little video message with all of them waving and reassuring us they were fine and well 🙂 Very cute and funny. They rang again to let us know they were halfway and could see Julie’s tent so we all went outside to wave to them and then again when they reached the actual top.

We made lunch for us once they had reached the top – and for Jack who had called it a day at the halfway point and come back down on his own. Jack was feeling ill so went for a lie down and fell asleep for an hour or so. The wanderers returned ravenous and victorious 🙂 so we fed them too. They didn’t stop for long and were off playing again within half an hour. Jack woke feeling a bit better and ready for a walk into the town.

We went along the tow path beside the canal and saw the ponies pulling the barges. Scarlett and Maisie spotted an eel and we saw loads of fish and ducks swimming along the canal.

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We had a good look around the town, checked out the charity shops, Julie picked up some bits in the wholefood store and the deli and we all had an ice cream. Scarlett was desperate to show Maisie the little gift shop she had so liked when we were here last all crammed with crystals and trinkets so I took the girls in there while Ady took the boys to the train station and Julie and Lorna followed at Lorna pace along behind. We caught up with them at the station just in time for the girls to run ahead and meet up with Ady and the boys to stand on the bridge while a train went under which they all loved.

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Amazing how different they all look in a group line up now (including the additional little one on the end!)
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We walked back slowly and then had a communal cook up of some bison burgers Julie had brought along and some beefburgers we had brought. The kids did some more roaming off and about and I caught up on phonecalls to my Granny and parents before having a last half an hour chatting with Julie and drinking some elderflower champagne that Chris had been given by the Roddick (as in Anita of Body Shop fame) family who he works for sometimes and Julie had brought along to share as her and Chris really don’t drink.

We’ve had lovely weather all day and it’s been fab hanging out and enjoying being with them all 🙂 It’s been a mad southwards dash really considering we are heading for Scotland but totally worth it to snatch a few days together, particularly in somewhere we are so fond of anyway :).

When Davies was little he couldn’t say Lynda, despite otherwise having no problem with the L sound. I remember sitting for ages with him saying ‘Llllovely Llllynda’ to no avail as he’d repeat back ‘Lovely Wynda’. He also used to say papple instead of apple, pappy instead of nappy and Tarlett instead of Scarlett (hence ‘Tarly’).

We were up and about early, loaded the van up, said our goodbyes to everyone and exchanged cuddles and promises to stay in touch and were extended offers to come back any time (yeah right! 😉 ) before heading off. We had a very good run down to Manchester and despite going wrong at the very last minute – one of those dangerous sitations where you theoretically know the way so turn the satnav off and wing it and go slightly wrong we were there just after midday. Stuart was out doing the trains (he is a volunteer on the steam train line and has been for years, doing every Wednesday since he retired, and I think one weekend in three) so we had lunch with Lynda and settled in.

We had a lovely afternoon mostly sitting in the sunshine in their back garden adn even had dinner outside before moving indoors. The kids were supposed to go to bed at 9pm as they have had so many late nights but they got engrossed in the Ocean Giants documentary so stayed up to watch that with us. We were all yawning and off to bed by 11pm and it was such a treat to be in a real bed, in a lovely friendly house with people we love.

I had a long chat with Lynda about what we might do next and whether we should go in with my parents, who she has met many times over the years and knows fairly well. Although she is always diplomatic about my parents she clearly has a strong opinion of my Mum in particular which is not terribly high and is always lovely and supportive about our choices. She said to me again that having known Davies since he was 2 she is all in favour of our decision to Home Educate and thinks he is a fantastic boy as a result and would probably have floundered badly in mainstream school. I think aside from Ady and I Lynda probably knew Davies best as a toddler and most understands our initial reasons for Home Ed. I leant very heavily on her when we lived in Manchester and she will always be a second Mum to me really so her praise and support means so very much, particularly as that is not always so forthcoming from my actual Mum.

This morning we breakfasted outside and Lynda foisted wrapped up muffins and other snacks on us for the journey, pressed £10 each into the childrens’ hands and noted down our movements in Scotland so she can try and arrange to come and meet up with us while we’re up there. They waved us off and we went to Tescos for food supplies for the week, the petrol station for fuel and headed off south again.

Our arrival was less than great as we walked into an argument with the campsite owner. When we rang to book I’d been confused by the pricing on the website which quoted campervans at £11.50 per night, hook up at £4.00 per night and awnings at £2.50 per night. It said that over 4 people would be charged at camping rates which were per person, so I took that as 4 or less would be £18 per night. I paid the desposit over the phone of £16 which was the hook up for the 4 nights but she quoted me a lot more as a balance which when I worked it out seemed wrong so Ady rang back to check. It turned out the over 4 people rule applies to caravans and for motorhomes it is over 2 people camping rates are charged so the kids should be paid for at £4 each per night – a total of another £32 for the 4 nights. Ady argued that the website was misleading and she agreed and said she would only charge us the van and hook up. We cancelled the awning and the balance due was £46. She promised to write that in the diary.

When we arrived though they tried to charge us for the kids and it all got very fraught as nothing had been written in the diary and she was very reluctant to let the £32 go. She got imediately very defensive – and I thought very rude – and tried to negotiate to ‘split the difference’. I was really hacked off and ended up walking away to let Ady deal with it as I could feel myself losing my temper and was prone to letting myself down. In the end Ady agreed we would pay for and have up our awning and not pay for the kids so paid £56. I still think it is a fairly pricey campsite – not far behind Rosemarkie which to my mind is exceptionally good as a campsite AND in a fantastically beautiful area.

We pitched up, the kids went off to play and eventually Julie & kids arrived. A plan was hatched with the kids for Davies to go and sleep in Jack’s little tent (Julie has a trailer tent but she sleeps in one bed with Lorna, Maisie has another bed and as Jack doesn’t want to share a bed with Maisie he has a little one man tent outside) while Maisie comes and sleeps in the van with Scarlett. In the end that was scrapped as Jack was super tired and went to bed early but I think that is the plan for tomorrow or later in the week.

We had a quick catch up but it quickly got dark and everyone needed feeding so we said goodnight and will have more time tomorrow. The awning was a real success with all four of us eating in it and the kids sitting to watch a film out there. It will mean we can leave the beds all down and just eat in the awning which will be far less wear and tear on Willow for times when we are full on living in her.

Looking forward to 3 chilled out days chatting to Julie and letting the kids have ball with their cousins 🙂

Feeling most friend sick today 🙁 Not only was it a meet up of some of my Feminist Parent friends it was also a meet up at Chris & Helen’s. I hope we were missed as we most certainly missed being there. We knew when we set off that we would miss out on some of the get togethers over the course of a year and of course overall the excitment of our adventure makes up for that but being in the same country and theoretically within travelling distance makes it hard to swallow not to be there really, even though time, finances and all sorts of other sensible reasons dictate it not being remotely feasible.

So today I managed to sleep in til 10am. There is something about this house that utterly drains me and I don’t sleep well either which means I really struggle to get up in the mornings. I am still stiff from the caving adventure (not to mention bruised in all sorts of random places) too. Ady had already disappeared so I snuck out of bed and downstairs where hopefully no one realised I had only just got up!

I got involved in laundry, drying up, chatting with Ruth and Janicke and then they headed out for the afternoon. I got lunch sorted, made some apple juice with the girls and Scarlett and then got really hacked off when I realised Ady and Andy had gone off our again. Ruth had been most adamant that she couldn’t leave the twins without Andy present and he’d buggered off leaving me with all the kids which is totally against all their codes and rules. They reappeared and ate with us and then we headed off to the Grumble Pail.

It was quieter both in terms of people and goods for sale this week but I picked up a couple of pairs of trousers for Scarlett, Ady got a couple of pairs of jeans, the kids bought a few pieces and then we walked to the little sweet shop in the village for some sweets. While we were out I got a text message from Lynda asking about our plans for the next few weeks incase we could catch up with them at any point. I replied with our movements for the next few days and Lynda suggested we drop in or even stay on our way to Llangollen tomorrow, which had not even occured to us. I rang Julie to check her plans which were all still in order and sent a speedy text back to accept! We didn’t really have any plans other than biding time here tomorrow so actually a night at Lynda and Stuart’s to break our journey to Wales, catch up generally and bring then up to date on the last 3 hosts will be great 🙂 Plus we get to leave here a day earlier than planned.

We came back to break the news and Andy invited Lynda and Stuart here which was very kind. Throughout all their fairly crap WWOOF hosting they have always been excellent hosts generally. We did a sort of communal barbecue which was fairly stressful as such styles of cooking often are as the people who put all the work in tend to get very little of the food but everyone got something eventually.

Andy brought his guitar out and played some songs and we all had a bit of a sing song which was lovely – I do love singing 🙂 A neighbour came over for dinner too and we all had a nice last evening including a late night chat with Alec who has been our favourite of the foster kids here. We got goodnight cuddles from the twins who will definitely miss all four of us and I had a tidy up of our bedroom and took one load of stuff down to the van.

Everyone leaves here at 945am to go to church so our plan is to head off at the same time. I’m already putting this host into perspective although I am the wrong / right? side of a couple of bottles of shared wine, a box of shared beer, a few glasses of Baileys so inclined to love everyone…

well I’m still getting wound up to be honest but it really is the final furlong here now.

This morning Ady mowed the front garden and then I took over the mowing in the back garden while he did some ditch filling with gravel. The grass was soaking wet though and the mower really struggled with it, to the point where it has actually died now! Yet another example of people asking WWOOFers to do jobs that they don’t actually have the correct tools to do them with. We did a fair bit of the lawn before lunch though.

The best news of the day is that my boots are all but dried out – I stuffed them with newspaper last night and they spent the morning outside in the sunshine and I wore them with very thick socks this afternoon which soaked up the last little bit of water :).

I processed some laundry, which is all now sodden out on the line as it has rained loads again this evening. I am fretting slighly that we will be taking a load of wet washing away with us although the forecast is for a dry day on Sunday. Fortunately the campsite does have a washing machine and tumble drier so we will be able to deal with it even if the worst happens.

I finished off the first cut on the lawn after lunch and then handed over to Ady to do a second cut all over at a lower cut level and came back to the kitchen to start on dinner. We did chicken curry, vegetable curry, rice, bombay potatoes, home made chapatis and a toffee apple pudding for dessert. So I was chopping veg and chicken and apples and getting everything going. Davies and Scarlett did some painting and drawing which is something they definitely miss doing as much as they used to of; although they both have art stuff with them it is not the same as spreading out and being really creative doing it on a small scale in the van.

Ady came up to help with dinner and we got the curries cooking, the pudding in the oven and then Scarlett and I made the chapatis. There were some ready made bhajees, samosas and nan breads to warm up and then the rice to get on. Everything came together and despite it all being very very mild for our taste it went down very well with one of the children declaring it ‘the best meal I’ve had here!’ which made me smile but went down less well with Andy and Ruth! 😆 Even Davies and Scarlett tried the curry and said it was nice but they would not want it any spicier.

I retired to our room for a bit after dinner and went down again when it was quieter for a cup of tea. I got involved in making some apple juice with the juicer but that was a real bugger to clean out and made such a lot of noise and mess I am definitely not convinced a juicer is worth the cupboard space! Davies was desperate for me to watch a film with him so he selected Nanny McPhee and he and I went and snuggled up in the TV room to watch it. One of the girls crept in along with us and then Scarlett, Ady, Andy and the other girl came in too so we ended up a full house. It was lovely to have Davies nestled in to one side of my and Scarlett snuggled on my lap – not having a sofa means not so many snuggled up on the sofa moments this year! 🙁

The kids all went to bed and Ady and I hoped Ruth or Andy would join us for a chat but they headed off to bed so we had a quick game of drafts and then came to bed ourselves. We had been planning to have the weekend off really but Andy has given Ady some jobs for the morning. We made it clear we are going to the jumble sale tomorrow afternoon though and Ruth asked if we were having Sunday off and we said yes so aside from a couple of hours work in the morning we are finished here, which is certainly a relief to me. There have been far too few jobs that have been interesting or anything to do with the type of work we should be involved in. Interesting people, nice food, pretty part of the country but definitely not one of our favourite hosts.

This morning the sun was shining again and we had breakfast out on the balcony which was just lovely :).

Ruth and Deborah joined us for a bit and on looking down at the garden Ruth mentioned the little spring that joins the river was choked with strimmings so we cleared that as a first job. We then did a bit more on the wall which is looking pretty good but does need some more different sized rocks to carry on with. I’ve really enjoyed having a go at dry stone walling, it’s definitely something I’d like to spend time doing with someone who can give me some direction / instruction in techniques but for a first go I am really pleased with the results and everyone has been down to admire it and say well done :).

We stopped for a cup of tea and then Andy reappeared with the chainsaw which had been sharpened so we headed down to chop up some old rotten railway sleepers which were just too big and heavy to move. The plan is to chop them into smaller chunks then burn them on a bonfire which offends me on many levels – firstly I think wood should never be burnt just like that – it can be used to give heat / light / cooking energy as an end resort but firstly should be used to build or make something with surely? Some of the bits are quite rotten but they have so much ground here, some of which is given over to woodland / wasteland that I really think they should leave the wood to rot down naturally and be a wildlife habitat – so many bugs and beetles make their homes in rotting wood.

I did get to have my first go with a chainsaw which was pretty cool though. Ady was super paranoid about me with it and very closely supervised me but I was hugely respectful of the amount of damage it was doing to the lump of oak tree and very aware of what it could do to me.

That pretty much took us to lunchtime so we headed up to join everyone else to eat. Andy had offered to take us caving today at 3pm so after lunch we washed and dried up and it seemed not worth getting stuck into anything much. Ady and the kids went down and did something in the garden and I stayed to help prepare dessert for tonight from the vast amounts of apples we picked yesterday. Todays plan was apple tart so I made the pastry and put it in the fridge to rest for later use and peeled loads and loads of apples.

Then it was time for caving. I rather stupidly didn’t listen to Andy advising wearing wellies rather than my workboots. He clearly said they would get wet inside but I ignored him and decided they would be fine. I was offered use of one of the many pairs of wellies they have here but all of them are too narrow to fit my fat calves and Ady said my own wellies were buried deep in the depths of Willow. I should have fetched them. I should also have fetched my own waterproof trousers as the ones I borrowed were fine around my waist but way too snug a fit for what came later…

We drove to the cave – upper and lower Long Churn (as reviewed here) and had a good half a mile walk uphill to even get to the cave entrance. At this point I began to realise I was not really suitably attired as my jeans were fallen down and I was ridiculously hot having asked Ady to grab me a jumper and been handed my warmest wooliest jumper which was making me really hot walkiing at such a pace.

The caving experience was excellent – Davies and Scarlett absolutely adored it. We splashed along in thigh deep water (so yes, boots soaked inside, now packed with newspaper and hoping for several very sunny days to dry them out), bumped our heads on the cave roof, admired stalactites, stalacmites, columns, scalloping on the cave walls, crystal formations, fossils, deep areas, high domes caverns and hollows, had places where we had to be clipped to ropes and do minor abseils and stopped to turn all our headtorches off and sit in pitch darkness. It was fab.

Of course, what does down must come back up and I had totally failed to think through that swinging down a rope must mean clambering back up again. Andy took me back to climb up the first bit so Davies and Scarlett could do the ‘cheese press’ a scrambling, comando style bit on their tummies. Unfortunately a combination of my waterproof trousers being way too tight – I took them off later as a complete afterthought and everything got *so* much easier, being fat and unhealthy despite 5 months of WWOOFing and having no climbing ability at all meant I simply could not do it. I could not get my feet into the footholes Andy kept insisting were there, even when he hoisted me up so I should have been able to reach them because my knees would not bend enough due to the trousers. It was frustrating for me feeling so useless and frustrating for Andy feeling that I was so useless!!! We called Ady to come and help and eventually with a combination of some sort of hoist method from Andy above and Ady shoving from below I did manage to get up. I felt utterly useless and pathetic though 🙁

Davies and Scarlett were superstars, waiting on their own in the cave while all this was going on. Davies then scrambled through the cheesepress and I managed to totally misjudge him coming across a drop and he fell down – about 6 foot!!!! He was fine – he had his hard hat on and fell into water and slipped more than dropped but it was bloody scary for both of us. I stood in it for Scarlett so I could just carry her down. Utter fail on my part all round there really 🙁

I took my waterproof trousers off at that point (channelling my inner Babs, although I did have jeans on underneath ;)) and found the rest of the clambers up way easier although I did still have some help from Ady and Andy but was gratified that Ady found them challenging too. Aswell as being hugely proud of Davies and Scarlett who were determined to do what Ady and I struggled with and managed it and then got to go infront and lead us out of the cave 🙂

We were underground for about 90 minutes altogether and although I had a really challenging time with that one area and will have all sorts of bruises to show for that tomorrow and my boots may take weeks to dry out it was incredibly exhilarating and I would definitely do it again. The caves are pretty scary and unforgiving places – this was the same cave that the big resuce had been from last week and I would not go without someone like Andy who could guide you properly . We are definitely spoilt for show caves now though and won’t be carrying out our planned trip to the local caves and paying £20 to be shown round small areas with walkways and safety gates. The kids are both determined to do more caving so we’ll have to look into how we can make that happen once we settle back down somewhere more permanently again.

We got back home and quickly changed into dry clothes to sit down for dinner. As we knew we would be later they had already done a first shift of dinner which meant we ate in a far more civilised fashion with just 6 of us which was nice given the usual 14 for dinner we are used to. After dinner we all had baths and then looked at our pictures of the caving and had a glass of wine or two before bed.

I’ll add pictures at some point.

This morning the sun was shining, which has been a fairly rare sight so far this August for us, although I know other areas of the country have been fine. Ady and Andy had collected loads of rocks from a neighbour earlier in the week and tossed them over the garden wall, they now needed to come down the hill to be used to build a wall.

Ady and I started by trying to roll them but there are too many places they could go the wrong way and cause lots of damage. We carried them for a while and also tried carrying them halfway each but then decided to try with a wheelbarrow. This was fun and meant we did some surfing down the hill clinging on to the handles of a very loaded wheelbarrow a few times! While we were working we were discussing what sort of hourly rate we’d charge for what is effectively just labouring and decided we’d probably not be prepared to do it at all. We are far from work shy but we didn’t leave a house and fairly decent jobs to spend our days doing stuff like this plus we don’t feel we have learnt anything from the jobs we have done here. I am also very cagey about being in a house that has so many social workers coming and going, so many children who are scrutinised and managed and watched for signs of abuse and have been taken from their parents. It worries me that ‘professional parents’ such as long term foster carers could be just too quick to decide they know best about things and have of course seen all of the worst sides of parenting gone very wrong. They keep offering to take Davies and Scarlett out with them and I keep refusing.

I suspect that we were either overheard talking or that some of the conversations we have had over the last couple of evenings about WWOOFing generally, how we had very clear objectives in setting out for this year and that we have been disappointed by previous hosts promising things in their WWOOF listing that have not really been accurate have sunk in and they are perhaps feeling bad about the lack of interesting or learning type jobs we have been given. I also have a sneaky feeling they may have had a look at our blog and realised we give a fairly candid report on each host after we leave… 😉

We were asked twice what time we wanted lunch (never been asked before) and that was a very jovial affair which Davies and Scarlett spent lots of time chatting to Ruth and Andy over after Ruth had mentioned to me that they don’t really talk to anyone here so I had primed them to do so loads for the last few days. Then Ady and I went and picked loads of apples. They have about five apple trees here, none of which have been touched for ages and all of which need some serious pruning and should have had the fruit thinned on earlier in the year. One of the trees was laden with fruit that although small was very ready so we picked several bagfuls to bring in.

Meanwhile Davies and Scarlett were playing down by the river making little worlds with dens and camps and stuff for their toys. They had a really nice time doing that and it was good to have them outside again after so many days rain forcing them indoors with just a TV, consoles and some Duplo for company.

We finished the day with some dry stone walling. Something I have never done before but have wanted to for ages. Unfortunately no one here has ever done it before either so we made it up as we went along but for once Andy seemed pleased with what we’d done and I enjoyed it.

We ate and as Andy was going out to a debrief meeting from the cave resuce last week he offered to drop us off on the way somewhere we could have a walk. So we had a couple of hours wandering around the nature trail on the Ingleborough cave estate which was very lovely. We saw bats as dusk fell and Andy picked us up again. We called into the local pub for a quick drink on the way home before getting back for bed for the kids and a quick round of Scattergories for us.

Finally we spent an hour or so

yes I know it’s only Tuesday, well probably technically Wednesday, but my experience at this host is very much hating it in in the mornings, feeling better in the afternoons and going to bed thinking actually everyone is lovely after all.

And it’s not just the wine, although I’m sure that does help…

Today I have done more door sanding. And it’s rained. And Andy has pissed me off. He is generally a nice bloke but is also very sexist, patronising and tells lots of unfunny, smutty jokes. And prefers Ady to me (which frankly after 18 years together is something I am used to most people doing but not quite so ouvertly usually!). He keeps talking to me like I am an idiot / little woman / about four years old and is more often than not wrong anyway. There have been about four examples of stuff to do with the doors I’ve been sanding when he has wandered over and said something which has been critical and then been proved wrong eg ‘you’ve put that door handle on upside down. Have you done both sides? Oh dear, I’ll get a screwdriver and take them back off for you’ at which point I suggest actually I am right and they are the correct way up and maybe he should check. He does, I am indeed right and he then sort of scuttles off without a word of apology. Today we were moving some very heavy glass panels and I made about four suggestions of more efficient / sensible / not so bloody stupid ways to do things which he either ignored or pooh=poohed and all turned out to be right. I am mostly settling for scoring points against him in my head but would quite like some actual recognition of my superiority 😉 And yes he is reducing me to rather childlike mentalities 😆

Davies and Scarlett came and helped me for a while which was nice. While we waited for the varnish to dry before we could turn the door over to do the other side we all mimed to the radio using our paintbrushes as microphones to sing along to Instant Reply. And we danced to Come On Eileen too (which Scarlett sings ‘poison ivy’ to instead) and stamped our feet lots on the decking which was fun. Ady did some standing on a roof clearing gutters, some lugging wood about and attempted to break a large chunk of wood with a sledgehammer until I pointed out the foolishness of it. Am I sounding like I might be being annoying at the moment yet? I suspect I am 🙂

We rehung the last door and I helped with dinner. After dinner the kids and I and then Ady played a couple of games and then the kids went up to bed and I decided to tidy out the games cupboards which Ruth had mentioned as a job which needed doing. That turned into a very festive hour of so with everyone joining in and a bottle or two of wine being opened as I sat on the floor pulling out games and then we played a couple of rounds of Scattergories which I’d not played before but enjoyed. Ruth, Yannica and I had a chat about books and authors and then it was suddenly midnight and we all headed off to bed. The door sanding has ended so I have no real idea what might be on the agenda tomorrow but as we are now at Wednesday I guess we are on wind down really.

This morning Ady and Davies went into Lancaster with Ruth who was doing the food shopping so they could visit Halfords for some dampstart for Willow. They ended up with an hour or so to wander round so also picked up a DS game for Tarly and a PSP game for Davies second hand too. Meanwhile Scarlett and I carried on sanding and filling holes in a door. It had started to get less rewarding as the door simply refused to come up well, but it was good to have some time with Scarlett who always amuses and entertains me with her incessant chatter. She had a most interesting and indignant take on the debate of the day on Vanessa Feltz sitting in for Jeremy Vine 😆

The others were back for lunchtime and an offer was extended to Davies and Scarlett to join Rochelle at the open air swimming pool in the next village. I was not happy about them just being dropped off as I felt expecting a 13 year old to be even nominally in charge of D&S is not fair and could potentially go wrong. In the end Ruth then said one of us could go along and I sent Ady as I didn’t really fancy sitting watching kids swim. Actually I should have gone and taken the kindle as I think he had a far nicer time sitting in the sunshine than I did continuing to sand and polish the door!

I was struggling to get it up the stairs on my own when one of the lads here saw me and helped me up the stairs with it and then then others got back from swimming in time for Ady to help me re-hang it. By then it was gone 4pm and I’d had enough so I took myself off to the bedroom to read for an hour or so while Ady did some more door sanding to make up for the fact he’d been out all day.

Dinner was fairly crazy as there is another child here this week on respite care – Chloe, aged 10 with severe Downs Syndrome. She is non verbal, very aggressive and requires round the clock supervision. She had to be fed and spent much of the time spitting it back out or mushing it into her hand. Also here was Andy and Ruth’s eldest daughter Yannicka who is staying for the week to help out with Chloe and Sarah and although I am sure very nice was very bossy and loud and I found rather annoying. Deborah is back with her son Jasrah, 11 and Alex had brought his toddler god-daughter Verity for dinner as her parents are moving house today. So we were 15 for dinner and it was bedlam!

Once everyone had eaten and operation clear up was in full swing (there is a washing up rota here) I adjourned to the balcony for some peace and was joined briefly by Alex and then by Ady. I went and had a bath, which Ady and then both kids had after me and I had some time in the bedroom with the laptop as the cables downstairs were being used. Rochelle came to join me for a bit and we had an interesting chat about WWOOFing, about travelling, about broadening horizons – a phrase she had never heard before so I explained, and what she thought she might like to do herself when she is older. The girls are really nice kids, actually I find all the teens here really good company and very interesting to talk to. Andy and Ruth do an excellent job of giving them constant, unconditional love and a real family home environment. It is certainly not without it’s frictions and shouting and arguments (which I hate being around but know are an everyday part of life with teens) but they are all refreshingly normal and seem like any other kids facing impending adulthood and dealing with it the only way they know how.

Ruth came down for a bit of a chat before she went to bed and Ady and I sat up chatting for another hour or so about what we do next. We’re trying to come up with various plans A, B and C as we are waiting on Jill for one possibility which would be our first choice but need a couple of back up options incase that doesn’t happen.

Pah!

Gone midnight and Davies is still wide awake!

This morning Ady and I did some more work on the bathroom door, we should finish it tomorrow, while Andy, Ruth and the girls were at church. We had a lengthy tea break and then they all arrived back from church. A bit more door sanding and it was lunchtime.

Lunch was leek and potatoe soup. We have certainly made up for not having eaten much soup before we started WWOOFing this year. Some is very good and has converted me to thinking I will in future eat more soup. Some is pretty dire and is frankly not fit to call itself soup. This was thankfully in the former category.

After lunch Ady went with Andy to the shop across the road which is a community run venture which Andy is the current chairperson of, to move some magazine racks about and have a general shuffle of some fixtures. I did the washing up and then sang some songs with Sarah, the little girl with CP who lives here. I went through my full repertoire of rain based songs as it was raining heavily all morning and then moved on to some sunny songs to try and encourage the sun to break through. I can’t take full credit for the sunny afternoon that followed but I am claiming some of the glory ;). Spending time with Sarah, who is almost exactly the same age as Scarlett has been A Good Thing for all four of us I think. Ady is excellent with her, happy to sit and read books to her and chat to her, I am less good and it is definitely not a calling for me and makes me ever more admiring of Ruth and Andy and friends (like you Sarah!) who work with disabled children but I am trying really hard and the odd times I feel I break through and Sarah actually engages with me and seems to enjoy me singing or chatting to her are very worthwhile moments. Davies and Scarlett have not really talked much to Sarah but I am very aware that they are taking in what her life is like and how very different to them she is, they have not had much exposure at all to severely disabled people generally, let alone children. Tomorrow another girl arrives here – a non verbal 10 year old with Downes called Chloe – for a week, along with Deborah and her son bringing the tally of children in the house to 8 – a real mix of disabled children, fostered kids with all sorts of issues, a child from a broken home and our two home ed kids – not a ‘normal’ one among the lot of ’em!

I did some more door sanding and then Ady arrived to say it was time to head off. I speedily got changed out of my rather sawdust encrusted jeans and hopped in the car – Ruth drives Sarah in a specially adapted vehicle to allow her chair to wheel straight in but it only has space for 3 other people including the driver so they go everywhere in two cars anyway, so we four went with Andy. It was a Fun Day at some local stables, where one of the lads they foster’s girlfriend works and was in aid of the local air ambulance service. It was pretty small with a cream tea stall, cake stand, tombola and raffle and three inflatable bouncy things. Andy very generously treated us to cream teas, we bought all the kids a cake and a go on the tombola and then Andy got all four kids (our two and the twin girls) in to the bouncy rides for the price of one so they had about an hour playing on them while we sat in the sunshine.

On the way home we stopped at the Big Stone for a clamber up and marvel and read of the information board and stunning view of the three peaks. It is very pretty if a bit bleak round here. I don’t love this part of Yorkshire like I do the bit where Jan and Jonathan live although it has a similar sort of wild beauty.

Back at the house it was nearly tea time. Sarah was very upset and in pain so we all took turns to try and comfort her and then sat down to tea. After eating Davies did some movie making with the camera on his psp and some duplo while Scarlett and one of the twins did some pond dipping and caught some newts. I notice the moon rising and looking very large and luminous so we all looked at that and Andy got his telescope out for a closer look which was amazing. Unfortunately as it got dark the sky clouded over again so we have still not seen Percy Wotsits. One day, one day…

The kids went to bed, I read a chapter of story to them having not read to them all week and then we chatted and shared a bottle of wine with Ruth and Andy until bedtime. Things seem to have settled down and I am happy enough with the work now. I still don’t think they are very WWOOF like in the jobs they have for us to do but it’s been a very cheap fortnight and they are nice and interesting people. Tomorrow we have to move rooms as we are in the room where Chloe will be sleeping but we are staying in the house. That strawbale house really was awful and we’d definitely not go in there again although D&S keep saying how much they liked it and would happily go back there again.

Today was our arranged day off. The weather was more or less on our side – I can’t believe how wet August has been, definitely the worst month of weather we’ve had so far. Very grateful to have been in a holiday cottage for the first week and a host for the second and third weeks where we are not expected to work outside in the rain. The final week sees us camping with Julie so we’re hoping it gets altogether more August-y for that!

We had some debate about whether we should head out on foot or van. I voted for van on the basis we could travel further, the weather need not hamper us and I thought giving the van a run would be a Good Thing after nearly a week sitting in the rain. As an aside I am on a campaign to do some of the driving currently having not driven at all since we were at Evergreen Farm way back at Easter. I hate the fact I don’t drive at all at the moment and although I am sure 20 years of driving will mean a few months off won’t be a big issue I don’t want to totally get out of the habit. Anyway I won and we set off, complete with packed lunch, in a reluctant to start Willow.

We headed for Ingleton which is the nearest big village, just over 2 miles away. This area is very rich in brown signs and Ingleton has loads of attractions including a Waterfall Walk, a couple of caves, an open air swimming pool (voted 52nd best in the world according to the sign!) and various other things. We parked up and paid for all day parking, only to realise it would have been half the price in the next car park along – d’oh! but did notice a sign saying ‘Jumble Sale 2pm Today’ in the community centre in the middle of the car park so decided to come back and try our luck there, being newly converted to the joys of Jungle Rails from back at our Glastonbury host.

We walked round the town, stopping at the olde fashioned sweet shoppe to choose a quarter of several things from the jars there. We did a big circular walk around there and then headed to the Waterfall Walk on the basis that if we had enough time to do that and get back for the Humble Bale we would, if not then we wouldn’t. It was too close with a suggested walk time of 2 and a half to 4 hours so we decided we’d come back later if we had time to do it and get back for dinner at 6pm after the Rumble Pale. So we walked along the river a little way, reading the various local history information boards as we went and spent a while sitting in the park chatting while the kids played, we walked slowly back to the van, via the Co Op and sat in the nearby park to eat our lunch before heading to the Jungle Sail.

We were in there for nearly an hour and a half, including queuing time as there were about 50 people all ready and waiting to get in, including a bloke who walked along side us having stopped to admire Willow and tell us about his ’84 Bedford he was doing up. He was admiring some of the parts on Willow and offered us £3000 for her if we wanted to sell! 😯 I think we spent about a fiver altogether – I bought a bag, two tops and a mini Cranium travel game. Davies bought a little leather bag, a couple of small toys and a drinking pouch, Scarlett got two soft toys and a drinking pouch and Ady got a pair of trainers, a pair of really warm socks and some DVDs. That spend also included a cup of tea and coffee and a very delicious cream meringue that was so huge the four of us shared it :).

It was by then too late to do the Waterfall Walk and be back for dinner so we drove out a little way to get petrol and then found a suitable carpark to put the awning up to test it. It had arrived earlier this week and we were really keen to see if it would work. Despite it being windy, lots of very suspicious looks from people trying to decide if we were gypsies moving in and setting up and the usual marital dischord that goes hand in hand with tent poles and anything that comes in a small bag we got it up and were able to ascertain that it will be perfect :). We packed it all away again and drove back to our hosts and managed to park in a really small space by way of my superior ‘right hand down’ instructions ;).

The house has been rather fraught tonight with friction between Andy and Ruth and the two teenage boys they foster which I find particularly hard to be around even though it is just usual teenage family stuff. Any sort of atmosphere or bad feeling like that just really makes me feel edgy but it is very educational to sit and witness it and be objective without feeling a default to either the parent or the childs side of things. I am close enough to the kids side to recall the feeling that the whole world is against you and your parents are just making things worse and close enough to the parents feelings of frustration with their children. I hope to be able to recall these feelings of tolerance, being able to see both sides and some level of empathy for the teens when I am the one in the middle of it myself with Davies and Scarlett… maybe I should write a scheduled blogpost reminding myself of that for about 6 years time 😉

Once the house had all gone quiet Ady and I sat with Andy and Ruth and chatted, and the men left Ruth and I up for another half an hour of chatting after that. She is interesting to talk to and made a few observations about me and my parenting which were fairly insightful and quite respectful which make me feel less like I am being judged here. It is hard to be around people who have fostered so many kids, dealt with so many difficult situations and seen the breakdown of so many family units and are actually paid to parent as their job and not feel as though you are being watched and evaluated but unless Ruth is incredibly polished at knocking people off their guard she is actually just another person doing the best she can do and totally upfront about her mistakes and failings.

Tomorrow we have been invited to go to church with them but have declined and will carry on with getting the door finished then there is some fun day at the local stables they are all attending and have invited us along to in the afternoon so it sounds like a nice easy day :).

It’s been a funny couple of days. I ended up in tears wanting to leave yesterday (although only Ady knows about that) and I’m struggling slightly here. I can’t decide whether it is here or me, or the coming to the end of the WWOOFing hosts really but I know all four of us are sort of pleased we only have three to go after this one. We did have four in Scotland with another three or four to contact to confirm dates nearer the time but one cancelled on us and we are all feeling three more will be sufficient and looking forward to some time off the WWOOFing rather than trying to find more to replace them and fill that zone up. We’re looking at a two weeks WWOOFing, two weeks off type situation for that last three months which feels like a good balance.

So, yesterday… my face had started to really itch the night before and Ady and I were both feeling pretty unhappy in the straw bale house. Conversly both Davies and Scarlett love it in there but it was definitely getting to us. I am fairly sure it was something in there that was setting off my face as it has definitely abated since we moved out of there.

First thing in the morning we had all been watching kingfishers on the garden pond. The river running through the garden had totally flooded and gone from being a gently trickling stream that Ady and I had been looking at on Tuesday and talking about wading along in wellies to a full on torrent that would easily carry one of us away, burst it’s banks and was over the middle bridge. The kingfishers nest must have been flooded and there were three of them on the pond, fishing out frogs and newts and generally hanging about. We assume parents and one young as it seems odd to see three together like that. So from previous sightings of kingfishers being simply the flash of vibrant blue and orange followed by ‘that was a kingfisher, oh it’s gone!’ we were able to stand and watch to our hearts content through binoculars as they were there all day long.

We all donned waterproofs and walked down to look at the river, follow the footpath to a waterfall and then walk around the village and see the bigger river rushing along and flooding the road. We got back for a cup of tea and all was well with the world. We took off a door which Andy and Ruth wanted sanding and varnishing and Ady started on that leaving me without anything to do. When I asked for a job I was given ‘tidying up the garage and workroom’ which was entirely too vague and Andy even said ‘well I’m not sure how really because I know where everything goes but start by sweeping up and I’ll come back’. So I swept, cursing under my breath and getting more itchy faced by the minute as I moved great clouds of dust about the place. I finished that and struggled to find a dustpan, then asked for the next job and was told to measure the stair treads and see if there was enough carpet on the roll to carpet the stairs. I wasn’t even sure which of the three flights in the house was meant, struggled to find a tape measure and by then Andy had disappeared back upstairs and was in a meeting with Ruth and one of the social workers (they have five foster kids here all with social workers having meetings every six weeks) so I didn’t feel I could interrupt again. So I cried at Ady instead 🙁

I get really frustrated that so many hosts don’t really seem to know what to do with us when we are there, that the jobs they give us are menial, tedious and not related to WWOOFing type tasks at all. I don’t really know what the answer to that is and I can’t quite decide why it gets me so upset but it does and I start to think about how much an hour I’d charge for my time if someone asked me to quote for these sorts of jobs and I get even more upset. Anyway I calmed down, Ady offered to carry on with the job list and I took over the sanding and we agreed to ask to move out of the strawbale house.

This (surprisingly, I was worried about the dust from the sander making my face worse but it didn’t affect it) made everything seem brighter and lunch was called soon afterwards and we arranged to move into a spare room in the house. After lunch Ady carried on with the tasks on the job list (things like fix roller blind in bathroom and other such household maintenance type tasks) while I made up some filler for the holes in the door from sawdust and wood glue and filled all the gaps.

That took us to the end of our working day (we have fallen into a 10 ish to 4ish type pattern). We helped out with dinner, got the kids settled into bed and then brought out a bottle of wine to share with Ruth and Andy. Ruth and I stayed up later chatting about Home Ed, autonomy, parenting, fostering, why I don’t think we should be registered and monitored as HEors but can see her viewpoint as a long term foster carer who does indeed see the worst case scenarios of parents not getting it right. Interesting stuff.

I slept much better in the room, as did Ady and today all has seemed brighter and not so full of woe. I think it was a blip on my part with various contributing factors meaning I lost my sense of perspective on things a little. I do really hate tidying and sweeping though (yes and gardening and weeding, I know :oops:)

This morning we sanded down the door again where it had been filled and then gave it three coats of varnish with wire wool finishing after the first and second coats, then I put the door furniture back on and we re-hung it. Ruth was so pleased with it she gave us both a hug and kiss! Andy took the bathroom door off which I am now working on. It is far worse than the lounge door for paint left on it (they are reclaimed doors that have been dipped but still have lots of residue on them and holes that need filling) but it is better nick generally underneath.

We did a bit of salad and pea harvesting for lunch and dinner and then helped test the solar panel we constructed earlier in the week. It leaked 🙁 The silicone had not hardened off as it was not getting contact with air so it failed to seal it properly. We have dug that out and cut off the leaky edge and have plans to try again with that next week. Davies and Scarlett appeared for part of that so got involved in the testing and understanding how the principle worked, if not seeing a finished and working example. They also both had a go at sanding.

Ady went off with Andy to a neighbours property to collect from rocks and stones for some stone walling we’re doing next week while I carried on with the door. I think accepting that this will be a very mixed bag host task-wise but that they are lovely interesting people and now we’re in the house rather than the straw bale house things will be better I can easily manage the second week. Davies and Scarlett are enjoying it here and it’s sparking all sorts of interesting conversations about foster care, different ways of living and disabilities, special needs and so on so there is definite value here for all sorts of reasons.

After dinner Ady and Andy slipped off for a pint in the local pub when they gave a lift to one of the boys here somewhere and then Davies, Scarlett, Ruth and I played a game (Labyrinth) while Ady played another game with the two girls. The kids all went up to bed and we had a second beer and a further chat before calling it a night. We are potentially off tomorrow although we have said we’ll see what the weather is doing as it looks as though we will only get the one full day off and then various bits off here and there so don’t want to waste it on a rainy day when finer days are forecast and we could get the door finished.

It has tipped down with rain non stop here today. I think the comment about us already doing all the planned work might actually have been true as at gone 10am we were still sort of kicking about waiting for someone to ask us to do something. Eventually we suggested to Andy that we go and restack a wood pile which had fallen down and we’d walked past on our first day and offered to do, so he agreed and said he’d come and find us. We stretched that out while we listened to Popmaster and then went inside to find Andy who said he wanted some help with making a solar panel.

This was really interesting – an idea from a friend of his to make solar panels to heat water. It involved ‘reading’ Andy’s blueprint plan and sealing and plugging various holes on a sheet of corolux, inserting tubes and then glueing on edges. We’ll know by the end of the week whether it has worked when it is all dried and ready to test. Andy reckons the materials and time cost about £100 which is about a tenth of what a panel that size would cost if bought from a manufacturers. We then helped put a shelf up in the bathroom just because we were downstairs with the power tools and it was a two pair of hands job. We also helped clean out the filter for the drinking water that is pumped up from a spring and moved a very heavy glass panel.

By then it was lunchtime which was lentil soup – but perfectly edible ;). As we finished eating Andy got paged to attend a cave rescue locally – one of the many fingers in many pies he seems to have is being on call for that. Due to not having thought of the next task for us he told us to have the afternoon off!

Davies and Scarlett had been playing with duplo in the TV room anyway and have had a nice day but are craving fresh air so hoping for a fine day tomorrow as they have plans to make a den in the woodland near the river. Ady and I set up the laptop in the kitchen and booked a few nights in various campsites – we’re meeting Julie for a week in Llangollen and then working our way up to our first host in Scotland. Deborah (Ruth’s sister) came and sat with us and we talked to her for ages about Home Education, travelling, WWOOFing and buying land and living in communities.

We then got involved in cooking dinner as the twins were supposed to be in charge but kept wandering off. We were 14 for dinner again and that was without Andy who was still missing in cave resuce action. Ady and I spent some time this evening upstairs but only the girls were about really so we have retired early and I spent some time looking at photos with Scarlett while Davies watched a film.

It’s quite challenging being somewhere without set hours where they tell you to ‘just work whenever you want’ as you are unsure whether you are working harder than you need to or not hard enough… on the basis that neither of us are particularly work shy and everywhere we have been hosts have seemed pleased with what we have done we have worked at our usual pace and were tonight told ‘well you’ve already done everything we had planned for you!’ with a laugh 😆

After Ady fretting about sleeping in the straw bale house he and the kids were out like lights last night leaving me the one struggling to sleep. I couldn’t really pinpoint why as I was not cold, uncomfortable, worried, hungry or any other reasonable reason so eventually decided it must be that I needed a wee so got up to do that after lying there for ages. When I got back into bed I checked the time at just aftere 230am and then finally did fall asleep so was most reluctant to wake with the alarm at 8am! In the end I sent Ady off and told him to come back for me in ten minutes. He woke me at 9am and I woke the kids – as 10am seems a perfectly acceptable start time for us here we will stick with that and I won’t stress about getting up early tomorrow either.

We breakfasted and then offered to get on with the mowing / strimming again and have actually finished the whole lawn today with Ady strimming and me mowing. The first really hard days work in a while and I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed every moment and didn’t spend time deciding how much I’d charge for mowing per hour if it was my real job. I also took a slightly irrational dislike to the mower which was tempremental (another tool that really isn’t up to the job we are asking it to do – why do so many hosts have that?) and at one point caught myself sticking two fingers up at it when it finally started after being a real pig. I have callouses on both hands and a very sore hand from pulling that bloody starter string, not as hard as Ady pulled it this morning though when he sauntered over to patronise me struggling to start it and yanked it so hard it snapped! 😆

We had morning and afternoon tea breaks and lunch with Andy as everyone else was out for most of the day. Davies and Scarlett have done some chatting to various people here, some watching films, some playing with lego and lots of crazy dare devil go karting up and down the hills. This evening we had a lovely time chatting to everyone particularly Andy and Ruth who travelled round the world with their two daughters for over a year when they were just 1 and 3, sharing stories, recounting adventures and discussing the highs and lows. We also talked about fostering, caring for disabled children and general life story swapping. All interesting stuff.

I think we will learn very little in the way of new skills from our WWOOFing tasks here but lots from spending time in the company of these people.

Sunday We slept in and despite planning to leave for a walk and take lunch with us managed to take so long to get going that we ended up eating lunch before we had a walk. I was finding Scarlett a bit challenging – she is so infrequently hard work (or maybe I am over tolerant of her, although that is something I wouldn’t usually dream of accusing myself of I am aware I can be more indulgent of her than probably anyone else in the world…) that I tend to jump all over her when she does something I consider worthy of a telling off. She was doing lots of whinging, asking for things she knew we couldn’t give her (the rent has been late again this month and we were down to just a few pounds until it went in. As it happens it has now been paid but we were not sure of that so were being cautious and refusing to buy things like ice creams), getting really stroppy with everyone about not getting her own way and being rude and impatient with us all, and instigating squabbles with Davies. It is clearly caused by over tiredness, over exposure to TV / games consoles / huge amounts of adult attention / being able to eat and drink whatever she wanted all of last week but became super apparent once we were back in the tiny confines of Willow. Davies has also been marginally testing – he gets so utterly over fussed by my Mum and was playing on that rather and starting to dwell on what he doesn’t have (as in all his toys, the latest lego, trips to the cinema to see the couple of films currently out he would like to watch) rather than what he does have. So I exploded rather at them and asked them to think about what is important to them and whether they are wanting to carry on with this year or start to head back for home and conventionality again. The replies were speedy reassurances that they want to be doing what we’re doing. We had another incident today which I’ll mention later after which we had another chat and really I think it was the release of the pressure of always being ‘on’ – either with hosts or with my parents, which is pretty intense and I know I struggle with at times so totally understandable. It’s odd doing something like this as you still have the same parenting issues and dilemmas but have to approach them in a different way and quite possible over-think and blame quite normal kid behaviour on their quite exceptional circumstances.

Anyway, once we’d eaten we headed off to the beach. It was the Morecambe Sandcastle Festival on Saturday and Sunday which we’d not explored on the previous day so headed for on the Sunday instead. We walked rather slowly along the beach though, taking in the fantastic bird displays on various railings – there are metal painted seabirds of all sorts all around the town and they are lovely. There are various other art installations including statues of Eric Morecambe and a moonwalk which we didn’t do but looked really interesting.

When we eventually reached the site of the sandcastle competitions that had all finished but we were able to view the entries; some of which were really good, others rather more amateur and this inspired Davies and Scarlett to do some of their own creating a little further down the beach. Ady and I sat on the rocks watching, chatting and listening to the band who were playing as part of the festival entertainment. Their repertoire was rather limited to Ricky Martin songs (most of which they sang at least twice), classic summer songs such as ‘Hey Baby’ and ‘Feeling hot, hot, hot!’ and a few Amy Winehouse tracks which were actually quite good as the female singer had a nice voice.

We ended up sitting there for over 3 hours as the kids first built a very intricate sandcastle and then constructed an elaborate series of walls to try and defend it from the incomming tide. Ady and I had bets about how long it would take and I made a sand ladybird and a sand seagull and a set of markers to time the tide. We also had a very silly game of tag which D&S seemed oblivious to but I was aware of catching the attention of another few adults on the beach 😆 Eventually we pried the children away and set off back to the campsite. We called into the Co Op on the way for some dinner supplies and thanks to the reduced to clear section and a few special offers managed to get some real bargains meaning we could also have a bottle of cider, an ice cream each for the kids on the way home and a tub of cream to go with a tin of fruit cocktail we already had in the van :).

We had dinner, I read to the kids and had a long catch up phonecall with Julie who had been expecting a call last week but I’d not managed it due to no signal. She is coming up with the kids in a couple of weeks and we’re having a few nights camping with them in North Wales before we head to Scotland which will be fantastic – we’re missing them and they are missing us, five months is way too long!

Today We set the alarm and got up, fed, packed away and on the road just after 9. We struggled slightly to find this place but eventually tracked it down and were given a lovely warm welcome from Ruth, Andy and twins Rochelle and Hollie. This is a big (nine bedroom, four storey) house in North Yorkshire (near the border though) sitting in 2.5 acres of land including some woodland, large gardens, a river running through, veg patch, chickens. The original house was a large 70s house that has been extensively extended and changed and is now just stunning. Andy and Ruth have two older (in their twenties, no longer living at home) daughters and are foster carers; currently to five children with a sixth due here for respite care next week, another two or three here unofficially and a grand total of something like 42 children over the last 20 years altogether. The current residents are 13 year old twin girls, a pair of brothers aged 16 and 18 and an 8 year old girl with cerepral palsy who is totally immobile and has no speech. Very humbling to meet a child almost the identical age to Scarlett who cannot even really hold her own head up and is fed by a tube watching my daughter leaping on a trampoline, paddling in the river and wolfing down her food at the table.

Also here at the moment is Ruth’s cousin who has a broken foot so has extended her visit from Amsterdam but is leaving this week, Ruth’s sister who lives in a bender in the garden and makes the most amazing art from recycled and waste materials – in our bunkhouse there is a very cool lamp made with a plastic water bottle base stuffed with plastic beauty product packaging. It’s like staying at the Dumping Ground in Tracy Beaker! There were 14 of us for dinner tonight and various other people dropping in and arriving and coming and going all the time.

We’re staying in a straw bale bunk house just off of the main house. It has a musty, damp smell to it but it’s not actually cold or damp. It has mains electric and lighting, a table and chairs, and a funny bunk bed system of a platform just off the floor with a double and single mattress, then another platform suspended above that with another double and single mattress that can be pulled up when not in use. It is very basic but perfectly cosy and comfortable. Ady is slightly freaked out by the stains on the mattresses but we have covered them with clean sheets and are instide our own sleeping bags, using our own pillows. He is also not liking the no curtains on the windows but we’ll bring some fleece blankets in from the van tomorrow to drape at the windows to combat that. The kids think it is cool and are fast asleep from a full day playing and I am very relaxed and enjoying the idea of yet another interesting place to tick off having slept in.

I think the work here will be fairly random – today we did some mowing and strimming and have already been told there is some painting to do, some wood store stacking and maybe wood chopping, some helping to assemble solar panels, some building and stone walling. But we’ve been told we can make our own hours and work when we like and offered adventures like going caving one afternoon with Andy (caving is one of his hobbies), walks around the area, a trip to the open air swimming pool, going to the cinema etc. so although we will undoubtedly be lacking structure and roughing it a bit with sleeping arrangements we will certainly not be worked to death and there are some really interesting people here to hang out with and chat to.

Ruth and Andy are really involved in the local community and help run the local shop which is co operatively owned by the village and run with volunteers working in it, play music at the local pub and are heavily involved with the church too. At 830pm the wine bottles came out as I get the feeling they may do most nights and they seem very interested in Home Ed and love the fact that D&S were off playing in the river and clambering up trees as none of the foster kids here play like that or ever have done so were quite enchanted by as they put it our ‘swallows and amazons children’ :). I think it will be an interesting one :).

God my parents can be annoying!!!!!

First the rant then 🙂 Ages and ages ago we decided that a holiday cottage rental would be a better plan than a B&B for them when they came to visit us. They end up paying at least £60 a night for B&B and then spend loads of money on food because we eat out when they visit as we are so rarely in a place where we can actually cater for them and entertain them – either with a WWOOF host or simply at a campsite in Willow which isn’t really big enough to cook and serve dinner for six, let alone clear space for the feline swinging after dinner entertainment! About a month ago I started getting twitchy about it not being booked so spoke to my Mum, did some googling and emailed her a load of links for suitable places. She did nothing 🙁 I rang to remind her a week or so later and she assured me she was dealing with it, that she would ask for help from someone at her work if she couldn’t sort it out and was also going to ring my Dad’s cousin who lives in the Durham area (where we would be) and deal with it. Nothing more happened 🙁 Eventually we arrived at our host who was off grid so technically couldn’t actually get online to do anything any more. As it happened we were able to charge up laptops but as any payment needed to be done online to book something we couldn’t book anyway. This situation went on and on until finally the night before we were due to leave and my Mum had merely managed to book two nights in a city centre (with limited parking) Holiday Inn for her and Dad I relented and found somewhere, rung them to check availability and left a message for them to ring my parents back. That was duly booked and as they were paying for it from Saturday anyway it was arranged that we would go there on the Saturday and my parents would go to the Holiday Inn, spend some time with Dad’s cousin and then join us on the Monday. This is such an example of my parents ineptitude for organising anything! I really should manage my own expectations better and usually I do because actually they are no different now to how they have always been and if these things bother me then I should just do the sorting out and make my peace with it, but I didn’t and I got cross instead!

Anyway…. 🙂

Saturday: morning we packed up the yurt, fed the chickens and loaded Willow up. This always takes way longer than I expect it to and I get grumpy because once I am leaving somewhere I want to get going rather than stringing it out. We left a note for our hosts and actually did see Matt and Pip to say goodbye to. We rang my parents to check on their progress as they were intending to leave home early and meet up with us in Durham for lunch before heading to their hotel in Newcastle. They were doing really well having left nice and early so we headed south on the A1M while they were heading north and talked on phones to work out the best place to come off and meet. We ended up having our reunion in Durham services and then decided to drive along the nearest A road and find the first suitable place for lunch we could. That happened only a mile or so along at The Old Mill Hotel which was easily the best meal out we’ve had in a very long time, the food was delicious and the service was really friendly :). We said goodbye to Mum and Dad again (who had a really nice evening and following day with Dad’s cousin Dorothy and her family, so they were really glad they had made the effort to go to Newcastle) and headed to the holiday cottage.

Thanks to missing the M6 turn off and so taking a parallel route which was much windier and slower, if not actually any further it was quite a long journey. We did drive through Kirkby Stephen which I had recalled as having a converted chapel Youth Hostel that had always looked very pretty (but not big enough for our camp bookings) on the website and was indeed very pretty in real life and signs for the waterfall that Kirsty had been to recently. And we had sherbet lemons and our collection of tapes with hits from the early 90s which took me back to my clubbing days to keep us going though :).

We arrived at Silverdale where the holiday cottage was and found a Co Op for some food supplies before tracking down the actual cottage. It had been arranged that the door would be unlocked for us so we didn’t need to see anyone to check in (the owners on site are actually retired and the business is now run by their daughter who lives nearby but is not always around, I think they prefer guests to be fairly self sufficient unless they really need anything). The cottage was nice enough although I think we may have been spoilt by Jill’s cottages as we found it very poorly equipt. There was nothing in the kitchen at all – no tea, coffee, sugar etc. no soap in the bathrooms, just one roll of loo paper in each toilet. As we were in the van none of this was an issue for us as we carry all sorts of things like that obviously but usually in a holiday cottage I’d expect at least a starter pack of tea /coffee and a spare roll of loo roll too. The cottage was ‘upside down’ with the bedrooms and bathrooms on the ground floor and the kitchen, dining room and lounge upstairs. There were two double bedrooms, one with en suite shower and bathrooom (my parents), one single bedroom upstairs and one downstairs. Davies and Scarlett, most amazingly did not leap at the chance for a bedroom each and refused to be parted, particularly by a whole floor so were given the choice and decided to be upstairs.

We’d decided to do nothing other than relax in a large space for the evening so had readymade pizza for dinner, a bath each and then ended up watching documentaries on the TV – the kids were up til midnight watching something about the start of the universe which was excellent and educational but very slack parenting ;).

Sunday: we got up late and set off in search of mobile phone and internet signal as we had neither at the cottage. In many ways this was hugely annoying – I’d been really looking forward to catching up with blog posts, flickring and various other online stuff. In other ways it did mean we spent more time not plugged in which I guess is always good. We walked through the woodland next to the cottage and finally arrived at the beach where Ady and the kids played at crab catching while I did lots of online stuff. We walked back to the cottage via the village for a couple of dinner ingredients we’d forgotten the night before and some chocolate to sustain us for the rest of the walk :).

Dinner was roast chicken, stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, yorkshire pudding, gravy – the lot! All the things we had been so missing 🙂 The kids went to bed slightly earlier and Ady and I watched a documentary about Amy Winehouse.

Monday I needed to check emails again as I’d written a sponsored post which was awaiting approval and I also needed to see the state of our bank account. I walked into the village – getting lost on the way through the woodland – and went to the little branch library there. It was very charming and the village generally reminded me of the Vicar of Dibley. While I was in the library about 3 people came in and out and all of them chatted and included me in their conversations, which was sweet but very distracting! I had a talk with the librarian about libraries generally which made me slightly nostalgic for my old job. I was able to check emails and find the article had been approved – the person said it was a ‘wicked piece of writing’ which I took to mean she liked it and was very young rather than it was written with evil intent 😉 😆 – but that the security on the library internet wouldn’t let me log in to any site requiring passwords so I couldn’t actually publish it, check my bank account or get into blogger.

I walked back, stopping every few paces to check signal on the mifi until I found somewhere I could get online. I tried in the church yard, a bus shelter and a park bench but finally found somewhere on the bank of a footpath up into the woods and installed myself there for an hours tucked up against a tree furiously typing away. I was visited by a farmer on his tractor checking I was okay and three people walking past. I’m fairly sure they all discounted me as a nutter when they realised I was on a laptop, sitting on soggy ground halfway along a public footpath in a field but I am quite used to being considered a nutter these days 😆

I got lost again in the woods on the way back to the cottage and arrived in time for lunch – home made rolls (I had made myself in the morning) with homemade chicken soup (made by Ady from the previous dinner leftovers). Having explored some of the cupboards in the cottage we had found that there were four puzzles, all marked as having several pieces missing on the boxes, so I decided for want of anything better to do I’d start one of them. I chose a 500 piece blue tits eating strawberries picture which had six pieces missing and was very proud of finishing it in under 24 hours :). Little things …

Ady and Scarlett went out for a walk in the afternoon leaving Davies and I at the cottage. As we didn’t know what time Mum & Dad would arrived (and couldn’t ring them to find out!) I hung around and did more puzzle while I waited.

They finally reached us and Mum & I popped out for food supplies. We had a very late dinner of lasagne which set the tone for the week being with very slipped mealtimes.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are all slipping into each other so I think I will just round them up really. We had several walks through the woodland again and never managed to take the same path twice. We went to the beach a couple of times, seeing both very low and very high tide and doing more crab hunting, stone skimming and internet using. We went to the village a couple of times, nearby Carnforth a couple of times and Lancaster once. Dad and I completed a 1000 piece puzzle we bought for 50p from a charity shop but ended up having 3 pieces missing. We finished it just as we were supposed to be leaving the cottage this morning :). We ate lots, drank lots, baked bread every day, made a birthday cake for Dad to celebrate his 73rd birthday today, saw loads of wildlife including deer, crabs, toads and frogs, butterflies, a sloworm, various birds including woodpeckers, kestrals, buzzards, cormorants, different gulls, geese and did loads of walking.

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It was a predominantly lovely week. My Mum irritated me a fair bit, we had some very heavy talks about what happens next which were not totally resolved and I know us four left more tired than we arrived thanks to late nights, lots of looking after my parents with food and drink and far more drinking than we are used to these days BUT it was a lovely area, it was good to spend proper time with them, nice to have use of a kitchen and a bath and a real treat to have the place to ourselves for the first two nights :).

Today: Dad and I had stayed up til nearly 2am trying to finish the puzzle so we were pretty tired this morning. We packed everything back up, gave Mum & Dad some more stuff (including our tent which we had decided we didn’t need any more but feels like a big deal to have gotten rid of – it was our emergency home!) to take home. We’d booked a campsite yesterday for tonight and tomorrow – cheap, nasty and slightly rough but cheap, in the right place and with hook up and most importantly mucho signal for mobile and internet :). We got here within about half an hour and the bloke let us pitch up depsite it saying we couldn’t arrive til after 2pm and it only being 1130am. We had a cup of tea, snaffled an emergency packet of cheese biscuits between the four of us and then walked into Morecambe. It’s a very typically northern seaside town – a slightly seedy air about it and depsite it being peak season there is a lost and left behind feel to it too with lots of the shops and hotels boarded up 🙁 The town was full of people smoking and I heard about five children being threatened with smacks within about half an hour! 😯 We walked all round before heading back which felt like a huge walk by the time we arrived back at the van although I am sure it was no more than 5 miles round trip. A little girl came to call for Scarlett to come and play which she was rather reluctant to do but did in the end. She is not one for making friends without Davies really and I don’t think she actually talked to the girl much but she was clearly interesting enough to be called for again later in the evening :). We had dinner of leftover lasagne from a dinner during the week. I caught up with Jill on the phone and am finally now caught up with my blog so I can start tomorrow ready to blog the day on the actual day :).