Fires, not buckets!

Back to the pattern of the week with a vengence today :).

We kicked off with a Winter Walk (UK). I initially forgot all about the (UK) bit but was reminded by Merry and will endeavour to remember to hug my country when talking about all future Winter Walks.

We went to Pulborough Brooks which is a RSPB site. A group of local HE folk meet there on the first Monday of every month and Julie has been attending for ages but we’ve always been Magical Mondaying so not gone before. I think if we aim to go every month we might as well get RSPB membership as it’s about the same price as a monthly trip there but today I had a coupon from the local paper giving me free entry anyway. It is a circular walk with 3 hides along the way and plenty of illustrated information about the wildlife you might see in each season and you can borrow binoculars, spotter sheets etc. too.

There was Katie and her two children – I’ve met her at various times and like her, she reminds me lots of HelenHaricot for lots of reasons, which sort of predisposes me to like her, so it was nice to catch up with her and her two. Fiona who I met once before at another walk back in the summer and clicked with straightaway so it was great to see again and talk some more; her two are 3 and nearly 5 so a bit behind me and mine but she is looking rather set to follow in autonomous footsteps so it was good to chat about that a bit. Julie was there with Jack and Maisie although they were late so caught us up about halfway round. There was a mother with a youngish boy (maybe 3, he spent a lot of time on her back) who I didn’t do much more than exchange smiles and hellos with and then a couple with a host of children from tinies to a 9 year old boy. I only realised after they had left that they are people I have been aware of online for about 6 years and never realised were local (actually something of HE heros of mine, almost up there with the F-Ws!) but apparentely they are regular attendees so I’ll make a beeline for them next time.

Davies and Scarlett ran off ahead, taking any other likely to run off ahead children with them which was nice. I was very fortunate in being the only mother who came away without having to tend to a wailing child even once. They didn’t fall over, slip in mud, complain about being tired or hungry, ask to be carried or clamber into places they couldn’t get out of again, which every other child seemed to managed. At one point I stopped to listen to some Canada Geese flying low overhead and honking madly only to realise I could hear four different children from our party all crying! 😆 This was solely due to the ages of D and S I think rather than anything else but it did make me wonder quite why parents are so desperate to drag their children into pursuits / games / toys / situations that are clearly too old for them. I have been more than guilty of this myself in some things, certainly D and S possess things that were bought for them way before they were ready or interested in them but I don’t think I’ve ever subjected them, or more selfishly and importantly me, to days out that have held nothing for them.

So they got loads out of it really. Scarlett was very into spotting as much as she could; she found a rabbit skeleton

and identifyed it as rabbit herself then speculated about how it might have died; fox dinner, old age, being too big to fit into it’s hole. Julie and I liked the idea that in any one of these given scenarios Bright Eyes would have been playing softly in the background. 😆

She also found a branch with very interesting looking poo on it. I thought it was probably owl poo

She was very impressed with the deer we managed to get pretty close to:

and she utterly charmed the seasoned ornathologists in the hide with their long lenses and hard country ways into pointing out all sorts of things to her while they tsked at lots of the other children for slamming the door to the hide shut and talking in too-loud voices in there

I have to be honest and concede that Davies was rather less enthused although he did like the weaved fences we saw and wants to give that idea a go. He is rather more of an instant gratification kind of person instead of the seeing the beauty all around him one like Tarly is :lol:. He did enjoy waving sticks around with Jack and splashing in puddles though :lol:.

and he liked the posters about what to look for at certain times of year, the explanation about hides and was very observant about the flooding, keeping water levels up and why and the flexi pipes in ditches. I think if he’d had one to one adult conversation all the way round explaining stuff that happens there conservation-wise and pointing stuff out to him he’d have loved it.

We left there and headed home, arriving with mere minutes to spare before Ali and Freya arrived.

A DS fest followed, with Freya bringing her DS and some games, which Davies and Scarlett both sampled the delights of on their DSs. Davies then carried on with that awhile as Scarlett and Freya experimented with some Barbies games, some pony games and then Scarlett offering a whole host of other ideas for Freya’s consideration 😆 With demonstrations :lol:. X box was decided to be the democratic choice so that happened for a while until I distracted them all by quoting lines from The Incredibles (“I tell you what we’re not going to do, we’re not going to panic”) which prompted that being put on instead. And there was chocolate consumption. And tea drinking. And a bit of singing. And maybe some stropping. And a lot of clambering. And Davies being wonderful. And Scarlett being just a bit crazy. And me remarking that it all felt rather like guest starring in an episode of The Muppet Show. You get the idea….

Ady arrived home in the middle of all this (although he did look rather like he wished he hadn’t!) and I took Ali and Freya home while he despatched Davies to Beavers and Scarlett to the bath, getting home in time to collect Davies from Beavers and do lots of cuddling with Scarlett.

The children went to bed, we had a lovely curry and watched Masterchef followed by the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall chicken run thing. Davies was still wide awake so we got him back downstairs to watch it with us which spawned lots of conversations about chickens, free range and battery, Feathers the deformed chick, Rhona and when we ate him and so on. Interesting stuff. Davies has a very non-hysterical attitude to things which is refreshing, he is of course touched by the idea of life and death but equally philosphical about things that are bred to be eaten and just generally very interested in the idea of farming and meat production etc.

So there you go, first MM free Monday and it still managed to be Magical in it’s own way :).