It’s been a fantastic weekend off. This is most definitely our most hospitable host for all sorts of reasons 🙂
Saturday It was Wilf (one of the host)’s birthday and we were invited to participate in the celebrations which included rowing on the river and a picnic in the park. We declined, partially because we didn’t feel we wanted to intrude having only met him a few days ago and mostly because we were keen for some ‘just the four of us time’. As it happened we would have been very welcome to join them and would probably have had a great time but we did really enjoy our day so it was the right decision.
We decided to walk into Durham – about 2.5 miles away so after breakfast we set off. We didn’t really know where we were going so we decided to head off and just keep asking people, well we made Ady ask people actually. We were all in quite giddy moods and speculated on asking for more indepth directions each time ending with just getting in someones car and asking them to take us there! We didn’t go that far in the end although we possibly should have done as we went in a big U shape rather than an I and did three sides of a square on the last bit making it a longer walk in than it should have been.
We did the charity shop circuit, found toilets (flushes made us jump!), bought stuff from the bakery for lunch, I purchased two hats in the Millets £1 sale shop that had sprung up. We also bought two kag in a bag waterproofs for £1 each and then realised when we got them back that they have massive England flags on the back and all of our remaining hosts are in Scotland so they may not be totally appropriate! 😆
We bought ice creams from Iceland (£1.50 for a box of 6 instead of £2 each from the ice cream van!) and ate them down by the river watching the ducks, black headed gulls and cormorants that were gathered there.
It was gone 5pm by then so we started the walk back – a much shorter route but very steeply uphill for the first bit, which in the still surprisingly hot sun was hard work! We got back just after 6pm and collapsed in the yurt. No one was back yet so we debated dinner and decided to cook pancakes for tea as we had lots of eggs (we got a dozen in our veg bag) – that was delicious and everyone was stuffed afterwards. We heard about Amy Winehouse on the radio which made us all very sad and we sat talking about her and fame and drugs for a while. Scarlett and I enjoyed lying on our backs on the bed with our feet up in the air doing some upside down dancing to the music on the radio :).
Beth and Wilf came back and invited us over to their house for birthday drinks so Davies and Scarlett got into bed and had some DS and PSP time while Ady and I went over there to join the last few party revellers. Wilf ended up going to bed early as he was all birthday-d out (drunk!) but we sat on Matt & Jo’s bed with Beth, Frankie (the other WWOOFer), Frankie’s girlfriend Liz and two other friends Jack and Ruth, drinking wine out of the bottle, eating trifle and being very silly and talking about sexuality spectrums. It all felt very lovely and cosy and was the sort of evening you remember and smile for ages afterwards :). We left about 1am and did some star gazing through the clear panel in our yurt while lying in bed.
Sunday A lovely drifting into consciousness morning with lots of in bed cuddles with the kids. Jack stood on our front steps chatting to us while Tarly and I were still in bed – it’s just that sort of place here, lots of instantly feeling like family I guess :).
Davies and Scarlett went off to play and Ady and I went off to do some Willow tidying. We knew we had various things that can go home with my parents – mostly clothes – when they come up next week so we wanted to weed them out and generally rearrange stuff a bit. We also did a bit of clothing inventory work. Davies and Scarlett now seem to have communal jeans as they wear the same size anyway and S favours boys styling so it doesn’t even make sense to try and work out which pair belong to which child anymore. Scarlett seems to be lacking pants and Davies socks though so that needs addressing next time we’re near shops. Ady thinks he needs some jumpers but that is only because I have convinced him I do *need* all mine incase it is cold in Scotland and he doesn’t have anywhere near as many as me! 😆
We exchanged texts with Kirsty and decided to walk along to see where would be good to meet them as the track here ends in a very steep bridge which many cars seem to bottom out on and we didn’t want to be responsible for bringing them somewhere their car got damaged. We walked along and had a look at the village, which isn’t really a village other than having a green with a swing and a roundabout on it which the kids were playing on for longer than we realised as suddenly Kirsty and James were ringing to say they’d arrived so we dashed back to meet them.
We gave them the full guided tour and some people had a go on the rope swing. The kids went off to play and we sat in the yurt for a while drinking tea and chatting. I chopped some onions and then we all went up to the top to cook outside in the sunshine. We had some sausages in rolls that Kirsty and James very kindly bought along with them, some people had a go in the extreme compost loo and finally we waved them off. It was so nice to have friends actually come and visit us at a host and see how it all works, even better to have people come to this one as it is so special and different to how we all live and so very close to the sort of lifestyle we think we might end up living one day.
We walked back to the car to wave them off before heading back to the yurt for washes in the baby bath, stories for the kids and some online time for me as Wilf had kindly charged my laptop up for me again. And I have now drained it again! 😆
“This is most definitely our most hospitable host for all sorts of reasons . . . very silly and talking about sexuality spectrums . . . very close to the sort of lifestyle we think we might end up living one day.”
??? ;-0
Comment by michelle — 25 July 2011 @ 9:34 am
“This is most definitely our most hospitable host for all sorts of reasons . . . very silly and talking about sexuality spectrums . . . very close to the sort of lifestyle we think we might end up living one day.”
??? ;-0
Comment by michelle — 25 July 2011 @ 9:34 am
why twice?
Comment by michelle — 25 July 2011 @ 9:34 am
PMSL nice editing! 😉
Comment by Nic — 25 July 2011 @ 9:26 pm
giggle! It was lovely to see you all. Thanks for having us!
Next time we see you I’ll be expecting a guided tour of the dolphins 😉
Comment by Kirsty — 26 July 2011 @ 7:01 pm