A welcome break in the rain yesterday although the pay off for sunshine and clear skies was bitter cold. Winter is really in the air. It always seems sudden in November when October is still so often T shirt weather.
Yesterday was Pulborough Brooks Home Ed walk and we were hoping to catch up with Julie, Jack, Maisie and Lorna along with a few others but when we arrived there was noone else around. The children were greeted by name by one of the very enthusiastic volunteers who sometimes helps out with Wildlife Explorers. They declined spotter sheets and played in the ‘childrens corner’ while I went to use the toilet. When I came back they were looking at a really nice wildlife rug which has numbers and words all round the border 1-10 of different things eg 1 frog, 2 flowers, 3 ladybirds etc. You then have to spot those number of things on the rug. Davies was shocking me by reading everything on it and when they were struggling keeping track of 8 butterflies he came up with the idea of taking 8 jigsaw puzzle pieces off the counter and placing them on the ones they’d counter already. We debated borrowing the ‘explorer packs’ which they lend out for a £10 deposit and included rucksack with binoculars, birdspotting book and nature sheets, pens and paper, magnifying glass and so on. They decided against it but I suspect we will next time as we regretted not having binoculars several times as we walked round.
No one else arrived or was in the playpark so we decided to head off on our own and walked the opposite way round to usual so we would meet up with anyone who had already set off. We did come across two other families at the halfway point and looking at the facebook group invite I’m pretty sure they were Home Educators but they had very young children – at least one was still in a pushchair so we smiled and said ‘good morning’ but didn’t introduce ourselves or check if they were HE folk.
Instead we enjoyed the walk just the three of us and spotted green woodpeckers, rabbits, deer, robins and various other birds we couldn’t identify (hence wishing we’d had the explorer rucksacks). There is a ‘resident’ peregrine falcon that comes back this time each year and was around. We think we spotted that but were not sure. We heard the geese honking and then saw them fly over our heads and talked about why birds fly in the V formation.
The deer
by the green pond
Scarlett found some fox poo and got a couple of sticks so she could pull it apart to see what it had been eating. It was even more interesting than she’d hoped and she found some claws (rabbits we presume) and lots of fur and small bones
We then decided as it was just us we’d detour to the 1/2 mile walk hide we’d never been to before. I was worried there would be loads of serious birdwatchers and photographers there as we often see people with hi-tech equipment setting off on the trail so had warned the kids we’d need to be really quiet in the hide and so on. So it was a great surprise when we cautiously opened the door to find a large group of people and were greeted with a big ‘Hello!’ from a couple of volunteers. Along with the more serious twitchers were volunteers with various binoculars and telescopes to show people how to use the equipment and point out interesting things. We saw a cormorant with it’s wings outstretched, a couple of ducks hopping into the water, a swan taking off and a flock of geese landing and all got to look through the binoculars.
Davies had refused to wear a coat insisting he’d be warm enough in his jumper but he was getting cold and shivery so I wrapped him in my scarf and we walked briskly back to the centre to keep warm. We decided it was far too cold to sit out and eat our lunch so ate in the car driving home instead. We took the route over the downs home that Scarlett and I had gone on Saturday and it was very pretty – the sun was hanging low in the sky and creating gorgeous colours of grey, pink and yellow. I wanted to stop several times to take photos but the road is narrow, barely wide enough for two cars to pass and twists and turns so many times that by the time there is a safe place to pull over the landscape has totally changed again.
Back home we had a quiet afternoon with the kids playing on their DSs, they Xboxed for a short while and then played Creationary for a bit. I spent some time synching my diary and phone for various things. The kids had tea and then it was time for gymnastics.
I dropped them off and went to Asda where I got two big bags of carrots reduced to 20p each, two packs of tomatoes for 20p each and some coriander for 10p, CoOp where I got loads of croissants for £1.00, some cheap avocados and a couple of other bits for dinners for this week. I also popped into the libarary as I’d had an email to say a couple of things I’d reserved had come in and I knew we had a copy of the Jacqueline Wilson book Alison and Jax mentioned as I’d ordered in a load of her books for the display I did last week so I collected that at the same time.
I got home and had just put the shopping away when Ady arrived home so we headed back out again to Gymnastics to catch the last 10 minutes watching the kids. They both seem to be doing well and progressing but neither of them look like gymnasts 😉 I certainly can’t seem either of them being invited to join squads or compete but they are enjoying it and learning something aswell as getting yet more regular exercise (although that is probably the least of their needs!).
Back home again Scarlett swept the ashes away in the fire and Davies did the hoovering, both because they wanted to and offered when Ady and I were about to do said tasks. Made us laugh to be sitting down watching them though 😆
I read followed by a chapter of Littlenose and then, as I was begged I also read , then it was bedtime.
Ady and I watched Life, the kids will catch up with it on Sunday evening.