One word? When seven would do…

Oh yeah, you already did! 😉

We went to Arundel today and met up with Julie, Jack and Maisie at Swanbourne Lake. As we were walking round I recalled that it had been somewhere Ady and I had gone on one of our very first days out together as a couple – there is home video footage of us there which is now some 14 years old. We spent a lot of time in Arundel in our early days together actually as it was on the way to lots of Ady’s friends at the time and it is somewhere my parents would often take Frazer and I on Sundays as children to look round the antique shops or have Sunday lunch out at a pub. Arundel is best avoided during the summer and at weekends though as it is so very touristy now so it’s not somewhere we’ve spent much time in the couple of years since we moved home. We did however spend a day there on a visit back to Sussex when we were living in Manchester and there are some self timer shots of us sitting on a bench we walked past today with me pregnant with Tarly and a very young (about 22 months old) Davies wobbling about feeding swans.

Can’t quite believe that photo is nearly five years old 😯 – told the children about visiting there and that there were photos of it and showed them when we got home. Funny to think that we walked round there today with Jack and Maisie who were also still a bump when that photo was taken. How come it all feels like it was only last week?

It was something of a bedlamic morning (not sure if bedlamic is a word? think it should be though if it isn’t already. I like it 🙂 describes our life well at times) with Tarly shrieking for the best part of half an hour because I asked her to get dressed. She pulled the same stunt tonight when asked to put her pjs on actually – it took half an hour, child abuse type levels of sound effects (thank fuck we don’t have neighbours!) and her telling me she hated me before collapsing into my arms telling me over and over again how much she loves me. She was awake in the night and in our bed again last night too. Whatever it was that knocked her out for the last two weeks has regressed her in all sorts of ways, as illness tends to do to young children, so we’ve had a couple of episodes when previously we’ve had months of peace and harmony (well almost 😉 ) – at least this time I know it will blow over and I feel way more condfident in dealing with it (and of course I know Ady is off with me next week too :lol:). We did all have a cuddle before we left the house and agreed to have a good day though and indeed we did.

I can’t recall what we talked about on the way to Arundel but I know it was nice, pleasant conversation. We arrived, parked and went to buy some duck food from the cafe and then set off on a lengthy walk round the lake. Davies, Jack and Maisie all went ahead and did plenty of clambering and scrambling up hills and down ditches, Tarly was less adventurous (see I told you she wasn’t herself :lol:) and mostly walked along holding my hand. Julie and I had a great time, loads of chatting, loads of laughs and loads of surreal speculations about situations that will never happen but gave us plenty to giggle about lending the whole day a slightly hysterical air. We deviated from the path round the lake so we could cross a stile and venture further round a corner (leading to more speculation about whether we’d find our way back before nightfall and may even return having discovered previously unchartered lands and learnt new languages and life skills – but in fairness Julie and I have gone off track on so many of our walks and turned short meanders into miles long hikes, ending up carrying children and practically on our knees with exhaustion it probably wasn’t too ridiculous speculating really :lol:). We found ourselves in something of a valley which we realised might echo well so we all spent about 10 minutes seeing which noises made the best echoes – yodelling works well, as do siren type noises and anything of a low pitch 😆 Very entertaining! We spotted a landmark in the distance so walked on to that before stopping for our picnic lunch.

The children wandered off to play up a hill while Julie and I basked in the sunshine and chatted. We sat watching them for about half an hour playing together, working out some elaborate game involving gathering larger than them sticks and carrying them together up the hill, climbing, delegating, inventing, exploring and learning. We spent happy time telling each other that this, this was what childhood should be about and how school can only hope to replicate a small amount of that in an artificial classroom environment and left to their own devices children cannot help but entertain, enlighten and educate themselves. Twas blissful :). It was also one of those days for counting your blessings and I was feeling particularly sentimental about family. I do so adore having Julie as my sister in law, we’re so different in many ways and Chris and Ady still stumble over a fraternal relationship in many ways, as two different family units we are very, very different but the four children really do adore each other and I just love that they are growing up so close and so part of each others’ lives. I love that the children see each other at least once a week and they all feel so at ease in each others’ company. I’m so glad that Julie and I have developed a bond between us which means all this happens and that I have such a close friend too as a result. See, told you I was schmultzy today 🙂

We then walked back to the stile and continued our path round the lake. This side was more steep up to the side so the children did various levels of clambering up the slopes and tree roots and feeding the ducks along the side of the lake. There are some pictures on flickr but even they don’t capture just how lovely it was. Davies spotted the grey feathers and downiness of the swans and told me that was because as cygnets they were fluffy and grey and that’s how one got confused as an ugly duckling so they mustn’t have totally changed to their graceful white feathers yet :shock:, Scarlett found a caterpillar, several ladybirds and other creepy crawlies and talked about what stage of their life cycles they were at. And then, big excitement, Davies spotted some lizards sunning themselves on the grass. To my shame I had no idea we had lizards in this country and tried to tell him they must be newts to which he insisted they were indeed lizards and Julie confirmed it. Then we spotted several more before moving on with plans to come back again with nets to catch one and look at it more closely. (Julie says she spent many a happy hour as a child catching lizards with nets to observe them – she is an only child though :lol:). We finally worked our way back to the beginning and back to the cars. Davies had been wearing a pair of very old, already mud stained with a hole in one knee jeans that I’ve kept for walks in muddy places but this time due to sliding all the way down a very steep bank on his bum and going ankle deep in the mud they were beyond being worth washing, so he got changed into a spare pair of jeans before I let him in the car and then we came home.

On the way we got to talking about counting in twos – it was because of me telling them about how we’d been to that lake when Davies was nearly 2 and Scarlett hadn’t been born. Then they both wanted to go and look at the castle and I promised I’d take them when they were a bit older and could get enough out of it to justify the very expensive admission charges. I’d been with the school at about 11 or 12 and recall it being very interesting, but very indepth guided tour style which I don’t think they’d get much from just yet. I said maybe when they were 6 and 8 or 8 and 10 which led to ‘when Scarlett is 8, how old will Davies be?’ type questions from me which I kept going up in 2 year increments with. Davies suddenly said – you are missing a number out each time, so I explained I was counting in twos and then they shouted out other numbers to count up in and I did – rather rustily on the 7s and 8s actually 😳 funny how I know don’t rely so much on the times table reciting as just using number bond type stuff with the units instead (eg, adding 7 to 42 I wasn’t going up in my 7 times table, I was adding a 7 to the 2 of the 42) – I guess in day to day life I have more call for knowing that sort of sum that for having to know 8 x 7 etc.

We got home and looked at photos of today and the trip I’d been telling them about, I drank lots of tea and we watched Shaun the Sheep. They had tea and we all snuggled up until Ady got home and then Tarly had her pj moment. 🙄

Tomorrow I’m working all day again and Ady is working from home to be with the children. And then… HOLIDAY 🙂 🙂 🙂