One word? When seven would do…

Fridays here are communal work party days when everyone available, members of the community and WWOOFers all work together on one project. This was an idea to try and ensure the community still work together on things regularly, so if there is a specific all-community project to be worked on that is done, if not anyone is able to ask for help on their own stuff. For various reasons lots of the community were not around though so we ended up with Chris & Owen again, Dan (who is one of the founder members here), the other two WWOOFers – Lee and Ray (guy from Taiwan) and the kids. In the morning we were clearing some felled tree debris from The Glade, an area near the bottom of the hill. The actual tree trunk was pulled by landrover out where it will go to the sawmill, the ivy and branches were pulled off and put into brash heaps (which will be covered and composted down) and the larger stuff was brought up the hill to be chopped for firewood. This isn’t particularly hard work as such as it is not heavy but it is still on the slope so either up or down the steep hill and with trip hazzards everywhere. We did get to use axes, machetes and other tools though :).

It seemed like quite a long morning although the children had a nice morning, with Davies spending some with Dan (who runs bushcraft and survival courses so they have struck up quite an affinity) who was showing him some King Alfred’s cake (a fungus that grows on dead ash trees and is excellent for lighting fires) and Scarlett spending some time creating a ‘sap bird’ made from a larch pine cone and some feathers she had found, glued together with sap weeping from one of the felled larch trees. All very ‘forest school’ 😉

Lunchtime was called and while we were eating Dan asked if I would help with cooking dinner during the afternoon, while Ady went with Ray to chop firewood and Lee went with someone else to do some other work. I was both relieved to be doing something a little lighter, pleased because I’d not previously had much time with Dan and I wanted to chat to him and rather nervous as he is a huge presence here who is pretty aloof and rather daunting.

Sure enough he put me firmly in my place when I tried to make conversation and ask him a few questions by saying ‘sorry, I need to concentrate on cooking, I can’t make conversation too’ which shut me up. He then came back to me shortly afterwards with one of his rare but very charismatic smiles and said, ‘now you had a question for me, I can give you all my attention now’ and chatted to me for ages about all sorts of fascinating stuff to do with setting up communities, society and work. He eats only raw food and cooked grains so the meal was closely (but not entirely) based on his food habits including a coleslaw dressed with whizzed up raw egg, cold pressed oil, garlic, lemon and peppers, salad and rice.

I had a split afternoon as we got the burner lit and then needed to leave it to get up to heat so I had 90 minutes off in the afternoon but then worked later than the others serving up food and clearing up afterwards. I spent some time just enjoying my new boots which had arrived and then I did another load of washing which Scarlett appeared just at the right time to help do, then went and took down the dry stuff from the line and hung the wet stuff out. Loving the laundry :).

I chatted to Becky, one of the original members here who had just had the LEA annual visit for their 9 year old son, R. She has had 3 annual visits now and all seems well with the LEA woman being fairly alternative-lifestyle minded anyway and seeing this as a rich environment for bringing up a child with plenty of input, other people to learn from and almost unlimited stimulus. Becky was telling me about how she struggles with the changes the community has undergone in it’s 11 years, how the initial vision is rather cloudy and how she is not sure whether it is the right long term place for them anymore. It’s so interesting talking to the individuals about how it works for them and how they manage to balance the needs of them as individuals, their needs within their own family and the needs of the wider community, particularly when all three may not be the same.

Ady and Ray finished wood chopping and sat chatting with us awhile before going to light the bathhouse burner, then it was food time. Dinner consumed and cleared away Ady and I went to put the chickens away for the night. It was a much depleted group as lots of them are away for the weekend with a friend nearby who has land. We were also invited but were craving some family time plus had already offered to chicken sit to enable someone else to go.

Friday night is music night though, so after a speedy bath we cracked open the cider (Friday night is also alcohol night!), gathered round with guitars, tambourines, didgeridoos and bongos and sat and played for a couple of hours. It was amazing :). It reminded me of the fluffy, fuzzy bits of films where everyone goes all soft focus and candle or campfire lit, with children dancing and laughing, everyone singing and smiling and a feeling of utter happiness. I don’t recall feeling so content and at peace for a very long time. It was very close to the feeling at J&J’s last summer when we lit all the candles on the many birthday cakes, almost tear jerking in it’s perfect-ness.

The children all got tired (along with Davies and Scarlett there was also A, who is an 8yo girl and S, a toddler girl) so snuggled into parents and talk turned to chatting and telling (edited for childrens’ ears jokes). Much laughter and leg pulling later it was about 1030pm and our two were exhausted so we called time for us and climbed our own personal bit of the hill to our tent. A lovely evening 🙂

Today we are left to our own devices, there is no work and hardly anyone around except us and Ray, the other WWOOFer. We have access to the kitchen and all the communal food and anythinge else we want. We wanted to go out for various things – Ady and I both needed more socks (our initial idea of a pair a day per week is proving insufficent and I only really had bed socks so have worn the same pair every day for a week and they fell apart – they were from a pound shop in Norfolk last year when Helen told me I needed ‘socks by six’ though so didn’t owe me anything!), all four of us needed decent work gloves and we were short of a few toiletries as we’d gone away with tiny supplies of such things nearly 3 weeks ago now so have used most of them up.

We drove to the petrol station to fill up, the campsite we were at last week to collect a parcel that we’d ordered but had turned up after we left (a gun case) and then a shopping place to get the various bits and pieces. It was a huge factory type place which sold pretty much everything you can think of so we stocked up on everything we needed, decided we were hungry so had lunch there, bought the kids an icecream (where they were praised by both the woman selling them and the woman behind them in the queue for their politeness, they only said please and thankyou, which makes me wonder if children generally are really rude as I didn’t think that was exceptional) and then went to the Co-Op for some food. We got sausages to cook over the fire for our lunch tomorrow, beans for Ady’s tea tonight, some flour for us and also decided to top up the communal milk, coffee, butter and jam supplies as they are all things that go really quickly and the community is short of cash. We’re having pancakes for dinner tonight using the eggs we collected from the chickens this morning as we were told we could have them and it fits in the veggie ethos of the kitchen. I also got some laundry soap for doing my washing next week :).

On the way back we called into House of Marbles as we literally drive past the door (well the mini roundabout just down from it). It felt strange to be there just a few months after being there with everyone from Christmas camp.

Back at SCW we caught up with Ray, I lit the rocket stove (loving those, as soon as we are somewhere for long enough to get one delivered we’ll buy one) to boil a kettle and we all stood watching bats circle right over our heads and even flying between us down in the glade. We are now with Ray and he is teaching the kids how to write their names in Chinese while we cook pancakes for dinner.

Tomorrow we’re staying in the woods, we needed all the stuff we bought from the shops today but found it really draining going back in to crazy consumerism. The shop felt too hot and enclosed and way too full of people, despite the hill it was a huge relief to get back here. I know we’ll be feeling really sad this time next week when we come to leave, although it was nice to spend time in Willow again today.