Tasha and I finally had a nice day to try and do our much put off foraging excursion.
Davies, Scarlett and I had time to nip to The Range first as I wanted to get a couple of camping bits (pegs etc.). They appeared to have a 40% off offer on such things and so having left the kids in car I picked up various bits and then had a brief kerfuffle at the till when it didn’t all come up as 40% off and experienced some very terrible customer service while they sorted it out. I *hate* bad service anywhere so was gearing up for a fight but it all came good and I got my discount.
I wanted an aluminium water bottle for me and *thought* I’d bought a really cool one with 40% off, bright red with FUEL written on it, in a ‘your body needs water for fuel’ type fashion until I got it home and realised it genuinely is a fuel bottle for putting flammable stuff in and has printed all over it warnings about not being suitable for food or drink. Grr.
We collected Tasha and Toby – no Vinnie today, I missed him 🙁 – and drove via Tesco Express as neither Tasha or I had actually got any lunch with us before heading to a large green space with a playpark that had elderberries and sloes around the periphery. The kids went off to play, Tasha and sat and chatted and ate and then we picked a few sloes for Tasha as I had realised I really shouldn’t pick anything as we’re off from tomorrow on holiday.
We dropped them home and went in for a cup of tea before they had to head off to take one of their cats to the vet and we needed to get home for pre-holiday prep. As we pulled up David was outside washing his car so he wandered over to chat and then my Mum pulled up having driven past once and then passed us on the road so double backed to see us. She caught up with Davies and Scarlett while I brought in some dry washing and hung out some wet stuff – there is much to be said for staggered going on holiday 😉 and shoved the raspberries we picked on Wednesday in a pan with some jam sugar before they went off.
I made two pots of jam, one of which my Mum went off clutching along with all the current eggs and a pot of strawberry and chilli jam too. Her and I had a chat over a cup of tea while the kids played with geomags and then she went off. I supervised packing for Davies and Scarlett, with Davies packing both an overnight bag and a ‘rest of the week’ bag.
Ady came home and I left him to serve up the kids tea that I’d put on while I went to fill my car up with petrol and grab some bits for the picnic lunch Davies and I need to take tomorrow. When I got home the kids had eaten and were in pjs and Ady was preparing to load the cars. I helped Davies get his rucksack ready and then we had a little pre-birthday present giving. Most of what Davies wanted for his birthday was camping / survival stuff so given we are off on a campcraft sleepout tomorrow followed a week camping with friends we knew he would like to have it for that rather than the week after when we have no camping trips for the forseeable future so having checked with him which he’d prefer he went for early presents now and less on the day and was presented with a new rucksack, water bottle, cooking set, folding shovel, whistle and torch set all of which he was very pleased with. He does still have things kept back for his actual birthday but as this weekend is the main part of his gift from us it made sense for him to have things to enjoy as part of it.
So Davies repacked his new rucksack with the various things he’ll need this weekend, Ady loaded up the cars, Scarlett gathered all sorts of things she needs and I packed an over night survival rucksack for me and a longer term week long bag for myself before having a bath and cooking dinner.
So Davies and I are off in the morning for a 24 hour bushcraft survival campout, with Scarlett and Ady joining us on Sunday. Really looking forward to it and hoping not to be too overpowed by testosterone ;).