Yesterday on our trip to Sainsburys Davies and I nearly bought some strawberries but they were pricey and although British it still seemed crazy to be spending money on them and their packaging when we could go and get our own. So this morning once we were all up, dressed and breakfasted we headed off to the pick your own farm for some fruit and veg picking.
We popped to the local shoe shop first as I needed some trainers. I don’t have any and haven’t for a long time and my knees are protesting at me doing my occassional runs or even brisk walks in unsuitable footwear such as DMs or crocalikes. I chose the cheapest and we looked at all the different prices, logos and bells and whistles on the more expensive ones to see if we could actually see any difference. The children decided Puma was the mark of the ‘golden cat’ as they were the priciest 😆 They liked looking at the football boots too, they fascinated them and I remember having football boot envy about Frazers when he was a boy. No inkling to play football myself but I did like the idea of special shoes with studs for doing it in. Mind you I like the idea of special shoes for all sorts of activities and had Ady sold on the idea I would need Maternity Shoes when I was pregnant with Davies (wider fitting to accomodate feet swelling and with ankle support for increased load bearing) until he told someone at work who once they had stopped screaming with laughter at him put him straight and he put a stop to that 😆
Anyway, we got to the PYO and waited aged for a tractor which does a circuit of the fields with drop off and collections along the way as it’s a long old walk from crop to crop. While we waited we discussed how many acres it might be as Davies has a bit of a thing about acres having listened to us talking about smallholdings. The campsite we stayed at had 56 acres and he wanted to know if I thought the PYO was as much as 100 so we were trying to decide if it was nearly twice the size or not. In the end we got fed up of waiting for the tractor and walked anyway.
We started at the strawberry field where picking was perfect and very quickly filled our punnet, we moved on to peas and broad beans, then rhubard and finished with raspberries.
It was a lovely hour or so in the sunshine, it was quite busy and everyone was very chatty and friendly which was nice. We walked back to the weigh and pay area just as the tractor pulled up so decided to hop on and do a circuit of the place as we’d missed out earlier. All our pickings came to just over a tenner which was pretty good value (and I suspect we’d eaten a good couple of quids worth as we went round too :oops:)
We came home and had lunch and debated going back out to the park but the children were wrapped up in a game (using a magnetic backgammon set from a party bag but playing something else entirely) and I was shelling peas so we decided to stay put.
Ady arrived home just before swimming lesson time so he was able to come too which is great as he misses out on seeing their progress otherwise (and it’s nice to only have to deal with one wet child afterwards :)). The lesson was fine for them both, Davies seems to have cracked being on his back and floating which I’m pretty sure is as a result of some work I did with him on that last week at the campsite. Scarlett did swim a few strokes here and there too but mainly flails about but loves every minute of it. I picked up a leaflet about the various summer holiday sessions at the sports centres around Worthing and pondered on that as a childcare solution over the summer although it would cost almost as much for the two of them as I earn and I don’t know this far in advance which days I am likely to have problems with. I went to holiday clubs at the school from when Frazer and I were their age and recall enjoying them but then that was probably because I knew everyone there from school. I’ve also been looking at various other over the summer holiday things with specifically Davies in mind as I remember looking at an animation workshop last year which he was too young for but I thought he’d enjoy so it’s something to ponder further on.
Home for the childrens’ tea which they ate watching Ben 10 while I sat in the garden with my book and a beer capturing that early evening camping feel outside in my own garden :). I came back in for story time and then Ady and I had a lovely dinner including some of todays picked veg and fruit for pudding.