We had a plan to meet Caz, Bid and boys at the allotment this morning so we headed up there and Bid and the boys joined us a while later. The weather has meant we’ve not spent much time at all there lately but it was good to see the onions and garlic Caz and I had put in were already shooting. I dug over some raised beds, pulled out some dead chilli plants and just turned over the soil they’d been in as they had self seeded loads of seeds so I just dug them in and we’ll see what happens with them.
Ady was desperate to ‘do digging’ so he made trenches for potatoes and dug the compost bin in properly. I had a good clear out of the tool store, turned the open compost heap over and generally gathered up rubbish and put it into bags. The kids mostly made a fire in the old washing machine drum we have up there and then Bid and the boys arrived just as it began to rain. Bid took all the kids up into the woodland while Ady and I finished up – he put in some seed potatoes Bid had brought along while I finished my tidying up. The bags of rubbish were drenched by then so we decided not to take them away with us after all. It was a good couple of hours even if rain did prevent us from being as productives as we’d have liked.
Ady and I walked up the hill to find Bid and the kids who had been trying to do den building. Davies and Bid seemed to be the only ones still loving it, with the other three all looking pretty cold, wet and miserable so we decamped to our house and the kids played, Scarlett had a very long bath and Bid, Ady and I chatted.
The time ran away with us and it was soon time for them to leave and us to head off to my Granny’s where we’d arranged to be. My parents had not long arrived so that was nice :). We had a pleasant couple of hours round there – the kids mostly played out in her garden, Ady mostly played with his phone, my Dad and I mostly teased each other and my Mum and Granny mostly sniped at each other – typical family gathering really, it’s unsurprising we are not clamouring for chances to do it more often ;).
We left there and called into Morrisons for a few supplies for the weekend before coming home. The kids had tea, I had a bath, I read a bit of Humphrey to them and they had a very late bedtime, then I had a very enjoyable time in the kitchen singing along to some music (Neil Diamond, Cure, Paloma Faith, Nina Simone for anyone interested) while cooking dinner while Ady had a bath.
We ate dinner, watched taped Masterchef Australia and as we have to be up early in the morning for Wildlife Explorers I really should go to bed.