We had a much needed later start this morning, breakfasted, got dressed, packed some food and headed up to the allotment to meet up with Caz, Bid, Archie and Eliot.
There is a large field behind the allotments, bordered by the allotments on the south side and woodland on the other three sides. Through the woodland at the top is the South Downs Way. The kids were very keen to head off exploring and Davies, Scarlett and Archie went off. We told them to stay within calling distance and Caz and I got on with digging over two beds we put some asparagus crowns in last year but have seen no evidence of this year. We found one dead one but the rest are sprouting new growth so we weeded the beds and left them to carry on growing.
Eliot had been rather left behind by not realising that the others were heading off so he was in charge of cooking some sausages on a small barbecue fire Caz and Bid had brought up with them, while Bid dug over an area for planting potatoes. We ate sausages, paused for a cup of tea and then Caz and Eliot headed off to find the others (who clearly hadn’t stayed in calling distance) while Bid and I did more digging and planting and chatting. Everyone arrived back together (though from different directions) and all four children went off again, this time armed with a mobile phone.
We spent the next 2.5 hours very happily digging, planting, weeding, chatting, stopping to just enjoy the sunshine, drink tea and eat food and then carry on working on the plot. The time went really quickly. We spoke to the kids a couple of times on the phone to check all was well and they were off having a ball. So lovely for them to have that freedom and trust to go off and adventure, while we have the peace of mind of being able to ring and appease our concerns every so often.
Suddenly it was gone 330pm and we’d done everything we wanted to do at the plot and all had other places to be this evening so we rang the kids to come back. They took ages, well over half an hour, due to having wandered off so far from us and returned grubby, scratched and scraped by brambles with pockets full of ‘found treasures’ (interesting shaped stones, precious sticks) and stories of the adventures they had had. So wonderful 🙂
We said goodbye and all headed off for home. Davies and Scarlett had a quick clean up and some tea, I had a very welcome freshly brewed and properly hot rather than tepid from a flask cup of tea and sat down at the computer for the first time today. I learnt the very sad news that Freddie had passed away, told the children and shed some tears. Ady returned home so I told him and shed some more tears 🙁 .
Then we all left to go to Brighton for a sunset walk. It was called ‘starling sunset walk’ but there were no starlings to see (it’s warmer so they’ve mostly gone home) but it was still very lovely. There was a fairly large group and after an introductory chat we split into two groups. One walked along the path learning about Brighton’s history and architecture, the other group walked along the beach learning about the chalk, stones and sea aswell as buidlings in the sea – ie the piers. We joined the beach group and learnt about how old chalk and the pebbles are (95 million years), what chalk is made of, what the difference is between the brown stones and the grey stones on the beach, how grey stones were collected to make ceramic glaze, the purpose of the pebbles on the beach and loads more from our guide who is a geologist.
The walk lasted about an hour and we walked along from Palace Pier to just past West Pier to the bandstand.
It was a really enjoyable event and lovely to have watched the sun set having watched it rise yesterday morning. I’d not realised there is another sunrise walk in the morning and it would have been nice to have watched it set tonight and then done the sunrise walk tomorrow as it came back up again, but it was a late night tonight so I doubt an early morning would have been great to follow that tomorrow.
We walked back along the seafront to where we’d parked, stopping to take in the fab photos all displayed along the path as part of the Wild Planet store which has just opened. We watched the lights come on on Palace Pier and were able to see along the coast to Worthing Pier too. The kids were getting peckish so we bought them some chips each from the stall at the front of the pier and finally got home about 930pm.
Tomorrow is looking equally as busy so I need to go and get some sleep to prepare me for it…
Did you find out how the flint lumps get into the chalk? I’ve always wanted to know.
Comment by Jan — 14 April 2010 @ 1:59 pm