One word? When seven would do…

otherwise my advancing years may mean I struggled to recall a three day catch up 😉

Friday Ady’s birthday 🙂 Everyone was up early – some more reluctantly than others given it was our only day off this week – for present opening. We’d got gimmicky gifts such as a screwdriver with multiple heads (one of the most frustrating parts of WWOOFing so far is the lack of tools hosts seem to have. We have lost count of the amount of times we have headed back to our van to grab work gloves / screwdrivers / wrench from our very limited little toolkit), a box of chocolates, a bag of posh coffee, some home made cards from the kids and the two main gifts; a new Pompey top and a tablet with keyboard case.

Unfortunately for all my trying I had failed in some areas; I’d managed to buy posh coffee beans rather than ground coffee, the Pompey top had a small hole in the back (looks like it has had a security tag badly removed or been caught with a sharp knife while opening boxes or something) and the tablet didn’t have the UK adaptor included as promised. Grr. The top we debated best options on and decided as we have no official address or ability to send it back easily we would keep it and I’d stick a stitch or two in it to prevent further damage, the coffee beans we will hang on to until we reach a host with a grinder or Ady gets desperate enough for coffee to take to them with a steel toecapped boot and as we are currently staying at holiday cottages in one of the UKs biggest tourist destinations for international visitors they have a box full of travel adaptors so we were able to nick one from there.

We then spent an hour or so moving all our stuff across from Springfield to Tor View as the cottages are all fully booked this weekend and we were back in the little cottage for our last three nights. It was having a new kitchen and appliances installed though so we shoved our stuff in the bedroom and our food in the Function Room kitchen and headed off out. Jill caught us and bunged us another wad of cash for food for the rest of the week insisting we go out for lunch :). We walked up the Tor via the old oak trees Gog and Magog, following a different route than we’ve ever walked before which was quicker but much steeper. We did comment that we managed it far better than we would have done 3 months ago and were all still capable of speech during the climb. We also climbed the Tor fairly speedily with no need for a mid point break which I had certainly needed the last time we came up it.

We paused at the top to admire the view before trundling down the other side, a route we’ve never taken before, bringing us out in Glastonbury town centre next to the Chalice Well. This was one of the places we had failed to visit last time we were here and thought we really should have managed so we had decided to do it this time. We bought a plastic bottle each for the kids and walked round all the areas including the lions head where you can drink the healing water, the bathing pool you can walk in, the angel seat in the peace garden to sit in, the well to look down, the candle shrine area to think of people who have passed over etc.

So we all had a paddle, froze our feet, walked around the very gorgeous gardens, talked about how this would be something we’d all remember forever and then walked into town for lunch. After some debate we went to the fish & chip shop recommended by Heather and with all sorts of brown signage as Award Winning. We’d been before and it had been closed so we had meant to go back this time, some people sitting in the window waved at us as we peered in and then chatted to us and said they were about to leave if we wanted their seats so we decided that was enough of a sign and went in to sit down and eat.

Lunch was very expensive (the pint of beer and mini bottle of wine may have contributed to that 😉 ) but nice and birthday-ish, then we wandered round a bit more before heading back to Middlewick. The kitchen was all but installed but as it was a brand new oven it needed to be lit and running for 45 minutes before first use according to the instructions so we ended up cooking in the great big, seats 50 people function room instead. Jill came to eat with us and helped prepare and cook, then Shirley came over after dinner to watch a film with us – Inception on the bigger screen in there. We had birthday cake with candles and singing for Ady and then Scarlett fell asleep on my lap. I decided the film was not worth any more minutes of my life so I took both kids back to the cottage to bed about 1130pm, Ady went back and he and Shirley watched the film all the way through (Jill gave up soon after I did) but they both agreed the next day it had not been worth it! 🙂

Saturday first thing Ady and I went to clean up in the function room, sweep up and hoover the floor, run the dishwasher with all the crockery and cutlery and generally get it ready for the guests using it that evening – a block booking taking most of the cottages for a hen night.

We had a fairly bitty rest of the day doing various finishing off type jobs. To be honest this week we have been rather under employed which has been sort of nice in terms of recovering from a very different last week but slightly frustrating in terms of knowing we could probably be being more useful if properly directed. Later in the afternoon we drove to a nearby Sainsburys so Ady could get a memory card for his tablet so he can use the camera, then we came back and while Davies and I watched Doctor Who, Scarlett and Ady went for a swim.

Jill had declined our offer of dinner as she said she can’t keep up with our drinking – wuss! so we veered between watching Britains Got Talent and Eurovision and christened the new oven.

Sunday was finishing up the last few tasks we’d been given. The first was weeding and watering two large flowerbeds on either side of the driveway which was actually a very nice job to be doing on a sunny Sunday morning, particularly when I spent over an hour on the phone chatting to a friend while I worked 🙂

Davies and Scarlett came down and hung out with us too and it was all very lovely with some interesting chats about life, the universe and everthing. Ady said that he knew I was feeling I had less time with the kids but actually he now does have more time as he gets these little half hour snippets of time with them even during days we are not with them, plus he always gets to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with them every day which never happened before.

We moved some pallets ready to have wood stacked on them and then retired to the cottage for tea and biscuits. Jill appeared and we had a chat and arranged to nip out to a local hardware store for some motoring bits for Willow so Jill gave us a shopping list for the cottages too and we headed off to get all that before coming back for lunch.

Our afternoon was very laid back as we moved a trailer and put some stuff in the skip then headed over to Paddington Farm to try and find Michael and Tanya (our hosts from ages ago) but they were not there. We did chat to a couple of people staying there at the moment living in vans, one of which was a very very cool mobile library conversion with wood burner and everything :).

On the way back we were waylayed by Cassie and Sam who live in the cottage between Paddington and Middlewick and invited in for coffee. We have chatted to them lots before and bumped into Sam in Morrisons on our first day back here but never really managed a proper getting to know each other conversation so it was great to spend an hour with them and really dig a bit deeper. Their house is amazing, a real old fashioned farm cottage that was falling down and they have simply rejuvenated with ‘freegan’ stuff reclaimed from various places. Their kitchen is a random selection of free standing furniture, the living space an eclectic mix of sofas, upstairs an art studio of Sam’s paintings, their bedroom and a study and bathroom, The kids were entranced by it, all crazy fairy lights and funky furniture. We had a really interesting chat about us and where we go next and some of their ideas about communities and communal living, which seem to lie very close to our current ways of thinking. Interesting stuff… we exchanged contact details so will hopefully stay in touch with each other.

Back at the cottages Scarlett and I went swimming while Ady and Davies had some time together and got the dinner on then Jill arrived to join us for dinner and chats, followed by Shirley for after dinner coffee / hot chocolate.

It’s been good to be back here, we have enjoyed being with Jill and Shirley again and it’s great to forge links further with them and other locals here. We have learnt yet more and I suspect we will end up again here at some future point. Life throws some funny old twists and turns and people in our path.

I do have further observations and stuff to say about here but I’m really tired and tomorrow is changeover day where we get to say goodbye to here and hello to brand new hosts again so I need to go to bed and get sleep to prepare for such adventures!