Davies had YACs this morning so we all were out and over at Glynde where they were meeting for a hill fort visit. I’d told Tarly we’d visit Raystede Animal Shelter while Davies was YACing so when we were invited to stay and join the YACs she was reluctant. So I suggested Ady stay (he’s quite into the archaeology anyway) and I’d take Tarly. This was a win:win situation as far as I was concerned, Ady got to do something with Davies, Scarlett and I had some one to one time and nobody got dragged along to anything they weren’t interested in.
So while Ady and Davies and the rest of the YACs walked to the top of the hill, recreated some fort defending and marauding and ate flapjacks, oh and then marched them down again, Tarly and I drove through some very pretty countryside between the downs and looked at the llamas that graze on part of the downs before arriving at Raystede. Scarlett asked about the various orange and blue posters (no red ones :)) on display so I explained about them being for MPs in the upcoming election. I told her what the orange and blue meant and who I’d be voting for but explained that my vote wouldn’t be for any of the names on the posters as they were local to where we were rather than our constituency. She wanted to know what other colours there might be and we talked about the main parties and some of the alternatives.
I let Scarlett lead the way round Raystede so we collected some duck food, looked in on the cats and dogs, checked out the goats and tried to identify the ones sitting in the sunshine to their photos. We looked at the rabbits and talked about house rabbits and were surprised at how long rabbits can live. We then walked round the ducks, geese, chickens and other birds and Scarlett taught me the difference between coots and moorhens and some other animal facts. She really is quite knowledgable but has this habit of saying all sorts of things with utter confidence even if she is secretly not at all sure 😆 We had a look at the small animals, checked out the onsite charity shop, grabbed a drink from the cafe and had a quick look round the caged birds.
It was a lovely couple of hours in the sunshine :). We drove back to where Ady and Davies were and had about 10 minutes so took a brief walk along the river bank, looked at the (what I think were) reedwarblers and talked about cuckoos. We could see the YACs up the hill so decamped to the playpark nearby and went on the swings to compete for who could get the highest fastest :).
Ady and Davies joined us along with another father and son they had been walking and chatting with. Ady introduced me while the boys ran off to join Scarlett and we chatted a bit before they left. There was a blacksmiths forge open just across the road and Ady and I were interested in peeking in but Davies and Scarlett weren’t so we left them in the park while we walked along for a quick look. Blacksmithing is a job which fascinates me and I think must be really enjoyable.
Davies had requested a barbecue for lunch so we popped into Asda on the way home for supplies and got home to uncover the barbecue, get out the camping chairs and have a very nice afternoon in the garden. Davies did most of the cooking – bacon for him and Scarlett, sausages for Ady and I along with some onions. We all had ice creams and the kids played while Ady and I read / dozed in our chairs in the sunshine. I got bored with the inactivity first and had a quick visit to The Range but failed to buy anything other than a rather clever cafetiere mug for Ady while camping.
Back home again I did some toy plane making and decorating with the kids then Davies and I watched Doctor Who while Scarlett had a bath. The kids watched Britains Got Talent and then went to bed.
Am very excited about camping next weekend 🙂