We were up and out of the house early ish today so we could get to the Garden Club's plant sale. We bought several reasonably priced plants that we know will grow here as they have been taken from various houses in this Hamlet (I don't mean they were stolen - the owners divided and repotted them weeks ago in preparation). We saw Mrs Royal there with Drew and they told us they were off to the Festival afterwards - ahhh so are we!! Off we drove to the Spring Festival which was being held in a beautiful small village in between our Hamlet and a local town.
We were peckish when we arrived (of course we were) so we stopped for a biscuit and a drink.
Smallest had a Chocolate Cupcake
Huffle had a Toblerone Shortbread
Small had a Chocolate Crackle Biscuit
.......and I had a lemon and poppy shortbread. UMMMMMMMM.
We walked past some yard sales, a tea garden, a few stalls, some bunting and then passed an Ice Cream Caravan (it was a permanent building that looked like it once drove on wheels). We decided we would get an ice cream on the way back out and went to investigate the rest of the festival. We could hear music and drums! We passed over a little river.
First we went to the little petting farm where we saw some animals.....
Lots of lovely chicks and ducklings......
...and one of them kept trying to escape. We were worried at one point that Small was going to sit on it as it kept running around and Small fell over onto his bottom!
Lots of sheep waiting to be sheared, it was a hot day and they were huddled in a corner sharing the shade.
Smallest tried rolling apples to them. They weren't very interested.
We could hear some drumming and went over to investigate. There was a strange kind of bicycle with lots of drums and bells on it.
Next to the 'bike' there were lots of sticks. The kids were picking up the sticks, climbing aboard and playing their little socks off. It was fabulous and they all had a wonderful time.
Especially percussian Small and his brother drummer Smallest.............
Drumming away, lost in the rhythm of his own music.
This girl had had her face painted and it looked really funny with her painted tongue sticking out.
There was a really nice walk to do there along the river. I am thinking of bringing Moo here for a good hike.
The surrounding garden was full of comfrey (look at all that Grandad!)
It got hotter so we dragged the boys away from the bikeyDrums and they had a play on the park (which incidentally was still in the hot sun!). In order to cool down we got our ice creams and sat in the shade watching the various characters coming and going.
When the boys finished they went and looked at the chicks and ducks again and then tried to feed to goats. I went over to check they were okay and the little goats came over to me. They wanted a big fuss, they were like a couple of dogs. They kept nuzzling my arm when I stopped stroking them. Bless, I wanted to take one home but I worried they would eat my washing as it hangs too low without my line prop!
Hello, can you tickle me under my chin please ma'am?
We listened to the music playing. It was a piano and fiddle. Toe tapping but not enough to keep us there so we started our walk back up the hill.
There were some lovely houses (the one above had my favourite garden) and we decided it could be a place where we could retire to. Smallest decided he couldn't walk up the hill to the car so we said he could be adopted by another family in the village and we would visit him every year. He thought about it and said they would have to have lots of colouring books and then he decided he wanted the family he has now. We bumped into Mrs Royal and Drew again. They were on the way down as we were coming back.
The plants were put in as soon as we got back while the boys played with their new water squirters. Huffle and I finished off vegetable bed no2. We dug some soil up from the very bottom of the garden and wheel barrowed nine loads. (my arms will ache tomorrow). We were a good team, I shovelled into the barrow, Huffle wheedled out the weeds, stones and sticks and wheeled it to the raised bed. We stopped for dinner and then carried on after.
We added two aubergines, more peas that we started in a pot, a basil, welsh onions, seeded lettuces and sweetcorn. There is a little bit of room for something else. In the first bed we have some sweet corn shooting, lots of peas, garlic sprouting and the lettuces and beetroots and growing well. The boys went off to their friends a few doors away to play for a couple of hours which meant Huffle and I could really get on. It was great, we could still hear them but it sounded like they were having fun.
I went to go and get them from the front and they came round the back. It meant I got to have a chat and meet their friend's Dad. We decided we would all get together soon so he could find out more about us, why we came over, from where etc. He seemed nice and genuine. He also suggested we take it in turns to have the kids so we each get some time to ourselves. Brilliant!
The boys got to stay up later tonight but were very tired. Small and I read a story called Knapsack, Hat and Horn - we didn't finish it, look forward to knowing the end of the story! Smallest was very tired and crying. His toe and tummy hurt. I put some 'magic cream' on his toe (can't remember what it is called but it draws out any infection or splinters etc). He cried so much he ended up coming downstairs and I tried to get whatever was in his toe out! I think it may have been a small thorn. I got most of it out and put the cream and a plaster on it. Will have another look in the morning. We gave him some Calpol equivalent and sent him back to bed with lots of cuddles. Bless him. He fell almost instantly asleep.
Huffle and I sat down and watched Eurovision Song Contest on his laptop plugged into the TV.
Our favourites were the singing grannies, Jedward (purely for their enthusiasm and wet hair) and the Italian Amy Winehouse. Engelbert Humperdink needs to give up singing as his voice has gone. I'm afraid when you get to a certain age, your voice just doesn't have the power anymore, however good you may have been plus his song was awful!
P.s. I have reached over 15,000 views of this blog. WOW. Thank you for reading. I am pleased I am entertaining enough for you to keep reading (either that or you are just plain nosey). And just for those of you who like the stats, here they are.
My main readers are from the UK (which makes sense as our family and friends are there and like to keep up to date with what we are doing). Canada (well we have met some people whilst here, in person and in blog land), US - some family and blogland. Russia - I have no idea! Australia - some family and blogland. Germany, Ukraine, Poland and Brazil - no idea. Isle of Man - well I have Mrs Burlington Bertie to thank here as she went here for a week this year and carried on reading. Tell your family to keep reading before they fall off the scale. I like to see Isle of Man on there!
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