I shall focus on the positive of all this today It was that sort of day

Started off with everyone doing music practise. I shall have to get teachers for them sometime soon i think, but money is tight just at the moment, so i’ll be waiting until the new year i think. Need to tune Maddy’s guitar (gulp) but Amelie and Fran are okay and enjoying making noise. Everyone was reasonably busy so i went off to sort out our passports while MF looked after them.

Josie and i had a nice time in the post office, she was good company. Managed 3/5 passports. Had to get new birth certificate for Amelie (bank lost her full one and i forgot, Max put wrong marriage certificate in for me ) Will go back tomorrow am to complete mission.

Did a fair bit of shrieking over state of house.

Then went out to Barnwell Country Park for a picnic with Hannah and co. I’ve not been there for years and i don’t think last time we went we were particualrly impressed but i saw that they were doing nature trails there so we thought it would be a nice diversion. Josie is looking so much healthier for a week outside that it seemed a good idea to try and continue it while the weather is still summer-ish.

After a lunch and a very minimum of opportunity to chat, thanks to clingy and repeatedly returning children we set off on the trail.

I think it would be fair to say that they warmed up eventually but there was a fair bit of whining while they did so. However Hannah and i have a nature study plan (rofl, a plan… a plan which consists of “doing some”), so they might have to get used to it. I think a bit of practise at just being out and doing something will have to be got through with gritted teeth

In the end they all did pretty well; the younger 3 did a spotting thing and saw butterflies, swans, geese and more. Amelie was doing a fair job of spotting the  words too and the bigger 3 spent time in bird and kingfisher hides, found different types grasses, drew what they could see (Maddy did a recognisable cow parsley and teasel bush) and Fran surprised me by what she could write and spell quite happily. She surprises me with that a lot, she’s far more able at it than she chooses to show me!

By the time we got back to the car everyone had had a lovely time and were very pleased with the cuddly toy prizes they received. Yum, more stuffed things

Finished off with Doctor Who, though we’ve nearly all watched it all now, which is a shame because it has been a lovely family obsession; last nights was The Satan Pit, which really did have an EXCELLENT monster

Thought i would mention this site, as we’ve managed to have several good days out from it recently. Very handy little site, more power to its e-elbow.
Wherecanwego.com 

A very slow back to normal day today, with not much of anything but a little of everything. Hardly worth beginning to get back into a routine as the next 4 days and all next week are a bit different to normal anyway, so i didn’t bother. Maddy achieved 2 sums and some reading, Fran achieved about 4 sums and read about Christopher Columbus. beyond that and some hasty tidying, we didn’t achieve much in the way of anything.

Amelie on the other hand, did. She is HUGELY motivated by wanting to read and will badger anyone, at any time until they run away screaming. She has got a good memory for words and can pick strings of words she knows out of books, so she is actually making an excellent stab at some of the Usborne Apple Tree Farm readers, which is quite impressive as Maddy would still go all floppy at the sight of those. I’m going to sign her up to Studydog i think, so she can enjoy that, i’ve got a feeling she’ll adore it. So i sat with her for ages doing various books, and Max has done more tonight as well, and she is a very happy bunny indeed.

Decided last night that all the work stuff that needed doing, the washing, the house, the unpacking etc etc was going to mean several days of stress and wailing, so took all the igrls to Sue’s instead and came home for 4 hours of uninterupted tidying and working. Leaflets got ordered, banking done, washing put away, my bedroom is spotless, passports almost sorted (i have to make a return trip tomorrow morning), accounts up to date and kitchen fixed up.

So now i can enjoy the rest of the week and we don’t have to do any shouting.

The girls had a fab time at Sue’s – they picked plums, played, talked to the dogs, coloured and drew and mostly didn’t want to come home. Maddy drew an amazing picture, i must blog it.

I should probably go to bed, or as Josie would say “goat to bed.”

Somebody sort out the NHS. Please. It’s being run by lunatics.

I phoned up for Amelie’s allergy appointment and they couldn’t offer me an appointment until the day after the 13 weeks that we must be seen within. This meant that she couldn’t offer me that appointment, because then she wouldn’t have been seen within the 13 weeks. So she was going to have to get her manager to open a new clinic, within the previous week (when we’d be in France), so that an appointment within the 13 weeks could be allocated instead.

Except we wouldn’t be able to go, but that would be okay because it would be within the 13 weeks from her referral.

Fortunately a manager with commonsense prevailed.

Is it me?

Saturday we reduced to another paddling trip to Postbridge, before buying bbq stuff and heading back to the campsite ready to babysit M and Iz and Joe and Lou wanted to go to a concert. (To be fair, i think ‘wanted’ states Joe’s stance on the particular band rather too strongly… ) So we had 6 girls for the night and it was lovely, all very easy and enjoyable. M is a particular delight, she knows how to play her audience, so consequently she had me wrapped round her little finger!

Sunday we all, including the cousins and Joe and Lou, went to Lydford Gorge and picnicked before doing the circuit of the gorge. It’s quite steep and rocky in places, with lots of steps in the other bits, so i was highly impressed by them all making it round, including Joey. We took Fran the year i was pregnant with Maddy and she did it too back then at only 18 months or so (i only just did, i was a bit portly for it really!) but it is quite a hike so they did very well. More posing for photos (must find camera) and paddling there too. Think we Little Cheffed for tea again that night, cooking seems a bit of an effort when camping. Max and i stayed up late watching Peter Kay segments on You Tube. Laughed much to much for my pelvic floor
Monday we packed up, discovered we had inadvertantly stayed a day longer than we’d booked and had caused them hassle but they were lovely about it. Less lovely were the sons of the family who had been expecting to have out pitch. They walked backwards and forwards in front of our tent talking in that “outloud because really we want you to hear” way about how we’d stolen their pitch and we supposed to book out while throwing us evil looks. In fact, i only realised because of this, so was able to settle up with the owner without her having to ask, but why the kids had to be so ridiculous i have no idea, there were spare pitches so they were just a few spaces along Oh well, we all make mistakes. Still haven’t quite worked out what went wrong!

My favourite thing about monday was stopping in to see the friends who i met when she bought stuff on BM and we discovered she’d been at school with Max. We spent 2-3 happy hours with them on their lovely small holding with their great kids and their delicious cakes. Still very much an HE family, in fact, not sure i know a MORE HE family than they are and it was great. How fab to have a life where tea in the garden is improved by the family pony popping over to say hello? Hoping to get back down to see them this autumn if i can as the combination of setting and family is almost instantly restful

Finally made it over to Joe and Lou’s after tearing ourselves away, primed the kids with calories and drinks and then headed off to Heavitree’s Party in the Park. Never been to anything like it before but it was lots of fun, though a bit loud for me and i seem to lose the power of speech and thought when things are loud. However, picnic, Pimms, fast rides, sun and lots of good music made for a very enjoyable evening. The girls liked Take That 2 and LOVED The Spicey Girls; i took the younger 3 home before Queen as they were drooping by 10pm but Fran, Iz and M made it to the end. Huge amount of fun and 6 very tired girls.

This morning i had to go and shout at a florist (sometimes having worked in retail really is excellent, i got £30 out of her in about 20 seconds flat after failing to achieve anything over the phone in a whole month) and then we dropped in to TRB with breakfast. Spent a lovely 90 minutes or so there, put some dirty handprints on the newly painted wall ( ) and then headed home. And now we’re back with no family holidays for… oh.. a month or so I have started having nightmares about exploding planes though, so plenty of time for me to get used to that idea!!!!

Friday needed to be at a slightly more leisurely pace after all that and as cousin M was better, we decided to meet up with Joe and the girls at Castle Drogo. (LOVE National Trust membership, worth every penny!) Had a somewhat torturous trip up there; it’s a very, VERY narrow lane and quite stepp coming from the side we were on and someone was half way up and comprehensively stuck in a motorhome. Huffed a bit as we were the ones directly behind and various people got irate or went up to help cars get past; in the end, he got stuck again and i went up to let him know he was really going to have to be the one to move next as there simply wasn’t room. It then became obvious that he was a gentleman who had, i’d guess, become a widower in the last year and had bought a motorhome and decided to go off on tour. He was a bit flustered So we were nice, helped him out a bit and when we all got to Castle Drogo, i flapped over him for a bit and probably annoyed him greatly and then we left him recuperating! I felt a bit bad for huffing though.

After that, we had a REALLY NICE DAY. (Look, a “really” and a “nice” all in one 3 word sentence!)

Playing in the trees. (I’ve got that grainy problem again, i’m gonig to have to read the manual.)

Amelie being a bit B list celebrity.

Cousin M – same age as Amelie, a whole different sort of girl!

Doing the history trail.

Being gorgeous.

Lovely time. I sunbathed after all that, i seemed to be ridiculously tired all week, and Max and Joe took all the girls in the castle for another trail and a nosey. Then i sat with them while they played and amused myself people watching. One elderly couple stood by me quite openly discussing the 6 girls and trying to work out which belonged together. They settled on Iz, Maddy, M and Amelie being sisters, with M and Amelie as twins and Fran being the second oldest (Iz is taller but younger in fact) and being sibling only to Josie.

I enjoyed telling them how wrong they were; i don’t think they realised they’d been stood right over me while discussing my brood

Iz – didn’t get a good one of her really.

Finished off the day paddling at Postbridge. It was one of those incredibly deeply sunny late afternoons; the photos seem to have come out all 1970′s slide-ish, not sure why. Lovely though.

Then went off to forage for dinner and ended up at excellent chip shop in Tavistock, which was having a Balloon Festival. Impossible to get a decent photo, at least, impossible if you are me, but i did love the way they were just appearing from the end of the street. Very surreal.

Got impossibly lost on the way home, which reduced us all to complete hysterics. Set off towards the campsites landmark, Dingles Steam Village, which was helpfully signposted right from Tavistock (where we’ve decided we’d quite fancy living) and then managed to lose our bearings in the last few miles when we realised we actually only know how to get back to it if we come from the A30 and are otherwise clueless as to its actual geographic position. It takes some doing for Max to get as lost as i can, that’s for sure, but we had NO IDEA where we were, except that we were, without fail, always 2 1/2 miles from a hamlet called Germansweek

Got home eventually, very, very late.

Thursday we had a VERY LONG DAY. Had intended to spend it with cousins, but M was sick so had to stay away from her really, given our “don’t want tummy bug in a field” status. Got lunch and ate that under Kestor, then took a walk up to see if anyone had found our letterbox. A few had so the girls were delighted.

Climbed about a lot, Josie was particularly determined to be intrepid

Then we started to walk down toward Batworthy Corner, scene of mine and Max’s best Dartmoor tale, which the kids like to be told.

Josie did a Buttercup…

…. but eventually we convinced her we were prepared to go without her and she followed and did the rest of what was probably a 4-5 mile walk on her own 2 feet. What a little star.

Maddy fell in a hole and wailed a lot; Aspergers kids are supposed to have high pain tolerences, not Maddy I’ve never heard so much fuss about a scraped finger. Humphf.

Met someone taking photos for this site on the way down, she took a photo of our crocs, but i don’t see it on the site! Eventually made it down to the Teign River/Stream, which Amelie immediately dubbed “a magical place”.

We’ll gloss over the part where Frances decided to behave like a mountain goat skipping across the rocks in the river (which was in full flow from so much rain), lost her footing, skittered down through the rocks, white water rafting on her bum, lost her shoes, missed a million rocks with her head by about a millimetre and then decided her shoes were more important than her life and tried to retrieve them.

Sometime later, i ceased screaming at her about how i can buy more crocs, would have to work bloody hard to get another Frances and people die making stupid bad decisions like that. By this time i had reduced all 4 children to sobbing wrecks. Amelie continued to wail “when will i forget about Fran nearly drowning at intervals for the rest of the day.

However, we got over it, Max put the big two through the “whooping rock” (big rock with a hole through it) – at least, Max knows it as that, but i can’t find a reference to that particular one anywhere. Maddy later fell through it again, up to her neck (fortunately i wasn’t looking and Max pulled her out without me knowing.) Edit – i think it is this rock actually.
She was delighted to find it had a dimple the perfect shape for a Maddy bottom though.

It was very beautiful down there.

Then we walked them up the other side to see the stone circle, a particularly good one with lots of odd triangle stones

and then all the way back, stopping to retrieve various bits of sodden clothing as we went. I think at one point Fran and Maddy had every item of clothing they had had on, on a rock of tree somewhere

Luckily i had spare clothes.

Ice cream in Chagford was in order, along with a trip to put flowers on Gran’s grave in an attempt to give Amelie some closure on it all. Moderately successful.

Took them all into Moretonhampstead then for the carnival with Joe and Iz, which was excellent this year, thoguh my camera batteries ran out. One particularly fab dalek, which so convinced Josie that for the rest of the week she asked if the daleks were still there every time we went through the town! Finished with fair and food and home for a very late bedtime indeed .