A relatively early start as I had to visit Helgi at 10 to sort out the music line-up for the Green Festival. I spent about 45 minutes with him, helping him do a variety of carefully worded emails so he can decide who to take out of the provisional line up for the main stage so that we can get Holly Tamar on before Seize the Day.
Then I bombed along to Rowntree Park to see if I could get John the Park Keeper's contact details, but he wasn't there. However, I did speak to the John's colleague and talked things over with him, and spoke to the children's inflatables people about the Festival too.
Came home via Country Fresh and picked up two boxes of compostables as well as a cauliflower and some bananas. Met a guy who repairs bikes called Kevin, who has a copy of a film that Gill saw in New Zealand in 1986 and she's never forgotten it. I asked if I could borrow it, in exchange for some dried fruit. It's called The Gods Must Be Crazy. I'm really looking forward to watching it... Gill's told me so much about it!
I had lunch. Then our guests arrived, Gill's niece Sophie and her three children, but not Dankie her husband who has taken all his holiday already and is at work. Her children get on well with ours and we love it when they visit.
During the afternoon, Gill and Sophie went to get some towels and pillowcases, and the children played happily on their own, so I did a load of chainsawing and splitting. Then Sophie took all the children to the park, and was gone for ages.
They came back shortly before I had to go out to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel, due to be at Tang Hall Community Centre. When I got there at 6.30, the gates were locked shut and a conference was going on as to where to have the meeting. A consensus was reached to go to The Magnet pub on Osbaldwick Lane, so I cycled round followed by two cars. We had a lot to do, perhaps 8 or 10 applications including 3 or 4 which we opposed... and of course we had to explain why we opposed them, on planning grounds. It was a very lively meeting which lasted over an hour.
So back at 8pm and Gill had left enough pasta, cauliflower and sauce for me to have a really good meal. We had a lovely evening... warm as I lit the stove so I could make a carrot soup. The children went to bed without a hitch and quite late on, after Sophie had gone to bed, Gill and I started watching The Gods Must Be Crazy. The basic plot centres round a tribe of Bushmen in the Kalahari, who find a Coke bottle which had been thrown out of a plane and the chaos which ensues. It is full of slapstick and other humour, but there might be a message in there too.
Showing posts with label Sophie and Dankie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sophie and Dankie. Show all posts
A very lazy morning reading NewScientist and a good book Ali lent me, keeping out of the way of all the children who were running around like maniacs... nothing to do with chocolate overdosing of course?
Helped Linda in the garden, digging up a dying Rosemary bush and replacing it with a lovely-looking small tree or shrub which I could not identify. The children were persuaded to go on a slug and snail hunt. These were put in a bucket with something to hide under, ready for relocation.
Gill was having a migraine, poor thing, so stayed in bed all day, and Linda looked after her when the rest of us went out for a walk with Sophie, Dankie and all the children. We drove, in two cars, to Mousehold Heath, an area of woodland and heathland which has seen lots of gravel extraction, and therefore has lots of hillocks and dips, great to run around, and we found a rope swing and had fun on that. Other members of the group started making a den with sticks and branches, and after energetic rope-swing activity, everybody joined in with this. We climbed trees and threw sticks, I pushed over a large rotten silver birch tree. The snails were released, and we heard woodpeckers drumming. I collected litter in the snails' bucket and some polybags I found. (33 pieces of recyclable can/bottle type litter, plus lots of throw-away stuff) After all this activity we had an ice cream and borrowed some young adults' football and had a kick around. Most of the children had a fabulous time and we all enjoyed this place. What a pity Gill couldn't see it and join in.
After tea, I did a balloon show and workshop for the children which they mostly enjoyed and I was delighted to see how good some of them were at making a bird model! We got the sleeping arrangements organised sensibly and I had a much better night's sleep.
Helped Linda in the garden, digging up a dying Rosemary bush and replacing it with a lovely-looking small tree or shrub which I could not identify. The children were persuaded to go on a slug and snail hunt. These were put in a bucket with something to hide under, ready for relocation.
Gill was having a migraine, poor thing, so stayed in bed all day, and Linda looked after her when the rest of us went out for a walk with Sophie, Dankie and all the children. We drove, in two cars, to Mousehold Heath, an area of woodland and heathland which has seen lots of gravel extraction, and therefore has lots of hillocks and dips, great to run around, and we found a rope swing and had fun on that. Other members of the group started making a den with sticks and branches, and after energetic rope-swing activity, everybody joined in with this. We climbed trees and threw sticks, I pushed over a large rotten silver birch tree. The snails were released, and we heard woodpeckers drumming. I collected litter in the snails' bucket and some polybags I found. (33 pieces of recyclable can/bottle type litter, plus lots of throw-away stuff) After all this activity we had an ice cream and borrowed some young adults' football and had a kick around. Most of the children had a fabulous time and we all enjoyed this place. What a pity Gill couldn't see it and join in.
After tea, I did a balloon show and workshop for the children which they mostly enjoyed and I was delighted to see how good some of them were at making a bird model! We got the sleeping arrangements organised sensibly and I had a much better night's sleep.
