We have been mainly........

busy this week, making the most of the warmer weather as we were not convinced it was going to last, and it has been positively autumnal this summer for us.

We started the week with our usual visit to the local town for food shopping and a visit to the library to get some new books.  We found a cool book Wild Child by Jeanne Willis, I think I have read this at least five times every day this week, she loves it.  We spent the afternoon looming at our library books and drawing pictures.

The next day we joined our friends for our regular play date.  My eldest was not sure of he wanted to go this week.  He had not had so much fun last week as there were different children there.  He needed to knowm if they would be there again before he decided.  He needs time to get to know new people and prefers to do this one on one rather than in a group.  He struggled to join in last week.  I established that they were not going to be there so we headed down.  He had a great play for the afternoon, running around, playing with lego and building a den.  My youngest spent most of the day on their trampoline, she is getting quite competent.  Despite getting home late we contact our friends who were meeting the next day to plan a day out.  We have so few warm sunny days we wanted to make plans rather than leaving until mid morning and not ending up doing much.

We opted for a day out to a local Buddhist Temple and Retreat Centre it was a beautiful place, really serene and peaceful.  The children spent a long time in the temple sitting still and looking around, it was a really calming place.  We had a lovely long picnic on their beach, whilst the children played in the sand and shallow waters.  It was a long but wonderful day.

On Thursday we took our canoe out for a day paddle on a local lake.  We took dinner and tea which we cooked on our Kelly Kettle.  I was really tired by the end of the day, but I do love days out like this, being outdoors recharges my batteries.  My eldest is never keen at the thought but when we are out always tells me he is having a great time, so it is usually worth that extra hassle.

The next day we were joined for dinner by our friends from the south.  Like me they have to eat a particular diet and are unable to eat gluten, together with my long list of foods I cannot eat it makes for intersting meals.  I enjoy cooking and managed to put together a meal for eight without using any.  I served up (all homemade) coleslaw, rice salad with dill and peas, a green leaf salad from the garden, onion bhajis and deep fried cheddar balls.  The children were off playing together for pretty much the whole time. It was lovely to see and hear the girls so well together, they are still young but seem to be finding each others company enjoyable now which is wonderful to observe.  It meant the adults had a catch up which was great as what with one thing and another we have not been able to meet up much of late.

Continuuing the busy theme we spent a large proportion of the weekend on a canoe trip.  This time we took the kit to camp out under a bivi sheet.  The children had a whale of a time, it was lovely to have the time to just sit and watch what they were doing, running around in the water, in the trees, looking at things, asking questions or just sitting and being.  It is important to slow down sometimes and live simply.  Camping is a great opportunity to do this, I am looking forward to our many camping trips we have planned over the next few weeks.