Tomorrow morning I will collect our three grandchildren Twin boys age 9 and thier sister age 8 and set off for a fun filled week. First stop will be my two brothers farms on the edge of Ashdown Forest, the children love it there, usually we go and camp during the summer holidays but this year Peter was not well enough to wild camp and I did not want to leave him alone for to long. So we gave haymaking a miss.
Anyway the storm kindly bought a tree down in one of the fields so tomorrow when we arrive the children will have plenty of wood to build a bonfire. this years Guy is female..... it was our granddaughters turn to make it. I hope I don't get stopped by the police on route with this strange looking half cat half ugly woman Guy sitting in the front passenger seat.
We don't have fireworks we always see and hear enough of other peoples for free. The children have battery operated coloured flashing batons torches frisbees etc and have much more safe fun in the dark with those.and they don't scare the farm animals.
The children enjoy tramping around " working " on the farms. my brothers started teaching the boys to drive tractors and diggers when they were 7, (very closely supervised) while Our grand daughter prefers riding horses.
I was raised on farms so it is lovely to be able to afford our grandchildren the same experiences and fun our girls had.
Sadly Peter will remain at home so he can rest and be in the warm. Hopefully he will join us for a couple of days at the end of the week, when we will be staying in a caravan at camber sands
I don't want to leave him behind, but I know he will be more comfortable in his own bed, our eldest daughter is on hand to see he's o.k. and I will only be a couple of hours drive away.
Its strange I have taken them on my own before but Peter didn't have cancer then, we didn't think about it, I would just say we are going and sometimes he would come others he would work or stay home. but now it seems wrong to go without him although its important to keep things as normal as possible for the children.and it would be far to tiring for him to do the whole week so this should give him the best of both.
