8 August 2010

Uma was booked on an early afternoon train, but we first had time to fit in a quick climb up the Skirrid. Emily walked up the initial cart-track but then refused to go on, so I put her in the carrier and got her up through the woods and onto the lower end of the ridge. She did very well from there, climbing quite steeply at first and then pushing on along the spine of the mountain a little way. We sat and took in the view a while then I carried her to the crags halfway along.

Unfortunately we did not have time to quite get to the top and back and we only just managed to fit in our picnic. We quickly descended with Emily riding on my back again, with my quads almost in agony by the time we got back to the cart-track . We drove down to Newport and dropped Uma then went straight back home, where we played in the garden.

7 August 2010

With Uma down from London for the weekend, I was keen to show her the delights of the area, so was not best pleased to find the weather very changeable and given to short, sharp showers which swept through the mountains obscuring the ridges periodically. Regardless, I drove her and Emily first to the Cat's Back (aka Black Hill), which is at the north east end of the Black Mountains. We donned waterproofs and set out to climb up the initial hill with the intention of having a snack on the crags at the top, but a heavy shower passed over and that was obviously out. In addition, Emily was being difficult (no prizes for guessing that a poo was overdue) and refused to walk, so I had to put her in the carrier and slog up the steep path with all that weight on my back. It is a short but sharp pull up there; my legs were burning and my breathing very laboured by the time we made it up. We had reasonable views from there to the north and east but did not linger as we were getting rather wet.

I was surprised but grateful that Emily actually wanted to walk down under her own steam.In fact she positively relished the descent down the slippery track to the car.

Back at the bottom, we noticed that a lady was sitting in her small car with one rear wheel a foot off the ground, having tried to park on the verge where it dropped off into a ditch. She was about 60, alone, and with no breakdown cover. I settled Emily in our car then Uma and I did our best to help her. We collected lots of stones to stop the front wheels spinning on the mud, then pushed with all our might while she revved the engine, but to no avail. Three times we tried but had to admit defeat. Just as we were about to leave, a couple drove up and as soon as the man joined us we managed to heave the car backwards with a lot of smoke from the tyres and a few scrapes and groans from the undercarriage.

Continuing on our way, we drove on to Hay. As I suspected, it was very busy and we joined several other cars circling the only car park on the lookout for a space. In the end I had to stalk a couple returning to their car and hover protectively over their space while they backed out. We walked through town to the Granary, our family's usual haunt in Hay. Uma and I deliberated over the extensive menu before plumping for fishcakes apiece. I didn't bother ordering anything separate for Emily as I usually end up feeling that I have wasted money. She was being fussy and only ate salad and one baby potato, though she was happy to assist me with my chocolate brownie.

We returned via the Gospel Pass route, and stopped off for an hour at Hay Common. I had planned to get up onto Hay Bluff, but when we got there I realised that it might be too hard a slog to carry Emily up there, especially after my earlier efforts. We decided to just stroll among the grassy paths and have a snack a few hundred yards from the car. Emily walked all the way with no complaint over the tussocks and moorland, and we got wonderful views north as the weather had cleared up a bit.



By the car we discovered several muddy puddles worthy or Peppa herself, and as I had fortunately packed her boots, Emily got to splash to her heart's content.

Driving on, the pass was busy, perhaps due to Llantony Show (where Mum, Fi and the kids had been, unbeknownst to us) so we had to pull into passing places and reverse a lot.

Emily and Fern watched DVDs while we ate dinner. She cried at Scooby Doo and said it was too scary, though Fern clearly enjoys it. I switched to Chorlton and the Wheelies; Nick would approve of this northern programme from the seventies that reminded me of Magic Roundabout - he gets annoyed that most children's TV now is produced with southern accents!

Uma and I watched Hot Fuzz, which I have always wanted to see and really enjoyed. Around midnight, I remembered that I wanted to show her some shooting stars so we put on wellies and warm clothes and went out to the lawn for a quick look. As luck would have it, within a minute we both saw a really good one, and then I saw another soon after. Cloud moved in, which was probably for the best as I would have ended up staying out there for ages otherwise.

5 August 2010

On a dry but cool and cloudy day, we all drove over to Merthyr Tydfil and took a trip on Pontsticill mountain railway. Emily and Fern were naturally very excited about riding on a steam train. It was busy but the little engine pulls quite a few carriages and we had no trouble getting seats on the foremost carriage.

The little train wended its way slowly along the side of the pretty valley, gradually descending to the head of a reservoir, where there is a station, cafe and playground. It passed through and carried on another few minutes, and I persuaded the girls to come with me out on the small balustrade outside at the end of the carriage, so we were right next to the engine and could watch the driver in action. The train came to a halt and the driver's mate hopped down, decoupled the engine and changed the points, so that the little puffer could move round to the other end of the train for the return leg. That meant that we were now looking down onto the tracks as we rode along, to Emily and Fern's delight.


We got off at the reservoir station and joined the queues at the cafe for a picnic. As we disembarked, a man ushered me forward saying 'after yourself'! Surely a physical impossibility? The inappropriate use of myself/yourself is one of my absolute pet hates, grammatically speaking.


The view up to the back of the Brecon Beacons was gorgeous and would have made for a very satifying lunch if not for Emily's behaviour. She seemed rather unenthused by yet another sandwich and made do with Marmite ricecakes - a wonderful invention, I must say. Eventually she just wandered off, to my annoyance. She and Fern wanted to explore the little playground, and stayed there happily enough for a while, playing 'shop' under the slide, with the bark chippings acting as both goods and money.


After the enjoyable ride back to the start station, they demanded the icecreams we had been promising all day and got into a right mess with their Cornettos.


Once in the car Emily was soon asleep but Fern somehow remained awake for well over an hour, as we took the scenic route back home, going down the valley past Talybont reservoir and then via back roads across from Crickhowell. At Talybont we found that the small bridge over the canal was raised and waited there awhile as a holiday barge came through. In fact, as we drove along the road that follows the canal we could see much activity on the waterway and it was good to see it being well used.

After 11pm, Mum and I went out onto the lawn to look for shooting stars, as we are now well into the annual Perseids shower. I saw about four in half an hour or so, but it was really cold out there, even in several warm layers.

4 August 2010

It was time to leave the delights of Horsham for our rural retreat in Pandy. Emily and I were on the road at 9.30. I felt in my bones that I ought to go via motorway, but at the crucial moment I went with the cross-country option along the A272 to Winchester then north to the M4. Emily was tetchy, probably due to the discomfort of yet another poo build-up. We were doing OK until we got to Midhurst, where we encountered a gridlock in the small country town. After 20 minutes of creeping forward with no discernible reason in sight, I turned off and headed north, hoping to find my way up to the M4 by another route. Emily was very fed up, and so was I. We got lost in Farnham's one-way system and ended up going the wrong way, to Aldershot. I spotted Fleet on a sign and knew it was on the M3 so I went that way and once there finally saw Reading signposted. On that occasion, I wished for satnav. It took two and a half hours to get onto the M4, more than an hour longer than necessary. Emily was thankfully asleep. At Membury I pulled in and woke her. She was predictably upset, so I had to carry her into the services building. As soon as we were under cover the heavens opened in a a 20 minute deluge that left floods around the site. Emily recovered her equilibrium in Starbucks, then we were on our way again.

We stopped again at Birdlip Hill, where the views were crystal sharp to the border hills, but it was very cold and windy and clearly about to chuck it down once more (remind me again - this is summer?!) so we climbed back into the car for the final hour. Amazingly Emily was in good spirits and we made it to Mum's without further problems. She and Fern were reunited and played happily in the garden for a couple of hours, with Dad lending a hand keeping them entertained, to my surprise.

3 August 2010

Tim had taken a day off, and we visited Drusillas, which is a sort of minor zoo and play attraction near Lewes. It took about an hour to get there; as it was a sunny day in school holidays I suppose I wasn't surprised to find a big queue to get in. We stood in line for 20 minutes but by the time we got to the entrance Emily was really cranky and I lost it a bit in public. She relented a bit once she began to notice the various animals. Tom had been before and knew that there was a Thomas ride, so we had to press on past the monkeys and meerkats to get to that. We queued for quarter of an hour and Emily was very grumpy, but finally we were aboard the land train for the five minute ride around the perimeter of the adventure playground area.


After that we needed to replenish our reserves so we had our picnic, with the two children leaping to their feet to wave every ten minutes when Thomas chuffed past. Then they were off, exploring the various pieces of equipment with ladders, mesh, chutes and slides. Emily was very hesitant and would only ride on my lap, whereas at home she is usually quite adventurous. As it was the fourth day without a poo her mood was very much affected though. Tom is quite the brave little explorer and happily jumped onto every chute alone.

After icecreams all round (hotly pursued by pesky wasps, which seem to be everywhere this summer), we carried on through the rest of the zoo area, taking in lemurs, penguins, flamingos and the like.

Emily was really tired and also bad-tempered due to the poo situation, so we had many a falling-out as she played up and flopped around wanting to be carried everywhere. We had a quick pause to see James and Cranky models

then made our way back to the central grassy area for a quick cuppa. Emily was very hard to handle so I took her to the exit (via yet another retail opportunity where I was relieved of twenty quid in the Thomas shop).

On the way home both kids slept all the way back. Emily would not eat her tea so we fell out again and I retired upstairs for a while. Sarah pointed out how negative I am with her and that I keep badgering her, which I suppose is true but I was close to tears after the strain of the day. I was praying that she would produce a poo and kept her up later than Tom hoping one would manifest itself, in vain. I managed to get a little tea into her, at least.

2 August 2010

Sarah and Tom were going to a Teddy Bears' picnic so Emily and I spent the morning in Horsham. We had coffee then traipsed around a few shops. Emily was grumpy and sat slumped in the buggy refusing to walk. Eventually I realised with a guilty pang that she had dropped off. She stayed asleep for an hour, allowing me to finish what shopping I had planned and take her and a picnic lunch to the park on the south side of town. She woke just as I pulled up at at a bench and thankfully a train went past on the rail line over the field at that moment, staving off any upset. We had a nice lunch and a bit of a wander around the pleasant park area there.

Later, Sarah and I took the kids to Southwater Park, which is a very pleasant spot a couple of miles away from Horsham. Sarah and Tim are hoping to buy a house in the nearby village, and if they do they will be very lucky to have such a nice spot on their doorstep. It is an old clay pit, now a lake, and set in attractive surroundings with a cafe and a fantastic playground. There were many people in canoes and small sailing boats, and we sat and watched them while we had refreshments outside the cafe, before passing around the lake to the playground. Tom led the way confidently up the steps to the top of a very long slide, and they both went down a few times.

For some reason Emily was a bit wimpy about using some types of equipment that she had attempted with gusto at home. Afterwards she and Tom stripped off to have a dip in the lake, with Tom completely immersed and seemingly unpeturbed by the cold water.

After Tim returned from work the two of us went for a short run around Horsham; he has recently taken up jogging and I was overdue for a run. As we made a circuit of Horsham Park, something flew out of a hedge by the path and stung me on the hand. As far as I could tell it was a small wasp, and I let out a huge yell, being petrified of the blighters as I don't think I have ever been stung (in all my adult life at least). Although I do think it was a wasp, it only felt like a bad nettle sting, and by the time I got back to Sarah's it had a bit of a white centre but was actually quite tolerable. I conjectured that as I was running my increased bloodflow distributed the poison quickly. By next day it was only an itch so perhaps it wasn't a wasp after all.

1 August 2010

We popped over to Owlbeech Woods, on the edge of Horsham, for a morning stroll. There are pleasant paths among the trees and beside a brook that is crossed by many planks and small bridges, providing ample scope for throwing in sticks. Emily's mood was very up and down for some reason, and I felt ratty as a result. Her demeanour was not improved by falling over on brambles and scratching both knees. I'm afraid that perhaps I was not sympathetic enough, and gave her a hard time when she refused to walk afterwards. I worry so much about her being a spoilt only child.

After lunch at home we drove to Goff's Park in Crawley. Here there was a fantastic little model railway operating. It has a handful of tiny working engines running on coal and producing steam, that are surprisingly powerful. It is staffed by model enthusiasts and amazingly a ride cost only 30p each. I was astonished by how fast the train went round the short course, and we had to hold on quite tight as it rolled a bit and took the corners fast.

Following that, Emily tried out Tom's scooter with some success, on the way to the playground.

Here we found another set of very modern play equipment, though I would say that the majority of it is better suited to 5 years old and over. It has been a revelation to me how many play areas there are in the UK, though possibly the Home Counties fares better than average. Emily fell off one slide arrangement - onto thick bark chippings, thankfully - leading to a fresh flood of tears. I carried her all the way through the woods to a small cafe where we all had ice lollies. Emily picked a Fruit Pastilles one that dripped all over her top in five different colours. We finished off with another ride on a model train before going home.