Shiney……

…… is the car. Did the carwash thingy this afternoon. The car no longer looks like an old tractor.  I have been lying low for a while – did a LRP event, which was enjoyable over the Bank Holiday weekend, but then some plague bearer gave me a stinking cold.  I made it into work for about 5 hours on 10th May and then spent the next 4 days lying in bed, shivering, boiling, sneezing and wheezing.  I may as well have bought shares in Kleenex, given how many hankies were used.  You kind of get to the point of wondering how much snot one person can produce in a 24hr period.  Anyway, am feeling slightly better now – less snotters, but a really irritating cough and general tiredness.

50 Things……

…… to do before you are 11 and three-quarters. The latest study by Play England showed a third of parents will not let children do ‘risky activities’ like climbing trees. In an effort to give both parents and children more confidence the National Trust have created a list of ’50 things to do before you are 11 ¾’.

A report commissioned by the National Trust found children today spend fewer than ten per cent of their playtime in wild places. Dame Fiona Reynolds, the Director General of the Trust, said children need to reconnect with nature by playing the games generations before them have enjoyed.

“Getting outdoors and closer to nature has all sorts of benefits for our children. It keeps them fit, they can learn about the world around them and most of all its fun. That’s why it’s so worrying that so many children today don’t have the opportunity to experience the outdoors and nature. Building a den, picking flowers, climbing trees – the outdoors is a treasure trove, rich in imagination. It brings huge benefits that we believe every child should have the opportunity to experience. And there are huge costs when they don‘t. As a nation we need to do everything we can to make it easy and safe for our children to get outdoors. We want to move the debate on and encourage people and organisations to think about how we take practical steps to reconnect children with the natural world and inspire them to get outdoors.”

Bloody hell – do kids seriously not do these things anymore?! See the full list below. What have you done?:

1. Climb a tree
2. Roll down a really big hill
3. Camp out in the wild
4. Build a den
5. Skim a stone
6. Run around in the rain
7. Fly a kite
8. Catch a fish with a net
9. Eat an apple straight from a tree
10. Play conkers
11. Throw some snow
12. Hunt for treasure on the beach
13. Make a mud pie
14. Dam a stream
15. Go sledging
16. Bury someone in the sand
17. Set up a snail race
18. Balance on a fallen tree
19. Swing on a rope swing
20. Make a mud slide
21. Eat blackberries growing in the wild
22. Take a look inside a tree
23. Visit an island
24. Feel like you’re flying in the wind
25. Make a grass trumpet
26. Hunt for fossils and bones
27. Watch the sun wake up
28. Climb a huge hill
29. Get behind a waterfall
30. Feed a bird from your hand
31. Hunt for bugs
32. Find some frogspawn
33. Catch a butterfly in a net
34. Track wild animals
35. Discover what’s in a pond
36. Call an owl
37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool
38. Bring up a butterfly
39. Catch a crab
40. Go on a nature walk at night
41. Plant it, grow it, eat it
42. Go wild swimming
43. Go rafting
44. Light a fire without matches
45. Find your way with a map and compass
46. Try bouldering
47. Cook on a campfire
48. Try abseiling
49. Find a geocache
50. Canoe down a river

I think I can safely say I’ve done all but no44, and no50 was sea kayaking, rather than going down a river. And in all fairness, when I was a kid, geocaching was possibly up there with the hovercars/living in space of the future. We didn’t even own a TV before I was 11.

Postcard……

…… of campervans. I like these.  Then we could go off travelling and not need to have all the faff of packing tents and all the gubbins that goes with the tent.

One sentence that summarises each year of your life so far……

……um, gosh:

1974: Born in March, living in Langbank.

1975: Moved to Greenock.

1976: The Joyous One is born.

1977: No idea – who can remember being three?

1978: Big hairy caterpillars on Jura.

1979: Take a dead blue tit in for the nature table: Miss Armstrong was not impressed, but I am glad I am not in Miss Grant’s class because she was a scarey lady.

1980: I think Mum is embarrassed by Brian’s arrival as the baby Moses basket is located in a corner behind one of the living room chairs: I later discover this is probably to stop the dog knocking it over.

1981: No idea – a blank.

1982 : Also a blank.

1983: Blank – did I have a 3-year period of amnesia?!

1984: Kitten-heeled shoes

1985: TV!!!!!!

1986: Finish primary school – head for Greenock Academy.

1987: I get straight A-grades in my report card for everything apart from maths – I’m crap at maths.

1988: Arran, sausage sizzles and sea kayaking.

1989: Lots and lots of studying: seemed so important at the time.

1990: Pompeii, Herculaneum and pizza in Sorrento.

1991: Run amok in the Art Department and do nothing else but painting and classics for the whole academic year.

1992: Move to England.

1993: Went out for stamps, came back with tattoo.

1994: Fail Agricultural Biology, spend birthday on the White Horse at Uffington with Rob.

1995: Get pissed on by Apodemus sylvaticus and Clethrionomys glareolus a lot.

1996: Graduate and spend the summer identifying and surveying butterflies – the difference between small skipper and Essex skippers is the colour of the underside of their antennae.

1997: I win a village pub Christmas Eve fancy dress competition: I am not in fancy dress – this is how I normally dress.

1998: New Zealand & Australia – sea snakes and shark feeds off North Horn.

1999: GHP – I am overwhelmed by trees, polytunnels and an amazing team to work with.

2000: LARP.  That is all.

2001: Trees and seeds, lots of them.

2002: Buckingham Palace – the Queen is very small.

2003: The cows break down the fence and ravage the vegetable garden; one gooseberry and some onions are saved.

2004: Left conservation for mental health advocacy.

2005: Mental health advocacy work is both challenging and occasionally hilarious.

2006: New Zealand and Joy’s wedding.

2007: Egypt, lack of sharks, lots of lionfish and blue-spotted stingrays.

2008: Lots of camping.

2009: New Zealand, road trip, whales, albatrosses, and dolphins of the land.

2010: Hard work.

2011: not finished yet, but doing ok so far.

A quiet weekend……

…… is hopefully planned for this weekend.  It seems to have been a summer or LRP events and weddings and birthdays and camping. All good fun, but the house lookes like a shit tip and there’s camping gear all over the place.  Never mind, in 2 and a half weeks, we’ll be at The Gathering and after that I can pack the tents and gubbins in the lockup.

Joy’s got her birthday box – took about 10 days to get to NZ, so not bad there.  Hopefully she’ll be enjoying stinky stuff from Lush . 

Work is busy. That is all.

Fun in the Sun……

…… for Charlie’s 30th Birthday. A select group of individuals congregated at the Miners Standard pub and campsite in Winster, Derbyshire for a weekend of good company, good food and good booze this weekend. Lots of wine was drunk, the last bottle of my neat sloe gin went down rather well, and the equivalent of a small cow got cremated on the bbq. It was great fun. Everyone just chilled out and did their own thing. I got there early on Friday evening and met Chris, Charlie. Roland and Harley in the pub. Peter and Lesley turned up shortly afterwards, and then everyone else arrived in dribs and drabs. We pitched the tents and Rob arrived at about 9.30pm with the awning, so once that was up, the bbq was lit and everyone sat round nattering and catching up with each other. Saturday was a mix of people doing their own thing; walking, geocaching, touristy shopping in Bakewell, lying about in the sun. All very relaxing. Me, Ali and Tracey went onto Bakewell and had lunch, followed by wandering round the shops, followed by afternoon tea (very civilised). When we got back, the bbqs were lit and everyone pitched in with food and drink (lots of G&T and Pimms). The chatting, gossiping, singing and general piss-taking went on till the small hours. Charlie got lots of lovely presents, and in honour of her birthday, I brought sky lanterns. We promptly set fire to an ash tree on the edge of the campsite, and were only saved by Paul, who bravely climbed the tree (in the dark) and wrestled with the giant ball of flame and paper. Bearing in mind that we haven’t had a decent spell of rain for ages, it’s a miracle we didn’t set the whole site on fire. Rob took the remaining sky lanterns off me and Charlie and locked them in the car. In our defence, we were a bit pissed and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Today was spent packing up and having a leisurely lunch in Bakewell, sat outside watching the world go by. And I found somewhere that makes decent flat whites!! All in all, it was a fantastic weekend with really good friends, and hopefully, we can come up with an excuse to do it all again soon. Pictures to follow.

How convenient……….

Regular visitors to my facebook page will have clocked the post on my purchase of one of these.  Practice is in the early stages, and I must say it’s all a bit odd, but remarkably convenient.  Camping and LRP event dodgy portaloos will be a thing of the past.  And I’ll be able to write my name in the snow. Hehehe.

Tired…….

……so very very tired.  And no real reason for this either.  Hmm.  Went to the Bards Guild event on Saturday – twas very good (apart from the pissing rain later on in the evening).  Garlic mushrooms went down well with everyone sat round the fire, and it was very nice to catch up with some people I hadn’t seen for a while.  We’re off to a wedding on Saturday, so I need to sort out clothing of some description – wedding, in a field/campsite.  What to wear?!

In other news, I guessed correctly that my wee car had bust a coil on the rear strut, and I was right.  The man in the garage was impressed with my car-fu.  I was not impressed with the bill.

I love our tent………

….. it’s cool.

Unplanned camping…….

On the recommendation of Chris, who knows all there is to know about campsites of the Peak District, we chucked the gear in the car yesterday lunchtime and drove off to Winster and stayed at a really good basic campsite at the Miners Standard on the outskirts of the village.  After pitching (£2 each per night) we wandered down to the other pub in the village, The Old Bowling Green, for a glass of wine – it was a bit posher.  Dinner was garlic mushroom on the barbie, followed by some really nice beefburgers.  And a bottle of wine.  We were both knackered and had an early night.  It was a bit on the cold side at night, so I had two sleeping bags and was ok in the end.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so we could see all the stars outside the tent.  Today, we were greeted by a big herd of cows in the field right next to us.  We were camped next to this drystone wall and long verge which was full of wildflowers – red deadnettles, forget-me-nots, mint, celandines, daffodils, dandelions, and many many more.  Just across the road from the farm was a filed full of sheep and lambs which never shut up baaaaing all the time we were there, and a big pens full of chickens clucking and skwawking endlessly.