Breaktime from van adventures

“Breaktime”

Having woken up for the second time in Exmoor, next to a gorgeous river, the girls and I had a little al fresco breakfast paddle – with a friendly duck (who was having a well-earned nap) with its duckling frolicking about in the shallows – and then headed back to the pub to do some more work and take advantage of the electricity while the Bigman slept.

HOWEVER…..

…..Our sojourn was diverted to a somewhat more urban experience; as Small managed to get her dress caught on a tree in the pub garden – and we ended up spending the day in A&E dealing with a broken arm. On the up-side, Small took full advantage of the experience in reviewing her x-rays; discussing growth plates and bone counts in adults vs children with the radiologist, and finding out that she fractured her RADIUS, naming each of the bones.

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Fun Education at Glasto!

We decided to head home at that point, assuming that our half term was over before we’d even made it past Monday! After a broken night back in our own beds the girls and I curled up and settled in for the indulgence of a TV day; watching a few films and making a large dent in our current Stargate addiction.

Van Improvements

The Bigman however had a far more productive day finessing the internals of the van, adding in an extra seat I’d found on Marketplace to replace the one with no legs that came with the van; and building a worktop with shelf/tower for a barrel of water and a steel mixing bowl as a basic sink. (Spurred on by Small’s minor dog-poo incident in Swallowdale with no handwashing capability!) Which naturally brought about it’s own bacterial lesson.

Applied biology

Small and I took a little trip down to Grandma’s house and she blew us away completely when she randomly stopped talking and ran outside halfway through her explanation of how she’d broken her arm. Back in she strode grinning from ear to ear, handed me a flower which I held onto while we finished a brief conversation about Ma’s latest batch of woad.

None of which was remotely astounding; until the pair of us saw the grinning girl on the carpet, and realised that the flower I’d been twiddling was a comfrey sprig from the end of the garden. Because, as the barely 7-year-old knew, it is also known as Knitbone! One of my brothers had once spent six weeks with a broken leg; being force-fed comfrey tea while we were growing up.

Meanwhile, the teenager cemented his last weeks’ carpentry work experience; by sawing and adapting the bulkhead ripped out of my old van into a makeshift bed board for Big, to sit on top of the now facing chairs.

Woodworking and Accidental Art

Big spent the majority of the morning helping the Bigman with the van alterations; measuring, sawing, securing, screwing and sanding. And of course, using the sawdust shavings to create an amazing portrait when she got bored! Even broken Small joined in, practising her literacy by forming letters in the dust. None of which was planned or even suggested by an adult.

Surprisingly, by halfway through day two there were plaintive pleas for “No more TTTVVVVV” and loud cries of “Get off that swing, you’ve got a broken arm!!!” So we grabbed the bull by the horns; finished off the last of the woodwork and packed the van back up to head off out again the next morning. (With MANY bottles of Calpol!)