the bits I forgot

include the kite rescue and indeed much of the kite flying. We had taken with us Big’s small kite, that we’ve had for several years, but to the best of my recollection hadn’t ever flown, and when everyone else started flying kites, she wanted to do the same.

It flies really well. She spent some time near the tent with it, then several of the other children went into the next field and she went with them. I was sitting chatting, when Barbara’s E and Big ran up, both distraught, without the kite. Managed to decipher the wails to say that the kite had gone over the stream and belted off with them to see if it could be seen.

The field over the stream is thistles. Very tall thistles. There was no sign of the kite. 🙁 Big was inconsolable – she had let E have a turn, and it was E who had let go,, somehow making it even more difficult for her to come to terms with. I took her back to camp, thinking that I would go for an explore later on and see if it could be seen. And at that point, Ady stepped up, and sorted it out. First he went to see if it could be seen. Then when he decided it could be, he donned jeans and waterproof trousers over the top, and went wading off into the sea of thistles. At one point we could only see his shoulders and head over the top of the greenery, and I’m hoping some of Nic’s pictures show what he went through. He recovered the kite and Big was overjoyed – although it was another several hours before she got to fly it again as it took that long to untangle the string!

And then there was the episode with the boiled egg. Small has recently decided he likes boiled eggs, and it occurred to me that this was good camp food. The egg box could be recycled into egg cups, Big and I could have egg sandwiches. So I did that. He ate some of his egg and most of his soldiers, then declared he was finished and legged it into the distance. For once I was efficient and cleared away the debris while enjoying a cuppa. And of course this was the time that Small reappeared, and looked at where he had been sitting. “Where is my boiled egg?”

Oops. Oh well. It only takes 4 minutes to boil an egg after all. Well, after you’ve got the water boiling in the first place that is.