Both Emily and George are due back to school on Thursday, so tomorrow we’ll be busy getting all their school bits packed and ready. So today was the last day that I could take them out for the day. This morning we were waiting for a hire car to come, because several weeks ago our car was damaged and they’re now repairing the final few bits. The hire car is ok, but nothing is ever as good as your own car. Still it’s got 4 wheels and goes. I was a little disappointed that there was only minimal fuel in, so had to put in a tenner otherwise we’d have broken down on the M25 somewhere. Now we’ve been to Toy’s Hill before, but George wanted to go back again to see if he could find his “Special stick” from before.

The start of our long expedition. What will we find today?

I’m not sure if he did find it, but we all found some great walking sticks that came in very handy as we walked along the “Red Trail”. Only attempt this if you are crazy! It’s very uppy and downy, with levely bits here and there. Not for the faint hearted. George went exploring down massive dips and Emily helped him up, trying not to get dragged down with him. Wellingtons were a definite, because of all the rain we’ve had lately it was very squidgy.

A helping hand from your big sister is always helpful.

The views are amazing, and even though it was very cloudy with occasional showers it didn’t dampen our fun. When you get down in a dip, the signal goes from your phone which is a bit worrying, but soon comes back again when you get near the top. We only saw a few other people as we walked about, and a polite “Good afternoon” was said. George suddenly got very excited because underneath the ferns and brambles he had spotted a snake slithering along. It must have been about 3 feet long, which was quite alarming. And when we got home we figured that it must have been a Grass Snake. In fact there wasn’t just one, but 2 of them slithering about. We saw it’s head and tip of it’s tail as it slithered along. I tried to take lots of photos, but it kept on moving so many of the pictures were blurred. I did get one though.

Look in the middle of the photo and behind the brambles. Have you found it?

We found a pond that used a pump to bring water to and from Emmetts Garden, George wondered how deep it was because he wanted to stand in it. Emily told him to use his stick to see first, which was a good idea as it was much deeper than he’d expected and would have flooded his wellingtons. What a sensible girls she is…Well most of the time anyway.

Measuring the depth of the water. Too deep for a paddle George.

As we wandered along we were spotting all the fungi that was growing. All sorts of wonderful shaped, sizes and colours. Then one really grabbed Georges attention. “It’s shaped like a penis!!” he said with great excitement. And sure enough there standing very proud from the leaves and pointing straight up to the sky was a fungi shaped exactly as he had described. I’m so proud of the little sentences my children come out with sometimes.

Judge for yourself what it looks like. But I think George banged the nail right on the head with this one…ouch!!

We finally managed to find our way back to the car park where we’d left the car. I think we’d walked for at least a couple of hours. It’s great to spend quality time with your kids and just go for a walk. You don’t have to do anything expensive. We’ve done loads this summer holiday, even though some things have made it a bit tricky sometimes. I just hope that when the teachers ask what their favourite thing they did in the holidays was, neither of them mention the phallic fungus.