Our field journal: Birthdays, and the never ending cough

A whizz through June, as I've let time run away with me. Fred and Meg have had birthdays, eldest is 12 and youngest is 7. All three, but especially Fred, have had coughs this month. Fred is on week 5 now I think. No swimming or parkour as a result, as the cough often leads to spitting up, if not actual vomit. Lovely.

It's been extremely hot (32 degrees), and is now on the chilly side (14 degrees). We've been doing the Wildlife Trust 30 Days Wild. It's been a very outdoorsy month.

The allotment has been productive. We had millions of strawberries, and Rob made the BEST strawberry jam ever. He and Betsy ran home from the allotment, they are so fit!

We visited Colourscape at Waddesdon. We've been every year since it first visited in 2014 (2014, 2015, briefly mentioned 2016 visit, plus another two unblogged times). This Colourscape was a specially designed version for Waddesdon, and it felt very labyrinthian. The best so far!

A play at the playground, and an icecream in the Stables. Lovely.

I belatedly got around to sowing some seeds, partly due to a cold May, and partly due to lack of motivation. The warm sun gave me a kick start.

Painting in the garden with water colours.

Bug hunting kit in use.

More allotmenting and seed planting.

Fred and Rob picked elderflowers, and Rob made the BEST cordial. Seriously, that guy is on top form this year!

Collage-making at TVAP.

Excellent bird-themed paper flyers. They're from an Usborne book and are really good.

We went to see a production of The Fantastic Mr Fox at the Wycombe Swan with my mum.

The girls came with me to vote.

Fred was prescribed inhalers, so I made bags to keep his and Meg's separate to avoid mix ups.

Birthday boy! He really wasn't feeling well. I cancelled the planned sleepover for Billy, but we went to Mohawk for a short time, and brought Billy back for a play and McDonalds.

Family birthday afternoon, food and company and cake. All very low key for unwell Fred.

He and I had a couple of games of Splendour, we won one each.

Second harvest of this size!

Insectlore caterpillars arrived.

More gaming - old school and new!

Rob spotted a moorhen sitting on a clutch of eggs, really close to the house. We are lucky to be where we are.

We saw loads of bees on blackberry flowers over the month. Blackberries are forming already on some bushes.

Cuteness from Meg.

Fab art from Betsy.

Woodland session at Zoe's. Fire, nerf skirmishes, drawing, chatting.

Playing with the neighbours out the front. They were in here for ages.

Luxurious cat tummy. Stroke at your peril.

Empty moorhen nest.

Walk along the towpath to the playground. We saw a heron on the way back, and walking quietly, managed to get really close.

Beautiful wedding on a farm.

TVAP.

Cooling off with the hose. This happened a lot when it was very hot.

Nearly chrysalises.

We went camping to Staffordshire, very close to Alton Towers. The campsite was lovely.

Nearby nature reserve. We had a quick walk after dinner.

Sunset on the Solstice.

Fire building.

She spent a lot of time practising throws over the volleyball net.

Finger lights.

Tame ducklings at Alton Towers.

Runaway train!

We spent a lot of time on the Skyride, going from one part of the park to another. Rob *hates* it. We, of course, teased him. Poor Rob!

I bought a Beano for Fred, a National Geographic Animals magazine for Meg, and Puzzler Kids for Betsy. All three were a hit.

Alton Towers was brilliant fun. We went all day Thursday, and most of Friday. I loved Nemesis. I did Oblivion reluctantly (I was SO SCARED) but it wasn't too bad (I kept my eyes closed for the drop). All of us except Fred loved Thirteen (he really didn't like the spooky voices). Fred liked Rita (I thought I was going to be sick. Never again!). Meg let me take her to Cbeebies World, and ended up loving the Octonauts coaster.

I love theme parks with the kids.

We stopped in at Rob's folks for dinner and day-early birthday cake.