First Trip In The Camper Van

After very many months we finally got the old Ford camper van out of the repair shop and through the PSV. Today we took our first trip. It wasn't far as we only had an hour. Bert didn't even have time to change out of his boiler suit! Three dogs, two grandchildren and Nellybert and we could easily have fitted in three more dogs and one more child and still had room to spare. Our chosen destination was Bracknamuckley Wood near Portglenone, ideal for a quick jaunt with a river for the dogs to swim in and beautiful woodland paths for everyone to explore. We saw a heron, Evie's favourite bird and heard jays. There were more common orchids than I'd ever seen there before and scores of oak saplings. Martha examined these with great interest. I think she thought they'd look good in the forest she intends to plant. Evie found a gall on a willow leaf.

Granny! Come quickly. I've found something interesting.

And she knew there was a grub in there. I'm really proud and pleased that the girls are so interested in the natural world. This van is going to be a natural history museum on wheels.

We found the remains of a brown and caramel coloured bird which we couldn't identify. There is a website but ours wasn't there.

It's getting late and I left those plumes in the camper van - tomorrow I'll photograph them and see if they can be identified.