What a shame that when we are young, we take those long golden summer holidays for granted, especially if, like me, you grew up in the glorious Herefordshire countryside. The days were endless and we spent our time out in the sunshine playing on our bikes and in the fields and streams making dens and dams.
It seems that we were perfectly happy to entertain ourselves but these days, with my domestic goddess hat firmly in situ, it appears that we need to spend more time and money keeping our children busy during the school holidays. And with my two, Teddy and Susan, soon to return home from school for six whole weeks, I started racking my brains for ‘things to do’ to stave off the cry of ‘I’m bored!’
We all know it is far better for children to spend their time outdoors being active rather than in front of a TV or computer screen but there are a whole myriad of modern dangers which leaves us feeling guilty if they are left unsupervised. To be able to get to week two without hearing those dreaded cries would be a major achievement. I think about my childhood some more and realise that I simply can’t turn my children loose for the summer like our parents did. The world is a very different place nowadays.
But I do remember some of my most favourite childhood memories involved my mother and grandmother teaching me about the ancient art of foraging and making a lovely, sweet treat at the end of it. In those days, it was a case of waste not, want not, and people valued any tasty morsels that they could glean from the surrounding countryside. Hot sunny days were enjoyed wandering along the hedgerows collecting wild raspberries and tiny strawberries. Later in the autumn came hazel nuts and blackberries. Wellington boots to protect our knees from stinging nettles and a large stick to beat them down were an essential part of the collecting kit.
One Saturday, as a sort of a dummy run, I tear my two little Twyfords away from their computer games and TV programmes, equip them with the essential kit, basket, scissors, wellies and sun hats and off we go on the hunt for elderflowers and other fare.
Amid cries of, ‘but I wanted to watch…’ and ‘I was just feeding my virtual pet’, we prise the ‘non-virtual’ dog out of his basket and set off. It’s funny because as soon as you start actively looking for free forage, you see that there is plenty of it about and we soon find huge clumps of the delicate tiny flowers.
Instructing the two tiny Twyfords to get snipping with the scissors we start off collecting at a fine rate but interest soon wanes and I know I have lost them when tears and sulky faces start to come forth so we move on to raspberries and wimberries. It really is surprising how much edible produce there is hanging around in the local countryside and it is all delicious and free!
An hour or two later with berry stained faces and fingers we head for home. Although I am sure that Teddy and Susan ate as much as they collected, we still have a good haul of elderflowers, wimberries and raspberries. We have even found a few tiny, deliciously sweet wild strawberries!
Back home, the kitchen was filled with the fabulous perfume of elderflowers and berries. And while the children may have lost interest in the gathering and making process, they certainly enjoyed the summer pudding we had for tea!
And later, the Aga is proving to be the perfect place to boil the children’s t-shirts in a bid to remove the purple stains from their clothes. The purple fingers and cheeks may well be with us for a few more days.
So, I have bottles of elderflower cordial to keep us going throughout the summer holidays and tons of yummy fruit in the freezer which are ideal for sweet puddings, smoothies, lollies and ice cream – perfect ingredients for the school holidays.
Tired out, my two were tucked up in bed by 8pm with full tummies and contented smiles dreaming of their long golden summer holidays to come – what could be better for a domestic goddess?
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