Food and fire

Yes, time to catch up.

Thursday we went to the local family 'Food and Fire' day at museum round the corner.
We met up with C, E and M from Monday group there mid-morning and wandered round. First, the children (and adults) very much enjoyed playing in the kitchen - mortar and pestle were provided, along with lavender, rosemary, thyme and a few other things, so we all had some fun with that. Lots of iron tools and stuff and we stayed there for a while, all noticing things and reading bits and working out what was what.

Next we went outside after a false start involving an ironworks room - actually it was F in the end that spotted the door with the big signage on it indicating the garden was that way. We went out and found an empty white tent which delighted the children massively, especially F I think. Then we spotted the fire workshop area and hung out for a bit then decided to come back when they would be starting a new session.

In the meantime C identified the Tudor fruit tree impressively, in the garden, and read a little sign that told us that the only way it was edible was by rotting it for a bit - lovely! Then we went to look at the food area, which wasn't well presented, unfortunately, despite having lots of different items on display. The women looking after the tables didn't really seem to want to tell us much. The minute I got interested in it, F disappeared.
Which was scary because the whole place is like a warren of staircases and corridors and little corners, plus the big door directly out onto a main road was open! I did really well not to panic, but I am learning to trust/predict what she will actually do. After a bit of random going into places and out in the garden and calling her name, I took half a moment to think and thought 'Tent!'. Sure enough, there she was, not having responded to my calls that she had heard and actually hiding from my sight - just caught her out of corner of my eye as I turned back. She minxy with the hiding and surprises and always has been. I handled it really well though (*has been reading Alfie Kohn and feels all at home with the parenting now*).

After a while and some sandwiches that C had brought, which F was very impressed by and now wants me to make (must buy sliced fake meat more - clashes a bit with frugal mission though), we went back over to the fire area.
The guy doing fire was excellent, engaged everyone, communicated well, kept it simple, clear and interactive. The first thing he did was ask if anyone knew how people used to make fire a long time ago. And F, out of the dozen or so people there, actually put her hand up, waited to be asked and said 'rubbing two sticks of wood together'!!
*beams proudly* She wouldn't have done that last year and I think it's great.

We watched the guy and the woman demonstrate different ways of rubbing two pieces of wood together and F and I talked about it as we watched, nice and quietly, talking about speed and friction and the materials. Then he moved on to flint and metal and we all had a go at making sparks, which was fun. I was surprised how easy it was with the right tools.

Next he introduced tinder - the tinder he was using was char cloth (black pre-burnt material). He showed how the spark could catch the tinder easily with a glow that didn't disappear. It was so engaging and fascinating. He used a nest of straw, with bracken and a very fibrous fungus (which he passed round for us all to look at) to get the fire started properly. It was a matter of blowing into the nest and allowing oxygen in.
Next, we all got the chance to decide if we wanted to have a go. F changed her mind a few times and was hesitant but eventually she did decide to do it and stuck with that decision through waiting time in the cold. She was great, engaged and patiently watching the other people having their turns (we were last by the time she decided). C and E did theirs and then it was our turn.

I got the sparks going with the flint and metal, then tried again with the char cloth, which took a while to get the hang of, but I got there when the guy showed me exactly how to hold it. F observed closely at this stage
Then the ember was transferred into the little nest we had made of straw with bracken and the fibrous fungus in. We held it together between us by a handle we had moulded out of the straw, then raised it together, blew, lowered it slowly, repeating this about 10 times as it gradually built up smoke, then red appeared inside it, then...
ta-dah - Flames!
Very very exciting!
I'm a bit scared of fire but this guy had the knack of explaining and demonstrating, so my hand shook a little as I lowered the nest the first time but after that I felt fine.

After that we looked around the rest of the museum, including returning to the food area where the woman looking after that section again failed to communicate anything very useful and some signs might have helped! Good stuff there, some of which the children tasted, but not enough engagingness.
Upstairs we looked round a couple of rooms, did a bit of dressing up and then there was an outbreak of behaving like kids in museums shouldn't really behave but occasionally will - running around between all these old precious objects plus screaming plus giggling. Not sure which one started it but every single child in the room was very quickly joining in! Can't say I blame them, we had had to say a lot of 'no's in that room as it was full of chairs that couldn't be sat on, or at least I think they couldn't but then again I didn't see a notice - museum etiquette anyone?
Anyway that meant it was probably time to go.

A lovely visit, will definitely try and go to more of the things organized there and at the Castle and similar. F has never been very easy to take to these kinds of things, as she has always been prone to going off on her own exploring or hiding! But this showed me we can do more stuff like this now. Although she did do her disappearing act, I felt 95% sure she hadn't gone out to the road/run away somewhere dangerous and I was right. And she really was engaged by the whole fire session and interested in a lot of what we saw generally.

Other stuff:
Work work work. Another busy month, very welcome for the depleted coffers.
My new laptop has arrived!
Lots of little walks, at least one every day.
Feeding the birds - they do take the seeds from the bird feeder but the dish broke when F tripped while carrying it.
Spookaramas - going to produce those this weekend.
Lots of watching Arthur, Mona and Scooby Doo. Plus the film Robots today.
Incidental reading, when out and about especially.