Down on the farm.

A has done an awful lot of driving over the past few weeks.  We shared the driving back from Dorset last Sunday (unusual because I generally fall asleep in the car), but after a couple of hours rest A then drove up to north Wales to his parents'.  His mum (aka Nana) was having a week's respite holiday from caring for his dad (aka Little Grandad), who suffers from Alzheimers, for the first time.  He stayed overnight and brought her back here on the Monday morning.  We had a couple of days here and then A drove Nana and the girls down to Kent, while I went by train.

Nana was staying with her brother (Uncle P) and sister-in-law (Aunty M) on their farm very close to where they grew up and we stayed in a self-catering place nearby, although we didn't spend much time there.

It was compact and bijou!

The village sign.

We had a couple of days out, but first went out 'lookering', a new word to me, which means counting the sheep and making sure they're all okay.  On Thursday, we went with Nana and Uncle P to Dungeness and K & M paddled in the sea in the third place in the September.

K in the sea.

On the very shingly beach.

Dungeness.

Nana & A outside it.

We just about managed to dash to to the top.  That's the station of the Romney Hythe & Dimchurch miniature railway with the train in the station that the girls and I took.

The view from the top.

K & M on the train.

On Friday (after lookering) we all went to Sissinghurst Castle.  We went up the tower, and looked at the gardens for a while, then A, K, M & I went for a walk around the lake while the others spent more time looking at the plants.

The tower...

....with K, Nana and P at the top of it!

M & K with a fairy door we found on our walk.

We also had the opportunity to see plenty of wildlife.  There were lots of blue tits, great tits and chaffinches in the garden, and we also spotted a woodpecker.  There were also plenty of rabbits around and we saw some bats too.

The bird-feeder.

On Friday night A & I went out just before dusk, taking P's new gadget  with us, a night vision monocular.  We went badger watching.  We had already seen the sett during the day and it was clearly an active one.  P had told us where to watch from and we did indeed see a couple of badgers, which was fantastic.  Unfortunately though, we hadn't got it quite right where to watch from, so were much further away than we could have been, so on the limit of the gadget's range once it got properly dark. 

The sett.

K & M liked just spending time on the farm mostly and particularly playing with the dogs.

K & Meg.

And M & Meg.

On Saturday morning we went to a Macmillan Coffee morning, where Nana met a couple of old friends, including an old boyfriend!  A and I each had a go (along with lots of other people) at guessing how many hundreds and thousands on a picture of a cake, the prize being a big cake which Aunty M had baked and A won!  On Saturday afternoon it was time to head back home after a lovely few days.