We arrived after work on Friday to find Jo and Flee and Tracy there already. Jo had made a beef stew, but slightly forgotten that it takes three hours to cook! so the first order of business was to get that on the fire, then we settled down to some beers. Ant arrived a little later, followed by Mungo and Lorraine around 9, coincidentally just as the food was ready!
Jo had, apparently said she wanted an "All nighter", so we were well stocked up with beer and wine and it turned into a fantastic night around the fire. The beef stew was excellent, there was loads of good chat, while the Great Tits zoomed in and out of the net box above our heads. Ant and Mungo found that the Honey Jack Daniels was really very nice, and became quite relaxed, so much so that Ant reluctantly demonstrated "club stylee" to Helen. Unfortunately as the evening wore on one of Ants amazing new whiskey glasses was a casualty of the general merriment.
Flee went to bed around midnight as he had a full day doing kit car building on Saturday and was followed by Helen around 1 and me around 3.30. Jo lasted till 6am, which seeing as she was snoozing in the chair at 10pm was good going! and the rest made it to 6.30 when Flee got up to go to work! before staggering off to bed.
We had drawn the straw to provide breakfast for the weekend, much to Ants distress, and Helen had left at 9am to walk home as part of her training so Saturday morning saw me cooking plenty of sausages (not a single one containing any fruit, much to Ants relief) and bacon, cooked along with an egg experiment, that was somewhere between fried, scrambled and omelette, in the iron pan that worked out ok. Everyone was tired after the late night and Ant and Mungo in particular looked a little the worse for wear so after breakfast Ant went home to "sort out the cat", and Mungo went back to bed for a micro nap (that only lasted until 5pm!) In between cups of tea, knitting, haircuts and bird call identifications I cleared a bit of bracken and Jo and Tracey spent some time in the Hive to test their cameras (and somehow managed to break the door??).
Saturday night was catered by Tracey and it was to be Pizza night! so around 3 I lit the fire in Cassius before heading home to collect Helen and stock up on breakfast supplies for Sunday. While we were gone Sarah and Charlie turned up, which was a nice surprise for Jo who had thought they were only coming down for a short time on Sunday. Tracey had arranged it with Sarah but it nearly backfired when Jo got a bit annoyed with Sarah during the week as she thought she wasn't going to bother coming down at all, but all was well in the end.
When we got back the fire in Cassius was still going, despite Tracey's best efforts at neglecting it, and Flee was just arriving back with Megan, Xyah and Storm to round out the party for the evening,
Cassius was properly warmed up by about half 7 and while ideally we would have waited another half hour for the fire to die down, as the sacrificial pizza was done in exactly 2.5 minutes! Jo's food monster made a sudden and startling appearance so the potato wedges went in immediately. Tracey had loads of mini Pizza bases and everyone made their own and passed them to me to go in, usually surrounded by loaves of garlic bread. Once again each one took only 3-4 minutes and soon round one was complete and I sat down to let everyone else sort out if they wanted round two. We were all so stuffed that the Camembert remained in it's boxes uncooked!
Another jovial night ensued, although while the Honey JD made another appearance things were a bit more restrained than Friday night.The highlight was probably Jo's fiberglass and duct tape story which, strangely, she had forgotten to mention to me before.
Xyah, Helen, Flee, Sarah then Mungo and Lorraine called it a night from about 1 onward and we eventually packed up about half two and I staggered off to bed and silence descended. (Apart from some odd noises of clinking bottles that indicated someone was back up and in the kitchen.)
Sunday started with the epic news that Storm had been very thoroughly sick in his tent during the night. Mamma Jo had got up to help him get cleared up and so had not gone to bed till after 4am! Xyah and Storm we asleep in Immac when we got up around 10 but eventually emerged to much amusement and ribbing. he took it in good heart though.
After two late nights everyone was tired so after another nervous breakfast for Ant we pottered round, tidied and generally packed up. Sarah left around 2 and we left everyone else getting ready to go at around 3. Sunday was a very early night!
