Hope for the Lappinch

You would think that if you created a field of mud you would attract swallows or wagtails… in fact you attract small children.

Kids who would never normally consider going for a walk as a fun prospect suddenly scramble to don their wellies when you mention the magic word.

After Christmas we held a small ‘guns ‘n’ sausages’ party for target shooting with the air pistols (super loud exploding targets – what fun!).

While the older brothers played with guns, the younger sisters asked for mud. ‘Is that it?’ scorned 7 year old Ren as we passed through the first muddy gate at the back of the barns. ‘Don’t worry,’ I said, ‘there’s plenty more to come.’

She was sceptical but could barely hide her delight when the next gateway held a deep welly tugging puddle. The gateway beyond was another proper welly sucker and she had to enlist mum’s hand to pull her through that… the grin was creeping.

The gateway into the pond field was the deepest so she had to accept that her wellies were not tall enough and scramble around the gatepost with the rest of us, like a mucky Maypole manouevre.

At the bottom of that field she looked up and saw horizons of mud. ‘MUDDDD’ she screamed in delight and began running up the hill. Soon she was stomping and laughing through the soil from the ponds. Soon she was stuck…

“MUMMM’ she screamed just as she sat down with a plop. The grin was truly fixed now.

Mum duly waded in to pick her up – not as straightforward as it sounds. Mum was almost stuck. Ten minutes and two helpers later, Ren was back on firm ground.

A further walk back through more clay soil saw each of us treble the size of our feet as the mud balled up and could no longer be wiped off.

The waterlogged ground just over the footpath stile proved to be the perfect boot washer – splish splosh, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt…

Clean once more it was time to warm up and eat sausages.