Hands On at The Water Mill

Last weekend was Heritage Open Day where lots of places are opened up or made free entry for the day for everyone to enjoy. We went to a water mill about half an hour away from us and I was amazed by how brilliant it was!

They had scale working models of all of the mill machinery, made from authentic materials, above, Faith is trying out turning the mill stones and watching ground wheat come out from between the stones. It was really good to play with the models then watch the real machinery do the same job - the girls really understood what was happening.

This was the best fun of all - up on the fourth story of the mill house was a pulley and trapdoor to pull the sacks of grain up to the rafters before using gravity to trickle the grain down into the mill stones turning below. The girls got to have a go..... they pulled a handle and it operated a pulley system and all of a sudden a sack flew up through the trapdoor and the doot then banged shut again - brilliant fun!

We went round the tree trail that explained what properties the wood of each of twelve native British trees had and what they were used for - on the way the girls stopped to have a go at weaving on a peg loom.....

And sitting in a classic car pretending to drive - they were very taken with the little catches that held the doors shut so they had to get out and change seats very often!

And Idris? He missed the whole thing because he slept..... all day! The sling I use is called a freedom sling but I have no freedom as one arm is hampered by the sling over it and the other hand is holding up my sweet boy's head. Why? Because he doesn't like to snug in and sleep head on chest like he's supposed to, he likes to sleep with his head tipped back so I have to hold it!!!! Me thinks I need to get me a different sling!!!