Hey Blog! On the Thursday before Hallowe’en, we packed our bags and went to the privately run hostel in Shining Cliff Woods, one of the large woodlands near us!
It was Shining Cliff Woods, in fact, which made us live in this area. Dad started work in Derby at the beginning of 2017, and we stayed in a holiday cottage at the farm of Wiggonlea, which had a footpath going straight into the wood. In the two months we stayed there, I experienced snow for the first time since I was one, and got to know most of the wood. By the time we were moving out and looking for a house, our time in Shining Cliff had confirmed we were living walking distance from it. We actually live nearer to a different wood, but Shining Cliff still remains my favourite wood in Derbyshire!
My Mum runs an Eco Group, for Home-Ed kids, and sometimes we meet in the woods for a volunteer session, learning about woodland management and things like that. There’s usually s’mores to go along with it! The person who runs these days (you have to ask, but she’s happy to run them) manages the hostel – “The Hostel in the Woods”. So, for Hallowe’en, one of our friends’ Mum booked the hostel just for us!
I haven’t been to many Hallowe’en parties and don’t usually go trick-or-treating, though I have done it. There is a family up the street who, though not home-ed so I don’t often see them, have in the past have invited us to go round with them. This is always good, as it replenishes my sweety jar, which only gets an addition either when someone’s having a party or giving them away on Hallowe’en. I wish there was a witch on the street – a white witch, of course, who could give out magical sweets that made you breathe fire or lifted you into the air. I’d go round every week, not every year, then! However, we don’t.
Unfortunately, Thursday hadn’t gone as we planned, owing to builders who were laying the new floor (glad to say, the floor is now done and we have just finished painting the walls) so we only arrived when it was dark. By this time, someone had found a packet of glow sticks left over from another festival, and we were connecting them all together in a circle and sticking someone in the centre, then dancing around like mad. Yes, we are slightly insane – but in a good way. Sausage cobs/baps/rolls/whatever-you-call-thems (What do you call a sausage stuck in a bun?) followed, and then hot chocolate heaped with cream, and finally mega marshmallows (keep it up!). Eventually we got tired and went back to the hostel – but the fun didn’t stop there. Oh no. We managed to keep everyone awake until past ten, though I wasn’t in the room where people were on their phones till 11-odd.
On Friday morning we continued the rollicking, and had breakfast. We went home shortly afterwards, but it was still one of the best times with the friend group!
