DIPPYS ADVENTURES ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT

Dippy’s overnight stay at America Woods

Last night I camped in America Woods with two of my red squirrel friends, Rodney and Rufus. We put up our tent in the afternoon underneath some huge oak trees and made our beds. We each had a sleeping bag with a fluffy puffed up pillow, I had bought some extra woollen blankets to keep us warm as the weather forecast was predicting a very chilly night.
Rodney and Rufus collected bundles of dry wood from the forest floor, lots of twigs and broken branches which I used to make a campfire. I added a little bit of BBQ charcoal also to ensure the fire would get hot enough and keep burning to give us enough time to cook our dinner on it!
The sun began to set at about half past 8, and the sunny warm day slowly disappeared, Rufus was our chef for the evening and cooked up some super sausages over the roaring camp fire. He served them in long white hot dog buns decorated with a wiggly line of ketchup along the top, they tasted fantastic and we all ate so many I lost count!!
The dessert of the evening was marshmallows on skewers melted slowly over the glowing flames, creating a crisp outside shell and a gooey centre, they were absolutely delicious! After our camping feast we sat around the fire, Rodney played his guitar and sang some tunes. It was a full moon and the sky was full of twinkling stars, as midnight approached we all began to do some very big yawns and decided to get ready for bed. We snuggled up into our little beds, pulled down the tent door zip and then we all fell fast asleep.
I woke very early this morning to the tweeting of birds up above in the trees all around us, it was a magical and truly delightful sound. Rodney and Rufus were still fast asleep so I got up very quietly so as not to wake them and stepped outside the tent. The sunlight shone down, upon the glistening dew covered leaves of the trees. Springtime was here, all the brand new leaves were slowly beginning to open up, the illuminous green colour and the freshness of these trees was amazing.


After breakfast we spent the morning  collecting Bluebells and yellow Primroses which were growing in the wood. These were for the Hawaiian skirts we were going to make for the squirrels, they had been invited to a fancy dress Easter Party. We made an elastic waistband, onto which we attached long pieces of flowing straw. We then very carefully, with a needle and thread sewed on the Bluebells and Primroses and put on occasional bright green leaf in between. Rufus and Rodney were delighted with the finished costumes and were sure they would win the first prize for the best fancy dress!!!


We packed up the tent and said goodbye to one another and then set off in different directions on our way back home. Whilst wandering back through the wood, I picked a small bunch of Primroses for Phessie, the silver pheasant who lives at the Park, because these are her favourite flower and to get these would make her smile!