10 o clock. All children sleeping peacefully, night is warm and still.
So.. We woke them all up
Hauled them out of bed (No.1 confused but willing, Boy decidedly unwilling, Jolly baffled but compliant, Bear unruffled and rather pleased), plopped them into jeans and t-shirts and bunged them in the car. Took them on an exciting night time drive, all the windows down, seeing what we could see (lots of moths, one fox, two mice, one hedgehog, and most exciting of all a beautiful pair of barn owls, one of which ghosted along beside us, swooping in and out of the headlights just in front of the car till it was joined by its mate and they finally veered away for some uninterrupted hunting). Made it to Win Green (large hill top, open chalk downland with 360 degree view) after about half an hour, and we all tumbled out – absolutely STUNNING night. Millions of stars, light enough to see each other, not a breath of wind. And off we went – hunting glow worms.

Just a special night.

We spent an hour up there, counted 15 glow worms – which was a little disappointing for C and I, it’s been truly spectacular in the past but we have never done it with the children and we’re a bit late in the season, so they were thrilled. Joe lost a shoe, Toby stood in horse poo, Bear was enthralled at escaping into the darkness (the starlight was strong enough to see her by so we didn’t need to hang on to her), and everyone got to hold a glow worm.
Truly magic.

We got home just after midnight, and are all a little jaded today – but it was SO worth it, am glad we acted on our impulse and just took them.