A Deceptively Sunny Attingham!

During the real cold snap recently I decided that we would wrap up warm and go to Attingham for the first time this year, another National Trust property that we love to visit. The weather report promised sunshine and silly me thought that it might take the edge off the zero degrees temperature promised alongside. So armed with a flask of home-made soup we set forth...... and no, the sunshine didn't warm us, as the bitter northerly winds sweeping across us made it feel well below zero!! Ah well, nothing for it but lots of running around, climbing and jumping off things then! The girls challenged each other to cross a little stream by increasingly wobbly log bridges set over it. I was amused until I remembered that I had no change of clothes and considered how painful the whinging walk to the car might be with a wet through very cold child!!

Scarves were made into flags on poles.......

Tree trunks were made use of.......

Snowy log piles were scaled.......

Ice was broken......

Water was splashed......

And the lovely gardeners shared their bothy and stoked the fire for us to warm our cockles by as we supped our soup and warmed up again!

Eve was taken with this simple display of terracotta pots......

I wonder if the indoor displays were getting more attention than normal due to the frozen conditions stopping play in the kitchen gardens at Attingham also??

Fuelled by hot soup and a sandwich, Idris was much bolder and ventured far off the path into the woods, setting off a determined pace at one point in completely the wrong direction after a lovely labrador puppy that he took a fancy too..... He made me run to catch up with him!!!

A Nature Box for the Car!

I made this box up to be kept in the car for the Spring and Summer. Last year I found that we would be out and about, find something that really interested the children, or that we wanted to look up the name of, or we would find THE perfect dipping stream and have no nets. By the time we got home, the moment had passed, or the children were so tired that it wasn't the time to delve into the books. So I had the idea of a nature box to be ready and waiting when we wanted it! It contains:

• nature identification guides for trees, flowers, birds, animals and insects
• a sketch book and pastels
• bug boxes with magnified lids
• pond dipping nets
• ziploc bags to keep finds in
• washed out hoummous pots and a packet of tissues to protect finds like birds egg shells, dragonflies,  old wasps nests and so on that we find.
• A white bottomed tub for putting some stream water in to keep our finds safe whilst we look at them.

I'm looking forwards to using them..... any more suggestions for the box?

First Visit of the Year to 'Our Wightwick'!!

We love Wightwick Manor, a National Trust property not too far from us. We hadn't been yet this year and decided to take advantage of the sunny weather last Wednesday to reacquaint ourselves with our old friend! The photos mostly show Wightwick through Idris's eyes as the girls were out of my sight line for most of the visit!! Above he is enjoying looking out of the window of the little heather thatched house at the top of the orchard, where there have been some new apple trees planted to replace natural wastage of some very old apple trees!

......He was very taken with the scarecrow - but a little cross that he couldn't have his stick!!

It was no matter, there were plenty of sticks to be had, Idris was fickle with his sticks, casting one away when he found a better looking one!

Idris loved the little bridge, stomping back and forwards over it and peering down at the water every so often.

Eve and Faith spent time smashing the ice on the lower pool, it was very thin ice and they found how to send bubbles scudding underneath the ice!

 

 This little water channel connects the upper and lower pools and is usually silted up when we go there. Eve and Faith take great delight in clearing away the debris and watching the water go rushing down the channel, splashing over the little waterfall for Idris to play with.

 Then we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of a snow blizzard whilst the sun still shone! When the sun went in and the snow got heavier, we headed for home, after a lovely couple of hours checking up on our favourite haunt!!

A Day at Chester Zoo

My big brother was here last week visiting from Canada and we spent the day at Chester Zoo together. Chester is a wonderful place, so much to see and do and information about the animals there is balanced with news about the conservation and support work that the zoo is involved with. We actually made some of the talks this time around - they have two baby elephants of three months old, pretty tiny compared to the big ones but still fairly hefty!

Idris made the most of a third pair of arms to give him a better view when he needed it!

The lions enjoyed their joints of beef and we had a close up look at a replica skull to see just how the teeth work when chomping through meat and bone.

 

Faith compared her hand to a tiger paw print - no comparison really!!

The otter display was new since we last went two years ago and this bubble window arced into the indoor pool where it was fun to see the otters gambling around play fighting with each other.

We don't usually see the chimps outdoors but the early Spring sunshine had tempted them out for some mutual grooming.

The Asian otters were very sweet, they had a new enclosure too, very natural with plenty of water, rock and wood for them.

John and I were taken with the huge hornbills in the tropical house.

I was outside with Idris but the others managed to see the Puma eating his chicken dinner!

Never too big for a shoulder ride!!

I'm fascinated by the Okapis - this is a youngster and was with it's mother, usually they are alone as they are solitary animals in the forest. I think they look as if they are related to the giraffe due to their build and shape but this was ridiculed by the men in my life.....

There was a baby rhino too, very sweet and doddery..... well as sweet and doddery as rhinos get!!

Porcupines, another favourite of mine!



No Uncle John, you can't go, we won't let you, you have to stay with us for ever and ever!!!!!!

We Cheered the Olympic Torch!

We weren't able to cheer the torch through our home city as we were celebrating my cousin's 40th Birthday that day so we planned it for the following day. After spending a wonderful afternoon exploring Kenilworth Castle, we set up our picnic rug on the grass outside and sat down to wait - it was really exciting just waiting, with police officers whizzing around on motor bikes and a local radio station roving reporter interviewing people - Eve and my Mum were interviewed about the torch relay as well and my Mum 'bigged up' home ed on the radio!!!!

Here you can see how excited Idris was about this momentous occasion in his little life - exhausted by an afternoon running around the castle chasing balls and frisbees, he slept through the whole thing - never mind!!

There was a whole cavalcade of vehicles that came through - one bus dropping off the next person in the relay, one picking them up, one with spare police officers in from the team escorting the torch, one blacked out bus with goodness knows who in, two cars going ahead and making sure everything was in order.... it went on and on!! Every bus and car had Wenlock the mascot in them and everyone was really friendly, waving at the children!

I was expecting the police to be a bit officious and make us move back but they weren't at all, we all crowded forwards to see the torch come in to the car park at the castle, disappear from view for 'the kiss' where the flame is swapped from runner to runner and then emerge again in the hands of this gentleman (have no idea who he is!). It was a great vantage point as instead of seeing the torch whizz by just once, we saw it twice, once running and once walking - hats off to my Dad who did the research on that one and found us the spec to watch from! In the bus at the back there is a 'torch rack' with all the spare torches in.

This is Eve making her own vantage point on my Dad's shoulders - please take note of the need for tights and fluffy jumpers in JULY - soooooo fed up of this RAIN!!!!!!

This is one of the outlying cars with Wenlock peeping out of the window!!

This was the first runner - don't know his name either!!!

 

It was a momentous occasion and although I'm not entirely sold ('scuse the pun!) on the national cost implications of 8000 torches and the kit and hangers on, I appreciated being able to bring the children to be a part of it - especially as we didn't get ANY of the tickets we asked for in the ballot - but don't get me started on that one........

A Visit To the Firestation!

We had a great visit to the firestation on Tuesday! The girls got to have a go at working the hoses and Idris and I got a gentle shower of fine water droplets as we were trying to take pictures!

One of the fire men put on a silly wig and a coat and hid up the tower pretending to be trapped by a fire. The fother fire men put on the lights and sirens and drove around the corner to the back entrance to the yard then put up their big ladders and 'rescued' him!

The children were all really keen to see the hydraulic cutters in action but the fire men weren't so keen! Maybe next time!

All the children had a go in the fire engine - on the promise that they didn't press any of the tempting buttons!! Faith just about resisted!

In the afternoon I printed out some beebot mats of town buildings on fire from Primary Treasure Chest and a fire engine jacket for the beebot. The girls really enjoyed learning how to programme the beebot to get around the town!

Severn Valley Railway Fun!

We spent a day playing on the Severn Valley Railway line last week, taking advantage of an off-season offer and we had such a great day! The railway line was saved from extinction by local people and sections were purchased from British Rail over a number of years and reconstructed by volunteers. The work continues today with steam engines being saved from scrap yards and lovingly restored to chuff up and down the line between Bridgnorth and Kidderminster. All the stations are decked out with stacks of trunks/suitcases and the original waiting rooms and ticket booths - so lovely!

Our view from the first carriage - you can see the driver and the coal man looking out of the engine! Lots of people waved at us as we chuffed past, it was great fun. As it wasn't their busy season we had the carriage to ourselves so no matter when the girls squealed with delight when we saw two elephants and a rhino out of the window!! Yes really, I'm not joking - we think it might be the safari park maybe?

Faith spent ages with her head thrust out of the train window watching the steam engine and looking back along the line of carriages. The window was lowered using a leather strap and she thought that was great too, as well as the really traditional toilets with scrolly handles and wooden seats!!

Idris loved watching the world go by from the train window - steam trains are slow enough to actually enjoy the scenery as you go along! (Dewi is wearing a fleece hat that Eve made for him from one of the patterns in the sewing book that Santa brought for Christmas!).

This is Eve reaching up to pull the chain that sounds the Engine's whistle (a mock-up one in the indoor Steam Engine Museum!). Listening to the real one blow and watching it from the carriage as we rode along the tracks was a great review of the states of matter science lessons we did last year! Faith thought it was great that the driver's flask of tea (or hot chocolate as she insisted it was!) was kept on the boiler ledge to keep warm!!

Eve had a go turning the brake wheel in the brake van - he had a tiny little stove to keep him warm on the journeys!

I have to confess - I love steam trains! I love the mechanics of a steam engine and I love the nostalgia of 'the good old days' I never knew! I took a few pictures like the one above accompanied by groans from Dewi that had he known I was a closet train spotter he'd never have married me! I told him that he had my mum to thank as she loves steam engines too. That made him roll his eyes even more! There was loads of fascinating information about the engines and carriages, including the royal carriage that King George travelled around war torn Britain in! Loved it, despite the rain - see below for smudgy raindrop soaked photo of train pulling into the station!