One of the main reasons we love to visit Edinburgh is that it is the perfect location to spend time with my family. I’m so lucky to have two of my grandparents and so take every opportunity for the children … Continue reading
As we are increasingly finding on all our holidays now, we were drawn to the coast for much of our holiday to Scotland. Alex and Sophie just adore pottering around at the water’s edge, and I just find it so … Continue reading
While we headed to Edinburgh in August to enjoy the Fringe, we spent very little time in the city – instead enjoying time to explore outside. We started at Beecraigs Country Park in Linlithgow with a family walk in the … Continue reading
We’re reaching the end of a fortnight of annual leave – and I have so much to write about. So expect a flurry of blog posts (is there an actual collective noun?!) over the next few days as I catch … Continue reading
Another year, another camping trip is complete! This year, I was so exhausted from our first camping trip of the year, I had to sneak away from work on Monday afternoon for a sneaky nap (although that might have had … Continue reading
Right now, I’m in Washington DC on a very rare international work trip – and away from my babies for five nights. It’s a strange experience – I’m torn between being thrilled to be back in the USA in one … Continue reading
I’ve finally finished sorting out our photographs from our wonderful Cornish holiday – so I’m afraid you’ve got to read through one final holiday post before it’s back to normal London service (well, not quite, as we’re off to Zurich next weekend!)…
While we spent a lot of our time exploring the beautiful Northern coast, we visited a few wonderful places inland, starting with the glorious National Trust property, Lanhydrock House. I have vague recollections of visiting on a school week in Bude when I was about 14 (!) but it’s clearly developed a lot since then. We’d heard good things about their mountain biking woods, so headed straight to the new bike hire hub to find out more. Within minutes, we were kitted out with excellent quality bikes and helmets and directed to the wide range of trails.
With Alex on his own little bike, we decided to stick to the entry level trail. It was fabulous – a really well maintained route, in lush woodland with occasional sweeping views of the countryside. Matt and I loved it – and Sophie was very happy on the back of the bike. Alex, on the otherhand, really missed his own bike, and found the braking approach on the hire bike too confusing (he had to peddle backwards) – so he got quite upset going around the course which was such a shame.
Thankfully, he perked up a bit when we completed the main route, and had much more fun on the skills course – loving the banks, bumps and “moguls”! Phew.
Sophie preferred navigating the skills course on foot. She’s looking so grown up!
Matt and I took it in turns to try a slightly harder route while the children played on the practice area and both loved the short spell of freedom and speed. Can’t wait to get back to Lanhydrock when the children are a bit older and more bike-confident!
After we’d reluctantly returned the bikes, we wandered down the long path to Lanhydrock House itself. Thankfully it was downhill as it was quite a trek for little legs. We searched for pine cones along the way – Alex proudly finding the “biggest pine cone ever”.
The House was as beautiful as I remember although, as usual on our National Trust visits with our pre-schoolers, we weren’t really brave enough to go inside.
So we admired it from the perimeter! Love the bizarre shaped bushes!
We did make it indoors to the cafe to reward ourselves with a big slab of cake and a proper Cream Tea. A sweet end to a lovely day.
In the middle of our trip to the South West, the weather looked particularly threatening, so we took the opportunity to visit The Eden Project for the first time. Matt and I have wanted to go for ages and I’m so glad we’ve finally made it. It is such a bizarre site on the Cornish landscape, with enormous domes peaking out from beautifully landscaped gardens.
The children were thrilled at the prospect of going inside bubbles, so we started our visit in the biggest one of all – the Rainforest Biome. Matt and I found it fascinating with some amazing flowers and plants – but the children weren’t massive fans of the heat, so it became a bit of a march to rush two whining children through the route and out again!
They were hot and sweaty by the end and relieved to get into the cooler cafe for lunch! Not sure we’ll be doing any tropical holidays any time soon (or at least, when we do, we’ll make sure we have shorts and tshirts rather than jeans on!)
They were much more content in the Mediterranean Biome after lunch which was the perfect temperature. I loved it in there – stunning flowers, comfortably warm and the delicious smell of the Italian restaurant adding to the authentic atmosphere!
After the brilliant biomes, we whiled away an hour exploring the extensive grounds. Dotted around the site were occasional games and things to do – like this lovely xylophone. And we really enjoyed exploring The Core – an interactive space, complete with a softplay with dressing up clothes. Sophie transformed into a ladybird but sadly wouldn’t stop running around long enough for her to take a decent picture of her. She looked hilarious!
Towards the end of the week, we visited Lappa Valley – a haven for little train enthusiasts! It really was a day for Alex and Sophie, but Matt and I had much more fun than we expected to! I was expecting a bit of a tacky load of train rides, but clearly hadn’t read the promotional material very well as the site was really beautiful and packed full of history. We loved seeing the old mining buildings and reading the fascinating history of the location.
Of course there are a few train rides, but they enabled us to explore the woodland on the site – they were rather good fun!
There was much more on the site than trains, including some fun little rides which Alex loved:
And some lovely trails in the woods – Alex and Sophie ran and ran, seemingly never running out of energy all day!
My favourite thing was the little lake where you could pick up a canoe as often as your wanted for a leisurely paddle. Alex loved his first rowing experience, as did Sophie – who confused us all by telling us repeatedly that she’d lost her bagel. It took us a while to realise she meant her paddle! Poor Matt had to scour his route to find it again!
There was an enormous adventure playground which gave Matt and I a very leisurely lunch as the children could confidently explore on their own.
And even a little golf course. Alex cheated appallingly!
It was a little gem of a park in another lovely location.
We were reflecting last week that we could easily have spent another week in Cornwall, there was just so much to see and do – so expect to have to read about future holidays in the South West!
Just squeezing in my May “Siblings” post on the final day of the month. It’s been a big month for my duo as they have just moved in together to share a bedroom. They’ve spent a lot of time together this month, with our holiday to Cornwall, plus half term last week when Alex hasn’t been at nursery. Their giggles every evening as we shut the door is a sign of their relationship getting closer – but more on how that’s going next month!
For May’s post, I’m remembering a lovely trip to Dryham Park – a stunning National Trust park and house that marked the midway point on our long drive home from Cornwall. Typically, the weather was significantly sunnier and warmer than it had been all week we were away, so we were pleased we chose to stop somewhere with so much outside space so we could enjoy it.
Dryham is truly beautiful – an incredible house nestled amid rolling hills where deer roam free. We enjoyed a yummy lunch sprawled on the lawns surrounded by the gorgeous architecture.
The house is having some fairly major refurbishment – so Matt took the opportunity to tour the roof while I explored the grounds with the children. He looked the part in his high vis jacket and hard hat – and got some great shots of the lush, green park.
Meanwhile, I trekked up to the brilliant Old Lodge where there are loads of natural play areas. I loved exploring the flourishing kitchen garden, enjoying the herb and flower planting in old tyres! We picked a great time to visit as everything was really in bloom.
The children stretched their legs exploring the wooden climbing frame and logs – able to run freely in the secure space. It was the perfect antidote to being couped up in the car for hours.
We’re already big fans of the National Trust – 50 things to do before you’re 11 3/4, and so took the opportunity to plant something to eat. I think we may have ticked that one off several times, but the children never tire of digging dirt and planting seeds! Let’s see if we end up with pumpkins and sunflowers!!
Sophie and Alex really worked as a team as they were planting and watering their seeds – and gave me my May Siblings photo as we walked around the grounds! It was hilly and quite steep, and I wasn’t sure Sophie was going to make it up the climbs! But her big brother came back to hold her hand and coax her up the incline. And sure enough, she found some more energy and made it to the top.
Can’t get enough of seeing their little hands clasped together!
I wish we’d had more time to explore Dyrham Park – it was enormous, really welcoming and truly beautiful. The only downer on the day was the fact it was so hot, the Marshfield Ice Cream stand ran out of flavours my mid afternoon, putting an end to our daily holiday dairy fix! But that didn’t take away from a wonderful excursion for my siblings. We’ll be back!
So we didn’t just stay at Coombe Mill during our week long trip to Cornwall last week – we occasionally dragged the children away from the bunnies and the trampoline! As usual on holiday, we were drawn to the coast, so we started at nearby Polzeath beach. The weather was a bit grey and windy, but that made it all look rather dramatic – and provided a lot of surfing action to watch!
The children immediately set to clambering up the rocks which had a really striking purple and green striped pattern! Here’s Alex on his way up:
Not to be outdone by her big brother, Sophie was soon in hot pursuit – given she’s only two, she’s very confident at climbing. I hope she stays fearless!
When we got a bit too chilly, we headed into a lovely cafe for a massive lunch before driving around the coast to Padstow to explore the beautiful harbour. We couldn’t resist ice cream!
We had much better weather for our second beach excursion, this time to Daymer Bay. With it being term-time, the beach was practically deserted – I can’t imagine how manic it must be during the school holidays. The tide was far out, so we spent ages roaming around on the sands, seeking more rocks to scramble on and checking out every rockpool we passed. It was stunning – and felt truly wonderful getting some sun and some sea air.
Equipped with buckets and spades, the children had a blast – collecting shells and seaweed and as much water as they could carry.
Matt snuck to the little beach shop to finally get the children a kite – I can’t believe we’ve not really done any kite flying with them! Daymer was the perfect place to get some practice – there was loads of space and a perfect amount of wind. The children absolutely loved it.
Alex did a really good job controlling the kite, and Sophie was expert at collecting it when it crashed into the sand!
I’d been a bit useless and not made a picnic – but thankfully there was a little cafe in the carpark which did toasties and pasties. The day was really warming up, so Alex and Sophie finally got to model their holiday hats and shades that they had so carefully chosen! They look so daft – love it!
With it much warmer after lunch, the kids stripped off and finally got to feel the sand in their toes! Alex, in his usual super confident way, immediately made friends with a girl who had a very similar, wacky imagination to him. She introduced herself as “Super Sparkle” and Alex decided he was “Super Spiderman” – and the pair proceeded to have an amazing time inventing elaborate rescue scenarios! It was so funny to watch!
Meanwhile Sophie pottered around in the sand and Matt and I enjoyed sunning ourselves and enjoying some peace. It’s brilliant being at the point where the kids can entertain themselves for a while – and I love watching their independence grow!
We closed our week in Cornwall with one final foray to the sea. Feeling energetic, we hired bikes and cycled along some of the Camel Trail into Padstow. Following a disused railway track, it’s lovely cycling – relatively flat, well surfaced and with excellent views. Coming into Padstow was beautiful – even if the weather was a bit grey. Alex rode on a bike with me, helping me up the hills brilliantly!
Meanwhile, Sophie rode on Matt’s bike – even managing to fall asleep on the way back. I did feel bad for her seeing her hed lolling around! It can’t have been very restful.
Locking our bikes up safely, we spent a bit more time enjoying Padstow on this visit. The children liked looking at the boats in the harbour and laughing at the cheeky, confident seagulls (some of whom were brazenly stole food out of our hands while we were eating)
We popped into the National Lobster Hatchery (who knew?!) and spent ages exploring the place – it became a real highlight of the week for the kids. They just couldn’t get enough of looking at the lobsters, a couple of whom were behind magnifying glass to make them look enormous! They had great names like “Elsa” and “Jaffa”! We all enjoyed looking at the tiny babies and the mummy lobsters in the maternity ward. And Alex was brave enough to hold a full lobster shell!
We enjoyed it so much, we popped in on our way back to the bikes to bid Elsa and her buddies goodbye!
Of course, while we were in Padstow, we had to have some Rick Stein fish and chips. We played it safe, not being brave enough to take our rowdy pair into a smart restaurant, so got takeaway from the little fish and chip shop – we were not disappointed. It really was excellent – and relaxing on benches overlooking the harbour – made for a lovely end to our Cornish week.
I should start this post with a bit of a warning – there are rather a lot of photographs in it! We took so many pictures on our holiday to Cornwall last week that it’s taken me days to prep the first of a series of posts about our South West adventure.
I wouldn’t normally write an entire blog post about holiday accommodation either – but last week we were staying somewhere special. I’ve been wanting to stay at Coombe Mill for ages, having read reviews from other bloggers – and the final opportunity we have for taking a term-time holiday before Alex starts school gave me the chance to take my family there.
And I wasn’t disappointed. Nestled between Bodmin Moor and the North Cornish coast, the peaceful hamlet of cottages and lodges was the perfect contrast to our crazy city life. With a complete lack of mobile signal and the only background noise the bubbling River Camel, I properly unplugged myself from work.
We were staying in beautiful Water Mill cottage, one of the oldest buildings on the site – complete with a snug wood burning stove and lush, green views. We were super comfortable, and the children enjoyed sharing a room!
Lovely though the cottage was, we spent very little time indoors. Coombe Mill was heaven for Alex and Sophie with over 30 acres to explore. Every morning, they accompanied Farmer Nick on the daily feed run around the farm – visiting and feeding a whole range of animals. Here’s Alex getting ready for his turn driving the tractor, and bottle feeding baby Sprout the goat – a real favourite of all the guests!
Here we are with some of the other goats, including bottle feeding little Rocky:
I think we all would have enjoyed taking baby Sprout home with us – the children are still talking about Sprout now!
We fed our leftover food to the resident pigs and enjoyed guessing which food they’d eat first from the massive pile of scraps:
We held and stroked tiny chicks, fed chickens and ducks, and hunted for eggs – eating more in a week than we have for months!
And we even got up close to a gorgeous group of deer every day!
Every day the feed run ended at the bunny enclosure, which was probably Sophie’s favourite place on the farm. I loved how we were welcome to visit the animals any time we wanted, so we regularly popped in to see the rabbits if we found we had some time spare, gathering fresh grass for them to coax them close. I was seriously tempted to bring one of them home – but I’m not sure they’d have enjoyed my tiny urban garden after the freedom of Coombe Mill!
And we visited the resident horses
One day we spotted Sophie having a very animated conversation with the horses – so funny to watch, although I have no idea what they were talking about!
Here are my proud pair posing for pictures in a tree they climbed every morning on the feed run – they insisted we take their photos there every day!
If the feed run was how we started each day at Coombe Mill, the day ended with a trip on the farm’s little railway! Right outside our cottage, the tiny track was a real highlight for the children. With driver Guy, one of the owners’ six children, Alex and Sophie loved chugging around the track, and acting as signalman and stationmaster – waving the flag and blowing the whistle to get the rides underway.
It was such a nice way to close each day, gathering with the other guests – and usually joined by Sprout the Goat who loved running along after the train (check out owner, Fiona’s, video, complete with Superman Alex!)
One of my favourite things about staying at Coombe Mill was the freedom it allowed Alex and Sophie. With several fabulous play areas, and so many animals to visit, the children were able to roam quite freely around the estate. From our cottage, we could see their favourite play area which included a massive trampoline (always a winner for Family Agar) – and we got to the point where we’d happily let Alex and Sophie head over to it by themselves and play together. It was such a pleasure as a parent to see them grow in confidence and enjoy the kind of freedom they don’t have a hope of experiencing in central London.
Of course, we didn’t let them play alone all the time – who can resist a bounce?!
Alex and Sophie particularly enjoyed being one of the first guests to experience the new Mud Kitchen, toiling away to make “hot chocolate” and mud pies, sending me on multiple trips down to the River Camel for water!
As well as the mud kitchen, Sophie was quite a fan of the Fairy Garden – a beautiful area in the woodland full of decorations and crafts made my previous guests. We loved the decorations twinkling in the trees.
And Sophie adored the beautiful animal stones dotted around the clearing. Alex practiced his reading identifying all the animals they represented.
We visited the Mud Kitchen and Fairy Garden again during the weekly children’s activity hour – but for a slightly cleaner activity! Led by owner Fiona, the children made colourful wands and collected flowers, leaves and seeds to make a fairy meal! The addition of a dressing up box was a big success – and Sophie looked particularly gorgeous in her fairy dress and wellies! She’d fit right in at Glastonbury!
Back at the mud kitchen, the gang of children carefully mixed and cooked the fairy food:
They then headed up to the Fairy Garden to sprinkle it around for the resident fairies! Sophie was quite dedicated to that, feeding flowers to the gnomes and dwarves!
Meanwhile, Alex turned his attention to helping build a “bug hotel” – perhaps more his thing than feeding fairies!
The children loved everything about staying at Coombe Mill! They made friends with the other guests, enjoyed the freedom to explore and adored the brilliant play areas and activities. And as a parent, it was just the right balance of organised, outdoor fun for the kids, and relaxed, independent space for us to spend time as a family. We even got to enjoy some time to ourselves, Matt getting a couple of (very hilly) runs in and me enjoying some peaceful walks around the estate and beyond.
I loved the bluebell woods, and the fresh, green landscape – clearly all the rain we’ve had this Spring has done wonders for this part of the country!
There were colours everywhere – I snapped all these within a minute of our cottage.
Well done – you made it through all the pictures! And that’s just where we stayed! Got a couple more posts to come about what we got up to around beautiful Cornwall.
We kicked off the bank holiday weekend with a day trip down to Leeds Castle in Maidstone – somewhere I visited often as a child. Just an hour from Herne Hill, it’s an easy drive – and well worth the … Continue reading
With Sophie ending the week a bit under the weather, we weren’t sure what to expect from Saturday – so we kept our diaries clear and waited to see what the morning brought. Thankfully, it brought a happy, healthy pair of children – and a dose of sunshine – so we decided on the spur of the moment to explore a part of London we’re not that familiar with: Bloomsbury.
It’s a while since we’ve been on a London adventure – and we started this one in dramatic fashion in the impressive surroundings of the British Museum. The Great Court never fails to impress, and the children were thrilled at the large, open space and wide staircases to explore and run wild in (although not sure running is quite the done thing in the British Museum!)
Sophie wasn’t particularly impressed at being asked to stop running around for a photograph. And how grown up is Alex looking here?!
We decided to check out the Egyptian Gallery as our first foray in the Museum with children. While, of course, impressive and fascinating, I must admit I found it highly stressful as every artefact on display was easily reachable by children and sporting a DO NOT TOUCH sign. So I spent most of the time prevent the children touching ancient pieces! We enjoyed spotting things we recognised in the hieroglyphics before escaping (I promise Alex didn’t actually touch this sarcophagus!)
We quickly gave up trying to view the proper exhibition rooms – they’re just not geared up to inquisitive toddlers – and instead wandered back around the Great Court, loving the vivid colours of the contemporary totem poles on display there.
We didn’t stay long, escaping to the grounds for a quick hotdog stop, before wandering over to a park I’ve wanted to visit for years – Coram’s Fields. A 7 acre park dedicated to children’s play – where adults aren’t permitted unless accompanied by an Under-16, I can’t quite believe we’ve never been before! We thought we’d stay for an hour, but ended up stopping for three!
It felt so safe and secure, that the children were able to roam free, exploring the various playgrounds, sandpits, water play and even mini-farm. They loved their first splash in a waterplay of the year, immediately getting soaked and sandy (the sign of a good day out, I think!)
They slid down countless slides
And climbed and climbed
and dug as if they were back on the beach in Wales! Alex immediately befriended all the children he came across, digging a vast trench around the sand pit with his new playmates:
It was such a wonderful place to spend an afternoon – complete with fabulous ice creams, a relaxed picnic and some time for us grownups to relax on a bench in the sun. And it didn’t cost a penny (well, apart from the ice cream!)
I took the opportunity while the children were contentedly playing to pop round the corner to The Foundling Museum for a few minutes. I’d seen the Museum, which explores the history of the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity and first public art gallery, on a documentary a while back, but never been there before. I’d read they were celebrating the history of The Foundling Hospital Boys’ Band on Saturday with live big band music – and I wasn’t disappointed. I loved the colourful deckchairs and bunting – it felt like a very British occasion!
I didn’t have time to pop into the museum, but I’ll be back as it looked fascinating.
When we finally persuaded the children to leave Coram’s Fields, we walked up to St Pancras to catch our train home.
We didn’t get home till 5pm – all completely exhausted but smiling from a wonderful London day together. These are my favourite times in the capital – picking an area and checking out what we find when we get there. Wonder which neighbourhood we’ll try next…
Now the blog revamp is out of the way, back to normal service! Finally getting round to the last instalment in our Pembrokeshire holiday summary (well, maybe not quite the end of it, but more on that later)!
One of the reasons we choose to holiday in Wales quite a bit (see 2011 and 2012) is that it enables us to catch up with a good number of friends and family while there and on the way.
Our first stop was Cheltenham, where we popped in to visit an old friend and former colleague, Eve, and her family. It’s the perfect midway point and Alex and Sophie were delighted to get out of the car and explore Eve’s lovely garden. Eve’s gorgeous daughters, Gabby and Imogen, were perfect hosts!. Sophie, in particular, had a wonderful time playing with Immy!
We broke the journey home from Tenby with a stop off in the beautiful village of Marshfield near Bath to visit another friend and former colleague, Amy. The children hit if off immediately, enjoying their own private lunch table together and much silly giggling over their meal.
We decided to let them burn of some energy with a walk around the village – and we all had fun following the Easter scarecrow trail! The theme was heroes and villains and Alex loved spotting Darth Vadar, Spiderman, Superman and many others – including Bradley Wiggins – spotted below by Isla and Sophie!
We delayed our return to London with a quick stop in the Midlands to spend Easter with my parents. I think this may become an annual tradition as the local village Easter celebrations are great fun! But before the village celebrations, we did a little Easter egg hunt in my parents’ garden.
Our mini hunt provided enough chocolate to last ages, but we didn’t stop there! We popped over to the neighbouring village – Blakesley – for their big egg hunt and duck race. Alex and Sophie found plenty of chocolate along with the village children all over the playing fields before picking their ducks for the race. Alex’s started very well, leading the race for a while, but sadly got stuck on a bank half way along! Maybe next year…
We worked off some of the chocolate with plenty of playing in the local park which has recently had lots of new play equipment installed. And the boys enjoyed a spot of rugby in the garden, although not sure Alex quite has the hang of it yet!
Love this picture of the tired boys taking a break in Grandpa’s new shed. Alex appears to have forgotten to pick up his drink before saying “Cheers”!
We finished Easter Day with a family roast – rubbish photo, but happy memory as the children were really well behaved and the food delicious!
Our final stop in the long journey home was with our NCT friends, Dan and Bryony in Oxfordshire. With the weather properly sunny and warm, we met for a picnic and play at beautiful Blenheim Palace. It seemed most of the population of central England had had the same idea, so it was completely packed – and by the time we’d made our way from the overflow carpark to the entrance, we were already ready for lunch! So we found a clear spot of grass and enjoyed a leisurely picnic and catch up, cramming 6 months of catching up into a couple of hours.
We managed to navigate the maze, climb a tree or two and grab and ice cream before getting back on the road for the last push to London.
I mentioned at the start of this post that there may be yet more to share from our Pembrokeshire holiday… For the first time, we tried to take a bit of video footage of our trip, so I may be able to share a little holiday film. Watch this space…
We chose Tenby as a holiday destination as we were keen for the children to experience a truly British seaside holiday! Considering how much I love the coast, they’ve spent very little time playing around on a beach (although they are regulars in our local sandpits!). With the weather forecast dire, I was nervous our trip to Wales was going to be a complete washout, and we were going to have to forgo the beach for the local softplays.
Our first two attempts at beachtime were somewhat disastrous – with Sophie immediately falling in a freezing cold rockpool within minutes of arriving on the first trip, and Alex walking too far into the incoming tide and being soaked to the waist on our second trip.
Buy things improved substantially after that, and we enjoyed hours of coastal fun over our week in Tenby! It’s a stunning spot on a beautiful coastline – we loved the beautifully painted buildings around the harbour (and took a ridiculous number of photos of them!)
I’m so glad we visited off season – we had the beaches almost to ourselves and the peace and quiet was such a treat after the bustle of London. I’d love to have a holiday home here – like the lucky people who purchased and developed the old lifeboat station shown below and featured on one of my favourite Channel4 “Grand Designs”!
Nothing clears your head better than some fresh air and the sound of the sea
The children weren’t quite so interested in peace and quiet – finding the beach one enormous playground! Of course, Alex made a beeline for any stone he could lay his hands on, throwing as many as possible into the waves.
And we all enjoyed some clambering and climbing on the rocks and in the caves.
Sophie had a permanent grin on her face on the beach – just love these pictures of her looking so full of joy and life
She followed Alex everywhere, copying everything he did. Here are my gorgeous siblings closely inspecting little rock pools together.
Alex helped Sophie climb into a little cave where they posed for a cheesy sibling photo – I love how he’s looking at his little sister here.
When you’re 2 and 4, the best thing about the beach are the waves – we spent ages splashing in our wellies and running away from the tide – they literally screamed with laughter.
Here’s Sophie following Alex again!
We, of course, spend many hours digging and building sandcastles – it was fun watching Alex directing Sophie in their construction project, which seemed to involve digging a river, lake and dam.
They worked so hard – and roped in Daddy as a helper when it got too tiring!
We were lucky enough to bump into a photographer who kindly took a few family portraits of us – they make me giggle everytime I see them.
And unusually I handed over the camera and Matt snapped some pics of me with the children
We loved the beach views from Tenby’s Castle Hill, where there were canons to climb on and massive hills to roll down!
We were keen to get out on the water, and were thrilled to find that the first boat trip of the 2015 season took place during our stay. So we headed out on a Seal Safari to explore the shoreline of nearby Caldey Island, home to lots of seabirds and seals. Sophie loved it, not minding the sea swell and the freezing cold wind!
We were lucky enough to see a fair number of seals who were fairly inquisitive, having not seen a boatload of tourists for months!
What a week! I’m still finding sand in random places, and the car smells somewhat fishy after all the shells the children collected, but we had such an amazing time, I don’t mind. Can’t wait to get to Cornwall in May for more seaside fun.
We’ve had such an adventure this Easter, it’s going to take me a few blog posts to get through the hundreds of photographs we’ve taken and memories we’ve made.
Perhaps unwisely, given the usual wet weather in March/April in Wales, we opted to spend a week off at Easter renting a cottage in Tenby, Pembrokeshire. The forecast when we arrived made us think we’d made a terrible mistake, but thankfully, most of the wet and windy weather came at night and we had enough clear weather to enjoy some amazing experiences out in the fresh air.
We had quite a farm themed series of days during our trip – taking advantage of the close proximity to the brilliant Folly Farm. It was the perfect location for a couple of visits – with a vast outdoor park featuring everything from lions to giraffes to penguins. Sophie loved meeting the monkeys – and they seemed to like her panda, Buddy:
We met a giant tortoise and a giraffe that was even taller than daddy:
And the “Pride of Pembrokeshire” – a family of lions who didn’t look too bothered by the cool temperatures of Wales!
As well as the animals, there were loads of really toddler friendly ride ons and games. Alex and Matt thoroughly enjoyed driving mini diggers (I think Matt may have enjoyed it even more than Alex!)
And they both loved racing around a track together. Sophie was less than impressed to watch her beloved “Buddy” speeding around in the race car:
Sophie was more enthused by the Big Wheel – and we took the opportunity to get a cheesy selfie!
When the rain set in during the afternoon, we headed indoors to the vast barns which were filled with farm animals and more rides. Sophie loved meeting more chickens and Alex got to milk a goat!
Sophie even milked a pretend cow
It’s a great spot – I feared it would be super busy and really tacky – but it was really well thought out and so large, it never felt busy. I suspect it might be a different story in the middle of August! The children loved the farm so much that we made the most of the special offer to get half price tickets if you visit twice in a week!
We had another animal themed day while visiting our friends on The Gower – Luke and Laura, and their lovely children Isla and Taliesin. We enjoyed a good catch up, delicious lunch and windy trip to the local playground – but for Alex and Sophie, the absolute highlight was meeting the resident chickens! We were very impressed with the hen house Luke had constructed for them and it was great to see them roaming around the garden exploring.
I’ll be surprised if the chickens lay for a few days until they recover from being chased, stroked and overfed by our pair!
Our final farm adventure of our Pembrokeshire week was a visit to Matt’s family in Nantgaredig in the hills of Carmarthenshire. His cousins both farm – and we visited Godor Farm, where his cousin Ian and his family now have sheep and cows. Matt spent most of his childhood Christmas holidays on the Farm where his mother grew up, and after not visiting for nearly three years, jt was a real pleasure to come back and introduce Sophie to the Howell family.
It is such a beautiful spot and we made the most of the dry weather to explore as much of the farm as possible:
It’s right in the middle of the lambing season and we were lucky enough to meet (and cuddle) lots of the tiny newborn lambs!
The children got stuck in, going into the orphan lamb ben and stroking as many as they could reach.
We were unbelievably lucky and got to witness a lamb bring born from this first time mum! The children were not at all phased by the blood (although Alex did comment that it looked a bit sore for the mummy sheep!). We were super impressed by Muriel – who spotted the ewe in labour, stripped off her coat, calmly delivered the lamb, administered worming medication, washed her arms and then continued our farm tour! We’re a little bit in awe!
After the lambing sheds, we visited the herds of cattle – and got to meet two beautiful calves who were less than 24 hours old. We didn’t get very close to them as their mums were very protective!
After a quick stop off visiting the chickens (and collecting eggs which we enjoyed for our breakfast today!), we were introduced to the farm machinery. After the mini diggers at Folly Farm, Alex couldn’t believe his luck when he got to drive a real one with Ian! They attempted, thankfully unsuccessfully, to scoop up a chicken and hammered some rocks into the mud.
Matt and Sophie kept their distance!
We thought Ian and Muriel were joking when they suggested we got into a trailer behind their quad bike – but they were completely serious, wanting to show us the fields where the older lambs were. So off we went, bumping around the estate and getting seriously muddy!
Alex and Sophie even got turns on the quad bike driving with Ian, who enjoyed pretending we’d broken down while crossing the river, encouraging Alex to get out and push!
When we stopped to meet Sid and Martha, the resident donkeys, and the children had a good clamber on the quad – I think they’ll be wanting to spend their school holidays at Godor as well!
After all the excitement outside, and a delicious salmon lunch cooked by superwoman Muriel, we snuggled up by the fire and she and her youngest son – William – introduced Alex to jenga! We caught up with Matt’s Auntie Margaret (one of my top blog visitors!) and other cousin, Sue, who’d popped in to say hello and deliver Easter eggs to the children.
It was a truly wonderful day. We don’t get to Nantgaredig often enough – but when we make it, we never fail to enjoy every minute with this incredibly warm and welcoming family. We won’t wait another three years to return.
Here’s a very happy family Agar!
Diary of a Herne Hill mum 