Growing up in south Wales means that I have a heads-up on the types of places and activities that are good to take The Boy on weekends; there's now't as good as personal experiences and happy memories as a reference bank to fun!
One of the places that I didn't really experience much as a child was Tredegar House in Newport, probably due to a mixture of cost, subject matter (my mum doesn't like history as she doesn't like to dwell in the past) and distance. I do remember going there once when I was about eight years old, and have a photo to prove it, but haven't been since. And that was a long time ago.
Having a media pass to the National Trust for the year, and being a NT blogger, means that we are now visiting places that we wouldn't have thought of going to before; Tredegar House is one of those. It was taken over by the National Trust last year and since then there have been changes to make it more interactive and interesting to children, something I've noticed in every National Trust property we've been too.
And so we decided to visit Tredegar House last Saturday when they were running a special event to promote the 50 Things campaign. The irony is that we spent so long playing on the lawn with the old fashioned games, having a picnic and exploring the house, that we didn't have much time to try and tick off some of our 50 Things. It's just as well we're making good progress anyway.
Spring had definitely sprung; the brilliant sunlight was glistening through the freshly budding leaves, casting dappled shadows on the lush lawn and providing a veritable paradise to play on. From the huge conifer, spreading its arms over the lawn protectively, hung tyre-horses swinging back and fore with the giggles of The Boy and other delighted children. The huge open space provded him with the ideal opportunity to fly his kite with just enough breeze to lift it.
And after we'd enjoyed our picnic lunch and explored the partly restored manor house, we managed to find a cracking tree to explore inside. The only problem was… how to get up to it? Well, that's what daddies are for, isn't it?
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Oh looks like you had perfect weather for enjoying this visit – lovely to see The Boy out of his winter snow suit at last. i hope your Spring is lasting longer than ours did! Thanks for linking up again this week.
Looks like you had a glorious sun shiny day! We are yet to try some kite flying yet so need to look into that! Your wee man certainly seems to be stretching or is it just me??
Loving the picture on Daddy's head pearing in the hole, that is just brilliant, I hope that satisfied his curiosity. I wonder how many more Dads had to do the same that afternoon after watching The Boy?
Gorgeous photos, and what perfect weather for it. Love the photo of The Boy standing on his Daddy's shoulders.
Makes such a difference when the sun shines doesn't it? The boy looks like he loved exploring the grounds and swinging on the horse swing. The blossom and buds look so,pretty too. Nice to show him sod where you haven't been too in so long aswell x
Oh what lovely pictures. I love the ones of him with his shades on, they are so cute. Isn't it wonderful to have had at least a little sunshine x
Love the horse-tyre swing and the sun through the tree. What a lovely sunny day – the boy certainly seems to be enjoying the sunshine!
It looks like a lovely place to visit.
All these photos are tempting me to come visit Wales
Beautiful photos. That tree looks really fun!
ah love the kite picture. 🙂
Looks like a great day and lovely photos too #CountryKids
Love the reflections with the boy on the swing!
Brilliant photos and the tree looks like a good tree to explore!
I'm seeing lots of NT places to visit lately, thank you for sharing 🙂
looks a great place to visit sounds like you all had fun x
Looks like ls of fun. My girls love kites and that tree looks cool xx
Looks like great fun and fantastic photos – love the sunshine!!
Love the photos. Springtime is beautiful when the sun shines 🙂
Nothing like a good NT day out. We love our family membership, we've more than made it back in visits. Good cake there too 🙂
Ohh exploring inside trees sounds cool! Mich x
Great photos! Glad you had a good day out 🙂
#countrykids
Love your country kids round up. The Boy is always having so much fun x
I always love your photos and the description of this place makes it sound like paradise! 🙂
I love the one at the bottom with the boy playing with his kite. x
Wow love the look of this place – and great kite flying pic 🙂
I really really must visit this place and it's close to us as well, it's lovely that we finally had a bit of sun this week and hopefully more in the summer. Just stopping by from Country kids of course
Laura x
http://www.sidestreetstyle.com
I am loving the sunglasses and weillies look.
Beautiful photos – and such gorgeous shots of the sunshine.
Visiting via Country Kids
I particularly love the photo of Daddy assisting the tree climbing expedition.
We're trying to work our way through the 50 things too, trying to find some snails to race next! Thanks for stopping by the Outdoor Play Party