On a wonderfully sunny day a week or two back, we met some friends at our local beach for some 'seaglass hunting'. Our local beach is a great mix of lovely round pebbles and newly uncovered sand, and at low tide we even have rock pools with tiny crabs and sea anemones to marvel upon.
Dams and Damselflies
We spent last week on holiday in Cornwall at one of our favourite places; Coombe Mill.
This little slice of Heaven on Earth is the perfect place to revitalise and refresh, to reconnect with family and to nature. We always breathe more easily and freely, but then it's easy to feel calm when the background music is the tinkling of the River Camel enticing you to come and play.
And play we did.
#39: Catch A Crab
We're doing really quite well with our '50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾' project; The Boy is only just 5 years old and has already ticked off 37 of the 50 things! There are quite a few that he just can't manage yet, mainly due to physical capability or maturity. However, when we stayed in West Bay, Dorset earlier this week, there was one activity that was virtually screaming at us to do from the safety of the harbour walls:
Crabbing!
#49: Find A Geocache
At the grand old age of 4&¾, The Boy has accomplished 37 of the '50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾' tasks created by the National Trust; a list designed to get children outdoors doing the fresh-air things which children should be doing in the most innocent years of their lives. The range of tasks very much encourages children to step away from technology and embrace their 'natural childhood', however there is one that does involve technology and that is geocaching.
On a wet and grey Sunday a fortnight ago, we decided to try it out for the first time with The Boy.
#47: Cook On A Camp Fire (Country Kids)
One of the must-does for our break this week to Coombe Mill in Cornwall was to visit the beach and cook on a fire. Luckily we had the wonderful Wild Family Fun with us, whose job as an outdoor activity facilitator means she's a bit of an expert at starting a fire with vaseline and cotton wool.
So while I explored the rock pools with The Boy and his cousin, Mr. TBaM and The Boy's aunty set to starting the fire up in order to boil up some hot water using the Kelly Kettle she'd brought with us. A Kelly Kettle is an ingenious system which requires a fire to be lit in the metallic base, and then the 'water-jacket' kettle is placed over the top. It ends up with a fire chamber which creates an upward chimney draft ensuring efficient and rapid boiling even in windy or wet weather. And it was very windy that day! [Read more…]
Winter Sunshine
We love going to the beach at any time of the year, but it's incredibly difficult to find the enthusiasm when it is pouring down, and there's been a terrific amount of precipitation recently! However, last Sunday when the sun made an appearance and reminded us all of how wonderful the Winter sunshine truly is, we set off further down the coast with my brother and his family to explore Ogmore beach.
The main beach was packed but we actually headed around the coastline a few hundred yards to a beach which is a bit tricky to get down to and therefore has less visitors. The point about how tricky (in wet conditions) it is was made when I slipped on the muddy path walking down and ended up with a derriere covered in mud within three minutes of leaving the car!
However once we were down on the beach, the sunshine was warming and the conditions idyllic. We set out our picnic blanket and sat down on the rocks chatting and munching away on pasties and grapes while The Boy and his cousin roamed amongst the rockpools, collecting pebbles and creating some beach art.
As witnessed in many episodes of Doctor Who, this stretch of coastline has a wonderful strata in the cliffs and the beaches are crammed with rockpools galore. The perfect place to find crabs or starfish!
Ogmore beach is well known for the wonderful array of fossils in the rocks and cliff-face, and under the guidance of my sister-in-law who has been beach schools trained, we all set to the task of finding a variety of fossils. Finding what was once a fish, or a barnacle-like creature, is absolutely amazing and so rewarding; it reminds you of your place in the history of our planet.
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Exploring The National Trust: Lanhydrock, Cornwall
This time of year is so very cold, dark and oppressive that I find it very difficult to summon up the energy and desire to be the super mum who is proud of preaching, "There's no such thing as bad weather you know, just bad clothing." Because actually there is such a thing as bad weather, you just have to have the will to brave it, accept it and face it. Call it the post-Christmas blues if you like, but I'm struggling to pull on my thermals and wellies.
However I'm beginning to think of the wonderful places that we do visit in the more agreeable weather, especially as it gives me the will to think about adventuring when it's 20°C lower than my preferred temperature.
A Bicycle Made For Two
In the Spring of last year, my husband started a new job seven minutes walk from our house. Having spent the previous seven years commuting to work with anything from a fifteen minute to an hour long drive, this was a massive novelty for him. Therefore, when after three months he realised that he'd used his car three times, he decided to sell his car as it was no longer needed.
A month later his boss moved the office to Cardiff Bay.
And Mr. TBaM was left without any way of getting to the new office!
However, as he has The Best Boss In The Entire World™, this wasn't a problem because his boss just bought him a (rather expensive actually) new bike to use. When he was placing the order he also purchased a tag-along bike seat for The Boy. At the time The Boy was too young to use it as he'd only just started cycling on his own bike with stabilisers, but recently TBBITEW™ threatened to sell it due to lack of use, so we decided The Boy was old enough!
The best place in the area to try out something like this is the barrage in Cardiff Bay; no cars are allowed on it (except authorised vehicles) and it has a long, fairly straight and flat road which sees very little pedestrian or cycling traffic. We took Mr. TBaM's bike down as well as the tag-along, in the boot of my car, not telling The Boy what the plan was. At first, he was concerned as he thought it was a new bicycle for him without a front wheel, but he was overjoyed when he saw what it was!
They cycled back and forth across the barrage about eight times in the half an hour we were there and every time The Boy passed me, he had the biggest grin and sense of achievement on his face. There were several times when Mr. TBaM actually stopped cycling and The Boy continued peddling, he was so strong that he was pushing them both along. We'll need to adjust his seat a little as it was slightly too high, but he managed brilliantly, and we're also hoping that it will teach him a little bit more about balance so we can build up to removing his stabilisers!
I'm going to be ticking this one off for the National Trust's 50 Things: Go on a long bike ride (it was very long for him!)
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Days 300 – 306 of Project 365
300. Glee (Pure joy as The Boy flings Autumn leaves into the air at the National Trust site of Tyntesfield.)
301. Town Planner (The start of our half-term craft and play project.)
302. It's High Up Here! (Standing aloft a bale of hay at Yeo Valley with Burton and Jenson from Mummy Mishaps.)
303. Landscape Architect (Continuing our craft and play project where The Boy initiated his first ever written word without any prompting; bottom left he wrote a label on the cardboard.)
304. Pumpkin Driller (Little boys who are four aren't old enough to carve a pumpkin, so we drilled holes in it instead.)
305. Five Dec-car (He wanted to make a five decker car. Because he's four and he can.)
306. Hold On (We were in Reading for the Matilda Mae Welly Walk in Beale Park, and went off exploring with Laura from Tired Mummy of Two and her family. This is The Boy and Elizabeth squealing with laughter while Tired Daddy of Two pushed them.)
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50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾ At Yeo Valley
Earlier this week, The Boy and I were invited to the wonderful Yeo Valley in the Mendips to work with the National Trust on their 50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾ campaign. This was perfect for us as I've spent much of this year promoting the campaign through this blog and my outdoor play posts, and I also thoroughly enjoy visiting Holt Farm as it is a beautiful site.
Yeo Valley have partnered with the National Trust to help promote the outdoor play campaign, and during the course of the day we were given the opportunity to complete several of the 50 Things which The Boy thoroughly enjoyed. Many of these The Boy had already completed, however the one we haven't managed to tick off yet is 'hold a scary beast'; we did complete it when I placed a worm on his hand. It may not seem very scary to you or I, but to a four year old who doesn't like slime, it was a terrifying creature!
We had a great day in a wonderful setting with good friends. And what better proof is there of the fresh air being good for you than The Boy falling asleep on the way home?
From October to January this year, Yeo Valley fans can win one of ten fantastic holidays each worth £1,000 on special packs of its natural and fruity yogurts. Simply pick up a big pot or one of its 4-pack varieties from any major supermarket, visit the Yeo Valley website and enter the code on the pack for the chance to win one of ten unique breaks to a magical National Trust cottage, for a tranquil ‘staycation’ in spectacular locations across the country. In addition to this fabulous offer, Yeo Valley is giving away 250 family passes every day, giving families the chance to experience the National Trust’s enchanting places absolutely free of charge.
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