Tales of the unexpected with The Boy, my pride and joy.
We're so lucky where we live.
So lucky to have miles upon miles of glorious coastline; swathes of golden sand, mounds of perfectly elliptical pebbles, an abundance of rock pools populated with crazy creatures, and a vast tidal range allowing for hours spent on the beach.
Enjoying childhood.
Publicity for Cancer Research UK in the last few days, means that I've decided to republish this post from March 2011.
I've been struggling with this post for a few days; trying to remain anonymous (reasonably) on this blog makes it incredibly difficult to partake in a linky which relies on sharing photographic memories of your life. I can't blank out my face can I? Going to have to bite the bullet (in a sneaky way) sooner or later.
So with this inner conflict, I plodded into school to teach literacy for Year Six and perused the lesson plan left for me. Even the absent teacher seemed to be prompting me to write this post, as the children were being asked to write about flashbacks! The stimulus for the lesson was the following video, it's only two minutes long and I'd really love it if you took the time to watch it. [Read more…]
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…]
Crashing waves.
Frothing, foamy, Neptune's white horses.
Gusting winds.
Sand blowing diagonally through the air.
Squeals of laughter from a gleeful and playful family enjoying the abandoned swathes of golden sands.
All that squelchy sand is a blank canvas for running, jumping and falling over in.
And do you know where he went after he's verified how saturated and sand encrusted his gloves were?
Yep, right to 'give mummy a cuddle'.
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Linking up to Country Kids, Outdoor Play Party and Flashback Friday
This has always been our motto with The Boy.
From a young age we've encouraged him to explore the natural world and allowed him to get as mucky as he wants to outside. Clothes after all are to keep us warm and protect our bodies, if they get dirty then they go in the washing machine. If The Boy gets dirty then he goes in the bath.
As far as I am concerned, there really is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. And there really is no excuse for preventing children to have fun in the natural environment. Least of all getting clothes dirty.
Which is why when the sun broke through the clouds last Sunday we met up with my brother and his family at the local nature reserve. Apart from a three minute downpour when we were feeding the swans, the sunlight was revitalising and much needed.
Especially for showing the way when climbing trees.
But then of course all that rain that we've had makes for some glorious squelchy fun. Mud, glorious mud.
So after some jumping up and down in muddy puddles, sliding down muddy banks and trying to catch squirrels, we had a small accident.
This is why we have a washing machine.
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Linking up to Country Kids, Outdoor Play Party and Flashback Friday
It feels like weeks since the weather has been anywhere near pleasant enough to enjoy when out and about, indeed it was last year for us! The last day of 2013 saw The Boy and I pop down to the beach for a scoot and cycle. As we curved around the hillside road leading down to the beach, I saw that the tide was at its lowest for quite some time, and so we drove home again to pick up my wellies as I didn't feel that my trainers would survive the beach.
I was right.
After a quick cycle on the pier, where The Boy discovered why cycling down a ramp at speed into a pole isn't a good idea, we picked our way across the smooth, round, grey pebbles and over the swathe of sand. I thought that we'd be stopping to examine the rock pools which are visible at low tide, but the lure of the squelchy mud at the water's edge was too much for a four year old boy to bear.
And that's when it happened.
In the one second when I didn't have my camera trained on him, he went and did the winning Candid Camera moment.
Thank God I'd put his waterproof trousers on him!
And it didn't just happen once, he seemed to have balance issues that day and he fell over another three times.
After a joyous two hours on the beach, it was time to squelch our way back to the car for the big clean-up operation. But look how much fun we had!
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Linking up to Flashback Friday, Country Kids and The Outdoor Play Party
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.
It was a brilliantly sunny day last week when Lucy and I decided to meet up in Leigh Woods on the weekend for the boys to play together, and for us to play with our cameras. And then we developed this idea further and hatched a plan.
Sunday morning dawned grey and dreary, and Mr. TBaM looked at me quizzically. I responded by handing him our wellies and macs, and pointing at the car. Unfortunately when we hit Bristol, the torrent against the windscreen meant that I had to avoid eye contact with him for a little while.
But Lucy and I had a plan, which needed adhering to.
We had fun racing around Leigh Woods, finding sticks and playing hide and seek.
And then it was time for the plan to come into fruition.
Coming together in memorial, we threw pink and purple flowers to baby Tilda, and then squealed with laughter when they fell on our heads!
We broke out the pink bubbles and sent them up to her in the sky.
And then due to the monsoon, we had a thoroughly British picnic in the car.
But most of all, we remembered a wonderful little baby girl who is no longer with us.
On Saturday 2nd November 2013, you too can join in on a Welly Walk in memory of Matilda Mae; the beautiful daughter of Jennie and David who died suddenly, and without warning, in her sleep. She was nine months old. The 2nd will be nine months since that dreadful night, and the Welly Walk at Beale Park Wildlife Park and Gardens in Reading will be a magical memorial to remember a little girl who meant so much, to so many.
Tickets cost £9.99 for 11years+ with children younger admitted free. There will be an abundance of activities available throughout the day, with the proceeds from the entire event being donated to The Lullaby Trust in memory of Tilda. It will be a wonderful day with a huge amount of activities in both the Beale Centre and the main park itself. We're very much looking forward to the steam train ride, and the sparkler farewell around the lake.
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Linking to Country Kids and Flashback Friday
One of the things that I'd set on our Summer Bucket List was to visit Rhossili beach on the Gower Peninsula with The Boy. It's something that I'd wanted to do for a while with him, having visited it with extended family around seven years ago, but despite it being one of the top three beaches in Europe, I was put off by the steps down the cliff-face. They're perfectly safe, but it's a long way down and therefore a long way back up again for a toilet break!
However, when my sister-in-law suggested at the beginning of the Summer holidays that we go to Oxwich Bay for the day that seemed like the perfect compromise; it's not as far as Rhossili and there isn't a long walk down to the beach from the car park. In fact, the car park stops at the edge of the beach and there are fairly alright shower and toilet facilities within a hundred yard walk of the beach's edge.
I've never been to Oxwich Bay before and I think it has quickly become one of my favourite beaches, because it has everything there; sand, rockpools, wildlife, facilities, decent parking, and more importantly it is sufficiently off the beaten track to not be over-run by tourists.
My sister-in-law had recently undergone some 'Beach Schools' training and guided The Boy and Fiery Cousin around the rockpools, demonstrating how to find crabs and what the difference between a limpet and a barnacle is (guides can be found here). We also learnt the phrase 'Green Is Mean' courtesy of my brother, i.e. algae is slippery, as The Boy found out when he landed on his bottom in a rockpool!
We shared a picnic lunch sprawled out over the sands with the children playing around us. Normally I'm quite cautious at keeping The Boy within a twenty yard distance of us, at Oxwich Bay it is so vast that the next family could well be over 150 yards away and therefore it allows the children a little more freedom to 'free-range' play.
After we'd finished snacking, I showed the children how to create a shell-shaker which they then pranced around with, making music.
As the tide was reaching it's lowest point, my brother was desperate to go cockle-hunting (he's a chef) and so we all waded down to the shoreline to search for the much sought after cockle. We found plenty, but we also found jellyfish, crabs, sea anemones and sea urchins!
As The Boy was beginning to get cold and exhausted, the mums and children trekked back up the beach to our beach tent while the dad continued their search for cockles. My sister-in-law and I glanced down to the shoreline and beyond to the rapidly darkening sky.
This resulted in us quickly gathering our belongings into the tent along with the children. We had three seconds to spare before the quickest rainstorm I have ever come across deluged us! We thanked our lucky stars for the tent until we realised it was vented at the bottom where the children were and they were getting soaked. My sister-in-law raced them up the beach to the shelter, then came back for me and the tent. By which time the dads had returned, drenched to the skin. They were literally dripping! We carried everything back up to the shivering children in the car park and proceeded to assess the damage and dry various bits and bobs off, while standing and laughing hysterically at how wet we all were!
I was astounded at the lack of people who were at the beach that day, even before the rain came. It must surely be one of the best beaches on the south Wales coast with such wonderful ecosystems to explore!
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Linking this up to Flashback Friday and Country Kids
Much of the Gower Peninsula falls under the protection of the National Trust, it currently cares for 157 miles of Welsh coastline. The National Trust are running a competition until the end of October 2013 to find the best loved beach location in their care.
"Tell us why you love your favourite National Trust place and you could win a day’s kayaking and/or coasteering for you and 4 of your friends with our qualified instructors at the amazing Stackpole Quay, Pembrokeshire."
Entry is simple via the I ♥ Welsh Coast app on their Facebook page and takes only a few moments. The most original and inspiring comment will be chosen on the 31st of October and the lucky winner has a year to claim their prize.
I've now got us into the habit that we have to get out and about into 'nature' several times a week, or I begin to feel contained and imprisoned. It's so easy to settle into domesticity and confine yourself to the house, but I always feel better for getting out and exploring the wonderful world we live in.
Several weekends ago we spent the Saturday doing the 'chilling out' in the house thing, and then had to go to a new classmate's birthday party. By the time we came out of the party, I felt like climbing the nearest tree myself; I felt really trapped by all the bricks and windows etc! We headed over to Victoria Park in Cardiff to find conkers and wander amongst the trees, where we discovered the most plentiful conker tree I've ever seen at the top of which sat a squirrel systematically stripping the conkers from their shells, nibbling the casings off, and then throwing the discarded conkers down. Luckily The Boy still had his helmet on as quite a few were bouncing off our heads!
En route home, I texted my brother (not the one who's buggered off to Australia, the eldest one) and arranged to go to Cefn Onn the following day. My sister-in-law works in the great outdoors professionally, and their daughter (Fiery Cousin) is a 'wild child' just like The Boy so it's good to get together and let the children be 'feral', just as they should be, while we catch up.
As soon as we arrived at Cefn Onn (one of Cardiff's best kept secrets), The Boy and Fiery Cousin were off! Trees were no obstacle to them, and scooters were soon abandoned in favour of walking up the hillside through the stream. And yes, they both had canvas shoes on. And yes, we let them.
We'd been to Cefn Onn in the Spring when the rhododendrons were in full bloom, and I was desperate to come back and see the colours on the leaves. We were a little early this time, but we did explore up further than the lake this time, where we came across the part-built Summerhouse for the original owner's son. The whole park was originally created as a recuperation location for his son who was suffering from tuberculosis, unfortunately he died before the Summerhouse could be finished, it stands forlorn at the top of the park.
It's a wonderous area to explore, play hide and seek, and stop for a snack! I love how my niece is working the camera, The Boy is sporting his fake smile.
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I'm linking this up to Country Kids and Flashback Friday.
This post is also an entry for BritMums ‘Little Adventures Challenge’ in partnership with Barny, the bear-shaped snack providing a little discovery in every bite. Find out more about Barny here.
