Days 13-19 of Project 365

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13-19 of 365

13: 'Boardwalk' (We went to the local country parks to feed the ducks the copious amount of bread we ashamedly had not eaten over the past few days. It was a beautifully sunny day, we saw the squirrels and had fun jumping in muddy puddles.)

14: 'Akimbo' (Every night before I go to bed I check on The Boy and he's normally sleeping soundly. Occasionally he's untucked. This is the first time he's been in this position.)

15: 'On the farm' (Tuesdays are a busy day for us as I invariably try and fit loads in before having to return to work the next day. This Tuesday we made cakes, did craft, played jigsaws and board games, played with the Playmobil farm, and spent time playing with his cousins.)

16: 'Picnic' (I was exhausted today after a tiring day in work teaching year six, and The Boy was

n't much happier either. Time for a picnic tea on the sofa watching the television. I popped in to check on him – he was with daddy – and found him in this state. Never mind, he was happy!)

17: 'Blanket Tunnel' (He made a tunnel by placing a blanket over my legs which were resting on a chair. Then he crawled through the tunnel, stopped there for ten minutes and played on the iPad. Can't see how he was that comfortable – neither were my legs – but whatever makes him happy!)

18: 'Catch!' (Finally our longed-for snow arrived and we spent over three hours playing in the snow throughout the day. Mr. TBaM had to work unfortunately but my boss closed the school for health and safety reasons, which meant we could have great fun outside. Here he's throwing a snowball at me which landed square in the lens of my dSLR!) This is my photographic favourite of the week.

19: 'Family Fight!' (My 67 year old mother and 37 year old husband had a snowball fight in her back garden while The Boy looked on. This really made me laugh to see three generations having such fun. I put the camera away and joined in pretty quickly.) This is my personal favourite photo of the week

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Country Kids: Country Parks & Outdoor Play

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Country kids country parks

Last Sunday graced us with a beautiful blue sky and, what seemed as first, warming sunlight. It was enough to spur us on to go and feed the ducks and swans down in our local country park. We took our gargantuam bag of bread bits (I'd missed out on a bread and butter pudding by a day) and enjoyed feeding the mass of swans and their young.

feeding the ducks

The swans are so confident that they would have taken the bread out of our hands if we'd tried. As it was they were perfectly happy to snaffle them from the boardwalk.

boardwalk

The boardwalk meanders around to a lovely wooded area before exploring the other lakes. This was where we managed to explore other wildlife that was busy scavenging for food in the depths of Winter. We'll need to add nuts to the food list next time!

feeding the squirrels

After we'd defrosted in the car, we headed to Parc Play in the centre of Cardiff. It's difficult to explain the place, but it's an all-weather play centre; a warehouse with an fully covered section, a middle part which is open on one side and an out door sand pit. It was absolutely freezing there and I spent most of the time hiding under the heater-light-thingies. The Boy spent most of the hour there on the zipwire.

parc play

I'm desperately hoping for snow this weekend so that we can get out and join the rest of the country in failing to make a decent snowman!

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country kids

 

Learning for Life

Country Kids: New Year's Day On The Beach

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The weather has been foul for the best part of the past fortnight. It managed to not pour down on Christmas Day (which was kind of it), but by and large it's either been pouring down as if Armageddon was about to occur, or it's been devoid of all colour. I'm not sure which I dislike least; I think the incessant rain was preferable as at least then the wellies get used!

It was beginning to feel like we'd never see the sky with any form of vibrancy in it again, until we woke up on New Year's Day to a world of blue skies and brilliant sunshine! As Mr. TBaM said, "It's almost like the weather's trying to make a New Year's Resolution!"

We donned our wellies, coats, scarves, hats and gloves and headed down to Barry Island.

Along with every other person in south Wales!

I seriously cannot remember the last time I saw the island so chockablock with traffic; not even on the hottest day in the Summer was it that bad (and I'd know because I was there then as well!). However we persevered and did actually manage to park on double yellow lines find a parking space quite close to the beach!

The Boy and I set to building a sandcastle, only the little monkey soon demolished it repeatedly at which point we decided to dig a hole instead. It was to be of epic proportions!

new years day 1

We were quite a way up to the top of the beach but as you can see, after a while we hit the water table. Did this stop us? Nope, we kept on digging and in the end The Boy took his bucket down to the water's edge to increase our supply.

new years day 2

It was at this point that I went to get some chips for us. Again, I wasn't the only person with that idea: six chippies on Barry Island and three had run out of chips, with a thirty minute wait in all the others. In the end, thanks to 'Big Dave', we did get our supply and we sat in the car with rosey cheeks and drippy noses munching on big, fat, chips!

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coombe mill

Also linked up to No Such Thing As Bad Weather's Outdoor Play Party

Learning for Life

Country Kids: A Breath Of Fresh Air

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Having been stuck inside for the best part of a week, if not longer, I felt we were all going a little stir-crazy. With a break in the weather today (it has poured most of the morning), we headed out to blow the cobwebs away on one of the beaches in Barry.

Our normal choice is Barry Island but I knew The Boy would want to build sandcastles and we needed to keep moving! We ended up going around to the Cold Knap instead to feed the swans on the lake there, and then going for a walk across the sands at Watchtower Bay.

Wrapping his lordship up well in his bargain outdoor weather suit from Matalan (I'm not entirely convinced his ear infection has gone unfortunately) and bargain sheepskin lined wellies from Trago Mills, we headed off to the lake to feed the swans. At the outside edge of the lake I noticed there was a load of inch long tiny fish scattered all over the pathway. Either it had been raining fish (!) or the wind which was creating waves across the lake, had blown enough water over the side and caused them to be washed 'ashore'. Looked very odd and I felt a bit sorry for them!

Following this 'brisk' stroll we got blown along the path went to explore the bay surrounding the old harbour in Barry Island; Watchtower Bay. We've played on the sand in the harbour before but never walked across the bay from the other side before. The tide was really low this afternoon, and perfect for sploshing, paddling, finding paw prints and tracking the animals (dogs) and chasing the billowing sand.

The wind this afternoon certainly blew away the cobwebs in our minds, and every other corner of our bodies! The Boy was getting a little tired and cold, as were we, but not really ready to go home yet. Resigning ourselves to the inevitable crush on a slightly damp Sunday we headed to softplay where I buried my head in my intermittent 3G, while they carefully picked their way through the non-warfare sections of the centre.

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coombe mill

Country Kids: Goes Stately

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This past eleven days for me have been rotten with this food poisoning, and in the last day or so I've really dropped down into the doldrums, especially as it is so cold and grey. I hate being ill (who would honestly say that the like it?!) and I hate not being able to eat comfort food when I'm poorly. I am desperate for a coffee and a mars bar, next week perhaps.

However, Saturday was a beautiful Autumn day and after an incredibly lazy morning, we togged ourselves up into fleeces, scarves, gloves and a bobble hat for The Boy and nipped over to Dyffryn Gardens in the Vale of Glamorgan. Aside from the stunning stately home there, it has amazing Grade I listed gardens divided into secret 'rooms' with extravagant designs, bizarrely placed follies and temples, vegetable gardens and a greenhouse, and an amazing arboreteum.

Dyffryn Gardens is great fun to explore at different times of year, especially Spring and Autumn, but not too often at £7.00 a head! It also unfortunately doesn't allow children to take in scooters which is a huge shame. Apparently a few elderly people complained so everyone has to miss out.

Luckily, The Boy was more than happy to go exploring and we let him lead the way through into new and ever more exciting secret gardens.

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coombe mill

Country Kids: In The Country Park

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Near us we have a country park that started life as a quarry. During the 1980s it was flooded and turned into a country park and lakes, and is a popular place to visit on a weekend for a stroll around the main lake, a play in the park and a trek through the wooded area.

The recent rainfall meant that the lake was at least a foot higher than it should have been, the surrounding boardwalk was flooded. However, we took some stale bread and fed the ducks while shoo-ing away gulls with the umbrella (like Sean Connery in Indiana Jones). We took The Boy's bike for him to practise, although daddy had forgotten to raise his seat so he struggled a little. That mixed in with ruts in the path meant that he toppled over a few times, even with stabilisers on, but he got back on and continued pedalling away: good lad!

Today brought a new first; showing The Boy how to climb a tree! (As Coombe Mill has pointed out, it was one of the things to do before 11 and ¾!)

I must confess though that I am properly chilled to the bone now, time for me to invest in some thicker trousers (or even long johns?!) for our outdoor play, I think.

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coombe mill

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