Oxwich Bay Explorations: #37 Check Out The Crazy Creatures In A Rockpool

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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!

Oxwich Bay

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.

Beach Shell Shaker

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!

Oxwich Bay

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.

Oxwich Bay

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.

Days 258 – 264 of Project 365

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258-264 of 365

258. Water (The Boy has only just started being able to cope with water on his face in the bath or shower, today he asked if he could lay back in it and found it hilarious. I just hope this isn't the start of his constant ear infections and glue ear in Winter!)

259. Pennies (The Boy asked if he could count money when he came in from school, so we got down the large Whisky jar and he sorted 1p, 2p and 5p coins into piles before counting the pennies into piles of ten.)

260. Mirror (I set up an invitation to play for The Boy when he came home from school, which he found really therapeutic. The mirror on the table gave a wonderful light for playing in, really illuminating his face. He only once noticed himself in it, and the delight on his face was brilliant.)

261. Sparko (It's Wednesday. That means a sleeping Boy photo. I can never have enough of these so it's ok by me!)

262. Splash (An after-school trip to the local nature reserve to feed the swans, and splash in puddles in new wellies. Only the wellies were too big and then soon fell off when The Boy tried kicking water from the puddle!)

263. A Drop In The Ocean (Rather than go to the MADs in London, I chose to stay at home with my family, for various reasons. I didn't want to sit at home and while away the evening on twitter, so we went for a chippy dinner down the beach before nan babysat The Boy, and I went out to the cinema with my husband. This photo of my thoughtful little boy was taken on the steps down to the beach with the rapidly rising tide approaching. The awards are just one night and a minor moment, when compared with the rest of our lives and The Boy's happiness.)

264. Bare (I've felt groggy all day, like the morning after but without the night before. I didn't sleep well because I was beating myself having not won the MADs again, which I now realise is completely ridiculous; it's just a lump of glass! However, after hanging around all morning for a new class-mate's birthday party, we then went to practise bike-riding in the park. As we cycled around, we found an enormous horse chestnut tree ladened with conkers, which were dropping from it rapidly. When I say the conkers were dropping, I don't mean the cases with conkers in; I actually mean the conkers. There was a squirrel sat at the top, having a feast in the canopy as he ripped open the cases and threw them down, stripped the conkers and dropped the remnants too. Luckily The Boy still had his cycle helmet on as he had a few drop on his head!)

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TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky

50 Things Challenge: #18 – Create Wild Art

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Playing outdoors over the Spring and Summer months is easy and enjoyable for all; it's normally dry, warm at least, and the world is full of greenery to fill the heart and soul. I know that during the Summer holidays we've spent more waking time outdoors than we have in, and have almost forgotten what the television is.

I started in February or March of this year vowing to play outside with The Boy for at least fifteen minutes every day, and we've managed it every day since. So much so that it's now part of our routine and we both feel like we're going stir-crazy if we stay in for too long.

However, with school starting and Autumn (and the other season which shall remain unnamed at present) approaching, play tendencies change; the temperature drops slightly, another layer of clothing is needed, wellies not sandals are the footwear of choice, and sometimes time just doesn't allow for a huge amount of outdoor play. Regardless of all of these factors, our need to reconnect with nature doesn't diminish and it's a well-documented fact that time spent in the great outdoors can have massive benefits for all involved; specifically our children.

So MumOnTheBrink and I had an idea in the Natural Childhood Facebook group to set a challenge to help people continue the National Trust's 50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾ project during the forthcoming, less-inspiring months.

Each month we will identify one of the 50 Things as a project, and open up a blog-hop for the month to encourage other bloggers to get outdoors and complete their lists.

50 Things Challenge - Create Wild Art

September is #18: Create Wild Art

You could decorate picture frame, make a forest face from mud or air-dry clay, create a beachcombing treasure tile, or a whip up a woodland weaving. There are oodles of other ideas out there too, check Pinterest for some great ideas.

Please enter your wild art activities completed during the month of September into the blog-hop below, Monika and I would love it if you'd copy the code into your post as well as it will spread the word about the 50 Things challenge.

Now pop outside and have fun!



Don't forget to link these up to Coombe Mill's Country Kids weekly; Fiona is the main reason that I continued last Winter to play outdoors before we started working with the National Trust.

Days 244-250 of Project 365

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244-250 of 365

244. Eruption (Following our science exploration activity the previous week, The Boy perfectly replicated how to make a volcano independently. We're now out of vinegar as he did it quite a few times. The blue lava wasn't quite as effective!)

245. Flinger (After I finished my first day back at work, I took The Boy down to one of the local beaches for some plopping good fun, our last bit of freedom before school started the next day.)

246. First Day (I know I've used this elsewhere, but what else could I have for today; his first day of school.)

247. Rainbow House (He came home with this painting that he'd done the previous day in school after listening to the story of Winnie the Witch who painted her house different colours.)

248. Xylophone (Another painting, I suspect there may be a few of these. I was incredibly impressed when he told me it was a xylophone; he's even got the keys different lengths and the pegs to hold them on!)

249. Swing (An exhausted little boy after his first week in school, he could barely manage to swing himself. Two minutes later, just as I'd taken my camera in out the way, he fell off backwards and nearly winded himself. Cuddles and Peppa Pig soon solved the problem though.)

250. Mix (Whipping up a birthday cake for Grandad who came over for a birthday tea. )

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TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky

A Day On The Beach

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Over the course of the Summer, we've been to many different places in a bid to have a 'great family day out' and they've all been pretty damn near perfect. We've garnered many memories and had a lot of laughs along the way, but the one place which is always guaranteed to make us feel at ease as a family is the beach. And while we've been to quite a few spectacular beaches during the past two months, it's the one that is on our doorstep that always brings out the child in all three of us.

Barry Island.

barry island

For most it's synonymous with Gavin & Stacey, or Butlin's holidays in the 1970s, but the holiday camp days are long gone, and most of the programme wasn't even filmed in the locality. Barry Island is so much more. A blue flag beach with golden sands and clear water, protected from strong winds by the rocky peninsulas at either end of the Whitmore Bay, the sounds of the funfair fade once on the beach and the sandcastle building begins.

A fortnight ago we decided to pack up for the afternoon and head down to sate The Boy's incessant pleas to visit the Island. It was August Bank Holiday Sunday, and it was sunny. I expected to have difficulty finding a car parking spot, let alone a spot on the beach. However, it may as well have been a weekday in December, it was so vacant.

And we did all the things that you should do at the beach; built the most enormous sandcastle fortress, buried each other in the sand, ate chips, splashed in the sea, kicked sandballs, flew a kite, and then washed our bits off in the sea afterwards (that might have just been The Boy though).

A day on the beach

Gavin and who?

barry island 1

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country kids

The Woodland Trust & Yeo Valley

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Yeo Valley

Ever since the first time I visited the Yeo Valley farm overlooking Blagdon Lake last Summer, I have had a fondness for the dairy company which has seen my shopping tendencies change. Gone are the Onken yoghurts, gone is the cheap milk for £1 and blocks of butter produced by a company which doesn't pay British dairy farmers a fair price. In has come Yeo Valley. It's not only a company which I'm proud to associate my blog with, but a range of products which I'd rather have in my fridge and our tummies. And ultimately, on my conscience.

As an ethical company, Yeo Valley have teamed up with The Woodland Trust to plant 10,000 trees and help preserve Britain’s wonderful woodland. On the underside lid of the special packs of Yeo Valley (marked with the Woodland Trust campaign) is a code which when entered onto the Yeo Valley & Woodland Trust page could result in one of 10,000 trees being won, either to plant in your own garden or donated to The Woodland Trust.

However, their partnership goes much further than that, and that's why a bunch of parent bloggers (including us) were invited to a Woodland Trust day at the Yeo Valley headquarters to meet with the people behind the campaign, and introduce our children to learning about their world via forest exploration and play.

We were welcomed to the Mendips by the larger than life Les, the head ranger at Yeo Valley, who explained to the children all about the different rocks that make up the strata of the hills. Introduced to the forested area by the Woodland Trust, we were invited to complete a leaf trail and a bug hunt which the children were completely engaged in. I was very surprised just how interested The Boy was in the different leaves around, and we quickly identified about ten different trees and bushes in a very small section of wood. Enlisting the help of the kind lady behind the Nature Detectives (the children's Woodland Trust club), he was able to find several different minibeasts as well.

Woodland Trust

After a luscious lunch prepared by the chefs at the Yeo Valley kitchen, we were revived enough to create dens for woodland creatures (or tiny aliens as Les told the children), and then produce a truly wonderful wizard's wand using detritus from the forest floor.

The wonderful sheets we used are available to download for free from the Nature Detectives website here. They are great generic sheets, and I would really recommend downloading them and using them during the forthcoming Autumn months.

The Woodland Trust have a club for young explorers called the Nature Detectives Club, which has a wealth of resources and challenges available for children. Membership is as little as £12 for one child for a year, as little as 25p a week.

Woodland Trust & Yeo Valley

We received a goody bag of Yeo Valley yoghurts to try out, marked with The Woodland trust campaign (and we've entered in our codes and donated trees) and a selection of the wonderful wildlife identification swatch books available to buy from The Woodland Trust directly. The Boy finds these fascinating, in particular the leaf book; it was his bedtime reading for a week after our trip to the farm!

We were invited as guests to the Yeo Valley farm to help promote their campaign with The Woodland Trust, and received the above items free of charge.

Creating Wild Art: Forest Faces

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'Wild Art' is quite simply creating art or craft from the materials found in a natural environment. Making forest faces is one of the simplest and most enjoyable activities that can be done in a woodland setting. In fact, we've done this activity twice in the past week because we enjoyed it so much.

For older children, this project could be preceeded by examining the history of the 'green man' and the different variations available.

I've cheated with this slightly as I'd bought air-dry natural clay to use, however if the soil or mud is wet and clay-based then that would be the ideal base. The issue is in my area that we have a lot of limestone in the earth, so air-dry natural clay (from Hobbycraft for a few pounds) was a far more reliable option!

You'll need:

  • clay-heavy mud or air-dry natural clay (make it as unobtrusive to the environment as possible),
  • leaves,
  • moss,
  • small sticks,
  • stones,
  • acorns,
  • an easily accessible tree or rocks.
  1. I'd pre-sliced the clay into the right amount for each person, and had put it into a sandwich bag in order to make it easier to handle and stop it from beginning to dry out. Once in the right place, we removed the clay from the airtight bag and pressed it down onto the tree trunk, smoothing the edges down onto the bark.
  2. Next we gathered a selection of leaves and moss for the hair or crown of the forest face, and pressed this into the top of the head. The eyes and nose were acorns, the mouth a bent stick.
  3. This is not a project that can be removed and taken home, the faces stay on the tree so take plenty of photos for the little ones to enjoy and remember. Hopefully the faces will stay for a long time for other people to enjoy, but there is the chance they may dry out and fall off, or wash off in the rain.

Creating Wild Art: Forest Faces

#18 on the 50Things To Do Before You're 11&¾ list: Create some wild art.

country kids



Have A Wild Time This Summer With The National Trust (Summer Activities)

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The Summer holidays are one of the best times of the year for getting the children up off the sofa, jumping into the great outdoors and having heaps of fun discovering new places.

To keep the children entertained throughout, the National Trust is encouraging children to complete its '50 things to do before you're 11 & ¾' wild-time challenge and see if they can try and tick off more than 25 things on the list during the six weeks of summer (Monday 22 July – Sunday 1 September).

[Read more…]

#47 Cook On A (Camp) Fire

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The sun blazed down, faces were painted at the Summer Fayre, a cooling breeze blew across our skins as we scooted across the barrage, and wispy clouds floated across the azure sky.

That was our Saturday afternoon, and the reason that we decided to attempt a barbecue last night. Off we trotted and stocked up on firelighters, strawberries (for the Pimm's), finger rolls, potato salad and peppers (for the kebabs). How was I to know that this would be the signal for the clouds to gather and threaten our idyllic day?

Nonetheless, we huddled on the patio and enjoyed our bizarre mismatch of cuisine, before having a go at toasting marshmallows on the smouldering (camp)fire.

cook on a camp fire

The Boy's face at the excess charcoal says it all, still tasted great though!

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coombe mill Learning for Life

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'Cooking on a Camp Fire' is #47 on the National Trust's list of 50 Things To Do Before You're 11&¾



A Change Is Coming

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When did my little boy become old enough to start school?

Because it appears that in September, he will be doing just that.

And I'm not ready.

I'd like to pretend that he's not ready but that would be a lie. He is ready. He's ready to have the further stimulation which a trained Reception teacher can offer (I'm juniors trained). He's ready to mix with other children more regularly and make friends. He's ready to learn more formally (not that much more though, thank you Foundation Phase). He's ready to learn the discipline which can only be gained in a classroom.

He's ready.

Don't get me wrong though, he's still very emotionally young and I do think he will struggle with the full days and being away from us for so many hours. However, as the school only has one opportunity in the year for entry, we have little choice but for him to start in September or wait a year.

This is why we accompanied him into his new school a week ago for his induction into Reception. It's the only time that he's been there, and will be the only opportunity before he starts full-time education for the next fourteen years (just writing that is making me cry, he's so little still!). I do have a problem with the lack of link-building, but again can do nothing about it.

We walked down the road, around the corner and into the school. We were greeted, given name stickers (mine said 'Mum', I felt like scribbling 'my' on the end of it), and shown to the Reception class. This is where I discovered that it is a lot larger than the one block that I knew of from when I had a nursery-nursing placement there; in fact they had another building at the back of this with a covered courtyard in between. They had a gardening area, bikes and trikes to ride along the painted road layout on the ground, a small timber trail, climbing frames and a fenced off area. There was so much to explore.

Reception induction

The Boy was completely enthralled with it all, "Mummy! They have glitter and glue! Shall we do some craft? Oh look mummy there's Shopping List! Mummy shall we play some music?" I have no doubt that he will enjoy playing with the other thirty six children, cared for by the two teachers and two LSAs; all seemed caring and 'on the ball'.

We walked home afterwards holding hands with The Boy, him chatting about the activities and his uniform, declaring that he no longer wishes to go to nursery. I exchanged a look with my husband over our son's head, a look that said 'where has our baby gone?'. A look that shared nostalgia for the precious last four years of discovery where we have governed his routine, his learning, his play. A look that realised the days of freedom and nonconformity to a timetable were coming to an end.

A look that demanded one course of action…

Barry Island - Country Kids

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coombe mill

 

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