Good Natured Salad (Review)

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Just the sheer name conjures up nice food doesn't it? Food that behaves itself and doesn't cause issues?

Well it does for me, and when I was sent a voucher to buy some recently, I was more than happy to try them out as I'd already tried the Winter root vegetables previously.

This weather is perfect for salad, strawberries and cream, and Pimm's, which is why I selected the above salad vegetables and fruit. The tomatoes and cucumber are also a perfect accompaniment when diced and mixed with cubed feta cheese.

The best thing about Good Natured is that they use only natural predators to control pests and diseases, which means that the range has been grown completely pesticide residue free. The salad range included Tantalising Tomatoes, Cool Cucumbers, Perfect Peppers and Awesome Aubergines and are available in selected Asda stores nationwide.

I was sent a voucher to purchase these items. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Elderflower Season With bottlegreen

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When I was pregnant with The Boy, one of the few things that kept me going through the five months of nonstop nausea was fizzy, sweet drinks. Obviously I didn't want my teeth to fall out so seriously limited my intake of cola drinks and the healthier, gentler drink which really helped to settle my stomach was elderflower spritzer. bottlegreen was my brand of choice because the taste was far superior to many imitators out there, and three years later it's still one of my favourite drinks.

This Summer, bottlegreen have launched a limited edition design on their elderflower cordial and pressé bottles. The frosted white and green print it eye catching and very attractive, it certain makes it more attractive to put on the dinner table for Summer lunches, especially if we're (ever able to) sit outside on the weekend with friends and family. Light and refreshing, the pressé is my favourite (non-alcoholic) Summer drink.

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bottlegreen limited edition elderflower is available from all major supermarkets. The pressé is £2.39 and the cordial from £3.15.

I was sent a bottle of each for the purpose of this post.

LolliBop 2012

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Last August the bloggosphere was filled with talk of the LolliBop Festival in London. At the time I was still quite new to the blogging world and was unaware of the wonders of the fantastic children's festival. However this year it's returning to Regent's Park with another fantastic line up and we will most definitely be there!

Completely created as 'The Big Bash for Little People', LolliBop takes place on the weekend of Friday 17th August until Sunday 19th, and while its main audience is intended to be children up to the age of 10, I suspect big kids of all ages will enjoy it with a plethora of wonderful activities.


I'm a little overawed at the huge range of acts, stageshows and activities taking place during those three days, it really will provide something for every child, no matter what the age.

Personally, we're looking forward to:

  • seeing The ZingZillas perform on the LolliBop Live stage;
  • the story of The Gruffalo in the Lollipaladium;
  • getting crafty with Mister Maker;
  • yoga sessions with Waybuloo;
  • an Alice In Wonderland tea party;
  • meeting ‘Tiny’ the 125 million years young dinosaur;
  • cooking with My Daddy Cooks in the LolliBop Kitchen;
  • the Halfords Bike City (which will include a Wacky Races obstacle course for under 5’s);
  • the Mr Men & Little Miss Party Roadshow;
  • LolliBop Animal Curiosities, which features animals including a polar bear, a dinosaur and gorillas (!);
  • the Disco Shed which will have mini boppers dancing the day away;
  • finding out what's in The Enchanted Forest;
  • the Village Green as the perfect spot to chill out and enjoy some street theatre.

Rest assured though, there are plenty of other activities for younger children with the the '3ft & Under' area (with a mini disco, tiny play, little arts, baby ballet, yoga, teddy bears picnic and sing and sign), and oodles for older children; Dick and Dom, a Moshi Monsters Mash Up Tournament (where children are challenged to put their Mash Up skills to the test with free Mash Up cards), the life-size Transformers Optimus Prime Truck, workshops by Horrible Histories and the Roald Dahl Museum, performances by 8ft Titan the Robot, the Tween Town area (with street dance, hula-hooping, magic and beat-boxing workshops, plus an older arts and crafts tent and a brand new laser room), a BMX stunt display and demo area, and the Science Museum are preparing for a triumphant return to Regent’s Park with an expanded area and dedicated Science Zone.

Reassuringly this is one festival which is completely geared towards the family ethos with two 'boob and botty boudoirs' and covered buggy parks and lollishade areas. There will also be a good selection of food and drink options available.

I'm really looking forward to experiencing the fun and games at LolliBop and as all activities inside the event are free, then I think that the £22 a person ticket is excellent value for money.

LolliBop takes place in Regent’s Park, London on August 17-19. Tickets are priced at £22 per person (adults and children pay the same price) but babies under 12 months old are free. 

Country Kids: Sports Day

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Today started with the rain pelting against the bedroom window. Marvellous! After such a lovely day yesterday we were going to have to put up with rain spoiling our plans to work in the garden. I may as well just give up trying to sort out any weeds or plants, as it will be October before it's dry enough to make it look vaguely attractive.

After a leisurely morning pottering around the house, we headed out to one of The Boy's favourite places; the local softplay centre. Never again! The less said about that, the better.

When we emerged from the dingy, smelly pit, it was brilliant sunshine and glorious blue skies, so we headed to a beautiful park in a nearby town that I haven't been to for twenty years. While there, The Boy was able to practise his bike riding a little more. Considering it's only his fourth time riding it, he really picked up speed very quickly and scared the hell out of me in the process. I was so impressed with him for pedalling and steering so efficiently, he only had one tumble and that was because of a small pothole.

After he'd had enough of pedalling (and my stress levels couldn't take anymore), he decided to have a race with daddy, competing in the 100 metres with a good time of 37 seconds. Clearly going to be a cross country runner like his daddy.

A potentially boring day was saved by the Summer sun, it makes you realise how much better you can feel with the sun caressing your skin and bird song in the air.

God only knows what's happened to the sound on this video, apologies.

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The Gallery: Sunshine

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With the sunshine bursting all over the nation, Tara has decreed the theme this week to be just that:

Sunshine!

Watch it rain when she opens the linky!

However, for the moment I am going to use an image that I took on the weekend when we went to London. We've never taken The Boy there before and haven't been ourselves for about eight years, so this was a big thing for us. Originally invited to a press event in the O2, we decided to turn it into a family day out and stayed overnight in a hotel in Slough. We got up early on the Saturday morning (we even had to wake our son, an unheard of event) and caught the train into 'the big smoke'. He adored it and found the underground fascinating.

After we'd finished in the O2, he asked if we were going to London again? I suppose the size of a place is quite a difficult thing for a two year old to understand and so we explained that we were in London. That's when he declared that London was where the London Eye was and Justin had been on that. We'd already discussed the possibility of taking him on it, but weren't sure if he'd 'get it'. After that little proclamation from him, we trekked off to the embankment and found ourselves queueing for an hour in the blazing early afternoon sunshine.

We queued for nearly an hour and he didn't complain once, why would you when you have this to enjoy?

Oh, and yes, he adored the whole experience. My 366 photo from Saturday shows that.

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12 From '11

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This past year has been a whirl-wind of fun and chaos and all thanks to eleven little letters contained in four words:

The Boy and Me

Not only is this site a place with photos and reviews and competitions, but it's also our lives: the lives of my son, my husband and me. It's been a year of change and adjustment, fun and games, tears and therapy. There are people who read my blog, who comment and have become friends in real life, which is something that I would never have imagined when I penned my first tentative post. Thank you to everyone who reads about my little corner of the world, I really appreciate every single read and comment.

Here's my 2011!

January

The start of the year saw me pondering the loss of the technology in our home.

February

I confessed one of my deepest darkest secrets to anyone who wanted to read it. Oh the shame, my cheeks are still burning!

March

We decided that the cold was for wimps and got busy with a few meters of plastic tubing and a watering can.

April

An egg-citing trail around the garden lead to much consumption of cocoa.

May

Finally, 17 years after completing my GCSEs, I gained an 'ology!

June

The Boy celebrated his 2nd birthday.

July

With the sun beating down on us on one of the hottest weekends of the Summer, we decided to spend it going to a chocolate factory, meeting other bloggers and going on safari!

August

Toilet humour was the order of the day as one of the most stressful and confining experiences of my life began!

September

We discovered the wonders of wellies.

October

With random heatwaves and bouts of frostiness, we met a CBeebies hero.

November

My baby became a little boy as testosterone kicked in, in an astounding and upsetting way.

December

The celebrations for Christmas started with a big weekend party.

What one event would you pick to sum up your 2011?

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