Fathers Day at Ightham Mote

Yesterday we went to Ightham Mote, a 14th Century moated manor house in Kent owned by the National Trust. They were running a special event for Fathers Day that included fishing in the moat, a classic car display and games on the lawn.

We went for Fathers Day last year and had a really wonderful time. It was a beautiful sunny day, we caught several fish in the moat and Jasmine developed a love of maggots! The weather didn’t look promising for this year but we were keen to go again, remembering how good it was last time.

So we packed our picnic and raincoats and set off, talking about the fish we were going to catch and the kids memories of last year.

We arrived just before lunch and decided to have a go at  fishing first. As we were waiting for a rod to become free we didn’t see many people catching fish. I think this should have told us something!

We fished for around 45 minutes and we caught one fish! Just one! It was caught during Ben’s turn at holding the rod and so he was very proud of  himself!Thomas and Jasmine were desperate to catch a fish too but they just weren’t biting. We were all getting hungry and a little fed up so we decided to give up and go for our picnic, with the promise that we’d try again a little later.

By this time it has also started raining, so we headed for the Discovery Den to eat. The Discovery Den is set at the back of the pleasure gardens so once everything was eaten the kids explored the grounds for a while, trip-trapping over the trolls bridge, jumping across the stream and peering into the water.We had promised the kids a treat from the shop for their pudding so this was where we headed next. This was probably the biggest mistake of the day and set the tone for the rest of the afternoon. The kids spotted the toys and bits in the shop so I said they could go and have a look. I thought I might let them buy something small and inexpensive but Thomas saw a Bug Spotter pack for around £10. I explained that he couldn’t have it because it was too much money but asked if he would like a smaller, less expensive bug catcher on a lower shelf instead. He refused and threw/deliberately dropped the bug catcher to the ground.

I’m afraid I got rather cross at that and told him he had to leave the shop as we wouldn’t be buying anything. Gordon bought some chocolates, but even novelty chocolates didn’t improve the mood after that as all the kids wanted was to go back in the shop to get toys.

Still with moaning kids, we tried some games on the lawn to see if that would improve the mood and it did a little, but Thomas was now wound up so nothing was going to be easy. Jasmine and I played a couple of games of noughts and crosses and all 3 kids tried skipping with skipping ropes, which was quite funny!And then we went back to have another go at fishing. We thought about going to look round the house but, because the kids were getting tired and were still moaning about getting no toys, we decided that an outdoor activity would be better and surely we’d catch another fish and cheer them all up. Sadly, we were wrong and after only ten or fifteen minutes of fishing we’d caught nothing and the boys especially were getting silly. It was obvious the best thing to do would be to go home.

Of course, the boys didn’t agree and screamed the whole way to the car and for a good few minutes once we’d reached the car. It wasn’t a particularly good end to the day but Ben fell asleep about half way home and Thomas was very quiet for the whole journey so it was obviously the right decision to leave when we did.

All in all we did have a good day and, assuming the event is running again next year we’ll go back. Ightham Mote is a really lovely place with a lot more to do than we managed yesterday. If nothing else we need to go back to take another Fathers Day photograph of Gordon and the kids under the giant rhubarb!

 

Project 365 – A Photo a Day in 2013

Project 365 for 10th – 16th June

10th June 2013

11th June 2013

12th June 2013

13th June 2013

14th June 2013

15th June 2013

16th June 2013

A Windy Walk on Headley Heath

We woke early this morning (thank you to Thomas and Jasmine) but this did have its benefits. We got a bird feeding station from the garden centre on Wednesday and put it out in the garden on Thursday morning. There has gradually been an increase in the number of birds as they are slowly finding all the food we have put out for them, and this morning as I looked out of the window I saw a woodpecker, first in the apple tree and then on the peanut feeder! It was a wonderful sight and I was very excited! All the kids crowded into our bedroom to watch it.

Shortly after, as we were eating breakfast, we saw a jay as well! So since having the feeder out we have seen lots of blue tits, magpies, wood pigeons, a pair of collared doves, blackbirds, a jay, a robin and a woodpecker! I also saw another small bird this morning but didn’t get a very good look. I think it was a dunnock or a sparrow but I’m not sure so hopefully he’ll be back.This afternoon it rained. There isn’t much to do in our back garden in the rain but we all wanted to get outside, so we went for a walk on Headley Heath.

Actually, for most of the afternoon (after we’d left the house of course) the rain held off, but it was incredibly windy.

We took a new route around Headley Heath today. As we entered through the gate, one of the first things we saw was what we *think* was a badger sett. It was definitely an animal hole and we couldn’t see any evidence of rabbits nearby. There was also a large area of cleared soil, which is what made me think of badgers.

A short walk into the woodland and we found another hole. This time we did see evidence of rabbits so we think this was a rabbit hole. As we continued our walk the kids did the usual climbing trees, balancing on fallen logs and bug catching. We took a net with us to sweep the ferns, but we didn’t find much today, even in the undergrowth and under logs. We did see a millipede, a lacewing and what we think was a soldier beetle.Today was mostly just about getting out and walking. It was so windy there wasn’t much to see; even the birds were hiding away! But we still managed to fill almost two hours and have a really wonderful time.

 

We saw Rabbits in Richmond Park

While Thomas and Jasmine were at Forest School this afternoon Ben and I went for a walk around Richmond Park. My mum was with us today too, as she has been staying with us for a few days. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and we took a different route to our usual one, walking further down the hill from Pembroke Lodge towards Richmond Golf Club. On the way we saw lots of Jackdaws and we think we heard a Woodpecker but despite looking in several trees for at least 20 minutes we couldn’t see it!

The best find of the day however, came just as we were thinking of turning round to walk back up the hill. About 40m in front of us I spotted something move. I have seen the odd rabbit in the park before so thinking we might be lucky I looked in the binoculars and it was a little rabbit. As we looked we saw more and more rabbits appearing!

We walked closer and found a huge rabbit warren with several large holes in the ground, under an old Oak tree. Hopping around were eight or nine very cute little rabbits! We sat and watched the rabbits for a while but had to go back to the car because it was time to collect Thomas and Jasmine. Now I know where the warren is though, we’ll definitely all be back to watch the rabbits again. There is something really lovely about watching wild rabbits hop round so close!

 

A moment to remember

Today Jasmine made her Rainbow Guide Promise and was enrolled at her Rainbow Unit.

A proud moment for both her and me!

 

A Plan for 2013 Revisited

On 4th January this year I wrote this post. I listed places I wanted to visit this year, things I wanted us to do.

Somehow, it is now 11th June and we are heading at full speed to the half way point of the year. I want to take a moment to revisit my list and see what we have done and what we still need to do. I want to decide which places I definitely still want to visit and which, if any, can be crossed off or bumped to a “maybe” list.

Here is my list, with the places we have visited marked off.

• Natural History Museum
• Science Museum
• Sea Life Centre
• London Zoo
• Whipsnade Zoo
• Dali Exhibition (Southbank)
• London Cable Cars
• Grant Museum of Zoology
• Horniman Museum
• Goodwood Revival or Festival of Speed
• Covent Garden
• RHS Garden Wisley
• Royal Observatory Greenwich

We haven’t done terribly well have we!

Actually we have. I just seem to have ignored my original list! We have visited our “usual” places (Richmond Park, Morden Hall Park, Box Hill) very frequently, we have been to a couple of other National Trust properties (Claremont, Polesdon Lacey) and we have visited several other places including Chatsworth, Rare Breeds Centre, British Wildlife Centre, RAF Museum and Magna.

It seems I just need to stop ignoring my list and plan.

So, which of the original places can be “bumped” or removed? As much as I hate to do it, Goodwood will have to be removed. The Festival of Speed is being held on a weekend that Gordon is working a night shift and the Revival is on whilst we are on holiday, so we can’t attend either of these.

Other than that I don’t want to change the list at all. I still want to make an effort to visit all these places, but maybe I should amend it to have the “must visit” places at the top and the “if we have the time/money” places lower down.

Top of my list will still be the Natural History Museum. I really, really want to take the kids and I know they will absolutely love it. The kids also want to go to the Science Museum again. I need to pencil in dates on the calender to do these trips because these really are “must visit” places.

Next would be one of the zoo trips, either London or Whipsnade. This will be totally cost dependent though. Do they do a Home Educators discount?

Covent Garden and the Dali Exhibition can be done on a day trip into London any time. Again, I should just pencil a date on the calender shouldn’t I!

That leaves the Horniman Museum, London Cable Cars, Royal Observatory Greenwich and Grant Museum of Zoology, which I guess are the “if we have time/money” trips.

As with my post in January I am writing all this down in the hope that I will do something about it. In fact, tomorrow I am going to have a look at the calender and pencil in two or three dates for the “must visit” places.

I know we have done a lot so far this year and we have enjoyed all the places we have been to. However, I don’t want to look at this list again in another 5 months and realise that, despite going to lots of different places, we still haven’t managed most of it!

 

 

Planting Weeds, Catching Flies and Building Ramps

We started today with a little bit of painting. Can you guess what we were painting? More on that in a few days!

After a few coats of white paint had been applied we went out into the garden for the rest of the day.

Gordon wanted to finish the rabbit run today. It is very nearly finished with just one half of the roof still to do. We have been putting the rabbits in it and covering the half with no roof with a towel. Random, but it works!

Now the rabbits can get into the run we are trying to get them used to being handled again. We were told that they were friendly and used to being stroked, but they hadn’t been handled much over the winter, but we have found them very nervous. Gordon has been in the run a couple of times, just sitting and letting the rabbits come to him when they felt comfortable and today we let Jasmine go in as well.

We have agreed that until they are happy to be stroked we are only going to let Jasmine go in with them. The boys are too excitable and I know they would scare the rabbits if we let them go in, which in turn may lead to the rabbits scratching or even biting. Jasmine is very calm and happy to sit and watch. It paid off today and she got to stroke both Star and Chocolate! She was over the moon!I know this is a little unfair on the boys so we do make sure they get to stroke one of the rabbits occasionally whilst Gordon is moving them from the run to the hutch.

Once the rabbit encounter was finished I started some weeding in the veg border and Thomas came over to help me. Very soon I had both boys and they were happily pulling up weeds, and doing a really good job too! Eventually though they wanted to plant something. I suggested they could plant some of the weeds in their mud patch but they didn’t want to do this, they wanted pots to plant in. So we got them a couple of pots and all 3 kids chose a weed to plant!

I was also pulling up Nasturtiums that have grown from last years seeds and moving them to the wall baskets and the other border. As there were several plants that needed moving Jasmine and Ben got one of these each as well. Thomas chose not to have a Nasturtium because he “only wants weeds”!

The kids all filled their own plant pots with compost and planted their chosen plants. They watered them and placed them in the sun to grow.While I carried on weeding the kids all moved off to play.

Jasmine went over to the mud kitchen and busied herself catching flies in jam jars as usual! She has also made herself a little garden in a seed tray and any worm, centipede, ant or such like that she catches gets moved in here! Most of her bugs don’t stay for long but I think some of the worms stay and today she also found two spiders had moved in!The boys got out some old draining pipes and cars and made ramps for the cars to speed down. The draining pipe was also used as a seesaw and a balance beam, but mostly it was used for cars!And that was our day today. Making the most of the garden while the dry weather remains.

Project 365 – A Photo a Day in 2013

Project 365 for 3rd – 9th June

3rd June 2013

4th June 2013

5th June 2013

6th June 2013

7th June 2013

8th June 2013

9th June 2013

Enjoying the Sunshine

I can’t say this too loudly for fear of tempting fate  but (whispering) we’ve had several days of sunshine now and it has been lovely. We’ve been spending almost all day outdoors, either in the garden or elsewhere.

Today we went to a friends house and spent the afternoon in their garden. Different garden, different toys, lovely friends. It kept the kids occupied and happy all afternoon!

 

Its a Bugs Life

It has been 7 weeks since I posted about our Bug Zoo so I thought it was about time I did an update.

Woodlice

The woodlice are thriving in their home. We started with around 10 but added several more over the following few days so I don’t know exactly how many we had initially. We’ve got several different types – there are around 35 different species of woodlouse native to the UK! We have large reddish-brown ones, pill bugs (the ones that roll up into a ball), and both large and small grey ones.

Last week I noticed one of the smaller grey ones had eggs so I’ve been watching for the tiny babies and I saw them for the first time yesterday!Silkworms

The silkworm rearing kit arrived on the 27th April. We got around 15 eggs and were instructed to place them in a plastic tub and wait for them to hatch. They took around 2 weeks but we ended up with 6 silkworms from the eggs. The rest simply didn’t hatch (or hatched but didn’t make it – to be honest I’m not sure!)

They were so tiny when they first hatched you could hardly see them! They seemed to grow very slowly at first but I think this could have been temperature related because now the weather has improved and we’re getting sunshine quite regularly they are growing much quicker! 4 weeks in and they are now around 2cm long. We also only have 4 out of the 6 left, having lost 2 within the first 10 days.Butterflies

The crysalyses that we found turned out to be Speckled Wood Butterflies. They all emerged and were releasedThe worms and beetle we also had in the Big Zoo to start with have been released back into the garden.

Every day now Jasmine goes outside and collects bugs. She uses any tool available, from a net to a jam jar! She is getting to be an expert at catching flies, and is also quite taken by spiders at the moment! Here is a selection of other bugs we have found in garden in the last 7 weeks.We have also found weevils and ground beetles but I don’t have any photos of these.

It is amazing what you can find in your garden when you look closely!