Holiday 2011

So having answered some of your camping FAQs in my last post, let me tell you a bit about what we did on our camping holiday in Much Wenlock, Shropshire.

The village of Much Wenlock is only a short walk from the Sytche Camp site - either along the road or through the woods, and depending on your interests and the time of year it could keep you entertained for a while. Claiming to be the birth place of the modern Olympics there is the Olympian Trail to be followed around the village, highlighting points and places of interested.

If you enjoy walking, or cycling or running there are plenty of tracks to be explored. The Shropshire way heads out of Much Wenlock on a disused railway towards the Severn Valley in one direction. The National Trust owns much of the land along Wenlock Edge in the other direction and there are some great forest trails to be found there - and if this was my sister's blog, at this point there would be pictures of insects, rare flowers, birds, and dew drops on leaves. But as I didn't carry a camera on the 50 miles of trails I explored whilst running you'll just have to take my word for it. Oh yes - there were also hills - it's not called Wenlock Edge for nothing.

Just a few miles away is the Iron Bridge gorge, along with the various museums that bring the past to life. You can get a Passport that allows unlimited access to all museums for a whole year and is well worth it, especially if you get them with your Tesco vouchers!

As I mentioned in my last post, dressing up as Victorians was required on more than one occasion, and was something that the girls really enjoyed.

One of their favourite museums was the Blists Hill Victorian Village. The second time we visited was an Alice in Wonderland themed day, and whilst sheltering from one of the very few rain showers we experienced the whole time we were there, we bumped into the King and Queen of Hearts, the White Rabbit and Alice.

Another favourite activity was swimming, with the Much Wenlock leisure centre being only a few minutes walk away. One final highlight I will share with you was bat watching - something that we were able to do most evenings on the camp site as three bats would come out at dusk and swoop around the camp site sometimes coming to within a metre or two as we sat outside the tent.
If you've never visited this part of the UK we can certainly recommend it. I haven't mentioned other great days out including visits to RAF Cosford and Warwick Castle - although Warwick was probably a little too far away - almost half way home! We had a lovely time.

Summer Holidays part 3

A relaxing picnic after an exhausting morning at Castle Drogo, in Devon.

Here the girls are pretending to drive a steam train at the South Devon Railway at Buckfastleigh.

Aboard the train for the trip to Totnes and back.

And if you wondered how we managed to get all the camping stuff and everything else and everyone else in the car...

Whoever said camping was about travelling light!

Summer Holidays part 2

Other activities at Leading Edge included face painting...

...making masks from paper plates...

and singing.


From Warwick it was on to Devon for the second week. Here R has found something to read at Exeter Cathedral.


And in Nanny's kitchen A has found the Tupperware cupboard.

Summer Holidays part 1

The first week of our summer holiday this year was spent camping at Warwick School with about 900 other people for Leading Edge. Leading Edge is a week long event organised by the Baptist Union and Viz-a-Viz - who run an excellent children's programme for the whole week. The children had activities every morning, whilst there were Bible Studies and seminars for the adults; a variety of activities were arranged in the afternoons; and in the evenings there were celebration events. Here are a few photos from the week.

On one of the afternoons we went along to an African Drumming session - which the girls really enjoyed.

Thursday was left free all day so we took the chance to visit Warwick Castle (courtesy of Mr Tesco). Here R, A and I are about to begin the ascent of the tower - the carrier only got stuck once on the narrow spiral staircase. I think it was 530 steps.

This huge device is the Trebuchet. Here it has just been fired - you can see the fire ball on the left which will shortly be flung into the air as the arm comes over. To give you some idea of the size - the wheel at the base of the device is like a large hamster wheel - two men get it to the one this side, and two the other (the wheels are not quite twice the height of a man) and they run, making the wheels turn, which tightens the rope pulling the arm back.

Here S is trying to get her hands on someone's cream tea.

There's no way that sword is coming out

We don't normally trust S with a pair of scissors.

Warwick Castle - a great day out - worth a visit if you're in the area - and you can use Tesco vouchers to get in for 1/4 of the normal price.

Camping Trip

If you've been wondering where I've been - the answer is camping. Here are a few pictures.

Toasting marshmellows.



Worn out after a hard day's camping!

Easter Holidays

Here are a few pictures from a great week's holiday.

Taking a rest during a walk on the beach.

Great Nanny had never been in the horse drawn carriage - until now.

The girls really enjoyed the ride.

Climbing in the trees - but watch out...don't trip over the roots.

Hugging trees.

Playing on the beach with Nanny.

Enjoying a walk in the woods.

Another day on the beach.

Brings back memories of the summer!

A good walk and a cream tea

Today, as the weather was once again so good, we went over to Budleigh Salterton and had a walk along the beach before lunch.

And then we went on a walk, following the River Otter, up to Otterton Mill, for a cream tea!

Which we all enjoyed!

Oh Deer

Today we went to visit the Earl of Devon in his castle. We went on a ride through his deer park.

We all enjoyed the tractor ride.

And some of us enjoyed the zip wire.

You're Fired

Those of you who were following our summer holiday blog will know that the girls painted two penguins which were going to be fired, but too late for us to collect before the end of our holiday. Click here to read that blog. Well - now that we're on holiday again Joanna and Penguin have been collected. And here they are.

And today they painted a bee, a snail and a footprint.

As well as going for a walk along the river this morning, and collecting shells on the beach this afternoon.

Now they're all fast asleep.

Nutty Noah and a few animals

The title of this post has nothing to do with the Bible story recorded in Genesis about a large boat and lots of rain. Yesterday we had a great day at Pennywell Farm, getting up close with lots of animals and enjoying an hour of music, magic and mayhem with children's entertainer Nutty Noah. Here are a few photos.

Stroking a hedgehog is ok as long as you only stroke from head to tail. Stroking tail to head is a mistake you only make once.

Even a light shower during lunch would not deter us from our picnic.

Three times round a track with a steering wheel and an accelerator and already insisting she's ready to drive my car now!

Pond dipping. Fortunately no one got wet.

The only really heavy shower we had all day coincided with a one hour indoor music and magic show by Nutty Noah. I could say that we didn't take any photos because of the poor lighting - but in reality we were enjoying ourselves too much to think about taking any pictures. But to give you a quick flavour here is a clip from Youtube of Nutty Noah on his Hornophone - a musical instrument made up of lots of bike horns strapped to a large metal frame. I did think maybe we should get one of these for church instead of the organ.