Conkers and a Slow worm

I never grew up with conkers and to my memory I don't recall ever seeing a conker tree in South Africa and with the little man really coming into his own now he is three we have had a lot of excitement over finding our own secret conker tree, which has yielded an abundance of amazing conkers of which no other child has seemed to have discovered, leaving us with the pick of the bunch. Last Autumn we were living in another village that had a huge school and although we knew where all the conker trees were we never actually even found one as all the school kids got to them first. As I have said the conker tree has been pretty much untouched - it actually makes me wonder how many local kids actually explore this pretty field which lies next to a river, a place we visit regularly, anyway back to the point we had found a few conker still in there spiky shell and have had a lot of fun getting them out. We have also been collecting leaves and acorns for our natural table ......

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Raising the Maypole and other adventures

Wow what a bumper week of outdoor activities we have had. We went for a lovely walk on the common near the house and then had a family adeventure at Caerphilly Castle. We also spent a lot of time outside in the garden, eating our food outside one night and enjoyed playing in the big sandpit at the  local park. The hightlight of the week though was watching the rasising of the maypole at St Fagans, with lots of traditional dancing and music it was a great way to welcome summer into our lives and heart. The group doing the dancing were all dressed in the traditional Welsh dress and the fiddle and accordion player were amazing. At the end they got all the children to come up and dance and Mr A and I joined in, although he didn't get many of the moves down he loved swirling around the Maypole and we laughed a lot. After it finished we had a little picnic down by the farm and saw the baby calves, lambs and pigs and Mr A made me dance around all the little trees in the ......

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The week spring arrived

So finally after the snow, rain and cold snaps it finally feels like spring has sprung and this week has been a bumper week for getting outdoors and having some adventures with the little man. It couldn't of come at a better time as my mother has been ill in hospital and being able to get outside in the fresh air between visiting times has really helped with what has been quite a stressful week. On the first sunny day of the week we went for a walk near the river Taff, climbing over mole-hills and collecting sticks. On our adventures We have also spent some time at the local country park feeding the ducks, walking through the long grass, collecting things for our nature table and having fun on the swings. The great thing about the warmer weather is that we can stay our for longer, even though we always wrap up well it's great being that little bit more comfortable. Mr A taking on the spiderweb Duck watching We also spent some time this week exploring ......

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