We visited Birtley House in Surrey to see a sculpture exhibition which they were hosting. Sam’s favourite was this kingfisher.
And I liked these mushrooms…
…and this cone.
We got some ideas for things we want to make ourselves, and have decided to turn our own garden into a sculpture garden. I reckon there is so much we can do with recycling – watch this space…
And I really want to work out how we can make one of these for Sam,
and one of these for me!
Sam would have started school this month, but happily we are home-educating! So to celebrate not-starting-school, we went on a trip to North Norfolk for the week with our friends.
We were blessed with beautiful weather, and so spent most of our time outdoors…
Crabbing at Wells-next-the-sea,
Tree walking,
and storytelling,
and den building at Bewilderwood.
And moving the furniture in!…
Sailing boats in the stream,
and finding a hedgehog in our garden!
During our week in Norfolk last month, Sam and I managed to get out and about in nature quite a bit. It was so lovely to get in the woods and find some of the first signs of Spring.
A carpet of snowdrops in Sheringham Woods.
A little house left behind in Pretty Corner woods.
The steps up to the viewing tower in Sheringham Woods.
Climbing the tower…
…The view from the top! Exhilerating, beautiful, but freezing! We didn’t stay too long!
Came back down to do some sketching. This was Sam’s first time sketching outside from the landscape. He told me afterwards he really enjoyed it, and has since asked to do it again.
Just time to squeeze in a quick Geocache before we go home.
On a trip into Brighton town centre last week, we took a shortcut through the Pavilion Gardens, and found this local man feeding his friends…
He had peanuts for the squirrels, but the pigeons were mad on them too. They were landing on my hands while I took these photos, but I guess an Iphone is not as tasty as a peanut!
This little chap came right up to Sam to get his lunch.
Later, we saw these:
…just had to share!
On Sunday we went to Lancing beach with our friends. A great place for rock climbing…
Balancing….
Making (pretend) seaweed soup…
…and mucking about with wet sand…
There was a sculpture exhibition at Newby Hall in Yorkshire this month.
Sam and Jay got stuck in to some stone carving…
Unfortunately they didn’t have time to finish it…
…but they know what they’re aiming for!….
Last weekend Sam and I went to London for a fantastic trip with Steve and Penny. We met at the Science Museum and headed for Launchpad, the museum’s hands-on gallery with over 50 interactive exhibits. These include this bubble wall,
magnet power towers,
the mesmerising effects of dry ice in water,
and our personal favourite: the chance to build your own bridge!
On our way back through the museum we past through Space,
and saw the original Stevenson’s Rocket, very fitting, as we were just off on our way up to Kensington Park to Ride the Rocket! See below…
One of the highlights of our trip to London last weekend was to ride on a replica of Stevenson’s Rocket. It turned out to be the very same replica from the York Railway Museum which we visited with Granny last month (shown below). The replica was built in 1979 by Locomotion Enterprises for the 150th anniversary celebrations. The chimney was shorter than the original so that it could pass under the bridge at Rainhill on the celebration journey. The driver explained to us the reason the funnel was white was to show off how clean the engine was, and the boiler was painted yellow to mirror that of the public transport horse-drawn coaches that were around at the time, thus giving the message that Rocket was designed as a passenger engine, not an industrial one.
The BBC have a fun animation of the Rocket on their site, where you can learn in more detail how the engine works, then test your knowledge with a ‘build the engine’ game.
After our ride on Rocket, we wound our way through Kensington Park towards the Lady Diana Memorial Playground.
Now it’s time for some supper! Uncle Steve knows where there’s some good pizza….so we head off into town..
…the next day we headed back into town to Hamleys, arguably the world’s finest toy shop.
And then walked to Green Park to sit among the daffodils…
On Sunday morning we said our goodbyes with Penny and Steve, and caught the number 38 bus all the way through the centre of town to Victoria. There was hardly anyone on it, so we got the front seats upstairs. What a great journey through town, Hackney, Islington, Theatreland, Hyde Park corner… lots to remember. We sat and ate popcorn, just the two of us, and talked about all the things we’d seen…
Thank you to Steve’s friends Paul and Amelia for lending us their flat to stay in, and thank you to Steve and Penny and Sam for being such great company for the weekend..x
On Easter Sunday we spent a beautiful afternoon with Steve, Penny, Catharine and Anna at Sheffield Park Gardens. The sun was shining at last, and there were definitely plenty of signs of Spring in the garden…
Sam chose some new plants for our garden from the Plant Centre.
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