I wanted to share with you a really easy, but effective leaf art activity you can make with children. Every autumn we collect loads of natural materials with the aim of making all sorts of beautiful crafts. Sadly it is rare that we ever make the time to complete the task. […]
The RHS Wisley Flower Show
Welcome to this year’s RHS Wisley Flower Show 2015. The Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Shows are well known national events. You know you will see original gardens, pick up great ideas and have the opportunity to indulge in some fantastic horticultural-related retail therapy. The more recently established RHS Wisley Flower Show is a slightly different and […]
Our Summer Holiday Bucket List
If you are like me you’ll have a long mental list of activities for the school summer holidays. I often see some great ideas on other people’s blogs and I squirrel them away for the long summer. However just like the squirrel forgetting where he has buried his nuts those bookmarks get well and truly […]
A Walk on a Spice Farm in Sri Lanka
We have just had the most beautiful holiday in Sri Lanka. One of its highlights was staying on a spice farm. It sounds exotic and it was. If you have ever been inside the tropical house at Kew Gardens or the Eden Project then imagine that scaled up 100 times. The smell, sounds and, […]
Stunning Studland Bay
Studland Bay by Poole Harbour in Dorset is a simply stunning sandy beach. With our January walk it outlived all our expectations. We have often visited it in summer, but never at this time of year usually opting for a bracing cliff top walk to match the time of year. We started our trip at […]
Dens in the Wood
Most kids love building a den, whether it be with the sofa cushions indoors and outdoors, and the more traditional rustic type with branches, sticks and twigs from trees. Indeed whatever foliage you can lay your hands on. Nothing beats that cosy toasty feeling when the making is complete and you can crawl inside. Its […]
What to Plant with your Kids in September and October
As well as tidying up the garden ready for winter you can still sow and plant in the autumn. A spot of gardening with the kids is an ideal activity for a warm autumn afternoon. Late autumn is, in fact, the best time to plant shrubs and trees, including fruit trees. Some of the vegetables […]
The Art of Blackberry Picking
Blackberries are a fantastic berry for September. They are full of vitamin C and anti-oxidants. If you forage for them they are also free. If you have never gone blackberrying with your children before here are a couple of pointers to make the experience all the more enjoyable. If, like my family, you are seasoned […]
Barefoot at Kew Gardens
You have over 7,000 nerve endings in each of your feet. We have been putting them to good use with a real tingle, thanks to Kew Garden’s barefoot walk. We have come across barefoot experiences in a small village in Austria, and again, this summer around a mountainside lake in Switzerland, and we think it […]
Journey Sticks
Walking and sticks are a perfect combination. Our walk with friends last weekend had all three boys starting the walk with a large stick. One of these had a forked end and on his own initiative one of the boys wound a long piece of grass around this stick and started adding items to it. […]
The Abandoned Garden
Creating a garden is a very personal and individual activity. I have often visited gardens where the person or couple are quite elderly and have wondered what will happen to that garden when they are no longer around. This week I have had the opportunity to see for myself what takes over when a garden, […]
Make Space in your Garden for Hedgehogs: The Hampton Court Flower Show 2014
A vivid memory from my childhood is putting out cat food in the garden for the hedgehogs and then creeping out into the dark to spot them munching away. I haven’t seen this iconic mammal in the wild since then. The photo above was taken when we handled one from a Dorset Hedgehog Rescue Society […]
Gardens at the Hampton Court Flower Show 2014
The Hampton Court Flower Show 2014 runs from 8 to 13th July 2014. If you have never visited before it is a great day out for gardeners, novice gardeners and those just wanting an idea or two to spruce up their gardens. This a quick run through og some of the highlights of this years […]
The Day We Closed Our Road to Traffic
We live on a relatively quiet road. Few of the houses have space for garages or driveways, just small front gardens. So most of the time there are cars parked on both sides of the road. Consequently, as with many roads, the only time the children can play outside is when they dash up and […]
Music and Sundials at the Horniman Museum & Gardens
I wanted to share with you our day out at the Horniman Museum and Gardens in South East London. We had never trekked across south London to visit before and I had always assumed that it was a mini-version of the Natural History Museum. To some extent it is, but it so much more, […]
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