Winter sunshine and a crispy morning with blue skies provided perfect conditions to visit The Saville Garden. I’ve visited this garden on a few occasions as it is very accessible from London. The winter garden has been more recently developed since I last visited in the winter. If you are a member of the […]
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30 Days Wild. Days 10 to 12 Wildlife & a Great Big Hug
It’s been quite a quiet time these last couple of days with more emphasis on reflection and contemplation rather than on doing and creating. I find I am looking much more closely at what is going on in my garden. For example, there were 4 different types of bees feeding on my flower border today […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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, […]
Countryside Skills Day
Thank you Dorset Coppice Group for holding such a wonderful open day and for letting us find out about some of those really important countryside skills. From the location, a beautiful wood used to practise those coppicing skills, through the range of crafts on display to the knowledge and willingness to talk about […]
We Are Going on a Fossil Hunt
While everybody else has been ringing in the New we have been popping back in time by taking a look at the Old on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. It is a great twist on a beach scavenge and we hoped that the recent storms may have thrown up and exposed some new fossils. We have […]
Autumn Leaf Colour Game
We have been outdoors on this lovely dry week, but haven’t ventured far from home. Just a trip to the local DIY shop and spending time in the garden. While the garden is full of plop plop plopping sounds of the acorns falling from the oak tree next door there are not too many other […]
Harvest from the Hedgerows: A Tale of Blackberry Picking
We often stop and nibble blackberries from hedgerows when on family walks. We very rarely have any sort of container with us so we can collect enough to take home. So this weekend ,with a bumper apple harvest from the garden we made a specific date with our local hedgerows for a spot of blackberry […]
Harvest from the Sea
This week we have been having outdoor fun in Brittany and partaking in one of our favourite activities – searching for shellfish. This time though we weren’t crabbing but shrimping. Our first time crabbing this year was not at all successful, but we have since had some great catches. I have to admit that […]
A Walk on the Waterside
I have been pondering how many people consider going for a walk a form of outdoor play. I don’t mean the go for a walk to the shops type of walk, but where you set out to have an adventure and a voyage of discovery. The sort of walk that’s a bit of a treasure […]
Just One Crab, Please
Crabbing is a favourite activity in our household. It ranks above going to the beach and even better than a trip fossil hunting. We have crabbed on the River Dart in Devon, on the Dorset coast and in Emsworth, West Sussex. It’s a lovely coastal activity, combining the outdoors, wildlife and anticipation as to […]
A Different Sort of Watering the Garden with Kids
All children seem to love watering the garden in some shape or form. Whether as a toddler it is tipping a whole watering can onto one poor seedling or progressing onto hosing all the borders. It’s a great form of water play with a useful twist. When you have hot weather and have to water […]
A Perfect Day Outdoors – Helped by a Trail with Sticks
What’s your idea of a perfect day outdoors? Often it depends on your mood, invariably the weather plays an important part and it is usually very difficult to please everybody. Well last weekend we came as close to perfect as possible. Thank you weather for performing for once. Thank you also to The National Trust […]
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