Baffins Pond

We have had a lovely day at Baffins Pond today with lots of our friends.

Hannah and i arrived early which made Hannah happy as she had time to go searching for the best fallen leaves around the park - there were a lot to choose from as you can see, the park was carpeted in beautiful russet leaves

Then we met up with our friends (at various stages including a long play and coffee break at one of their houses nearby!!)

Went to the playground for a little while,

Until the sun went down and the moon came out.

Then we went for a walk all around the pond searching for bats which are usually there at twighlight...................but not tonight of course :-(

Hannah still had fun though, and loved being with her friends and watching all the wild life get ready for  nightfall.

This squirrel was just sitting on a fence post watching us, i was so close i could have touched him when i took this picture.

Punky Night at Home Ed Group

Yesterday's home ed group session had a very seasonal flavour. One of the mum's had made an information board about the old Somerset tradition of Punky night, and told the children all about that, and also firework night and a little about Halloween.

Then we had lots of crafts for the children including felt pumpkin making, gourd decorating, and fridge magnet making.

Hannah had a wonderful time during the session, and then afterwards we went to the park for some play and food. The same fab mum had brought an assortment of orange picnic food and an orange picnic blanket, and we all had a lot of fun.

I did remember to take a couple of pictures this week..................

The Hannah's getting ready for the session to start,

The Punky Night Information Board
Hannah's decorated gourds.

Out and About

We have been out for a  long walk and lots of exploring today. It was a beautiful mild day and so we packed up a picnic and headed for the beach. On the way we walked through the seafront park where Hannah did some tree climbing and tree spotting,

 

then we went on to the Japanese Gardens where she made friends with a group of children playing there and had a brilliant time discovering all sorts of great hiding places for a game of 'hide and seek', made fairy houses with one of the other little girls, and played on the bridges and standing stones.

After a picnic lunch we left the children and went on to the beach. The tide was out so we were able to walk along the beach on the narrow strip of sand amongst the pebbles. Hannah collected some beautiful shells for her shell collection, and very excitedly followed a birds tracks in the sand along the beach. 

We finally ended up in the Rock Gardens for another snack and some fish spotting in the pond there. 

Last of all was hill rolling. We were waiting for Dean to pick us up when Hannah saw a hill perfect for rolling down, so she did, over and over again............

..........and she LOVED it!!!!

Sunday

Today we went to Southbourne Farm Shop to do some shopping. It is a lovely little shop next to a field of longhorn cows and ponies in a village near Chichester. There was an amazing array of pumpkins inside and outside the shop  (must be nearly Halloween) which Hannah was luckily distracted from by the freezers full of weigh and pay frozen fruit! Here she is munching on a bag of frozen summer fruits!!

Whenever we visit this shop Hannah always likes to say hello to these ponies and cows :-)

Then this afternoon we moved our Guinea Pigs into their new home that my lovely sister donated to them - it is much warmer and sturdier than their old home and they were very happily snuggled in there tonight.

Thank you Auntie Nita for Didi and Fifi's new house - love from Hannah xxx

Pictures from Devon

We are home from South Devon and have had a lovely, relaxing week in the village where i grew up. Hannah has loved every minute of our time there and it was really amazing to be able to show her all the places i love and give her a little insight into my childhood.

Rock-pooling on our first day

Challaborough Beach with Burgh Island in the background.
On Burgh Island at Low Tide, the sea tractor in the picture is used to get to the mainland at high tide.
Hannah playing on the sand at Bigbury-On-Sea
More Sand  Play - Hannah LOVES the beach!!
Us on our last  morning.

The next few pictures are taken around Ringmore Village, where i grew up.

The Village Green overlooking the Valley

Looking towards the lower part of the Village.
My first Home in Ringmore 
The Church Where I sang in the Choir!!
The Centre of the Village
My second  home in the village across the fields - we couldn't get any nearer as there is a steep bank and hedge all around it now.
Dartmoor
Hannah on Dartmoor

A beautiful stream running towards Ivybridge from Dartmoor.

It has been a lovely week for us, our first family holiday, a chance to show my little girl a bit more of myself and a chance for her to spend some special time with her daddy as well. The caravan park had an indoor pool where Dean and Hannah  swam together, a playground where they played together and lots and lots of rock pools that they explored together.

An Autumn Walk In The Woods

We have just come home from a lovely 7 miles tramp through some beautiful Beech woods with some of our friends from the home ed group, and their dog. It was the most perfect autumn day, and Hannah had a brilliant time searching for autumn treasures, climbing on fallen trees, tramping through crunchy leaves and running with 'Ruby' the dog. She and her friend Remmy did lots of exploring, and we picked sloes and sweet chestnuts to bring home.

Hannah was particularly excited to find lots of different toadstools in the woods, including a fairytale red one, and so our next project is too find out all about them.

Admiring the beautiful leaf canopy

Acorn finds
Fungi
A resting place to examine her litchen covered twig
Oak leaves
balancing act!
A beautiful toadstool
Wild Woods
climbing
More toadstools
More treasure
Playing with Ruby
Colours of Autumn

and finally, we came to this really pretty meadering river.

What a lovely start to our weekend :-) On monday we are off to Devon for a week so i'll post if i can, otherwise there'll be a big update when we return!