mybigadventures.com

We're now signed up members of ZSL so thought we'd take the opportunity to revisit London Zoo. It's probably been more than 10 years since we've been and last time we weren't terribly impressed so we were a bit apprehensive and probably wouldn't be going if it wasn't free. It is worth noting that the zoo would normally cost £29.25 each today and £31.50 if we had left it until the weekend so the membership is worth it if you can go more than once as it would quickly add up for a family. 

This time around the zoo did seem so much better than the last time we came, I think the enclosures are perhaps a bit smaller than Whipsnade, but nevertheless the lions and tigers seemed to have plenty of room to explore. The gorillas were great to see and were all out roaming in their outdoor enclosure, but we had a great view of the lions and tiger too. Right now it seems the be the annual weigh in at both Whipsnade and London zoo, and whilst we were there today we saw the porcupine getting weighed - it was quite a mission getting them to stay on the scales one at a time, but fun to watch. There is plenty to see and we made it to closing without seeing a number of the animals including the aquarium, so will probably be revisiting before too long. 

In short the zoo was a good day out. I think the pricing is a little steep, but I guess it is central London and if it's practical the membership is definitely worth it. I've added some photos from our day out, but I'll stop there as it's probably about time to call it a day as it's results day tomorrow! 

As part of our planned days out this week, we had booked tickets for Windsor Castle online so after a bit of a lie in and some breakfast, we set off. Windsor actually isn't that far away, and only took 40 mins or so to drive. We managed to find a space in the long stay car park about 10 minutes walk from the castle, and paid enough to take us through to just after 5. There was a bit of a queue to get in, but after a quick check, we again found we could skip the queue having booked online. We collected our tickets and went through security and then we were in.

We picked up the free audio guides to take us around. After a consult of the map it turned out you could visit the different parts of the castle in any order, we decided to see the state rooms first. It was all very impressive with the Waterloo room a real highlight. There was also an exhibition about the recent wedding of Harry and Megan, and their outfits from the day were out to look at including the outfits of the page boys and bridesmaids.

From the staterooms, we visited St George's Chapel, it has a pretty spectacular ceiling and is where many past members of the Royal family are buried including Charles I and Henry VIII. It was starting to get dark as we left, and after a quick snack at Starbucks, we had time for a quick wander around the town before heading home. We ended the evening at Pizza Express, using our taste card to get 241 and gift cards to pay. A pretty cheap night out really. We're going to take the decorations down tomorrow and then its my birthday on Saturday! 

Today, we headed into London town. Having bought a voucher on Groupon for a deal at 'Fatburger' in Camden, we went directly there to have lunch. We hadn't been to Camden for a long while and it was quite busy when we arrived. But it was only a short walk to the restaurant and it was decidedly quieter there, so we settled in for our burgers. The burgers were fairly good, with a good meat-bread ratio and some nice pickle additions. But the chips made it - I had Cajun curly fries and they were really crisp and spicy! Yum! We were full up pretty quickly, so we went for a gander about Camden, wandering into the market to have a mosey about. I don't think we'd been into the actual market before - at least, not for many years - but there were some interesting items on sale and a lively atmosphere. We also stood on the bridge watching a couple navigate the locks on the canal which was quite exciting!

From there we went into Wetherspoons for a tea, as it was quite cold and we needed a pick-me-up. We sat nursing hot drinks for a while and then made our way across town. It was very busy out and about - so many tourists wandering about! We ended up going to the Natural History Museum, and we had a little look at the ice-skating out the front, and the pretty lights! We then thought we'd go in - there was a couple of hours until closing - and we hadn't seen the newest addition of the blue whale skeleton hanging in the main hall. Plus, there's the dinsoaurs... 

As usual, everything was pretty awesome - the building is a work of art in itself! We wandered a bit, looking at the blue whale from all different angles, and also at a huge segment from an ancient sequoia tree, dated as 380 million years old... Pretty impressive! From there, we headed into the dinosaur exhibit, taking in all the fossils and information. It was still pretty busy everywhere and we were getting tired, so we headed out - it was closing time anyway. We looked round a bit more, taking in the lights and atmosphere, before heading to the tube and making our way home.  

We had booked tickets to visit St Paul's cathedral today, so, after a cheeky Eggs Benedict for breakfast, we set off for the station. It was an easy journey on the Met line, getting off at Barbican and then walking for about 10 mins. When we arrived, we were a little concerned by the snaking queue, but Ben joined the queue while I went to check out the business with tickets and lo and behold, we could skip it! We pretty much went straight in and wandered from there, looking at all the churchy decor and then we embarked on the journey upward... And it was quite a journey! About 259 steps upwards and it got steadily narrower and higher. We stopped first at the 'whispering gallery', then up to the 'Stone gallery', ending up on the 'Golden gallery' and looking out at the spectacular views across the city. 

From there, we went right into the depths of the cathedral, into the crypt, where we had a very welcome cup of tea in the cafe. Then we drifted into the crypt, admiring all the tombs of famous people - Wellington, Nelson, Wren, Turner et al. Quite a celebratory gathering! We then had a little wander in the area surrounding the cathedral, up towards the Millenium Bridge, and Ben took lots of photos of the buildings as the light was lovely - gathering darkness but with sunlight beaming through. 

To make the most of the afternoon, we went to visit the Museum of London, having passed it on our way in to town earlier. And it was free entry! And a surprising tardis of a museum, with room after room of exhibits! We drifted around for a while before heading home on the Met line, stopping at Sainsburys for a few essentials for our turkey pie dinner!  

Today was 'red squirrel day'.

We didn't have a firm plan or destination for the day, so we thought we would set off in pursuit of red squirrels, a rarity in the area and only seen in small colonies in certain places. We set off to Dodd Wood near Keswick, a place mum and dad have been to many times, where red squirrels are being carefully nurtured and where ospreys can also be seen over Bassenthwaite Lake, at the base of the wood. We walked up towards the first osprey viewing platform where the squirrels can also be seen and it was quite an uphill walk! Once we got there we looked and we looked... but not a single squirrel to be seen!

Not to be dispirited, we continued up the hill - an unexpected mountain climb - towards the second osprey viewing platform. There weren't many signs so it was a bit like the blind leading the blind, but we got there eventually. It wasn't quite what we expected - we had anticipated a hide but it was an exposed picnic table with a small fence to prevent any unsuspecting visitors from plummeting down the mountain. We sat for a bit and looked out over Bassenthwaite. The views were glorious and you could see a long way - the weather was fair although overcast so visibility was good, with some cloud just nestling on the peaks. So, we were sitting and looking - but to no avail.

We gave it a bit of time, but decided to give in and set off back down the mountain, planning on calling at the lower viewing spot again, just in case. And it was a good job we did! Two little red ones crept out of the undergrowth to feed at the feeding station! It was awesome! A lady there had said that she's put some food out for them a bit earlier in the day and it was nearly all gone. And the squirrels were really brave, coming pretty close and feeding from the tree stumps nearby. We stood and watched for about 30 minutes, completely absorbed by their activity.

We made it down to the car park again, just before our pay and display ran out. We sat in the car, eating our picnic before heading off towards Grasmere, where we were aiming for Allan Bank, an unknown (to me) National Trust property, also known for red squirrels. We made it there for about 4pm - not giving us long, but we didn't really know what to expect. We were surprised to find a bit more than we expected - it isn't a conventional historic house, and (although we didn't go in) the house is set up very much as a family home to relax in. The gardens, which we did explore, seemed quite expansive, rising up into the landscape behind the house. We toiled up, for a while, admiring the lovely views as we went, and also trying to spy out the red squirrels. But no such luck. 

However, that quickly changed as we descended to the lawned area behind the grass. We saw at least 6 squirrels, dashing and scampering and chasing each other through the trees! It was truly awesome! We speculated that they might be siblings, as there was a lot of chattering and bickering going on. And they came quite close, feeding from the stashes of nuts that had been left about. We stood and watched them - even past closing time! It was at least 5.10pm by the time we felt we ought to move on and the property had closed at 5. Ben got lots of photos, although these squirrels were quite a lot livelier than the previous ones. 

From now on, this day is to be red squirrel day. A day not to be forgotten.

Today we decided to branch out and go to the other side of Lake Windermere! So far, our adventures have focused on the northern part of Windermere, but today we explored the southern end - well, at least a bit of it!

We set off for Hill Top, the historic home of Beatrix Potter, creator of the Peter Rabbit tales. It was a pleasant drive there, and we even made an impromptu stop to photograph a bouquet of pheasants (I've just found out that this is a collective noun for them!). The males were being quite temperamental and squabbling a lot, but the colours of their plumage looked beautiful against the bracken. When we arrived, we managed to park our little car in a cheeky corner spot and headed to the ticket office, securing entry to the house for 20mins time. We 'pottered' in Beatrix Potter's garden for a bit, watching some birds and admiring the autumn colours, and having a quick look in the shop. From there, we went in the house. It was quite dark inside, quite typical for the National Trust, but lots of interesting things to look at, including a lot of original art by Potter's brother. There weren't a huge number of rooms to look at however, so we weren't there very long.

From there, we went to Claife viewing station, a castle-style tower, constructed to offer lovely views over Windermere, with coloured panes of glass to look through. Apparently, it was linked to the Picturesque movement - as it offered perfectly composed views of the lake. However, it was risky to offer the public such views as they might be overcome by the perfect beauty and faint... Risky business, looking at views... Getting peckish after all the perfect views, we decided to have lunch in the cafe. We shared a ploughan's sausage roll picnic lunch (with some cheese, cherry tomatoes and chutneys) and a scone with jam and cream. 

Then, we decided to head to Grasmere - mainly on a quest for Grasmere gingerbread. It took about 30 mins to drive, with only a couple of near misses on the narrow and winding roads! Found a place to park easily enough and then wandered into the town centre, trying to recall where the gingerbread shop was. And we found it! And the queue that streamed from it! Hmm... We didn't have to wait long through, and got some gingerbread! We then carried on wandering, seeing some nice bits and bobs in the local shops but only buying a couple of books from the local bookshop. Had a little piece of gingerbread in the car before setting off back to the cottage, stopping at Booths in Windermere for some more food.  

We decided to go to National Trust Wray Castle today. The sun was shining and the sky was blue and it looked like it might be a rathre nice day. Having had a look how to get there yesterday, we decided to drive to Ambleside and catch the cruise boat across to the castle as some reviews suggested the car park was pretty small. It was only about about 20 minutes drive to Ambleside and we pparked down by the pier. As we were leaving the car, we could see that one of the cruise boats had arrived, so we quickly bought tickets and managed to dash through the gate before it departed. We sat inside as we were the last people aboard and we were quickly on our way. There were some nice views across Windermere on the cruise to the castle with other boats silhouetted against the bright sunshine making for nice photos. As we neared the castle a couple of jets flew quite low across the lake, sadly I wasn't quick enough to catch them on camera. 

Having docked, we had a quick look at the return cruise times which seemed to be every 40 minutes or so and then made the short walk up the hillside to the castle. Wray Castle is a Victorian neo-gothic building dating from 1840, but is unfurnished inside. There were a number of rooms set up for children including a Peter Rabbit burrow that seemed to make use of the warren of rooms upstairs and a Forest Folktales room which featured a dark room with some fairly amateurish decorations. The castle interior was pretty underwhelming overall and we left feeling that it could be very nice if some more money and time was spent on it. I certainly would have been disappointed as a non-member paying over ten pounds entry. 

We had a wander around the surrounding land, skimming stones across the lake from the shingle beach, and clambering over rocks to get a selfie in front of the lake. The weather remained fine, although the sun kept dipping in and out behind cloud. The wander through the woods took us up to the cruise boat pier and to our suprise there again was a boat just arriving. We joined the queue and once again were the last people to get on the boat, this time scoring a seat in the front outside. On the journey back I kept my eyes peeled for the elusive jets but sadly they didn't appear, the cruise stopped off at Brockhole before continuing back to Ambleside. Feeling a bit peckish on our arrival we droppped into a fish and chip shop just behind the pier and wouldn't you know it, whilst we were queing the jets screamed by again!

We decided to have a wander around the shops in Ambleside before heading back to the cottage. There were lots of nice things and we ended up coming away with some glass Christmas decorations and a new lamp from a shop that had just opened and then a glass tea light holder for another place. Took a few photos of the bridgehouse before heading back for the evening.  

Wow September has flown by! After the first week back at School we decided to book a weekend away at Chastworth. We found a Premier Inn that was only a few miles away and headed there on Friday. Traffic was pretty bad, but I guess fairly standard for a Friday night, after about a 4 hour drive, we arrived just before 8. The hotel is next door to The Highwayman Beefeater so we headed there for tea having paid for an evening meal and breakfast deal. We both had a starter main and drink and had nothing more to pay which was great. Tea was nice and feeling fairly stuffed and pretty knackered we had an early night. 

Breakfast in the morning was particularly impressive with a full range of continental options, and hot food cooked to order. Again feeling pretty full we made the short trip to Chatsworth, in reality only a 10 minute drive! The weather was amazing, with blue skies and bright sunshine and after initially joining a queue for the house, we changed our minds and headed out to the garden entrance instead. There was no queue for the garden, so we picked up tickets for the house and garden (using our handy 2 for 1 treasure houses voucher) and also picked up free tickets to go up the Belvedere tower. We had a quick scoot around the front of the house to take some pictures before heading back to go up the tower. The views out across the 'Capability' Brown landscape were stunning and the clear skies meant you could see for miles in all directions. 

We spent quite a few hours enjoying the sunshine, wandering around the garden. We came across the maze which I don't think we had seen before and stopped for some drinks in the Orangery. We had a walk around the house admiring the veiled lady statue once again amongst many of the other works of art and furniture before heading outside for an ice-cream on the grass. We picked up a new sheepskin rug from the shop before heading on to mums for tea.

Today we all went to the Arrow farm market craft market, that me and mum went to last year. There was a good range of stalls with a variety of crafts, this time Dani and I bought a couple of knitted brussel sprout Christmas decorations (Simon and Simone the sprouts). Mum had booked a table for us at the rather splendid Beehive in Harthill for Sunday dinner. It was as ever lovely, Dani and Mum both had beef whilst I had the lamb, allserved with huge yorkshire pudings and all the trimmings. Definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. All in all, a great weekend! 

Having bought Audrey a ticket for Christmas, we had booked to visit Harry Potter world today! It's been 4 years since we last went, and it has changed quite a bit since - and for the better! Besides the usual displays of stage sets and accessories, there was the 'Forbidden Forest' - the huge trees, complete with giant arachnids, that you could walk around - and, the best thing of all... the Hogwart's Express in all it's glory!

You could even walk on it, seeing the compartments where the students travelled, with lots of different accessories from different films.

We spent all afternoon there, taking it all in and admiring the sheer artistry on display. A highly recommended activity!

We had another late start today but after a check on the MET office app, National Trust's Kingston Lacy seemed to be our best chance of avoiding the rain so that's where we headed, arriving just after 1. We had a cream tea each for lunch in the cafe - which was as ever overrrun and under-staffed (a common trait of National Trust properties we've found). The house has timed entry tickets and it was suggested online that we should have booked these in advance, fortunately they seemed to have plenty left for all of the timeslots (which are every 15 minutes), so after our cream tea, we went for a wander inside.

The house is pretty vast and is set over three floors with the usual grand rooms, although these seemed to be more dimly lit than usual so the guides were using torches to highlight things to the visitors. The real highlight has to be the bedrooms in the ceiling, these are described as tented bedrooms, decorated to look like the inside of a tent. The effect was amazing - I wonder if it would work in our top bedroom...

We decided to try the White Lion, which is a short walk away from the cottage, for tea. The restaurant was fully booked but we were able to order food and sit at a table in the bar area. The food was very good, Dani had a burger, whilst I had steak and kidney pie, both were served with huge chunk chips. It was very nice, but incredibly filling, so after a rather slow walk back to the cottage, we spent the rest of the evening slothed on the sofa, nursing a food baby before calling it a night. 

We had prebooked tickets for Stonehenge today so headed in that direction just after 11. It took a little longer to get there than expected as the main road from which you get a view understandably crawls to almost a halt, presumably as people stare out the window and try and snap a quick picture. Either way we made it in the end just before out timed ticket slot ended. There turned out to be a massive queue however for members or prebooked tickets which made the prebooking part fairly redundant. From the visitor centre you can either catch a short shuttle bus to the site or you can take a stroll through the fields to get there. We decided to go for the walk there, figuring we would catch the bus back. Stonehenge itself is quite something to behold. It is quite a lot larger than I had imagined with some of the rocks standing over 7m tall (with a further 2m below ground apparently). We had a fairly gentle walk round the path, listening to the audio guide. We stoped about halfway round sitting on a bench to eat the packed lunch we had taken with us, the weather was cloudy, but it was still very warm. We caught the bus back to the visitor centre and stopped for an ice-cream (I had choclate, Dani had mint-choc-chip), before heading on to Salisbury.

We decided to look for parking in the city centre rather than opting for the park and ride, this seemed to work out quite well as we managed to park for free close to Sainsburys in the city centre (Dani had read that Salisbury council were offering more free parking to encourage people to support the local businesses). It was much sunnier here and we headed straight for the very grand looking cathedral. There was an installation of doves inside that is part of a city wide project to brin a message of hope and peace following the nerve agent attack earlier this year. Although the cathedral itself is quite plain inside it remains quite magificent, and the installation from the ceiling looked perfectly at home. Whilst there we had a look at the best surviving copy of the Magna Carter which resides in Salisbury Cathedral, there was a short queue to see it with a guide explaining its importance and then in the same room, there was some further information about how the ink was made from oak galls which were something to do with wasps.

Heading out, we stopped by National Trust Mompesson House, which is just a stones throw from the Cathedral. Mompesson is an 18th century town house and garden that was aquired in the 1970s. The house doesn't contain the original furniture so this is made up of loans from the wider National Trust collection. We managed to get in just before closing so only had time for a quick scoot about. It was pretty splendid inside, very much like the larger country mansions just on a smaller scale. The garden was just coming into flower and offered a nice view of the cathedral spire over the local rooftops.

Headed back to the cottage a little after 5, chilli for tea!

We're kind of at the half way stage with the exams at school, but thankfully half term has arrived and we can breathe a little. We booked a little cottage in Dorset for the week called the Old Shop, and arrived here yesterday. The cottage is really nice having quite recently been renovated and on our arrival we were treated to a welcome pack of scones, jam and Dorset tea - very nice indeed. Today we went to National Trust Stourhead which is about 10 minutes away from the cottage.

It's a pretty vast estate with large gardens to wander through and the rooms on the ground floor of the house. Although the weather this morning was a little cloudy, by late afternoon it was really hot and sunny as we wandered through the gardens. The garden was really colourful with lots of Azaleas and Rhododendrons in full flower and we saw Goslings and a Coot sitting on a nest with eggs underneath. A great start to our break away! 

The weather has certainly been on show this bank holiday weekend, with soaring temperatures, blue skies and sunshine all weekend. We've tried to make the most of it with a day out at National Trust Cliveden on Saturday, and then some time tidying the garden over the last couple of days. Cliveden was looking lovely in the sunshine and has had its shiny gold guilded gates along the south terrace fitted since our last visit. We had a nice wander about in the sunshine, both catching the sun a bit and looking a little red by the time the evening came around.

Yesterday we went to B&Q to get a few new bits for the garden. We bought some new pots and a couple of really nice Acers which we've added to the border. We generally gave the border a tidy and cut the grass which has shot up a bit over the last few weeks. The border is looking a lot neater, the grass on the other hand isn't in quite such a good state having become quite mossy and developed a few bare patches, we've got some stuff to treat it, so hopefully we'll see some improvement. We bought a few more bits today including a water butt which I've installed at the back of the house and a shiny metal watering can. Finally we've had a BBQ for tea, the third BBQ this bank holiday #winning!

I hope you all had a great bank holiday too! 

It was the first day of mums holiday today, and we were off to a busy start with the gas man servicing the boiler. We then had a few more jobs to complete including a trips to the tip, library and bank before we were on our way to Bolsover. It's not very far away but neither of us had ever been before and given the blue skies and sunshine I was keen to get out and about. You can see the castle from quite a distance before you get there as Bolsover it located at the top of a steep hill, so finding it was no problem, parking on the other hand was a little more difficult. The main car park seems to be fairly tiny and located just off the high street right next to a weatherspoons, consequently it was full, as were the other three car parks that we found as we did loops of Bolsover. Just as we were about to give up and call it a day, we finally managed to secure a place in some additional castle parking that mum spotted based just a little further down from the castle entrance - hooray!

The castle is managed by English Heritage so members get in free - unfortunately me and Dani let our membership lapse this year as we found that we weren't using it enough, but it was a pretty fair £10.80 adult entry so not too bad. The castle looked pretty picturesque in the sunshine and commands a splendid view of the surrounding areas; it was a very clear day and you could see for miles.

We sat and ate some lunch enjoying the view and then spent the afternoon having a good walk around. There were lots of kids about dressed up for haloween as they were due to be running a "Haloween Specatular" event later in the evening. Feeling pretty knackered we headed back. I'm glad we went and it's most certainly worth a revisit! 

After a fantastic break in Liverpool, we went for a day trip to Brodsworth House on the way to see mum. Brodsworth House is managed by English Heritage, so if you're a member it's free entry otherwise it's fairly reasonable at £10.90 for entry to the house and gardens. Being a bank holiday weekend, we were treated to a brass band who were playing a range of jolly pieces to the assembled audience!

We spent a while wandering through the gardens, which are beautifully maintained and vary from rose gardens with blooming vines, to a fern 'dell', apparently stocking the largest collection of ferns in the north of England. Some of the gardens have almost an Aztec look about them, with lots of looming cliffs and rock gardens with succulents (possibly nothing like 'Aztec' landscapes, but it made us both think of it). From there, we had a quick look around the house - it was getting on for closing time. It is currently undergoing a serious renovation program. It was taken over by English Heritage in the 1980s but had previously not been really looked after since its heyday in the Victorian period. The conservation work seems to be taking the form of preserving the decay, which I'm always a bit uncertain about as you don't get a 'true' idea of what things really looked like but it is what it is. As it is, they do have an array of interesting objects from the Victorian period, such as an exercise horse and (what's left of) original wallpaper. 

All in all, a good day out!

The last month or so has been really busy with the usual revision sessions, coursework marking and general stress that tend to come with May as a teacher. Fortunately it's about that time that things start to calm down, so today we headed out for the day to Waddesdon Manor, which is a National Trust property in Aylesbury. We hadn't realised until we arrived, but Waddesdon was having a Feast festival this weekend featuring a range of food outlets, craft events and entertainers. The weather was glorious with blue skies and sunshine and there were plenty of people about enjoying the festivities. Arriving shortly after opening we managed to get tickets for the house, although they do recommend booking in advance which a lot of people seemed to have done. The house was previously owned by the Rothschild family before being gifted to the National Trust, it remains under management by the Rothschild foundation however and there is a supplement of £4.50 (£5 gift aid) for National Trust members. The house is contains an extensive collection of fine furniture and decorative arts. It is set over three floor and there is a huge amount to see, including an impresive ornate clockwork Elephant automaton. 

The front gardens looked fantastic setup for the feast with long tables running down the middle of the garden and a large number of food, drink and craft stalls lined the sides. There was bunting, flowers and performers dotted through the spaces and lots of room for lounging on the grass. We tried food from a few places including a pizza that took 90 seconds to cook (superb!), a duck wrap and some triple cooked fries. The food we had was amazing but there were so many other places I would have loved to try. We watched some of acrobats performing using huge jenga blocks and even spotted the red arrows and a couple of other RAF planes fly by on the way to an airshow we assumed! I was very excited when I saw the red arrows, I don' think I've seen them since I was a kid but sadly they were abit too quick for me to get a picture.

Headed home late afternoon after a pretty long day out. Dani dropped by one of the stalls on the way out and picked up a fancy new jug/varse which is now sitting on the table holding some flowers she received from one of her year 11 students yesterday. We had a fantastic day and highly recommend the place for a visit - aparently they have a similar market layout at Christmas so one to bear in mind for the winter too! Enjoy the photos.   

It's half term at last, it's been a really busy one getting coursework sorted and the exams have started. We didn't really have a lot planned for the break as we were buying a house - which fell through last week so have spent the week catching up with some sleep and family. It was great to see everyone and have a bit of time to relax before we're back in the middle of exam season next week. I've added a few photos of National Trust Cannons Ashby which we visited with Dani's parents. Enjoy! 

Mum's down to visit for Easter so after a bit of breakfast we headed out in to town. We headed to National Trust Fenton House in Hampstead and joined a short queue by the entrance. It was only as we got to the front of the queue that it became apparent that we weren't getting in. They had been running a timed ticket system for the day and all of the tickets had been given out already so there were no more slots. I guess we'll have to try again another day!

Feeling a bit disappointed we ended up having a bit of a wander. We had a walk up towards Hamstead Heath past the Royal Free Hosptal and saw lots of people heading for the fun fair that was based on the edge of the heath. We caught the 46 bus to St Pancras International terminal and then walked along to Kings Cross to have a look at a large chocolate Thomas the tank engine that mum had read about in the paper. The 6ft chocolate train was made by master chocolatiers from Sussex to celebrate the bank holiday weekend. There's an article on Eastbourne Herald website about the work that went into it and the 100Kg of choclate used. Given the massive amount of chocolate and effort involved, there didn't seem to be any information about it and lots of people just walked past without noticing it. A few people seemed to know however and watched a couple of people seem to walk right up and lick it to check it was chocolate - we decided we didn't need the proof! The weather was bright and sunny and warm all afternoon. Have a look at the photos and let me know what you think!  

Today, we continued our adventures in the local area (and a little further afield). We started off at Runnymede, a small area of landscape by the Thames, owned by the National Trust. It is regarded as the birthplace of democracy as it marks the spot where King John first placed his seal on the Magna Carter, marking the beginning of democracy. It was quite a small area of parkland, with two different memorials - one to JF Kennedy, a memorial following his assassination, and one to the Magna Carter itself. Both were surrounded by woodland, so we wandered in the area for a little bit, enjoying the bluebells and spotting a few bunny rabbits darting into the bushes. We had a mosey around for about 40 minutes, although it was quite cool in the shade compared to our previous days out. We walked back to the car park along the river, and made our way to the tea room by the car park for some lunch. Just for a change, we were served immediately in the cafe, and the server even went to make our sandwiches while we dithered about drinks. Such efficiency!

From there we made a short-ish journey to Ham House for a return visit. When we went last time, it was in January 2016, so it was a little different this time, with a good show of tulips in the kitchen garden and a spectacular display of wisteria against the Orangery (tea room). The gardens are certainly well-manicured - lots of topiary carefully shaped and 'coiffured'. There was a partiularly symmetrical arrangement of spheres of lavender and curry plant in one part of the garden, divided neatly into sections by box hedges and cones. We managed to get into the house just before 'last entry' and were suitably impressed - it's all fairly original (so we were told!) and very luxurious, with quite a range of styles and furnishings. Had to speed round a little bit towards the end as they were due to close, but just about saw everything!

We treated ourselves to an ice cream (well, I had a coffee and his lordship had an ice cream) and sat next to the wisteria, enjoying the fine fragrance! Then we ambled slowly back to the car, along the Thames again (a different part this time) and then made our way home.

The weather remained great again today so we had planned to make the most of it, this time heading for National Trust, Wimpole Estate. I think we're gettiing value on the cards now! It seemed that lots of other people had the same idea and arriving just after 12 put us in the overflow car park. The estate was pretty busy with lots of families out enjoying the sunshine.

There was lots to see including home farm, the house, gardens and a folly. There were thousands of daffodils lining the walkways around the park and lots of colourful flowers out in the walled garden. There were some new piglets in the farm to visit and some Shetland ponies, and Shire horses.

In the end we didn't have time to see the house, instead having a long walk around the parklands out towards the folly. It was a great day out, and definitely worth a return visit. Enjoy the photos! 

Today we went bird spotting at RSPB Rye Meads nature reserve. The weather was great again with blue skies and sunshine, but despite the nice weather it was fairly quiet. There are a number of hides dotted around each focussing on different types of birds, but the real highlight had to be the kingfisher. We saw at least two, possibly 3 different kingfishers and took a few photos but I could have done with a longer lens. There was a guy in the kingfisher hide rocking a massive camera lens that I think must have cost thousands. The end of the lens was the size of a dinner plate and it was more than 2 feet long! I suspect his king fisher pictures were probably epic, but nevermind. The kingfishers then seemed to hide as there were a couple of heron stalking around. The RSPB lady in the hide was telling some other people that the eels have found a nifty way to escape being eaten if caught by the heron. They wrap themselves around their beak so they can't be eaten until the heron gives up and lets them go. 

Took a final few photos of the blue tits back by the entrance before heading back. It was a great day out and definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

The weather today was fantastic, you might even have believed it was summer. I was in school this morning but given the weather we decided to head out for the afternoon. Having had a quick browse for ideas on the Internet, we decided to head for RSPB Church Wood. There wasn't much information about what was there but figured it was worth a shot. In the end we're not sure if we made it to the right place, we did go walking in some woods next to a church where the satnav had directed us to, but there wasn't anything to suggest it was the right place. We did see the start of a sweep of blue bells that were mentioned in the decription we had read, but think we're just a little too early as only a few of them were in flower. Undeterred, we had a bit of a wander around and then decided to head on to something else nearby. After a quick check on the national trust app, we were headed to Cliveden which was only 10 minutes away.

Cliveden was lovely and definitely worth a visit. The garden is divided into a number of smaller gardens, the first of which is the water garden. The water garden had an oriental feel with large carp in one of the lakes and giant stepping stones to walk across the water. We didn't go in the Cliveden house, which is having some work done at the moment. There was a sign up to explain that work had just started as they had been waiting for the hibernating bats to wake up and move out. The house is open for tours on the bottom floor but is also a hotel. We walked up the steps on the outside to admire the view down the garden, which must go down well with the visitors to the hotel. 

The weather stayed nice all afternoon with warm sunshine, we even found time for a cheeky icecream in the cafe before heading back! Enjoy the photos

Today we visited the castle - it was awesome. We rocked up about midday after a bit of breakfast at Starbucks and were immediately struck by view back across the town. We had a wander through the Royal Scots Greys museum charting the history of the cavalry regiment with a good deal of information and antiquities from the battle of Waterloo. It was appraching 1 o'clock when we came out of the museum and people were beginning to gather for the firing of the 1 o'clock gun. I got a few photo's including a pretty blurry one from when it actually fired - it was so LOUD!

We had a look at the old prison cells including looking at some of the amazing creations that some of the skilled prisoners created and sold whilst locked up. We also caught a talk with a guy dressed as an executioner in the great hall. He talked all about the quite gruesome punishments that were handed out to criminals of the time. The castle offers fantastic views of the surrounding area and the weather stayed nice throughout the day.

The castle is good value with a lot to do and we were there until late afternoon. We stopped for a bit of tea and cake in the castle cafe before heading off back to the hotel. Headed out again after dinner to get a few photos of the lit up buildings. Enjoy the new photos. 

We just got in from our nice dinner out at Monteiths in Edinburgh for Valentine's day. We used open table this year to book it online which was a first having not used the service before. It added a reminder to Google calendar for me and has been reminding me all day, and the restaurant were expecting us too so happy days. Dinner was lovely, Dani had monkfish whilst I settled for some lamb with some roast potatoes on the side. Very nice indeed. Today has been a much nicer day in Edinburgh. The sun has shone all day with blue skies and mild temperatures. We've had a great time so far, visiting Holyrood Palace on Monday and the underground attraction Mary King's Close today.

It was a fairly grey day on Monday when we visited Holyrood. Sadly there aren't many photos as you aren't allowed to take them inside. We had a tour of the state apartments including those of Mary, Queen of Scots, accompanied by an audio guide to tell us what everything was. The palace was really quiet with very few people about. We finished the tour outside the palace in the ruin of Holyrood Abbey which despite its ruined state, maintains some of the structure that gives you an idea of how grand it once was. We were probably only there for a couple of hours including a visit to the cafe so still had time in the afternoon to explore a little further. We headed over the bridge to the new town and walked up Carlton Hill to see the Wellington and Nelson monuments. Reaching the top you are rewarded with a nice view back over Edinburgh and even down over Holyrood Palace. We had a bit more of a wander around before heading back to the hotel. We ate at Byron burger later in the evening as it's really close to the hotel and picked up some desserts from a bakery on the way back.

Today with the sun shining outside, we headed underground. Not the best timing, but nevermind. The Mary King's Close experience takes you underground to the site of one of the original close's of Edinburgh, some of the original buildings still exist now with valuted ceilings to support the Royal Exchange now built above. The tour takes about an hour with a guide taking you though the history of the area and walking you through a number of rooms and buildings including the narrow street that originally ran all the way down to the loch - now filled in and home of the Waverley train station. We spent the afternoon exploring Edinburgh a bit more including a walk around the Grassmarket and a walk up to the Scott monument - which had sadly closed just before we got there.

Edinburgh Castle tomorrow - hope the weather stays nice! 

February half term has arrived at last! We finally settled on a mini break in Edinburgh so headed up here yesterday on the train. We had looked at flights but they were quite a bit more expensive and were either really early or quite late in the day. Either way the difference in travelling time wasn't huge by the time you factor in transfers to and from the airport. We bought the two travel together railcard as it saved quite a lot on the journey and four and a half hours later we're here! We're stopping in the Hilton close to the station and just a hop skip and jump away from the royal mile. It was a bit rainy when we arrived yesterday so we had a little sloth in the room before getting some dinner at Pizza Express. After dinner we had a little wander to get our bearings before calling it a night. Hopefully the weather will pick up a bit of the next few days. We haven't got anything special planned for today, but are visiting Hollyrood house tomorrow and Edinburgh castle on Wednesday. Here's hoping for some sunshine! 

Well perhaps not everybody loves Lego. There's bound to be a few people that have stood bare feet on those little plastic bricks and those parents that curse at just how expensive it is, but c'mmon people - Lego!!! So I am definitely what I think they now term as an AFOL; an Adult Fan Of Lego. Dani and I have quite a collection and have actually built a few big models this summer that we bought a while ago including the Lego Creator Ferris Wheel (10247) and the Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters (75827). They are awesome, the level of detail is amazing espescially in the firehouse, they've really put a lot of thought into making it as realistic as possible.

Just before we broke up for the summer, I had an envelope through the post from mum. She had collected lots of tokens out of the sun news paper and got two free adult tickets for Legoland for this bank holiday Monday - amazing! So we bought an extra ticket for a bit cheaper though NASWUT and the three of us went.

The weather was fantastic and so was Legoland. It was pretty busy, but I guess this was to be expected with the combination of nice weather and a bank holiday. We really liked Miniland with the lego models of key sights around the world and the new Lego Starwars exhibit with the massive Death Star made of about half a million bricks. All in all a great bank holiday! Enjoy the photos.   

Mum is visiting for the bank holiday weekend, so we decided to make use of the National Trust cards today and headed out to High Wycombe to visit Hughenden Manor. It was home to Benjamin Disraeli, a close friend of Queen Victoria, and the Earl of Beconsfield. He served as both Prime Minster and as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Despite the heavy rain on the way there, we managed to mostly dodge the rain and had a fantastic time.

The house has rooms set up from the time Benjamin Disreali lived there and some rooms set up to show the role of the manor during wartime, when it's codename was Operation Hillside. It's definitely worth a visit and I suspect I may return with Dani another time. There are a few photos from the day linked below.

We've been trying to make the most of the rest of the school holidays before September rolls around so have made a couple more trips out. We visited Buckingham Palace in the first week of September last year, and if you sign the back and keep the tickets, you can revisit as many times as you like within the year. It suggests on the website to book in advance but we thought we'd wing it, and, in a worse case scenario, get tickets for another day. Dani had found some city walks on the TFL website (tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/top-walking-routes) which looked good so either way we had a plan. As it happened, when we got to the palace we were given tickets for about an hour later, so we decided to wait. 

This time, there was an exhibition celebrating the Queen at 90, so several of the state rooms were set out differently to last year. There were 3 rooms showcasing some of the Queen's many outfits including christening, wedding and coronation dresses, in addition to outfits from several foreign tours. For each outfit, with matching hat, there was a short description of where it had been worn and who had designed it. It was very interesting. 

It was a nice day, although by the late afternoon it was a little cloudy. There's a few photos, but only from the outside as no photography is allowed inside the palace. Not that it stopped some people...grumble grumble... Enjoy!

So it's still the summer and we've been out making the most of it. On Tuesday this week we went on a cruise to Kew. We had a voucher for Christmas for buyagift.com so used it towards the cruise trip and entry to Kew. You can just head down to Westminster pier and pay for the ferry on the day and get your ticket for Kew for the same price but the buyagift combo is great if you don't know about it. We really enjoyed the cruise; it takes a little over an hour and for the first half you get a commentary explaining all the local sights. When you first set off, it goes past the Houses of Parliment offering one of the best views of the structure as you pass under the Westminster Bridge.

Kew was fantastic as ever, I think it's our third visit now. This time we were able to look at, and go in the recently added Hive installation. Its a giant metal structure that "encapsulates the story of the honey bee and the important role of pollination, through an immersive sound and visual experience" (www.kew.org/visit-kew-gardens/explore/attractions/hive). The hive is linked to an actual bee hive and the lights and sounds inside respond to activity from the real bee's. Certainly worth a look if you're visiting.

It was a lovely sumer's day and stayed really warm thoughout our visit. We stayed until closing at 6.30 before heading for dinner at the nearby Ask (we had vouchers). After a very filling meal we opted for a Uber back as it was only going to take 30 minutes over the 1 hour 30 minutes by train. All in all a great day out! Enjoy the photos    

This is just a quick one to wish Dani a very Happy Birthday. Hope you had a great day at the zoo and enjoyed the cake! 

This week was half term and unlike previous years we hadn't made any plans to go for a short city break. Our tenants at the house had given us notice so we had decided to have a look at the house in Leeds and get some estate agents around to value it for a possible sale. We managed to fit quite a lot in on Monday, getting three agents around and doing some gardening whilst there. So the short story is, we've decided to sell. Just a few bits to sort out and and then it'll be hitting the market.

In other news, I've added a few new albums to the site. We've been out to a couple of places over the last month, visiting Ham House and Hampton Court Palace. Both trips were pretty grey days in terms of the weather with plenty of cloud cover but thankfully the rain held off.

We visited Ham House on a weekend in the middle of January. It is National Trust so the cards came in handy for free entry. We spent a couple of hours in the gardens but didn't get into the main house as there were only limited tours and we didn't fancy waiting an extra hour at the end of the day - maybe next time. The gardens were nice although obviously not a huge amount to see for the time of year. The sun was warm when it came out from behind the clouds but it was otherwise quite a cold day. 

We managed to get half price tickets for Hampton Court Palace at the beginning of February costing £8.25 each instead of the usual £16. It was quite a cold day when we visited, so we stuck to the state rooms and other parts of the house's interior. It is quite a vast estate and the signs didn't seem to be the most helpul in getting you from place to place. We did have a free audio tour and I suspect if we had followed it more closely, navigation around might have been a little less haphazard. We had lunch at the cafe and stayed until about 4.30pm when everything was starting to pack up. The wind had picked up quite a bit by this point and had blown a few of the trees outside the orangery over. The gardens looked nice from inside and I think it will be well worth a visit another (warmer) time.

This week after sorting the house out, we had a day out and about around the capital so I've added a few more of the usual sites, Tower Bridge etc, into a new album.

We were there until dark but some of the lights on Tower Bridge didn't seem to be working. London Bridge was lit up in bright orange though which I don't think we've seen before. I think I'll leave it there for now. Cheerio ta ta!

. . . he's checking it twice! Christmas is nearly here and we have begun the Christmas travels. Today we went to Baddesley Clinton a National Trust house and gardens to admire their Christmas decorations which were rather nice. They had small decorations for each of the twelve days of Christmas dotted around the house.

Dani took advantage of the chance to make her own Christmas decorations and we generally had a nice potter about. Only two more get-ups!

It's been another long stint, but half term has finally arrived. We decided we wanted to do something this half term so had booked a trip to the North Yorkshire seaside. We've managed to fit a fair bit in including a wander around Scarborough a trip to Robin Hood's bay and a jaunt to Filey where we had some fantastic Fish and Chips at First Catch Fish and Chip restaurant! Well worth a visit!

We also took a trip out to Castle Howard near York whilst here and had a good wander around the house and gardens. The weather has been a bit overcast although we have been treated to a little bit of sunshine, but otherwise dry. We also made it to the premier of the latest James Bond film "Spectre" at the local cinema in Scarborough. The film was fantastic and well worth checking out if you havent been yet. There are a few new photos, linked below. Add some comments, let us know what you think!

After another busy week at school we were keen to get out and about last Saturday. We recently recieved our shiny new National Trust cards in the post having joined at the end of the summer so figured we would make use of them and had a look at nearby locations. We settled on Osterley Park and House and set off around midday. With our cards we had access to the park, house and gardens. The house was renovated extensively by the famous architect Robert Adam who we found out had also worked on Harewood in Leeds where we used to be members.

The house is fairly complete inside with all of the original furniture designed for the house, still intact. The cafe is also worth a visit based inside the stables and the gardens are also nice with a good selection of flowers, fruit and veg in the beds. The weather stayed nice all day even treating us to a bit of sunshine late in the afternoon. All in all a nice day out!

Well, today we had a trip out to see the Queen, only she wasn't in, so we had a look around her house instead.

We had booked state room tickets online and had a bit a queue to collect the tickets, but once we had them we were pretty much straight in. The rooms were quite splendid, as was the audio guide provided which gave some interesting bits of information, images and short video clips which was good. The weather stayed nice with a bit of sunshine to top it off. We had cake in the cafe at the palace and in the evening when to the cinema. All in all, a nice day!

Just got back from our camping trip to Kent. We had great weather right up until it came time to leave when it decided to pour down. So a bit of a soggy end to a fantastic break in the Kent countryside. Whilst there we visited the White Cliffs and the newly opened Fan Bay deep shelter.

We also visted Dover Castle and Canterbury Cathedral. Enjoy the photos! 

Yesterday turned out quite nice in the end weather wise so we headed out to the canal boat cavalcade in little Venice. It was a good day out with lots of narrow boats covered in bunting and lots of stalls selling food and other bits. There was even punch and judy followed by a teddy bear picnic on the grass at Rembrants Garden. After a good potter about we decided to walk a little further into town, eventually reaching Hyde Park. We made full use of the sunshine and had a wander around the park, stopping for a drink by the Sepentine at the Lido Cafe. We ended up finishing the day out at Cafe Rouge by Victoria station before heading back home.

In the evening, I made a couple of small changes to the website to make it a little more user friendly, updating the gallery page to now load all photo albums with links to collections on the right. I also added a few lines of code to speed up loading of images by adding cache headers. It took no time at all to add and significantly speeds up page loads when returning to a page already viewed. For those interested all I added was:

header('Pragma: public');
header('Cache-Control: max-age=86400');
header('Expires: '. gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s \G\M\T', time() + 86400));
header('Content-Type: image/png');

Simples! Now time to get back on with the marking . .  

Hello one and all,

I hope you're all enjoying Febuary 29th, I'm not sure I know anyone that works for the National Trust and has rather nicely been given the day off so I imagine it is just another day for most of you. I thought I would mostly take the opportunity to post a little blog on here as the day comes but once every 4 years so haven't got an awful lot to say.

I'm now on the second placement of my PGCE course. I'm at a mixed school in Streatham, mostly observing this week (as its my first week here). The teaching should start to pick up over the next couple of weeks though which I'm looking forward to. Meh. I think I've run out of words really, didn't think this through perhaps I could have typed something a tad more comprehensible.

Oh last week we went to see the Natural History Museum which was rather cool - good to see they still have the big whale suspended from the ceiling and not forgetting all those dinosaur bones. We had an awesome time and took a few snaps which I may stick up here if I happen upon another spare moment. On Sunday last week we also visited the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms which was pretty cool - we managed to get in for on a 2 for 1 dealio that we cut out of the Metro (free newspaper).

I think I'll leave it there. Maybe get another update on here sometime next month.

Cheerio ta ta