My Sunday Photo

My Sunday Photo

Leather Anniversary

Three years ago, Papa Owl and I married, it was a wonderful wonderful day spent with our friends and family.  We had a church wedding followed by a reception in the grounds of Bodiam Castle.  Each year we try to go back to Bodiam on our anniversary and this time we took the train!

The Kent & East Sussex Railway runs from the Kent village of Tenterden all the way to Bodiam in East Sussex.  We decided to join the train in Northiam as we would have to drive past it to reach Tenterden and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time at the castle.  It also saved us a bit of money!  Little Owl was very excited to see the train but wasn't so keen on the noise!

A short walk from Bodiam Station is Bodiam Castle, a National Trust property, is every thing you would want from a castle!  It has a moat, bridge, towers, crenelations and even goldfish!  There's ample parking if you don't have time to catch the train, and plenty of space to have a picnic. We treated ourselves to lunch at their cafe before heading up to the castle for our annual photo!

Before we knew it, it was time for the train home, getting one last glimpse of the castle before Little Owl couldn't keep her eyes open any longer and fell fast asleep!


Happy 3rd (leather) anniversary Papa Owl!

Play Days in the Park

Last summer Papa Owl and I took Little Owl to our local park for a Play Day.  We really didn't have high expectations and were overwhelmed with the activities on offer!

So this year Little Owl and I headed down to the park with bag full of food, water and a change of clothes (for Little Owl, not me!). 

I had images of us flitting from one activity to another.  There were so many activities that Little Owl was well, too little for last year.

We weren't disappointed!  The field was packed with things to do, assault courses, dressing up, woodwork, clay, story telling, tree climbing and a whole section marked out for the under 5s.  It was great!  We walked from one end to the other, waving at friends and looking at everything there was to do.  I started making a mental list of what was suitable and which order we would do it it... but then...

LITTLE OWL FOUND THE MUD KITCHEN!!!

That was it.  For the rest of the afternoon Little Owl was playing in the kitchen, only occasionally popping over to me to grab a bite to eat and then back again!

Little Owl was as happy as a pig in... well, mud of course!

A big thanks to Hastings & St Leonards Children's Centres and all of the other organisations who help to put this event on!

Dutch Firsts

Holidays always bring lots of firsts, and our few days in Holland were no different.

Little Owl had her first squash!

She saw her first coffin.

Her first ... I don't know, something that was handed to her by the man at the sweet stall before we knew it!

Her first shower with a friend

Her first grazed knee

And there are many other things that she has enjoyed which she cant remember from her first visit when she was just 4 months old

The ferry.

Driving on the 'wrong' side

Delft.

Clogs.

Windmills.

Orange

 

Silent Sunday

Jack in the Green

I danced in the morning to the sound of the bells,

It is a celebration that the Morris often tells; 

Of dancing through towns and the streets beyond

Where colour and music and dance abound

Dance, then, wherever you may be,

 Dance with the Morris and you'll feel quite free; 

For music and rhythms will lift your heart

And joy will become of your life a part.

There are pipes and fiddles and other things too,

Accordions, melodeons and concertinas, too;

There are bells, there are beasts, there are sometimes fools;

There are squires and bagmen and ragmen souls

In The Old Town of Hastings there are teams we know,

Mad Jack's and Hannah's Cat, who heel and they toe;

Each Spring they dance in the church and the town,

In every street, both up and down

The photos were all taken over the Jack-in-the-Green weekend which takes place in Hastings every May.

Tune: Lord of the Dance.  The words have been shared here with the kind permission of 
Iain Morrison of the Old Town Parrish, Hastings

We went to visit a farm one day...

We are very lucky to have friends that have a sheep farm.  Its been a few years
since we last visited and in that time they have gained a few extra animals!

They now have some chickens who had laid an egg!  The chickens were an instant hit with Little Owl, I think because they were smaller than her - see how she is signing chicken!

Actually, Little Owl didn't mind the cows as although they were very big, they were safely behind a fence!  I'm not sure what they made of her though, mooing at them!

But really we had come to see the sheep and their lambs.

There was one little lamb called BaaBaa (black sheep) who had been orphaned and needed bottle feeding.  Little Owl wasn't sure at first, but as her confidence grew, she became very concerned that BaaBaa finished all her milk!

A day out at Knockhatch

I hadn't been to Knockhatch, near Hailsham in East Sussex, since I was 21.  On that visit I was taking a group of Girl Guides who were all over the age of 10 and quite happy to entertain themselves.  It was also summer.

So I wasn't sure what to expect of Knockhatch on a wet February with a gaggle of toddlers (what is the collective name for a group of toddlers?).

  

It took a while to get inside because Little Owl was loving playing in the puddles in the car park!  Talking of the car park - plenty of space for cars.  Bays weren't marked out which meant you were able to give yourself space to get toddlers out (we had two in our car). 

Its free for under 2s to visit Knockhatch, and as today was classified as a 'Yellow Day' the adult entrance was just £1.99 - what a bargain!  Yellow days are the cheapest, Green are next and Orange are the most expensive, but also the days with the most going on.   The website has a calendar clearing showing the colour for each day right up until April 2015 - so plenty of opportunity to plan!

We arrived in a gap between rain showers and had time to take a quick looks at the animals.   There was an area for petting animals - where a guinea pig and rabbit sat apparently quite happy to be stroked by our toddlers! I was impressed that there was an area to wash our hands afterwards!

 

Next we went in the barn where there was lots of different animals.  Its easy to forget how exciting animals are to toddlers, they kept moving from pen to pen, looking at the different ones but leaping backwards when the goats came for a closer look!  It would have been nice if there were signs telling us what the animals are - one of the mum's thought the reindeer was a 'baby cow' and I must admit to not knowing the difference between alpaca and llamas!

We had lunch in the big barn where the soft play area is too.  I was impressed with the prices - £2 for a sandwich or £3 if you wanted it toasted.  Homemade pizzas and jacket potatoes were on the menu too.

The highlight of the day was definitely the soft play!  It is one of the largest, and nicest soft plays that I have visited.  There was a completely separate area for little ones and another area for toddlers with a small slide.  The only fault I found was that the slope to climb up to reach the toddler slide was far too difficult for any toddler.  Meanwhile the slope to get up to the massive slide was easily scaled in no time at all by Little Owl!

Being term time, the soft play was very quiet, and over half of the kids had parents running along behind them which made for a very pleasant atmosphere. I was really impressed with Little Owls ability to climb, and also surprised by her no fear attitude!  The soft play was big enough, with plenty that the toddlers could access to keep them entertained for hours!
 
I think soft plays are a fantastic opportunity for kids to test their skills and even as toddlers, start to make their own risk assessments in a safe environment.  I also think they are a good workout for parents and can't understand why someone hasn't introduced them to the adult fitness industry!

Before we left, we had just enough time between rain showers to take another quick peek at the animals and even have a go on the 'Quadapillar Barrel Ride' - we sat in a barrel on wheels (in the photo above) and were dragged along on a bumpy ride by a quad bike,  it was better than it sounds and Little Owl thought it was hilarious! 

We had a great day at Knockhatch and can't wait to go back again!  I know there is lots more to the park which we didn't get to see and given that its such great value for money I'm sure we'll be back lots!  Little Owl had a great day, in fact the only time she looked unhappy was when I told her we had to go home!

The Baby Show with TotsBots

I love The Baby Show, in fact any show, I did the wedding show a couple of times, and have even been to the Knit and Stitch show at Ally Pally, oh - and the Outdoor Show at the NEC.    Actually the first show I ever went to was when I was 19.  It was The Dive Show at the NEC and I was working on one of the stands.  I haven't a clue about diving but I remember a couple got married in a tank and it made the local news!

I like to see all the products at the shows and interact with the people behind them, especially the brands at the Baby Show as I have followed many of my favourites on Facebook and feel like I know some of them well. 

I went to my first Baby Show when pregnant with Little Owl, and have been to two shows since she was born!  As Little Owl is now a toddler, I had thought that perhaps that we had out grown the show and was struggling to justify buying a ticket this year so was over the moon when TotsBots said they would give us a complementary ticket!

We are big fans of TotsBots nappies since Little Owl tried her first one at just 5 weeks old and I was delighted a few months ago when I was asked to become a Fluffragette - a brand ambassador for TotsBots.  As well as entry to the show, the lovely Fiona (founder of TotsBots) treated all the Fluffragettes to lunch.  It was great to meet each other in 'real life' after months of chatting on Facebook, although I felt I knew some of the babies already from their pictures!

After lunch it was time for some shopping, I had written a little list!  First stop was the TotsBots stand of course!  I wanted to buy some more Potion - I just love Little Owl's nappies smelling of Mint Humbug!  I snuck a tub of Parma Violets in too just to see what it was like!

Next on the list was me&i who are a Swedish clothing company with some fantastic designs.  I bought a beautiful dress from them at a previous show, but as Little Owl still hasn't grown into it my aim this time was to buy something in her size, and look what I found!

Little Owl looks gorgeous in it, I shall post a picture of her wearing it soon!

Next I came across the Cheeky Wipes stand, I'm a big fan of their products which means I have everything I need, but I couldn't resist these new Rainbow Microfibre Wipes - they are so pretty!  Luckily there was another Fluffragette at hand to go halves with!

The final item on the shopping list was a new body warmer from Konfidence.  Little Owl is doing so well on her swimming and when she is warm she'll happily stay in the water for ages after her lesson has finished.  Konfidence body warmers do what they say on the label! 

All the shopping completed, we were about to head home when I spotted the Oyster stand.  Although we mainly carry Little Owl, we love our Oyster pushchair for when wheels are needed - such was mammoth shopping trips. 

However, when I put Little Owl in it on the morning of the show I noticed the straps were tight.  As I was passing their stand, I thought I would stop and ask if it was possible to loosen the straps any more then I had.  Apparently I had done all that I could so the lovely man said he would post me some extra long straps - and he did - they arrived two days later!

This time I really was heading for the exit when Little Owl caught sight of a huge bunny on the Aden + Annis stand.

The lovely staff asked if they could take some photos of Little Owl to share on their Facebook page and in return they gave her a Kangaroo.

I like bright colours and so probably wouldn't have chosen this grey toy but Little Owl absolutely adores it!  She cuddles it when she is tired and its the only toy ever to have been taken out in the sling!

So that was it.  Our day out at The Baby Show - thank you TotBots! 

Battle Bonfire

There's something about Battle Bonfire, the age of the town, the buildings, the history all around, its one of my favourite processions.

There has been a bonfire on the abbey green since 1646 and it feels great to be a part of a tradition that has been going for so long!

Bonfire on the Abbey Green

We arrived in Battle plenty early enough to have time to visit a local cafe.  Little Owl charmed everyone as usual!

I tried to take some pictures of the procession, but you see, my little camera struggles to take pictures of flickering lights in the darkness at the best of times.  During the procession, I'm not actually able to stop walking for fear of someone with a flaming torch walking into me and Little Owl, so sorry for the poor quality, but hopefully they give you some idea of the procession and fireworks that followed.

Hastings Bonfire Society

The Abbey Green

Robertsbridge Bonfire Society

Battle Bonfire has always drawn large crowds, due partly to its timing of being the nearest Saturday to 5th November.  Whilst there has always been a bonfire outside the Abbey, the popularity of Battle Bonfire has meant over the years it has tried various locations for its main bonfire and fireworks.  However, last year it returned to the Abbey Green.  There is something special about that.

The effigy

Fire

Fireworks

Well done to Battel Bonfire Boyes - another great event!

If after reading my bonfire posts, you are wondering what all the fuss over Bonfire is, have a read of this article from the Independent on Sunday.  It's a wonderfully written article which captures the spirit of Bonfire without actually visiting one beautifully.