Anyway, on with my post... 2 weekends ago we decided that we didn't want to spend the day inside as it was such lovely weather, so we went to St Ives in Bingley with a packed lunch to eat when we got there.
The first thing we found while walking up from the bus stop was a piece of wood with some really interesting looking fungus growing on it
Then we walked up past the wooden statues of "the witch who is making soup" and "the weeping angels"
We spotted some dens that had been made. We thought maybe a forest school had built them.
The bluebells were starting to carpet the forest floor...
While eating lunch we spotted a squirrel, although the pictures aren't great as they were taken on my phone (we forgot to take the camera!)
After lunch we walked to the pond. I say pond, but it's almost a small lake... it even has an island in the middle.
Just as we arrived there were two young ladies who gave us the remains of their box of duck food which they hadn't used up which was very kind of them. We thanked them and the kids had loads of fun feeding the ducks and geese.
When we reached one end of the pond we spied a pair of geese with 6 goslings...
The next thing we spotted which the kids were excited about was millions and millions of tadpoles...
And we spent a long time talking about frog life cycles, how frogs return to their pond of birth to breed again, and how nature works to ensure sufficient frog numbers survive whilst also providing food for other creatures in the food web. During that conversation we also spent some time watching some archers shooting targets in a field behind the pond. Little has been very interested in starting archery for some time now and really wanted to have a go, she was a bit disappointed that we have to book onto the courses and can't just show up and ask for a turn.
Here's a few more pictures...
Look at that gorgeous blue sky! :)
It was a long tiring day for Tiny... especially as on our way home we stopped off at our friends' house for a cuppa and ended up having a BBQ with them and their neighbours.
Last Sunday we decided we wanted to go for a walk again, but just a little one this time. What started out being a little wander ended up being a 2 and a half hour trek that had us all shattered by the end! We set off along a nearby bridle path, and then we got to the end of it decided to explore a slightly longer route home along another bridle path... by the time the kids were saying they wanted to go home it was quicker to continue than to go back the way we had come, but it was still another 45 minutes before we eventually got home and all piled ourselves onto the sofa for drinks and watching the Princess and the Frog (our way of keeping the kids spirits up instead of melting down). We did get a few lovely pictures though :)
Butterfly...
Random rock face that Small decided used to be a castle that had been ruined and hidden by the trees and plants...
Bridge over a local beck... I didn't even know there was a beck! You can't see from the pictures but the place was absolutely swarming with midges... we named it a midgie motorway :)
A little trickle that decided it didn't want to be confined to the ditch any more and preferred the path for a while!
Random interesting looking tree!
At one point near the beginning of our walk I found a little gap in the hedge and squeezed through and found a lovely picturesque area of trees and a bluebell carpet and it was just lovely (although apparently not lovely enough for me to take a picture of it!), but Tiny got a little bit worried when she realised I wasn'twalking behind her any more and started shouting for me. When I appeared again she said: "I thought you were kidnapped by aliens!" which had Podd and I chuckling for the next 10 minutes.
Overall, our family walks the past two weekends have been lovely :)
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