A picnic and a walk round Fowlmere

Today we had a lovely walk round the reserve where we saw damsel flies, birds, brown trout and the highlight - a water vole!  The girls enjoyed a hunt looking for things on the reserve and the husband and I enjoyed the beautifully clear streams!

A walk up to the roman road, through wandlebury and back home!

Shepreth Wildlife Park

Today we spent the morning at Shepreth wildlife park - it is not huge and has plenty of space and play areas to keep everyone happy! Overall the park is clean and the animal enclosures clean and adequate for the animals (except the cats) . All the animals appeared to be in good physical health, however we did see a few of them pacing around their cages which I always take as a sign of stress for the animal. Talking to several of the zoo keepers they were knowledgeable and friendly The girls loved the otters and I loved the tigers - but it was such a hot day most of the animals were hiding from the heat!

Later the husband tool the older 2 to see Goodnight Mr Tom at the Arts theatre.

Grand Victorian Travelling Show

Today we went to the Grand Victorian Travelling Show at Audley End. Again they had various entertainers - although not as many as last year!  We enjoyed learning about the differences between Western riding, side-saddle and English riding, watching the wild west horse display (although not quite as impressive as last year!), listening to some traditional folk music and enjoying Victorian garden games and a swing boat!

Hatfield Forest

On a sunny May day we went for a walk to Hatfield Forest which is very close to Stansted and the M11. It really is beautiful and away from the carpark and cafe you can find areas where there is no body else! I loved seeing deer and the girls loved tree climbing. It is a very old woodland - William I had an interest in the forest and that the King Henry 1st used it for hunting, but it's likely that the forest had been in existence for much longer than that. It contains all elements of the old hunting forests namely - deer, cattle, pollards, coppiced woodland, scrubland, mature timber trees, grazing land and wetland.