Lavender and Butterflies

P, E and myself visited the Hitchin Lavender farm. It costs £6 for adults and £3 for children between 5-14 where you get a good sized paper bag and a pair of scissors to pick the lavender, the wildflowers and the sunflowers (although the sunflowers cost an extra 50p a stem). Any extra bags you’d like for children or if you fancy a whole load of lavender, is another £4. The girls had so much fun collecting lavender (AND now we are back home have been busy in the garden creating potions) asking when they can go back!  It is not a place to go however if you are allergic to bees as there are a lot happily buzzing around (we didn't get stung) and there is no shade so we went early to avoid the midday sun!

 We then drove half an hour away to Jordan's Mill where the girls took part in their butterfly session (pre-booked). They made paper plates showing the lifecycle of a butterfly, decorated a butterfly biscuit and then decorated a butterfly hat. E felt it was a little young for her, but P had fun although they would have both liked a lot longer to decorate their hats!

 We then wondered round the mill gardens on a butterfy hunt and to complete a quiz where we had to hunt caterpillars which had facts on them!

The girls then played in their woodand play area before we drove home.

A week on Anglesey

We holidayed on the Isle of Anglesey - an  island in Wales, off the mainland's northwest coast acessed via 2 road bridges.

We started off by visiting Bodnant Garden, a National Trust property. This is a world-famous garden spanning 80 acres. It has two parts: the upper garden surrounds Bodnant House, a 1792 build remodelled by Pochin, and consists of terraced gardens and lawns and the lower section, or the Dell, comprising of the valley of the River Hiraethlyn, and forms a picturesque wild garden.  I loved the magical Dell, with its acres of green giant woodlands, riverbank and waterfall. In fact, some of the tallest Redwood trees in Britain can be found around the Dell. The steeply sided informal area contrasts wonderfully with the architectural nature of the terraced upper gardens. The location is unbeatable, too; Bodnant Garden boasts spectacular views across Snowdonia.

 We then drove to our holiday cottage and straight away we went to the beach for a quick paddle.

For out first day then visited South Stack. Here is one of the most famous lighthouses on the island, which you can visit if you can face the 400 steps down from the island, as well as the South Stack Cliffs RSPB Reserve, where we saw guillemots, puffins and razorbills.

 We then had another quick visit to the beach!

 The next morning was spent at Plas Newydd, a country house on the Menai Strait. The girls enjoyed the playground in the woods

 We then had a game of Frisbee Golf before exploring the house and grounds.

On the way back to our cottage we stopped off at Rhosneiger beach as my Mum had been their as a child! It was OK but mainly full of kite surfers! We preferred our local beach!

The following day in a rare day of rain this summer we climbed Mount Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales at 1,085 meters. Sadly there was no view at the top, but as we descended the rain stopped and the clouds began to clear.

The following day we also grey so we drove back to the mainland for the husband, I and E to do down the fastest zipline in the world!

 We then drove to Newborough Warren, where you walk through a beautiful pine forest to a beach which then at low tide means you can walk to Llanddwyn Island.  For centuries rabbits have grazed here (hence the term ‘Warren’), helping to maintain a species-rich habitat. In the 1950s myxomatosis drastically reduced their numbers leaving the dunes in a vulnerable condition, no longer able to support plants and animals. However, rabbit numbers are slowly increasing, and they now graze side by side with horses, helping to keep the dunes healthy by controlling unwanted vegetation.

Wednesday's treat was for my parents, G and myself went on a rib ride to the Skerries. Our 2 hour boat tour took us to the rocky islets, The Skerries and then afterwards over to South Stack which we had previously visited on foot. We saw such a variety of wildlife - arctic turns, puffins, seals as well as caves and cliffs making a breathtaking backdrop.

 That afternoon, we walked up to Holyhead mountain!

Our last full day saw E, P and myself going for a ribride to Puffin Island - this one has a lower minimum age as it doesn't go so far out to open sea compared to the Skerries Island trip. I loved looking a the beautiful houses on the edge of the Menai Straight! We were so lucky to see a variety of sea birds including puffins and seals and a pair of harbor porpoises.

We then visited Beaumaris on the east coast. We got an ice-cream from the award winning Red Boat Ice cream

before exploring the beautiful castle of Beauarmis. Edward I of England completed his conquest of Wales, with the construction of Beaumaris Castle beginning in 1295. This is how the town got its name – the workers on the castle were mostly French, and they referred to the marshland of the area as les beaux marais, “the beautiful marshes”. Beaumaris Castle was designed by the master stonemason, James of St George and is considered the finest example of a concentric castles. Unfortunately, it was never completed as funds were diverted to help finance Edward’s invasion of Scotland.

Dinosnores

P and I spent the evening at Dinosnores at the Natural History Museum. We enjoying a wide range of fun activities over the course of the night, which in our case included torch-lit trails, Dino-design t-shirt making, science show all about sharks, breakfast of a hot drink , apple juice, muffin and a yoghurt and the educative session with animal man in the morning. It was expensive with ticket prices are adult £60, Each child must be accompanied by an adult, and the required ratio for adults to children is, as set by the Museum is:   for 1 child- 1 adult required, for 2-4 children- 2 adults required, meaning I could only take 1 child much to E's disappointment. It was also very hot when we went - everyone was dripping with sweat.

 After the event finished we went to Sensational Butterflies. Unlike the museum itself which is free to enter, the butterfly exhibition has an entrance fee of about £6. And be prepared to shed some layers when you go in, because it is hot - we went early in the morning so it was ok! There are lots of butterfly house volunteers to question and point out eggs, caterpillars and chrysalis.

 Then we went to the Shrek Adventure. You can't take photos in there (presumably because you then buy the ones they take!). The tour starts off with the highlight of the experience - a bus ride which was a brilliant 4D cinematic experience – you feel like you really are flying through the sky above London and beyond. As you fly you meet various characters from the DreamWorks stable including Po from Kung Fu Panda, Hiccup and Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon and the penguins from Madagascar. Finally the bus is surrounded by some scary witches on broomsticks and it crash lands in the forest, squashing Rumpelstiltskin’s favourite witch in the process. We were then ushered us off the bus and directed to escape through the forest before Rumpelstiltskin and the other witches found us. By this point it felt like we were in the story – and P found it a little bit scary (she is so not brave!). I won’t give away everything that happened on our journey but we went in search of safety through a series of scenes with different fairy tale characters. It was entertaining and interactive and felt a bit like taking part in a pantomime. However, the end of the tour was an anticlimax. We’d managed to escape to safety, with the help of Shrek, Puss in Boots and various other characters and it felt like there should be a finale – something to mark the end of the performance. Instead of which we filed out into a corridor where we could line up to have our photo taken with Shrek. P didn’t want to wait for that so we made our way out past the people trying to sell us a £25 book of photos of our experience, past the models of characters from DreamWorks films, through the gift shop and outside to the busy Southbank.

 We wondered along South bank enjoying the many street performers there.

 I persuaded P to visit the Tate Modern where we looked at few of the more famous works before visiting the gift shop!

 We then carried on walking along before stopping to play in the water fountains by Tower bridge.

We then caught the train home exhausted!