The Hancock Museum

So the weekend is upon us again, and for those with children to entertain I can highly recommend the Hancock Museum in Newcastle. 

The Museum is tucked away as part of the university, but well worth hunting out. 

The collections cover a huge scope of historical times, Maisie was particularly excited about the Egyptian stuff and has she put it going to see dead animals in drawers, whereas Lucas wanted to see the dinosaurs.

 We loved the full scale models mixed in with other exhibits around the museum, there was plenty to see and chat about, I think the actual about of stuff to look at over whelmed our little ones. We didn't even make it to the Planetarium which sounded amazing, truthfully I think Stu and I would enjoy a trip back on our own as we missed loads running round with the kids.  

 There's lots of interactive computer models and touch screens with each exhibit to become more involved, Maisie and Lucas really enjoyed the Roman section with the scale wall screen.

Hope you something exciting planed this weekend?

Amanda.x.

Darling Fell

Well as you can tell this wasn't today, earlier in the week we took the kids to The Lakes. Our plan was to climb Darling Fell which looked easy enough for them, or at least did on paper.
They enjoyed being out in sunshine and Summer clothes for a change.

This is Darling Fell, it's very close to Loweswater a tranquil little place which gets missed for the bigger Lakes. As tourists skim this area there's not as much parking, mostly National Trust ones dotted round.
We found one on the side of the road which led up to the fell next to Darling and the fields below.

Has you can see it turned out to be a wonderful, bright day.  Costs can stack up for days out during the holidays so walks around the local countryside are great as they're free.  We took a picnic which I think is always fun, the kids love eating out as it gives them the freedom to run around in between courses.
We always express the importance of taking everything back with that we came with, and not litter the Fells.

I think walks in the countryside lead to valuable learning opportunities, animals eating litter, farming, how to climb a sty, names of Fells and Lakes, sheep's wool, types of trees and probably a hundred other topics were touched on.
In the end we didn't make it to the top of Darling fell as the path was unmarked that way and the route to the top of the a joining fell was to steep and wild with thistle and bracken for the children(and me). We still had a great trek out.

This is Lucas climbing his first sty all on his own.

Have you been on any great country walks this year. Feel free to post your blog links in the comments below for everyone to see.
Love Amanda.x.

Watchtree- Summer

Watchtree is our local nature reserve this I've previously spoke about here, so I'll not go into how amazing the place is again but just show you some lovely photographs from out latest walk here from a week ago.

I love foxgloves, the hues of colour always in-trance me, more sun when a rare blast of sunlight shines through them.

They were shooting up everywhere in the woodland area, a shot of colour amongst so much green. Although the Summer has been a let down for us it looks like the trees and shrubbery(love that word).
It was sad to see walking round at the nest notes (little messages left by staff about nearby nests) that a lot were washed out by the rains. 

For a frugal day out with family this is amazing, it costs nothing to go in the reserve but donations are welcome and well deserved. You an take a picnic but there is a cafe onsite at various time. They do various talks, special walks and nature investigation sessions, check out their website for further details.

Even though this Summer day was overcast and we had 2 very noisy smalls with us I managed to spot a Hare, Dragonfly, various lovely birds and a group of dear running off into the woods.
I love the meadow setting left free to go wild under the whoosh,whoosh of the wind turbines; showing that even if people don't want to live near them nature isn't so fussy.

You'd not know it was Summer around here but we're not letting that stop us, Lucas loves this place as we can run round like a mad thing, although that doesn't help when looking for wildlife. 

When out on day trips lately we seem to pack for every weather prospect, I think our car boot contains coats, wellies, hats, macs, shorts,t-shirts and suncream.

It's always best to be prepared.

I hope you're finding lots of lovely activities to do during the holidays. Feel free to link your posts about them in the comments section below.

Love Amanda.x.