Bank Holiday Blues #BEDM

Today being a Bank Holiday and the start of the half term, and with the idea in mind that the kids would find it great fun(they did last year) we headed to Carlisle New Music City a free music event held in the city.

Their reaction though to being brought into the great outdoors was that of, Is this it? What now? I'm bored. Grr, there's no accounting for taste because I thought the bands we saw were fantastic. The Alleys, My Little Brother and The Fiona Clayton Band all blew the clouds away in our city centre

Lucas did enjoy a good dance to the tunes but I made the mistake of giving them Skittles as a band breaktime snack. It was too many additives I think and seemed to turn them both into powerhouses of silliness and shulks, oh well we live and learn.

 Yep silly times indeed.

As for Maisie she's currently going through an anti photo stage and this was the only one I managed to take, I think this was the only time she sat still and then it was to complain that the music was too loud and she wanted a cup of tea. I think she's 8 going on 80.

I hope you've had a relaxing time with your family this Bank Holiday and got to go somewhere nice,  whether they liked it or not. 

Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens.

Taking advantage of our National Trust membership we got as gift we headed off to somewhere I've wanted to see for such a long time, Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens. I've seen pictures of the gardens and they reminded me of the book The Secret Garden, I was not to be disappointed. 

They currently house an exhibition on The Wildman of Belsay, normally these historical titbits go over the heads of our children who are more interested in the activities, but the thought that there could be a Wildman and Women running around the gardens had their interest piqued.
At every twig snap or shout they were looking out for the them.

The gardens were indeed magical, maybe because I love gardening but don't have my own I find total peace admiring blooms such as these. My instagram account ins normally full of flowers and I like it that way. 

Maisie and Lucas loved the gardens too, it's wonderful to show them historical places and yet not have to worry they'll touch the wrong thing or be too noisy. With it being a Bank Holiday the National Trust normally have trials and competitions to do, here we had to look for small wooden treasure chests with a clue in and all the clues formed the answer you had to give to win a gold chocolate coin. The boxes were hidden all through the gardens, and castle.

Didn't I say it was like the Secret Garden, this door led to the path to The Castle.

Belsay Castle is an imposing and grand building, with much of it still intact we actually walked all the way up to the rooftop. There was a reenactment characters wandering the Castle grounds and the children had to give their puzzle clue to one of them and they both got the hugest chocolate coin I ever saw. 

I think the chocolate helped power them round the rest of the gardens, it's an easy pathway but quite a walk when you go all the way around. Lucas especially loved looking for the little clue boxes and filling in his sheet, although he needed help understanding the puzzle.

We had a fantastic day out at Belsay, Maisie and Lucas loved be free to run around, jump and be free; walking back through the Quarry Garden in the sunshine was my personal favourite part too.

This was the quarry where the stone was taken to build the Hall, the owner Sir Charles wanted to keep the space exotic and filled it with rare varieties of plants and trees.

Lucas having a rest while showing the full height of the quarry walls, he certainly was tired out but loved spotting more blooming flowers for Mummy.

Grizedale Forest Gruffalo Trail

Heading to Grizedale to attend the opening day of Grizedale Go Ape we ended up going the scenic route(my fault for not taking the ferry button off)and taking the ferry across Windermere; if you're heading to Grizedale for a set time don't go this way as the queues can mount up and the ferry isn't exactly speedy.  

However for us it was a nice break, with the chance of an ice cream and time to take in the scenery. 

Even though I've lived in Cunbria all my life the view still amazes me. For the children at the end of the whole day this is what all 3 of them remembered and wanted to do again. 

Due to us finishing early on Go Ape we were able to catch up and head around the Gruffalo trail with my friend and his Daughter(she was too little to Go Ape). Below is them trying to jump out on us.

The trail is a very pleasant amble along one of the easy routes, you can purchase a guide for the trail at the shop and it gives fun activities to do as you round. However we found so much else that was interesting along the way too.

I love seeing kids find their own playgrounds, and Grizedale is well stocked with things to jump on, climb across and hide in.

We also discovered an art installation along the way which comprised of these huge metal turning keys, when you got a good speed on them music started to chime in a tree further along, not all these worked and the keys were quite tough for even Maisie to turn. It was a great idea though, lovely to hear the music in the forest and great fun trying to find all the keys.

It is a beautiful trail with plenty of great spaces to explore along the way, we were too early to see any Gruffalo sculptures (unveiled on 7th June) but this didn't distract any from our adventure.

We all had a splendid time, with a picnic along the way and the sun shining how could you not?