Friday 22 January 2010

Winter Woodland








As promised here are some pictures from our little break away. The snow caused a few things to be tricky, mostly not all the foot and cycle paths could be gritted and the ice that came on Wednesday meant we couldn't use the bikes at all, plus the adventure playgrounds that GS loves so much were out of bounds and taped off for health and safety, understandable but still disapointing, but regardless of all that it was lovely, just the break we needed and we always relax away from it all in the woodland surrounded by nature and good food :)

Now i am ready for organising our next break away :)
I have been trying to find things to occupy GS (AKA The Mancub) lately, i think the bad weather plus his high energy levels mean he is utterly bored with the same old same old and being stuck mostly indoors and needs to run off his energy, I've tried having friends round, crafts, baking etc but he is so highly strung that he only has a 5 minute attention span with anything right now, is easily irritable and is basically hard work. It means I am spending most of my days trying not to shout at him (hard) and explain that he needs to play nicely/sit nicely/eat nicely/not throw things/not fly off the sofa in an impression of Buzz Lightyear/not attempt to saw my head off with his toolset/not keep getting DVDs out to watch/ not make a mini mountain of books and stand on them at the summit... aaah the joys of toddlerdom! I am beginning to find myself a) hankering after warmer weather so we can get out more b) yearning a more local cheap/free soft play centre and c) putting him infront of his much asked for DVDs and trying not to feel like a bad mother for letting him watch films rather than trying to keep him entertained doing other more educational things... bah! Anyway, Granny Nanny, Mr G.T. & I have come together and are going to try and put more wet weather action in to play, we have started to go swimming every Sunday morning, not a cheap pasttime but its worth it, and also we've researched a few more local "Messy Play" and toddler sessions at centres we can go to across the week. Failing that I am hoping that the rain clears soon and we can grab in a few more walks, kickabouts and gardening in to the equation, before we start being able to recite Toy Story verbatim, oops too late!
However, on a glorious break for escape yesterday we visited the local garden centre which i adore, even in Winter it has delights that I crave, bad news is it makes me spend money, good news is we now have a lovely new feeding station for our beloved garden birds, a lemon tree that was half price (Granny Nanny's new pride and joy for the conservatory) and 5 Raspberry plants to get caned up in a few more weeks, hurrah! We have big plans for the garden this year, last year we got some stuff done but what with my ill health it took a back burner understandably, now we are putting money away every month in the savings account so we can start getting the fence and decking painted, decking done for the front garden, gravel down on the lining and final touches made to the front such as a water feature etc hopefully. I hope to produce some before, during and after pictures in the following months!

6 comments:

  1. Centre Parcs, unless I'm mistaken?
    I believe boys are like dogs - they need regular exercise and fresh air. Not so easy in January though!

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  2. What beautiful photos of your trip away, we're going to Derbyshire with my in-laws just before Easter and I can't wait to get into the countryside again.

    I had terrible threes (and beyond) with my eldest - I did bake and play board games and paint etc, but it's incredibly hard work keeping a small person with a developing brain entertained and both mine did end up watching a lot of TV and DVDs, although the eldest liked the schools' programmes about numbers and letters which in some ways seemed less terrible than cartoons! I still felt like a terrible mother and had a friend who seemed to paint with hers ALL the time and they only watched TV in the evenings! My two (now 14 and 12) have turned out to be so-far very well adjusted, caring and communicative, so in retrospect it wasn't worth getting myself stressed about! Swimming sounds like a great idea though.
    We loved Buzz Lightyear, and had a fair bit of jumping off the sofa, as well as a real Buzz. I kind of miss all that now!
    Hang in there, it can be very wearing but will pass and your son sounds like he has a wonderful range of experiences. Hope the warmer and drier weather comes soon! xx

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  3. Having to laugh at the Toy Story references - my almost 14 was convinced he was Buzz Lightyear when he was about 4!!

    PS - Toy Story 3 is out in the summer ;)

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  4. How exciting all your garden plans sound.
    I can relate to the DVD or peace scenario! It's really hard being cooped up indoors, I hate the weather stopping us from doing things but sometimes that's just the way it is!
    Take care and enjoy your weekend.
    Lisa x

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  5. Huge Toy Story fan here so I don't mind coming to play and keeping him entertained ;)
    Your time away looks fab, gorgeous pics.
    You've been tagged over at my blog.
    Have a great weekend
    Beki xxx

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  6. Hi, cant wait to see your plans for the garden. I can totally sympathise about energertic young boys, I have one too. T likes nothing more than a bowful of bubbles in the kitchen sink and using it to play in with his bits of lego and sometimes to do the "washing up", dont cost anything either!!

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