Tag Archives: wales

Our Countrykids Hitlist

January 10, 2014Countrykids, Walescountry kids, days out, garden, walesLearnerMother

It hasn’t been a great week for getting out and about, thanks to school, work, and wet dark evenings, though we did manage to feed the ducks in the rain…

But the week’s not been wasted – we’ve been having fun compiling our Countrykids Hitlist for the next couple of months! Here it is…

The Taff Trail. We are lucky enough to live very close to the Taff Trail, which runs all the way from Brecon to Cardiff; and although we often go for a wander along the part that’s closest to our house, we’ve never explored the rest of the trail – something we need to put right this year!
Bat walks! I’ve been promising my kids that we’ll go and see some bats – the Taff trail is full of them, and there are also several organised bat walks that take place round and about – so there’s really no excuse!
Newport Wetlands Centre. This RSPB bird reserve is less than half an hour away from us by car, yet we’ve never visited. As well as birdwatching screens, there’s nature trails, guided walks and different family events throughout the year.
Heath Park in Cardiff – we’ve actually never been to this park in all the years we’ve lived here, which is daft as it’s just a short bus ride away…apparently there is a model railway there as well as a pitch & putt and woodlands to explore.
Funfests in the forest – I’ve just discovered the ForestXplorerWales app which has details of forests around South Wales, plus useful info like car parks, activities and trail maps – a great way to get started discovering some new woodlands.
Our garden – I’ve written before about our not always successful attempts to grow edible goodies, but we’re getting better bit by bit!
Castles! We’ve got loads of them here in Wales, but we tend to go back to the same (closest) ones again and again. The kids love running about and exploring them so this year we’ll be dusting off our CADW cards and checking out some new ones – Tintern Abbey and Ogmore Castle are next on the list.

So – that’s our Countrykids hitlist from now until the Easter Holidays, plenty to keep us busy – and we’ll report back via Countrykids of course!

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On a night at the beach

October 25, 2013Countrykids, Family, Holidays, WalesBeach, country kids, fish, Holidays, kids, pembrokeshire, wales, wiseman's bridgeLearnerMother

Last week I blogged some photos of our holiday in West Wales for the lovely #countrykids linky run by Fiona at Coombe Mill – but I ~~ran out of time~~ saved the best for another post!

On the last day of our holiday, we had a lovely surprise when my friend Tanya from Beachlifeetc turned up to spend a week there with her boys, along with another friend and her two children also. I don’t see Tan anywhere near enough, despite the fact that we live so close to each other, so it felt like a lovely end to the holiday to be crossing over for a night.

Because we are all EXCELLENT parents, who put the needs of our children above all else, we decided, along with some other friends on the site, to take all the nine kids we had between us to the beach for the evening as a very special treat. This decision was IN NO WAY influenced by the fact that nearest pub is, in fact, on the beach. And the kids actually thought it was pretty convenient to have somewhere to dump the adults while they had all sorts of adventures. You see? Always putting the little ~~outers~~ darlings first.

~~We had a great time chatting and catching up~~

They had loads of fun. Including shark spotting…

Chilling out…

Making friends with the fishermen (the fishermen might have different words for this)

Realising that fishing seemed too much like hard work when there were literally hundreds of tiny fish (whitebait?) jumping out of the waves and getting stranded on the rocks

Collecting the teeny fishes to throw them back

Or alternatively to sort them by size

And then to serve them to the grownups.

I can’t leave you with the dead fishes, so to finish up with, here’s my favourite photo of the night, and perhaps of the holiday:

I love this one, it makes me smile every time 🙂

I’m linking up our holiday memories with #countrykids at Coombe Mill – there are loads of lovely outdoor posts on the linky, so why not head over and have a browse!

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On beach days in Pembrokeshire

October 18, 2013Countrykids, Family, WalesBeach, holiday, pembrokeshire, rock pool, stepaside, summer, walesLearnerMother

I’ve been (finally) sorting the photos from our Summer trip to Stepaside, Pembrokeshire. We’ve been to the same place for the last four years because it’s pretty much perfect – the caravan site is small and safe for kids to scoot and bike around, there is a mini play area on the site and another 5 minutes away, and the beach is just a mile away.

In previous years we’ve always had a 50/50 split between rain and shine but the weather this year was absolutely amazing! We spent most of our time on the beach, making the short trek down the old railway track armed with buckets, spades and fishing nets , usually settling at the end of the track on and around Wiseman’s Bridge, where like previous years a LOT of effort went into damming the stream…