#CountryKids A sunny September stroll to Sizergh Castle

It was a glorious September day in Cumbria today so I rounded up two protesting children and dragged them out for a walk! I have been wanting to find out how far it is to Sizergh Castle from ours on foot and it seemed to good a day to not try it (whatever the children thought about it!). The footpath starts not far from our house just along Natland Rd:

The beginning of the route was through a little woodland and it was really peaceful and cool walking under the trees:

Then the route opens up in the farmland which runs over the old Lancaster Canal. At times you would only know that it was a canal because of the beautiful old bridges that seem quite random in the middle of a field:

It was tempting for my children to pretend they were going to jump into the water as we passed underneath them though:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Seeing the light #R2BC

The lovely Jo at Ojo's World is handing back to me for October so I am going to have to be more on the ball! Please go over and see the super reasons she has to be cheerful. Meanwhile here are mine:

1) Bye bye hedge

My mum made major inroads on the overgrown privet that was blocking light and making it hard to be neighbourly. We helped her out by shifting the cuttings but ran out of room to finish the job (2 green bins filled and a heap at the end of the garden!)! It has already made our downstairs loo lighter and enabled conversations with the neighbours:

 2) Drive in movie

As a thank you for marshalling at Torchlight we were given a free ticket to the drive in movie at Grizedale Forest for the AND Festival. A surreal experience but a lot of fun for the 3 generations that squeezed into my car. We watched Moonrise Kingdom which is a bittersweet comedy with an impressive cast list:

3) Parkrun Milestone

My son received his official Parkrun 10 t-shirt this week. He is rightly proud of his now 12 runs and is hoping to improve his PB yet again:

4) Macmillan Coffee Morning

Today we have hosted a coffee morning in aid of Macmillan Cancer. Lovely to have a range of friends over and to raise just over £20 with coffee, cake and books! This is the cake my daughter made:

Join in and share your happy posts!

#CountryKids at the Hodder Valley Show

My son had a championship fell race at the Hodder Valley Show in Yorkshire on Saturday so he and I went on a mystery drive down south powered by Google Maps. It was a relief to make it on a wet and misty day. As it was raining we headed straight into the main marquee to check out the stalls. My son spent quite a while building a dry stone wall at the Forest of Bowland stand:

Once the rain paused we went outside to see what was happening in the main show ring. Being an agricultural show there were a lot of competitions for various farm animals including cattle:

One of our favourite parts was the sheep section as we could get up close to a wide variety of sheep breeds:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Running Away! #R2BC

I am day late joining in with the lovely hostess Ojo's World as its been so busy! So many reasons to be cheerful so here they are:

1) Kendal Torchlight

I was road marshalling so didn't really see the parade this year but both my children were in it. My daughter was with her Girl Guide district and they won the award for the best foot troop with their scooters all lit up:

2) Hodder Valley Show

My son was fell racing in Yorkshire on Saturday (a full post to come!) and despite the rain we had a fab day out. The fact he won his age category helped:

3) Family Fun

I introduced my son to Boggle, a game that I haven't played for nearly 20 years! Good fun and educational too:

#CountryKids in Blackpool for CBBC Shout Out Saturday

I have applied for tickets for BBC shows in the past and never been successful so didn't think I stood much of a chance for the CBBC Shout Out Saturday live from Blackpool. It was a pleasant surprise to be one of the 13,000 lucky viewers to be sent a ticket. Then it dawned on me that we would need to be in Blackpool at 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning - eek! Luckily the journey there only took an hour and we managed to park up right next to Blackpool Tower:

It was a chilly morning to be queuing on the seafront. Luckily the views were good and we chatted to other families waiting for the gates to open:

The advantage of getting there early was that we were on of the first ones in to the arena and my children speed walked their way to the front:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Back to school and running #R2BC

Once again our hostess with the mostest is Ojo's World she hasn't been feeling too well this week so pop over and help make her feel better! Here are my reasons this week:

1) Back to school/New school

My eldest started secondary on Friday (makes me feel old!). So far so good and she seems to have made friends, is enjoying lessons and wants to join dance and sports clubs:

Youngest went off to a new primary on Monday. Its walkable from our new house and his friends in our street walk with him. I was allowed to walk him twice and then told to let him go alone:

2) A day at the zoo

I've already written a full post about my day at South Lakes Safari Zoo with my son. How can you not look at this kangaroo and smile (yes I was actually that close to it!)?:

3) A day out in Blackpool

I haven't published this post yet but we spent Saturday in Blackpool to celebrate 30 years of Children's BBC links since Philip Scofield sat in the broom cupboard. Not a bad place to spend a day:

4) Back running

This is me on the top of the Helm last night. At this point I had done the easy 1st kilometre! 

Since Monday I've gone out and done a 5 k every day. I am not very fast but today I was nearly a minute faster on the the route I've run 3 times along the canal path!

5) Indian Summer

Most of the last few days have been stunning. Lots of blue skies and plenty of warmth. Someone commented that I must have been abroad on holiday due to my tan!

Please join us!

#CountryKids at South Lakes Safari Zoo

With big sister on her first day of secondary school little brother and I took advantage of the nice weather to head over to South Lakes Safari Zoo as we hadn't been since the recent expansions had been undertaken. There is a brand new road entrance, car park and access to the zoo:

We passed the brand new playground (no time to waste in there but it looks amazing!). Instead we found the new enclosure which had a range of animals including donkeys, zebras and (as my son named them) Bewilderbeasts:

We had purchased a bag of animal feed on arrival which we could use in the walk through worldwide safari. There are restrictions on which animals you can feed it to and my son was happiest with the little ones like the geese:

#CountryKids a sporty weekend in Cumbria

The Bank Holiday weekend turned in to a bit of a sporting bonanza for us with two days of outdoor sports. We started with our Parkrun at Fell Foot. My son was due to complete his 10th run and my daughter was marshalling. She was kitted up in hi-vis and given an arrow and set off for her position:

Its such a fabulous location for a family friendly run set as it is on parkland and in a meadow:

My son duly completed his Parkrun and will now be entitled to a special t-shirt. For the first time ever he was first in his age category too:

He celebrated with an outdoor game of table tennis with his big sister:

On the Sunday we headed off nice and early up to Grasmere Sports. We were just in time for the opening ceremony:

Reasons to be Cheerful: End of Summer #R2BC

Now its September the lovely Jo at Ojo's World is hosting again. Thank you everyone that joined in during the summer holidays! We have so many reasons to be cheerful on this the last day of the school holidays:

1) Operation House

I finally got around to clearing out the excess in my bedroom and putting up the mirror. It makes a difference and takes away from all the office/study aspect of my bedroom. I also put one up in the downstairs loo and brightened that room up with bright matting:

2) Proud mum

My son ran his 10th Parkrun last weekend and for the first time ever was first in his age category. He was disappointed not to improve on his PB but you can't do that every week:

3) Grasmere Sports

We made it to Grasmere Sports for the first time ever as my son had a championship race. Both children took part in the various activities. I will be doing a full post about this but meanwhile here they are heaving away together in one of the many tug of war events: