Reasons to be Cheerful: Easter fun #R2BC

Thank you to Michelle for hosting in March its now over to me for the month of April! I do hope folks will continue to join in by linking and commenting. I will visit you all and share your posts. Here are my reasons to be cheerful this Easter holidays:
1) Single parent holiday
My son and I were co-ordinating a holiday for 42 people at the YHA in Sherwood Forest.  We love doing these as we get to meet new people and stay in new places. I may have been born in Nottingham but its not a part of the world I know well so it was good to return:

2) Farm fun
I have already blogged about the fun we had at White Post Farm. How could sights like this fail to raise your spirits:

3) Fun and Games

#CountryKids Easter Fun at Sizergh Castle

Today my son and I headed over to Sizergh Castle. We wanted to do the Easter trail around the grounds and even though it was damp we weren't the only ones following the signs:

I think it was the best one we have done there yet and there was plenty to spot and clues to solve including this chap on the pond:

The route took us passed the Stumpery which is looking resplendent with Spring growth:

#CountryKids Easter hunt up Stickle Ghyll

We just hadn't had enough of hunting chocolate bunnies after Saturday and Sunday so we consulted the National Trust website and headed north. It was a toss up between Allan Bank in Grasmere or Sticklebarn in the Langdale Valley. As it was already early afternoon I decided to go for Langdale as I thought that Grasmere would be very busy with nowhere to park. It turned out that there wasn't much space at Sticklebarn either but luckily just enough for us. This was a slightly different trail as it turned out to be more of a walk with a quiz rather than a hunt. It was also the most picturesque of the ones we have done this weekend:

We have been to the pub several times as part of my 10 k races but had never really explored up the valley and seen the waterfalls that they are using for hydropower:

It wasn't the easiest of walks so luckily we were both wearing trainers and are fairly fit:

The instructions were to start the trail when you got to the bridge. This was the first indication that we were headed in the right direction (although with only one route it would be hard to get lost!):

My son couldn't resist a bit of mini mountaineering by climbing on the boulders alongside the manmade footpath:

We finally reached the bridge and I read out the first clue:

Once he had worked it out and we had filled in the answer plus the missing letter grid we carried on up the valley:

This is the style that needs replacing and they need to raise the funds to do so:

A walk in the Lakes wouldn't be the same without at least one stream to either step or leap across. I took the sedate stride route whereas my son took the risky route:

It was at this point my son worked out that I had been stringing him along and that we didn't need to walk any further to find answers! All the questions were general knowledge based on the Lake District. Once he had filled in the final clue he refused to go any further:

At least we had made it far enough up to enjoy the views back down:

He then raced it back down to the start to claim his bunny. I took my time as I am not too keen on rocky, steep paths.... It was then threatening to rain so we retired to the pub for refreshments and entertainment:

The pub had a lot of these Victorian i-pads and we had fun playing noughts and crosses, hangman and squares:

We had an interesting drive back down the valley as a farmer was herding some of his Herdwicks along the road with his faithful sheepdog:

And this lovely pair were claiming right of way alongside Elterwater common:

It was a beautiful end to the day on Windermere and I'm glad we spent some of it out enjoying tghe fells:

#CountryKids More Easter Trails with the National Trust

Saturday was such fun we decided to do some more trails on Sunday afternoon. We decided due to lack of time to head to Sizergh Castle. The children did this trail on Friday with gramps but I hadn't been. So many others had had the same idea that we had to queue at the entrance for a car parking space. It was cold and wet so it was probably just as well the trail was a very quick one!

There were some simple clues to follow and some obvious things to spot:

My son shot off ahead and we soon lost him:

#CountryKids at Lanydrock

Before we went to Cornwall I had checked out the nearest Parkrun and discovered it was at Lanhydrock. I persuaded my brother to pack his running gear so that my son had someone fast to run with! We all got up bright and early and drove the 30 minutes from our holiday accommodation to join in with what turned out to be a record breaking Parkrun for the location:

It was a lovely route and for a section of it I ran alongside a regular. Then my stinking cold stopped me breathing through my nose so I had to walk a while through the woods:

There were a few photographers around and they caught us all on camera:

My daughter met me near the finish and ran with me after I had recovered the long up hill! Not my finest 5k to date but my son was 3rd in the under 10 boys category. We had to recover with cake in the cafe before looking around the house and garden.

#CountryKids Easter Eggs and Woollen Woods at Sizergh Castle

For my family its not Easter without an Easter Egg hunt at the National Trust! My daughter went with my parents on Saturday but as we were away my son and I had to wait until yesterday to go... Our destination was Sizergh Castle just down the road. At this time of year its a beautiful place to visit so everyone is happy. On handing over our £2 we were given a quiz sheet and a world map and told where to start the trail. My son was off like a shot:

Each clue was about countries this year and there were flags with country names on. There was a question to answer each time and we had to mark the country on the map (younger children just counted flags!). My son just about gave me time to look at the beautiful flowers whilst he wrote the answers down:

Easter Family Fun: National Trust Egg Hunt at Sizergh Castle

As a family we have been doing the National Trust Easter Egg Trail for about 4 years firstly at Bodiam Castle and now at Sizergh Castle. I like the fact the trails take you all over the property hunting for clues and the children love the egg at the end! This is one of the earliest Easter's we have done the trail (no chance of the eggs melting like they did in 2011!). We did the trail with my parents, my brother and his wife and my nephew. Having more adults than children meant I had a lot more time to take photographs..

The trail is different every year to try and take you to different bits of the grounds or solve mysteries. This time we started in the courtyard:

Clue 2 took us into the fabulous gardens which are full of useful information boards and most of the trees and plants are labelled:

A combination of garden remodelling and a late Spring meant that the gardens were a lot barer than on previous visits but there were still lots of things to catch the eye such as this mossed covered tree:

Several clues were in the kitchen gardens and it required adult help for my 2 to solve all of them:

The gardens are protected by this fabulous looking scarecrow:

Next we had to search out the beehives and then the resident chickens. This is the cockerel that is in charge of a bevy of exotic looking hens:

With this being Cumbria we had a clue involving Wordsworth and daffodils. This bank is covered in traditional native daffodils which are known as Wordsworth daffodils. My 6 year old reckoned they were so named as Wordsworth wrote a poem about daisies!

The trail ended in the rock garden. Here they had to count Acers and try to see how many frogs, toads, tadpoles and frogspawn they could find. This managed to take up a lot of time as the rock garden has a lot of paths and pools to explore:

So it was a well deserved Easter egg by the time we finished (and they did let us grown ups have a little bit!):

We managed to find a lovely sheltered sunny picnic bench to eat our sandwiches at surrounded by daffodils and wind chimes:

Afterwards there was time to watch the birds at the hide on the edge of the grounds, we saw about 7 species between us all:

We all still had enough energy left to wander around the rest of the grounds to get closer to the main castle:

The boys had plenty of energy left so made the most of the open space to let off steam:

Our visit was rounded off with a genteel game of croquet as they had left out garden games at various points in the grounds. The family won't be competing at a high level just yet but it was a nice end to the trip:

So now we just have to wait until next Easter to do it all again. Who knows what the weather will bring next time...