Reasons to be Cheerful XVIII (#R2BC)

Time to think positive again and list my reasons to be cheerful this week!
1) Family days out
I had a lovely day walking near Windermere with my parents and kids on what turned out to be the last proper day of summer this week! Sunshine, fresh air and exercise with family in one of the most beautiful parts of the UK has got to be a top reason to smile.

2) De-cluttering
Together with my extended family we did the Staveley car boot sale and got rid of lots of bits. Other stuff has gone via Internet sales so there is less clutter and the kids have a decent holiday fund.
3) New friends
Through my mum I've been introduced to a fellow single mum who has moved to Kendal with her twin boys. Co-incidentally her boys first names match my son's first and second names so we are unlikely to forget our children's names! Having bumped into each other in the park we arranged to have a day out at Brockhole this week. Despite the damp weather we went ahead with it and had a lovely time getting to know each other better. Here's looking forward to more of the same.

EU Anti Smoking Campaign

Sponsored Post

This is part of the latest EU Anti Smoking Campaign and the video features portraits of ex smokers. As a mum I hope my children never smoke and already my 7 year old gets worried about one our friends who smokes. Let's hope that people pay attention to the campaign though for some it is far too late:

Viral video by ebuzzing

Wordless Wednesday: How does my garden grow..

Tuesday Review: Haba Fliffix Catch

Sponsored Post:

This is my fifth product review as a Haba Ambassador and my family are really having great fun trying them out. This one was for the Fliffix Catch which is our first outdoor toy to test it claims to be suitable from 5-99 years of age! Both my children were keen to try it out and when I took the nets and ball in their drawstring bag to the park after school several different children had a go.

The basic concept is that you have to catch the soft ball in your net. There are variations that you can do. The first is to play solo and hit the underside of the net yourself and then try to catch the ball:

You can also have someone throw the ball at your net and try to catch it. The advanced game has both players with nets and taking turns to flick and catch. My 7 year old could manage most of these versions of the game but my 4 year old needed to stick to the simpler versions.

One of his favourites was to get a net lodged into something and play a version of basketball with it:

I loved the fact that the ball and nets are quite soft and light weight. This means that 1) if accidents happen it won't hurt much 2) when you are off on a trip out they are not adding too much to the load. I think that as a family we will get a lot of use out this as a game and it will certainly packed to go camping this summer.

As my daughter discovered you can also have fun not playing the game correctly:

Family Fun: Walking the Heald, Windermere

This explains yesterday's #SilentSunday post

On Saturday my parents took us all out for a hike on the far side of Windermere. All of us were kitted out in our hiking boots and carried plentiful supplies. We parked at Ferry Nab (£7 all day) and then took the cable ferry across the lake. This is part of the county road network and cuts off a 15 mile drive to Far Sawrey. 

The first part of the route was along a single track road which crosses National Trust land adjacent to the lake. There were quite a lot of people walking, cycling and driving along the road as its a popular spot in the summer. Lots of them were picnicing, BBQing or enjoying watersports along the shore. Unfortunately too many people had left rubbish behind which spoiled the beach in places.

The kids were supplied with I-Spy books by my mum which helped distract them by searching for flowers, fungi and creepy crawlies as we went. Think we need some magnifying glasses next time to help out! Places like this fallen tree were great places to hunt for bugs etc.:

At lunch time we found a little bay where the kids could paddle after their picnic. It was a very hot day so they needed to cool off a bit. Then we carried on up the road which became more wooded and is used for logging. My son spotted a wood pile and decided it was where the snake from the Gruffalo lived:

This led to us all trying to recite the Gruffalo from memory A mouse took a stroll through a deep, dark wood... It was a good way to make the walk go faster. Then as we entered a section that had plenty of ferns I commented that it looked like the time of the dinosaurs. My daughter then gave us all character names from Primeval and we had to pretend to avoid dinosaurs!

The path we were on was pretty well signposted and we eventually turned off the main shore line bridleway and headed up onto the Heald itself. Stones had been laid on much of the route to repair it and to reduce the amount of mud and water we had to walk through. Quite a lot of the path was pretty boggy so stout footwear was essential. It was a pretty steep climb in places and the children helped each other up:

Once we got to the higher bits of the hill the path was less clear and we did take some wrong turnings! The view across Windermere made it worth the effort though:

On the way down we managed to miss the shortest route down but we probably had a more gentle descent. It did seem to take a long time to get back to the shore on hot, tired feet. When we got there it was blissful to remove socks and boots and soak them in the cool lake waters:

A promise of an ice cream at the ferry got the kids back out of the water. Then we re-traced our steps along the shore road to catch the boat. The Lakes ice cream served next to the ferry was a well deserved treat. We finished off with a return trip on the chain ferry and back to the car at Ferry Nab.

A great day out if you can manage a 6 plus mile hike and have suitable footwear.