Gosford Forest Park

Wow, what a beautiful day it was today. Sunshine, and no wind. Lovely. Maybe springtime is finally coming. Today we went to Gosford Park with our friend Caroline and her son Dominic. I've never been there before. Jude was staying over at a friends house so I only took Luke and Sam. Well, all 3 boys just had the best time. Sam and Dominic spent most of the time sword fighting with sticks on a long wall. Luke enjoyed being out in the sunshine and hiding under the big trees. He even tried to climb one or two. We visited the walled garden, the open farm and the castle - which was recently sold for £1 !!! Whilst Caroline and the boys were playing football outside of the castle Luke and I ventured off on our own. He found some tree stumps for us to sit on and he wanted "just Mummy and no-one else" time. We sat and chatted about the trees, the crunchy leaves underfoot, the insects and the birds. We picked some dandelions and left them on a tree stump for the bumble bees (although on the way home he decided that he wanted them back so I had to jump out of the car and quickly pick some more!)

We will definitely be going there again. The gardens are so beautiful. I think I'll go with a good book in the summer (before the school holidays) and let the kids run wild while I relax.

We picked Jude and Steve up on the way home. Steve made a quick dinner while I cuddled Luke who had fallen asleep in the car and woke up very upset. After dinner me and Luke spent some time in the garden planting our new herbs into some pots - 3 mints, camomile, fennel, marjoram. He loved helping to put the soil in and he planted the marjoram completely on his own. The kids have just gone to bed and Ive just milled some wheat and put a loaf of bread on to cook. Now we are going to chill and watch a video and eat some strawberries. So Ive gotta go...