They are currently on half-term school holidays here in the UK - so they have a week off from school. We had planned to get away for a few days and to decide on something last minute, but then the fence in the back garden started to fall over and hubby said he needed to replace a few fence posts and could only get one done a day on his own so we are hanging locally with the kids for this break, heading to a relative's birthday party on Saturday and staying over for a nice family braai (bbq) and catch up 💗
Anyway... pause and back to the scolding hehe... so I asked him what he would like to do...
Go for a walk, Mom.
ok sure, should we drive somewhere first or pop across to the woods and explore together? You could show me your den and swing?
yep! Let's do THAT! I'll show you the bridge we made too! (we as in him and his brother)
So, we made our way into the Haymill Valley Reserve, fondly known as the Millie by the locals, and consisting of local woodland and a small stream that runs through it. The local Woodland Trust volunteers have been doing a fair bit of work in the woods in order to implement a new ecological blueprint for the area. In some ways, it's great as they are trying to create a wetland and also to encourage an increase in the slow worm population. The Millie is already home to foxes, hedgehogs, ducks, geese, and a plethora of birds and insects. But as shown in the header picture above, they are intent on damming up the stream which causes period explosions of the mosquito population - which is not fun!!!
Jack was excited to show me the swing that he made with his brother. They had climbed up into a tree alongside the path adjoining the stream to hang the rope borrowed from daddy and had made a makeshift swing seat using a branch from a tree. It seems sturdy enough hehe... and he had fun demonstrating it to me! As you can see... not much thought went into its placement though, as it hangs right down in the middle of the pathway used by local walkers 😂 but it is functional haha.
We continued along the path as he wanted to show me the bridge that they had made which goes to Terebithia... oh yes... we have our own little Terebithia in the woods. It's quite magical... some dense woodland with fallen-over trees encased in emerald green moss and inhabited by a variety of woodland mushrooms growing from various crevices. Sadly, we didn't get as far as the heart of our Terebithia today... I have photos from another visit which I will share another time... which includes that little area as well as pictures from our walk through the Haymill Reed Beds. Just before we crossed the bridge, I took this picture looking over the stream which at the moment has a lot of foliage growing on the surface.
And here is the makeshift bridge or dam wall created by my two munchkins.
I asked Jack if they had made it and he said...
yeah we did...well firstly I made it! But then Oli said he could do it better and safer so we didn't get wet and he fixed it! 😂😂😂
After venturing a little further toward the heart of Terebithia we came across the dwarf tree (a chopped-down tree that has bushed out lol but don't you think it looks like a proper baby tree? hehe)
It's quite boggy in areas - as I said the Woodland Trust are trying to make a big wetland area there too.
My boy asked me for the phone and then proceeded to take a pic of me hehe.
When you get to this sign, you know you are close to the heart of Terebithia hehe... but we decided not to go farther this time because of all the bog. It will be nicer in the summer! In the boggy pic below you can start to see small logs encased in bright green moss lying in the water... showing that we were getting closer to our original intended destination.
Now during our adventure through the woods, we also ended up back on the main path... and we came across some strange stuff(ing) on the footpath... we were intrigued! see the bunches of white fluff being pointed out by Jack.
More white fluff!!! More clues to the puzzle... we were sure that we would
discover the cause of this strange occurrence soon!
And then finally... we saw it... and our hearts broke 💔
Clearly the last Teddy Bears' Picnic did not end so well!!!
But... where is the body? We looked high and low but could not uncover any more clues. We did see a few dogs on leads around 🤔🤔🤔
But as of now... this crime remains unsolved!
And this is our joyful... for the most part 🤣... #WednesdayWalk for @tattoddjay's Wednesday Walk initiative and we actually walked on a Wednesday for a change hahaha.
Wednesday Walk is a challenge started by me, the idea is to get out for a short walk and get some shots of what you can see within a short distance of your home office or wherever you start. And this is my entry for this week, but first, let me explain the challenge.
This is my post for the Wednesday Walk challenge hosted by myself, let me first explain the guidelines
@tattoodjay's initiative is beautiful and simple: His premise is as follows, quoted from his post:
Try and get out once a week for a short walk, can be from your office, home or anywhere really and walk for a few blocks or a few minutes looking for things to get shots of.
Your walk does not have to be on a Wednesday I just ask if possible to share your walk photos on a Wednesday.
Try and get a few shots not just one
Add a bit of a write up about where you walked
Just one Wednesday Walk tagged post a week
You can look for anything in general or decide on one subject you want to get shots off.
Make a point of looking around and up and see what you can find to get shots of that otherwise you may miss
Do a post with the shots you get on a Wednesday and tag it with #wednesdaywalk, also if you happen to join, please leave a link to your post in a comment on this post and I will try and visit them all, especially if its not one of the first 5 tags or I may miss seeing it.
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All images used in this post are taken by me or my son and copyright is owned by me.
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