Animals

May 7, 2014

A Weekend at the Grandparents

This weekend we traveled down to stay at my Dad’s house for a few days. The kids love seeing their grandparents. Ellie spent most of the weekend playing with Noreen! We also got fantastic weather while we were there.

On Saturday we went to Quarry Bank Mill. It’s a National Trust property centred around an impressive eighteenth-century cotton mill.

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We walked around the estate and then the playground.

On Sunday we visited Dane Meadow, which has recently been given a face-lift with some new paths, signage and disabled access. Oh, and some tree stumps which have handily been turned into seats.

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Later that day we went to the Holmes Chapel fete, just in time to see a Hurricane fly-past. Ellie won a toy truck for her brother on hook-a-duck.

And then “auntie Charlie” came to visit with her dog, Henry. Ellie and Henry were best pals pretty much immediately!

On Monday we went to visit “Granny Carol”, “Granddad Clive” and “Uncle Tom”. We all went to Goostrey Home and Leisure in the morning, which has a lovely little play area.

Then I took Ben back for his nap, while Ellie and Jana went to my Mum’s house. Tom taught Ellie how to kayak…

… before they cleaned out the pond, and (to my great excitement!) discovered some newts.

We all had a lovely time. But when it was time to come home, we felt like this!

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February 25, 2014

Back at the Zoo

Mine and Ellie’s zoo memberships run out at the end of February, so we took the opportunity on Sunday to make one more visit.

We started by going to the chimpanzee talk. Two of the chimpanzees had what looked like a proper fight, one wielding a stick. The zookeepers were at pains to explain that they were just being “playful”, although this was the “most playful” they’d ever seen them.

Another highlight was the pelicans. Ellie was quite taken by them because they followed her along the boundary of their enclosure.

Finally, we went to a “Meet the Reptiles” event, at which Ellie got a chance to hold a snake. I passed on the opportunity.

And here are some of the other animals we saw.

 

November 1, 2013

Salmon Viewing Centre – no salmon viewing allowed!

On Monday we visited the Salmon Viewing Centre near Selkirk.

We’ve been here before and there is a short walk to a weir where you can watch salmon leaping upstream at the right time of the year (May-June or Sept-Nov).

Unfortunately they were doing some work on the site and at the moment you can’t get to the weir, which meant no salmon viewing for us! Apparently they are installing two Archimedes screw turbines to generate electricity, plus a new “state of the art salmon pass.” It should be good once they’re done.

They do have a lovely café so we stayed for lunch. They also have a small visitor centre so we let the kids explore that: