Rushmere Country Park

What a beautiful day!  Yesterday was cold, grey, miserable.  Today the sun has shone and it's been lovely.

Ever since the kids and I first visited Rushmere Country Park (posts here and here), I've been meaning to bring Rob along.  We finally went as a family today, and Rob really liked it.

The big slide was closed off - the kids are hoping it will reopen - but they enjoyed the swing.

Then we went for a walk.  The fairy doors are still a hit.  The Rhododendrons are great to climb in, with their twisty branches.

  They climbed on the giant chair, and clambered over the spider.

They took it in turns to be the elf king or queen.

They had biscuits and bananas in the elf circle.  Betsy continued as queen, holding her staff, and Meg took up residence in a stick house.

We wandered back along the path to the visitors centre, passing more beautiful carved seats.

There were volunteers with a telescope and binoculars at the visitors centre.  Some herons are nesting in the trees below, and we had a really good view.  Some of the chicks have hatched (we didn't see them) and they will stay in the nests until late May/early June.  We'll return in April and see if we can spot the chicks when they've grown a bit.

They have a herons nest inside, it's really big.  There was a also a live webcam, so you could see one of the herons up close.

They've done such a great job, I felt so lucky that we were able to see it.

We popped in to the allotment on the way home.  Rob has been working really hard on it over the last few weekends, and it's looking fab.  He's doubled the strawberry beds, plus we have new  blackcurrants, two apple trees, a cherry tree, and raspberries.  The rhubarb is slowly popping up, and some of the broad beans that were planed last November are flowering.