Peter Rabbit's Post Office #CountryKids

Today we made our way to Limpsfield Common, a National Trust area, to see some very special little dwellings! I'd first seen them when a friend commented on a photo on Facebook and as they're only a 20 minute drive from us we had to go and see for ourselves! What am I talking about? Well some lovely volunteers have been creating some very sweet little homes on the Common, amongst them Peter Rabbit's Post Office, the Owl House and Fox Villa. 

The car park gave no clue as to where to go to see these treasures so we set off on a walk and I took some photos of what we found. The kids loved it and found it really exciting coming across each residence. When you find Peter Rabbit's Post Office you can open the door and there's a box you can leave notes or keepsakes. Isla left a little picture she quickly drew. It really was a lovely way to spend an hour or so of our time and we know we'll definitely be back when it's warmer for a picnic and it also looks like in a few weeks time there will be a multitude of bluebells. 

When I Grow Up I Want to Be....

.....A Twitcher.

This is Isla's latest desired career path at the age of 5. I have to add that she doesn't just want to be a bird watcher she has been quite clear that this will be her daytime occupation and then at night she will be a singer on TV (I think she's watched The Voice too much lately!). I love that she's thought of two polar opposite jobs, I also love the innocence of her declaration, I guess there is some similarity with birds also enjoying a good sing song! A job as a bird watcher would certainly be very lovely I'm sure, and if she wants to be on TV then perhaps she could be the next Michaela Strachan or Kate Humble on TV showing us the loveliness of Springtime or on Countryfile......?

Her interest in birds has really peaked lately, together we drew some pictures of birds and she made it in to a 'Guess the Bird' game which she tested Nanny and Grandpa on (they didn't get many right!). She also watched a Natural World programme: Super Powered Owls last week (if it's on the iPlayer still do watch it, it was fascinating) and paused it throughout, drawing and writing about the programme as it went on. She was amazed by the way they could turn their necks all the way round and kept saying 'Look Mummy, I can do it too', whilst spinning her whole body round. She was upset when at the end of the programme, one of the young owls called Luna, flew off and didn't stay with their handlers. I was so impressed that she watched this all the way through and her interest didn't wane and she got so attached to the owls and had even picked a favourite from Luna and Lily.

I found a great book at a local charity shop about owls and we've read this many times now. I feel like it's such a shame that we have such a small garden and we own a cat and there are about 5 other cats in the near vicinity, so we don't really get any birds in our garden apart from the brave wood pigeons, who are probably the same size as the cats!

When I told my sister about Isla's new found interest she reminded me that at my junior school, I used to be part of the RSPB Young Ornathologists club. I'd totally forgotten! It was easy for me to spot birds as we had a great garden when I was young that also backed onto allotments, I'd see plenty of jays, magpies, blue tits, robins and occasionally we'd even sight a heron in the neighbours garden, stealing from the pond!

I'm fully supportive of her love of nature. Long may it continue, but I'm sure there will be a multitude of jobs Isla wants to pursue in the future and I won't be too disappointed if she isn't the next Bill Oddie! What do your children say they want to be when they grow up? Any fellow twitchers for Isla to hang out with?

Owls by Isla, aged 5 and 3 quarters.

Moneysupermarket #KidsGrowWild - Gardening Challenge

Since the beginning of Spring we've been pottering about in the garden with the kids trying to get them interested in all things 'flowers' and 'nature'. This is the first year that we have attempted such a thing as the kids are still only 3 and 1 and quite simply we've been too knackered to do much more than tend to a small patch of grass - and even mowing that sometimes felt too much!! We were sent a cute little children's gardening kit (Thank you Moneysupermarket!) to help us get the kids all green fingered. Noah kept calling the watering can a teapot at first.....

I started off by showing the kids how runner beans grow and we did this by putting the beans in a glass jar with a nice damp roll of kitchen towel and making sure that it had a bit of water in the bottom of the jar. Every day we would look at the bean as it began to sprout roots and shoots. It was fascinating. I always remember doing this as a child so I loved doing it with Isla and Noah. We also recycled some food containers (the bigger cardboard Twiglet tubes work well!) to use to grow our runner beans in before we planted them out.

There aren't many of them but they are now planted in the garden and they are entwining themselves around the canes that we put in the earth. We find it so fascinating the way the tendrils wrap themselves around the cane, the kids love that we have our very own beanstalks, just need to hope there are no giants....

Isla and I paid a visit to the garden centre and we bought a few plants to put in pots and also some sweet pea seeds as I have long had a desire to have sweet peas growing in my garden - they smell so lovely and the flowers are so delicately beautiful. Isla and I planted them and we took care to make sure the little seeds grew into seedlings. 

Yes the kids were using dessert spoons before we got a gardening kit!

We invested in a very small makeshift greenhouse - we don't have a massive garden so it was only a £20 one that could house our seedlings to protect them from the unusually long winter! 

I also have to point out that the life of a seedling is perilous in our garden. On two occasions our pots got knocked off the shelves in the little greenhouse and I found myself one morning (6.45am) scrabbling around in my dressing gown in the pouring rain re-potting all our much loved little green shoots!! I was desperate for us to be successful at growing things from scratch! 

We also found that we had some flowers in our garden that we never knew we had! Foxgloves have popped up in the last week. We also have Granny's Bonnet (Aquilegia vulgaris - oooh get me with my latin names!) - from my Dad's garden which has self seeded in a few other places. And that's another thing that I love about gardening, you can pinch little bits and bobs from other people's gardens (well strictly speaking, only people you know!). What excellent freebies!

We came across a couple of little friends while we were gardening too, which was a nice. surprise! Gardening is actually really helping with Isla's irrational fears of bugs and creepy crawlies.

All in all we're really enjoying spending time as a family in our little garden. Apart from flowers and a few runner beans we've also planted to some herbs so I'm hoping that we will also get to sample the fruits of our labours at dinner time as well. There are so many valuable lessons to be learnt from gardening. 

This post is an entry for BritMums’ #KidsGrowWild Challenge, sponsored by Moneysupermarket.com