Portmeirion

December in Portmeirion 2010. I think that December 2010 will be long mentionned for being 'that winter' when it snowed and snowed and the UK ground to a halt under freezing temperatures and snow . . However not so in Portmeirion! We couldn't believe the blue clear skies that greeted us, when everyone else was in a white out!





We booked a cottage called Dorlan Goch which was formerly at artists studio. It was plenty big enough for Chris, Me, Cas, Granny and Pete and Jess and Mart.

We went to have a nice family break and catch up to cheer us all up.

. On the Sunday we spent time mooching around Portmeirion Village. It is on a gulf stream so has much better climate conditions than the rest of Wales. Portmeirion is built on own private peninsula on the coast of Snowdonia .

Chris and I came here when we told mum and dad that we were going to get married. But we haven't been back since. It is still the same of course, but still really nice and hardly anyone there because it is not exactly tourist season - and anyway the rest of the UK was snowed in!

Pormeirion was the location for the TV show 'The Prisoner'- it was a cult TV series in the 1970's.

Cas is not a number . . he is a free man . .

The Prisoner was highly stylised. This is what it says on their website . . 'The surreal architecture of the village with its Mediterranean atmosphere coupled with the high-tech interiors, tannoys, surveillance cameras and piped music create a bizarre combination. There is great attention to detail throughout with no item too large or small to receive the Prisoner stamp from steet signs to cans of food to village credit cards, Mini Moke taxis and staff uniforms. Large and menacing balloons (occasionally referred to as 'Rover') patrole the perimiter.'

The Portmeirion Hotel is really really lovely. We went for Sunday dinner and it was very good. Even Cas behaved in his high chair, which was a bonus!

Biscuiteer

Ok - loads harder than it looks in my snazzy biscuiteer book that Boden sent me! Anyway have been biscuit making and icing over the last few days. I thought initially that we could do some kind of 'baking with mother' thing - but quickly Cas started to annoy me, by getting in the way and touching everything and basically 'doing it all wrong!!!!' - so I made him watch Fantastic Mr Fox again whilst I got on with them ......!

Space Cadet

Cas and I spent a wet and cold afternoon at the Leicester Space Centre. Their website said suitable for children of all ages . . but in reality it was not really much good for a 2 year old.

Still, we did have fun on some of the exhibits - Cas enjoyed playing in the space shuttle as their was lots of buttons, or beep beeps as he calls them, to press.

I like this photo as it looks like something out of Star Wars! All it needs is a Storm Trooper in the background.

In this photo he is making an intergalactic phonecall! All in all, we had a good time, but I don't think that it is something we will revisit until he is 8 yrs old! Some of the exhibits he was a bit sensitive about - he cried when things were too loud . .like the 'naughty noisy balls'!!

White Post Wonderfulness

Little piggies at White Post Farm.



Today, Cas and I went on an outing to Whitepost Farm. It was fantastic! We have never been before but I think that we will now be going every week! I downloaded a voucher from vouchermania.co.uk and so we went for a fiver with 2 free bags of food - one bag for 2 legs and one bag for 4 legs.

We saw lots of animals including Pigs, Sheep, Llamas, Deer, Chickens, Ducks, Rabbits, Guinea Pigs, Reptiles and Goats. The picture above is of Goat Mountain! Not sure whether it is ingenius or mean!

Cas had the time of his life! There was so much for him to do, and because the weather was so miserable, the place was deserted and we had the run of the farm! Here he is trampolining!

Cas loved feeding all the animals. He is a talented thrower! So spent ages throwing grain and feed at the animals. He is fearless even with geese pecking him and goats mauling him - he just loves it!

Llamas - very nosy and greedy! Pestered us so much for food that we had to leg it!

After we had been on the field walk in the cold - we went to the tea rooms for lunch. Cas was impeccably behaved and sat and ate all his jacket potato really nicely with his knife and folk (and spoon and fingers) I felt very smug!

Cas likes shouting 'cheese' when he sees a camera - unfortunately on pictures this comes out as a bit of a grimace!

This is the White Post waving goat!

After lunch, we went into the indoor farm and play centre. We saw all the baby piglets, goats, ducklings and chicks in the hatchery. Cas kept saying that the eggs were hatching 'oooh hatching....' but they weren't!

We saw the biggest rabbits from Japan, apparently relations of the rabbits on the teletubbies!

Afterwards we went into the softplay centre which he loved - he climbs like a monkey! And we then did some dry slope sledging - again all by ourselves - so we had lots of go's!

Finally we went to the petting area and Cas cuddled a guinea pig and much to my nervousness, held a tiny chick! I am not sure that animal rights were observed - but both the chick and the guinea pig appeared unharmed!

Blue Planet

The Blue Planet Aquarium is a fantastic - it is in Ellesmere Port close to Mum and Dad's. The exhibitions are really excellent and we all really liked looking at fish, seahorses, jelly fish and other oceany things!


There is a large tank with a travelling floor thing so that you could look up and see all the sharks and rays.

We fed the fish with special fish food and we also went outside to see the Otters being fed.

Liverpool Day Out

We took a few days out of Nottingham to visit Mum and check out all the redevelopment of Liverpool. It was a grey and wet and windy day! We took a stroll around the Albert Dock and checked out a Beatles photography exhibition.


Cas stuffed his face with mushroom soup and bread rolls in the Tate cafe. We took a stroll around the Tate gallery, then had to leave before Cas detroyed too many of the installations!

We went to check out the new Liverpool One development. What a massive improvement on that part of the City. I just could not recognise it and it is really hard to get my bearings when wandering around.

However the rain started to really come down and we were getting wet and cold, so we headed for home. Although we came over on the ferry (so Cas could repeatly say 'water big boat gone') we went home on the underground. Not pushchair friendly of course . . how do people in wheelchairs manage?

All together now, 'Ferry 'Cross the Mersey . . .'

Halloween 2010

Another year, another halloween party! This year some of Cas's scariest little friends came over for some halloween food, spooky music and trick or treating.



Sonny came in his spider outfit - this is him doing his best spider impression.

Bella and Frankie both came as witches! All the kids had a great time, tussling over sweeties and eating my pumpkin muffins, which were rather fabulous, even if I do say so myself!

Cas wore his pumpkin outfit again - bit of a cop out - but it still fits and he looks so adorable - why not?

I arranged with out neighbours for the kids to go and trick or treat them. So at 6.30 p.m. our motely crew of witches, spider and pumpkin went and knocked at Numbers 1 and 4 to collect some treats!

Drummer Boy

Chris is taking Cas for drumming practice at the studio every week. He loves making a massive noise!

Critch Tramway Museum

It was Chris's birthday at the end of October and our best laid plans for the day were canceled due to the terrible weather. So as we were mooching around Derbyshire anyway we decided to go to the National Tramway Museum.


It was great! We went on a on tram up the Derbyshire hills and saw lovely views of the Derwent Valley. We then looked around the museum at all the cool restored old trams and read their stories.


It was really retro chic! I love the old design including the great fabric seats in the old trams and the old typography and adverts.

Cakes for Chris

I always like to make Chris a cake for his birthday! This year I did some delicious cupcakes! I turned my back for a few moments and Cas climbed on the table to help himself!

Cas playing nicely

Here is Cas playing nicely with his friend Sonny. We have had some troubles recently with Cas playing nicely! He is insecure around children he doesn't know and if they come too close to him they are likely to get pushed, or their hair pulled or worse hit or something thrown at them. Fortunately he plays with children he knows really nicely. Sonny is his best friend and it is lovely to watch them playing and kissing a cuddling together! I'll remind him of this when he is 16!

Melton Food Festival

We went to the food festival in Melton . . . before my diet I thought I would ensure I went out with a bang! We enjoyed going around all the lovely stalls and sampling lots of lovely Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire local food including Farmers Fear cider (which we bought for our Christmas Spotlight Kid Party!

Trent Valley Bike Ride

We had a rare day en familie recently so we decided to take the Nottingham Big Track car free route and cycle to Beeston to the Victoria Hotel for our Sunday lunch. I think it is about 6 miles down the river from West Bridgford to Beeston, but it took us ages! Cas went in his bike seat on the back of Chris's bike, which was good, as spending an hour cycle with Cas trying to stick his hand down my jeans and laughing is off putting! Chris put up with it instead!

Who knew that beyond the Clifton bypass, we have such fantastic countryside along the river - right close to the City Centre . . well unless you Cycle or Walk you wouldn't - it is completely inaccessible by car, and clearly all the better for it.

Jimmy's Farm Harvest Festival

Hurray we went to the Harvest Festival at Jimmy's Farm and it was fantastic! The weather was just perfect which made the whole weekend really enjoyable. We went with our friends Sarah and Rob and their eldest little boy Sonny, who is the same age as Cas.

We stayed in our van and Sarah, Rob and Sonny put up their tent next to us.

It was a very civilised fest and even the toilets were fine - which is unheard of at a normal music festival! Even though it was a food festival as well there was not many food stall there . . . ! Most were at Bestival I guess. But the ones that were there were good ones.

There was loads for the kids to do. We did some den building in the woods.

And played with the really cool butterflies in the butterfly house.

We enjoyed the Charlie and Lola stage show . . .although we only lasted about 30 mins before Cas got bored and wandered off . .

In the day we walked around the food stall and looked at all the animals in the petting farm bits. There was also a big bouncy castle and a pirates playground. There was lots of story readings and little bits of street theatre for kids - but Cas is still a bit young to care to much about things that don't involve just jumping.

At night we put the kids in their PJ's and wrapped them up in their pushchairs and went to watch the music and dance at the bars - whilst quaffing from our wine box! Kept out the chill!

Would definately go to this festival or another kiddy type one next year - Camp Bestival maybe. Cas loved it and it was a fun for us cos we could enjoy time drinking and eating with our friends!