2014

The nights are drawing in

Thursday 3rd July 2014Saturday 5th July 2014Baggie

As the title alludes half the year has been and gone, the Summer (in the Northern Hemisphere at least) Solstice has passed and we are hurtling towards winter with ever shortening amounts of daylight. That is the natural order of things and it is only of import to the Bagnall family because it means that the amount of electricity we can generate from our Photovoltaic cells has passed its maximum for the year. Nevertheless we were fortunate with the elements around this solstice with fine weather and clear skies, thus plenty of electricity generated.

However, we are in a quandary with the weather now that we have a veg patch. Yes, our experiment in growing our own produce is giving us some joy even if we probably will not have the most bountiful of harvests. That was never the main driving force for this year. This year was to see if we enjoyed it and whether we could fit in enough time to look after our crops as well as introducing the girls to growing your own food, so they appreciate from where their food originates.

It is safe to say that we have definitely enjoyed the growing side, so much so that we have installed 3 water butts (enough for 520 litres of rain water) around the garden and have plans to expand the veg patch after harvest. We have learned much from this year’s experiment (especially how potatoes can take over a veg patch) and are currently growing raspberries, pumpkins, potatoes, runner beans, tomatoes and sunflowers. In fact we find it quite saddening when you go to check on your crops and there has been damage. So far we have had attacks by slugs on a variety of crops (although there are at least two frogs in the garden so imagine the amount of damage without predators), a case of blackfly (need more ladybirds), both strawberry plants and one pumpkin plant were dug up (I’m blaming squirrels) and half my potato crop were sat on (I’m blaming the resident fox family). It is a good job that we are not relying on these crops to survive nevertheless it would be good to have a least a few meals worth. It is with this in mind that in addition to expanding the extent of our veg patch, next year we also plan on trying to encourage natural predators as well as expanding our range of crops and that is even before we have harvested this year’s crop.

So our quandary is that we need the sun to generate electricity (and to grow our crops) but we also rejoice whenever there is a heavy downpour as it means that we do not need to water that evening and that our water butts are replenished. It is amazing how quickly those butts are filled from each rain shower and just shows how much water is hitting our drainage systems; no wonder there were so many floods over the winter. So can we have the best of both worlds with extremely sunny days but extremely wet nights?

The main topic of discussion on the streets and bars, for once, is the not the weather but more the sporting competitions that are going on in the world. Wimbledon and the World Cup are dominating the television schedules in the UK and my work life. Wimbledon has not really caught the girls attention but they have been intrigued by the World Cup. Their interest was first piqued by the prevalence of St George’s Crosses bedecked many of the houses in the area. Then, I introduced them to the perennial disappointment of being an England football fan.

Although the World Cup is one of major summer jobs (it is a hard job when you have to watch the World Cup) at work I still enjoy watching it when I get back home, especially when I have a fantasy footie team and some small bets on the outcome. Éowyn has taken to sitting next to me on the sofa and feigning interest, mainly so that she can stay up a little later. ‘Who are we?‘ she will ask. Then you have to explain that we are neither of them and she can chose which one she wants to win. Invariably she choses the referee for some reason, probably because he is the only one wearing whichever colour that FIFA have deigned will be the referee outfit for that match. It was much easier in my youth: Referees wore black. That was it. Football boots were black. It is the natural order of things. Nevertheless it is nice that she is taking an interest in the World Cup although at 5 she is a little young we will have to wait until 2018 and Russia to see if that interest is still there.

Football isn’t the main sport for the girls though, trampolining is the sport of choice. Amélie has been trampolining for most of the year and has passed the her first two trampoline gymnastic awards. Now Éowyn has begun going after school. She has a little bit to catch up with her younger sister but I am sure she will be spurred on not to be in her sister’s shadow.

Their little brother will not be following them on the trampoline though, mainly because he is still not walking. Éowyn was walking early, Amélie not so. Ezra has until the 4th July to progress to bipedal motion earlier than his sister. That is highly unlikely. Especially since tomorrow is that date! He was crawling quite early and has been cruising for a long time but he has not taken that next step (no pun intended). He has decided that he can get from A to B quickly by crawling and if he needs to carry anything then he can get there on his knees. He has the strength in his legs but he just doesn’t seem interested. I think that once he decides to go for it he will be walking in no time. He just needs to take the plunge and go for it. As always we will let you know about his first steps.

There was another first for the Bagnall family this week: Éowyn had a friend over for a sleepover. Éowyn and Amélie have had friends over the day, indeed every Friday is movie night which we alternate the hosting with our friends Emma and Martin, but their friends have always gone home at the end of the day. As the girls get older they will inevitably want to spend the night at a friends so when we were asked if Éowyn’s erstwhile best friend Raine could spend the night to help her Mum out with baby sitting we thought it would be a good opportunity to take our first tentative step into the world of sleepovers.

At Playbox Éowyn and Raine were inseparable, unfortunately however before they moved into full time education Raine’s family moved from Staines, nevertheless we have made sure that the have remained in touch. Therefore we know Raine very well, and more importantly she knows us, so she was comfortable stopping with us. Éowyn was so excited, getting more so as the day came closer. We made the spare bed up in the spare room so that they could sleep together without disturbing Amélie. It was good choice as the girls were still up when Lucinda and I went to bed. This was partly due to the excitement of seeing each other and partly due to the amount of sweets they had consumed for their ‘midnight’ feast.

Raine was extremely well behaved and indeed the actual sleepover was very easy as the girls kept themselves entertained and were very inclusive towards Amélie, which was nice. It was more the aftermath. Raine’s mum collected Raine just before lunch and left us with one extremely grumpy Éowyn. The grumpy mood wasn’t due to the fact that Raine had left, moreover it was due the lack of sleep (Éowyn isn’t used to staying up so late) couple with a sugar come-down.

Éowyn was a little better after a good night’s sleep, just in time for the third annual Staines-Upon-Thames day. Celebrating the town’s addition of the river suffix to its name the memorial gardens were packed with stalls, a music stage, a funfair while classic cars lined the High Street. Nanny and Granddad parked at our house and we all walked into the town centre. We turned up as it kicked off to take the first boat trip down the Thames (before the crowds turned up – something we learned from last year!). The girls enjoyed the 40 minute journey, but it was just enough any longer and I think they would have got bored.

After disembarking we headed around the stalls, and the rides. The girls encouraged Daddy to win a mermaid doll each on one of the stalls (which I did). We sat and listened to some of the bands (well we sat Amélie danced – photos below) while we ate an ice cream and then they chose a couple of fairground rides to go on. It wasnt long before the toll of the weekend was beginning to have an affect on the girls and so after a spot of lunch we left Nanny and Granddad to enjoy the fair in peace and headed home.

We were out of the country on the first Staines-Upon-Thames day but we did go last year (even though technically we were not living in Staines Upon Thames at the time) and in our opinion this year totally eclipsed the 2013 event. There was plenty to do (and to spend your money on!) but it would have been nicer to have had more local produce to buy and more local businesses and societies peddling their wares. Nevertheless the event is still in its infancy and perhaps after the success of this year maybe it will encourage more businesses next year. The high turn out was probably helped by the fine weather (despite the forecast of showers) but we will not take that away from the organisation and obvious enthusiasm of the people behind the scenes.

I will leave you now but warn you that from now I am going to get very busy at work so there may be a few gaps between updates so I will not promise the quantity or quality of the updates as I will be relying more on Lucinda for stories and photos. The joys of working in the Sports Television industry. Meanwhile here is an impressive crop of photos, including plenty from Staines Upon Thames day 2014.

Peace and love

Baggie

Having a drink on the River

Look at that!

Hello!

No one else dancing?

I don’t care!

Oh, they’ve stopped!

Round of applause

For the band

And for your sister

Whoa there!

This is fun

I’m catching up!

A meal off Nanny Fran

This is making me craaazzzyyy!

Close up smile

Safety first

Bounce!

Boing!

Getting ready for the off

A smile for daddy

Still watching

Cheeky Boy!

Up to something

Look into my eyes…

Staines Upon Thames

I’m gonna write you a letter

It is I…

Who shall I call?

You ought to see this

It’s funny!

Going home?

I’m pooped!

I don’t want to go home

A visit from the Tooth Fairy

Friday 13th June 2014Saturday 14th June 2014Baggie

The trilogy is complete and the third update of the week lands at Baggie and Lucy dot com. So after the epic write-up(s) of our family holiday to Tenby what could possibly have happened to warrant this update?

If you have not guessed from the title of this update the biggest news of the post-holiday period is that on Friday 6th June 2014 Éowyn lost her first tooth. Yes, our oldest child has taken another step to remind us that they are only children fleetingly. Unfortunately, this came as a bit of a shock to us and especially to Éowyn. There was no warning, the tooth had not become wobbly, she was simply eating a corn on the cob and out it popped. Therefore we were not mentally prepared for it (and hadn’t ever really spoken to Éowyn about it in any depth) and Éowyn certainly wasn’t mentally prepared for it. I had not yet returned home from work and this probably made it worse, indeed she was inconsolable by Lucinda.

Éowyn always has been a daddy’s girl and whenever she is sad, or frightened or hurt it will always be me that she looks to for comfort. With Lucinda unable to console her, I received a phone-call from Lucinda asking me to talk to Éowyn. Therefore work was put to one side while I spoke to Éowyn. Making her tell me what happened made her focus on talking instead of succumbing to hysterics and then I could ask her the important question: ‘Did she know what this meant?‘ Somewhat taken aback by a question, she thought about it for a while but couldn’t answer. I replied that she would receive a visit from the tooth fairy, who would leave her shiny coins. This perked her up, especially after I told her that she could spend those shiny coins on whatever she wanted, although I don’t think that she fully grasps the value of shiny coins and what she could purchase with them. We also spoke about the fact that she was growing up and was a big girl. By the end of the phone-call she had calmed down significantly and now was more concerned about what had happened to the tooth to ensure that she could put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy.

It seems that the current going rate for a first tooth is £2. Unfortunately the tooth fairy did not have a two pound coin but did leave two shiny £1 coins (so shiny that it looked like that the had been cleaned with Cillit Bang!). Éowyn was so excited the next morning when she woke to find the money and came running in to show me. I asked her what she would like to use the money to buy. ‘Can I buy two Kinder eggs? One for me and one for Amélie?‘ How can you refuse that?

That Saturday was another big day. As regular readers will know for various achievements both girls had been promised items from the Disney store and both had chosen Frozen related items. Unfortunately the success of Frozen has not been reflected by the availability of the items in the stores and on the website. So while we were on holiday we had charged Nanny Fran with a one week challenge to source an Elsa dress and doll for Éowyn and an Anna dress and doll for Amélie. Nanny Fran is not one to shirk a challenge and came good on three of the four. Only the Anna doll for Amélie had eluded her. A stroke of fortune, however, meant that Lucinda found one in another store and so, at long last, we had a full complement to reward the girls. Saturday was the first day that Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz had to come down and bring them. As you can imagine the girls were beside themselves with excitement, both at the prospect of seeing Nanny Fran and their Aunties (for Auntie Mary was going to visit too), and the fact that they were going to receive their Frozen dresses and dolls.

You can imagine how excited they were when they opened their bags and took out their dresses. They put them on immediately and after Daddy extracted the dolls from their respective boxes no other toys got a look in that day. You will be happy to know that Ezra had not been left out. When Nanny Fran had visited the Disney store there had been an offer on Muppet related merchandise, so Nanny Fran treated her Grandson to a Gonzo cuddly toy. You can see from the photos below that not only were the girls were delighted with their presents Ezra was quite happy with his.

Not that Ezra currently deserves a present. That is perhaps a little harsh but the girls did receive theirs for their achievements while Ezra, though cute and an ideal baby from a sleeping point of view has not had any major achievements of late. As he marks his 15th month he has not yet begun to walk. His preferred method of locomotion is crawling but when that is an inconvenience (for instance when you are trying to run away with the TV remote control) he has resorted to ‘walking’ on his knees! He will not even entertain the idea of walking and will not let you hold him up. He will cruise along the furniture and even crawl to you and pull himself up on to his feet against your legs but he will not try to walk.

You may recall that Amélie was also a late developer when it came to walking, in complete contrast to Éowyn who was walking quite early. Amélie, however, just decided one day to walk, getting up and completing a dozen paces or so; maybe Ezra will do that. He has until the 4th July 2014 to beat his sister; we will watch this space.

He has, however, developed another habit, one that is not welcome. He has turned into a bit of a biter. It is obviously a developmental stage probably borne out of frustration and his inability to communicate or control his emotions. They are not play bites though and his teeth are sharp. He has left marks on both girls and myself and Lucinda. It is a difficult one to deal with as he is a little young for the thinking step, but a firm ‘No’ and then if he persists to try and ignore him is our current strategy. He is a little strange at times though, for if he is frustrated and he can not get hold of you to bite you he will bite himself. You almost feel that it is better for him to bite you than hurt himself. Hopefully this is just a phase that he will grow out of soon before he causes someone real damage.

There is one more first that I need to get you across before I leave you and that is Éowyn’s first Sports Day. Yes, it is that time of year that schools up and down the country hold their annual sports day. Éowyn’s class had been in training since their returned from half term and I regularly asked Éowyn how she was getting on. Knowing that she is not the fastest (we Bagnalls are not build for speed) I was trying to cushion her from potential upset, explaining that as long as she did her best, then that is what matters. It seems however, that the teachers had already wheeled out the perennial classic: ‘It is not the winning but the taking part‘.

Chatting with Éowyn, she seemed quite content with her ability and that she wasn’t the fastest runner, however she did say that she had come second in the obstacle race. Therefore, on the way to Sports Day I thought I would give him some fatherly encouragement and told her that the obstacle race was the race for intellectuals. Anyone can run in a straight line but running and negotiating puzzles takes a special person with special abilities.

The Sports Day was a big event with the day divided between the lower school (Nursery to Year 2) in the morning and the upper school (Year 3 to Year 6) in the afternoon. Each year had three races so you can see why it took best part of half a day to complete all races. The three races were a straight sprint, the aforementioned obstacle race and a relay race.

As suspected Éowyn did not perform very well in the straight sprint. This was due in part to the fact that she is not a particularly fast runner and partly because she was not concentrating at the start of the race and had given the other children a five yard head start. She was also slow at the start of the obstacle race. The obstacle race is not about top speed though and she soon caught up and her princess training obviously paid dividends for she came out of the ‘balancing a bean bag on your head’ stage in the lead. She increased that lead in the ‘pass a hula hoop over your body’ stage and so by the time she came to the slalom run she had a healthy lead and wasn’t caught. Yes, Éowyn won a race and was so proud, as indeed were we.

We thought that she may have won a second winner’s sticker (no medals here, just stickers) in the relay. Her team were winning with only a few legs to go. Éowyn was running the antepenultimate leg but the boy who was running the leg before her (the preantepenultimate?) had a bit of an incident. Half way down the track his trainer came off. He never noticed until he was about 5 yards before the hand over, however instead of carrying on sans trainer he turned and ran back to retrieve the offending footwear, then sat down and put it back on (which took a while) before completing his leg. In the mean time the other teams had completed a couple of legs and poor Éowyn was running against no one (as were the last two in her team). It was quite funny to watch and Éowyn didn’t seem particularly upset by it. It is just a shame that I wasn’t filming it, may have been worth £250 from ‘You’ve been framed!’

So, it has been another eventful week in this enclave of the Bagnall family and I leave you with this interesting fact: today is Friday 13th June 2014 and it is a full moon. So if you are selenophobic or friggatriskaidekaphobic you may want to stay in bed. However I do beg you to bear in mind that this is the first time that this combination of superstitions has occurred since Friday 13th October 2000 and you will have to wait until Friday 13th August 2049 for the next one. So when you look up at this year’s Honey Moon (June’s full moon has several names including the Strawberry Moon and the Rose Moon as well as the Honey Moon) appreciate this heavenly occurrence for you will not see it for another 35 years and 2 months.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Ready for the obstacle race

Out in the lead

The winning line is in sight

Come on Éowyn

The relay race

It’s my sister

Shaded eyes

Where’s Éowyn?

Something’s missing

Look at my Gap!

Elsa and Anna

A cuddle for Gonzo

Look what we made…

The Bagnall Kids

I am catching you up

A week in Wales: part two – the holiday proper

Wednesday 11th June 2014Saturday 14th June 2014Baggie

A second update in a day! And the second of the trilogy for this week.

Hopefully you have all read ‘A week in Wales: part one’ if not please click on the link to refresh how we go to where we are.

So, with the girls in the twin room, Lucinda and I in the double room with Ezra’s travel cot half in the wardrobe to maximise the floor space we spent our first night in Kiln Park.

With small children you never get a lie in but at least it was a little reasonable when we got up allowing us plenty of time to get Éowyn ready for her first swimming lesson. Lucinda took her while I looked after the other two. Éowyn thoroughly enjoyed herself and with only one other child in the lesson it was well worth the money. Éowyn was very good, taking instruction well and even ducking her head under the water. Somehow, I think listening to a teacher rather than her Mum or Dad was better for her.

The big bonus with the lesson starting at 0900 is that it was over by 0930 so by 1000 we were out of the caravan and exploring. We decided that the first day should just be spent in Tenby (or Dinbych-y-pysgod to called it by its native name – the little town of the fishes or little fortress of the fish). Tenby is a very old walled seaside town on a natural sheltered harbour. It is a very pretty town, with its mediaeval town walls (which include the five arches barbican gatehouse), a 15th century church, colourful Victorian houses (nearly every house is painted a shade of pastel blue, green, pink or purple giving a very continental feel to the town) and a one way system. The latter is fun negotiating while looking for a car park and you get to see the majority of the town. Nevertheless we soon found the right path to the multi story car park and headed to the beach.

As I mentioned in the previous update Tenby has a large flat sandy beach that is close to 4km long and that was where we spend the morning until rumbling tummies forced us off the beach and in search of lunch. While heading off to lunch we saw a number of boat trips, we decided on the Seal Safari, nearly one hour on a small boat that circumscribes the nearby Caldey Island looking for Grey Seals. Caldey Island is a small island just off the coast at Tenby and is one of Britain’s Holy Islands. It is famous for its Trappist Monastery, the monks of which make up the majority of the population of the island. They raise dairy cattle and make cheese, perfumes and chocolate. Indeed the island has its own postage stamps and currency. However that is a different trip, we didn’t step foot on the island merely circled it.

Our trip was geared at looking at the wildlife and seeing the island from a more unusual point of view. The main draw of the trip was to see grey seals and as such the trip did not disappoint. We saw a number of seals and they must be so used to the incursion into their territory that they didn’t bat an eye indeed some of them didn’t even rouse from their slumber as we approached quite closely. In addition to the seals we saw a number of seabirds that are not regularly seen on shore. Highlights would be in no particular order: cormorants, shags, kittiwakes, guillemots and razorbills. The only slight downside was that we didn’t see any puffins but that’s a trip for another day hopefully in the not too distant future.

Éowyn loved the boat trip and was really excited to see the seals. The same could not be said of the other two. Amélie got a little agitated before the boat trip asking us not to die. Damn that Frozen film! For those of you without small children, or a love of Disney movies and for any other reason haven’t seen the film Frozen, the protagonists’ parents die when the ship that they are travelling in sinks in a storm. We explained to Amélie that we wouldn’t die, which she excepted and then as soon as she boarded the boat promptly fell asleep and missed the entire trip. Ezra, on the other hand was asleep when we boarded the boat and stayed that way until we were getting off the boat!

On our return to the caravan a little girl was playing in the next caravan so Éowyn went out and introduced herself. Emmy was 7 years old and although did play with Éowyn you could see it was more Éowyn looking up to (although not literally, Éowyn, though 2 years her junior, was a couple of inches taller than Emmy!) her older friend. Emmy has younger sisters who happily played with Amélie so it was nice for them to play with others.

The next morning was Éowyn’s second swimming lesson but we joined her as a family in the pool afterwards. The pool was not as warm as you would expect (maybe it warms up during the day) but you soon get used to it. Unless that is if you are Ezra. He did not like it one iota and let everyone know, so Lucinda took him out and I stayed with the girls for a bit longer.

After swimming we headed to the nearby town of Saundersfoot. We had looked at Saundersfoot when looking at possible holiday destinations but somehow it missed the final cut. Again Saundersfoot has a large level sandy beach and this time armed with sandwiches and snacks we stayed on the beach the entire day making sandcastles and, in the case of Amélie, digging large holes and trying to fill them with seawater. Never quite understanding why the water kept draining away! Kept her busy!

The long term weather forecast had been pretty horrendous but the first part of the week it had been nice, not hot but dry. Thursday, however,dawned with grey clouds and so we decided that we would head out for adventure. On the way into Tenby and again on our trip to Saundersfoot we had seen signs to Dinosaur Park. The girls both wanted to go and so it seemed like the perfect day to go. I am not sure how to describe Dinosaur Park. It is definitely a park and it definitely has dinosaurs (and other pre-historic creatures) but it is both more and in someways less than that. Yes there are a large number of life-size fibreglass models of large extinct animals but then there are slides, a play barn, and frisbee golf. You can also go water zorbing, pilot disco boats and ride on a number of coin operated (tuppence! yes tuppence a ride!) electric vehicles (my favourite being the Orbiters) as well as ride Wales’ only tubey run.

The highlight (and probably at the same time the lowlight) of the day was the dinosaur trail. Over two dozen dinosaur models laid out in the woods with an ‘expert’ taking you on a guided tour. This was not Jurassic Park. This was a local armed with a tickling stick and a big bag of sweeties taking the children round the woods introducing them to the dinosaurs. Now anyone that knows anything about kids knows that kids love dinosaurs. They know all their names and what they ate and how big they were. I know because I was one of those kids. Unfortunately our ‘expert’ didn’t know that much about dinosaurs and her stock phrase to stop the precocious kids from asking awkward questions, or even correcting her mispronunciations was by replying (add your own Pembrokeshire accent here) ‘You know more about dinosaurs than I do, have a sweetie.‘ It certainly added to the experience. In fairness to her I think she was filling in for a sick employee as later in the day she conducted a fossil hunt and was very good at it (real fossils had been added to a big area of pebbles and if you found a fossil you could keep it – the girls (with a little help from daddy) both found lymnaea). However you would have thought that as an employee of Dinosaur Park you would at least know the dinosaurs in your park, regardless of the actual job that you do.

Dinsoaur Park was a big hit with the girls, we got there when it opened and we left just before it closed and they both wanted to go back (which we could have done with a boomerang ticket for a fraction of the price). The weather wasn’t great but it didn’t really rain, just a drizzle that hung in the air inviting you to walk through it to get wet, but it didn’t matter. It may be stuck in a timewarp (compared to other attractions) but that is its charm. Kids are encouraged to use their imaginations and although the models are not exactly anatomically correct (in line with current thinking), or even that convincing (to the eye of an adult), Amélie still shook with fear when she saw the model of the Tyrannosaurus Rex and that was the magic of Dinosaur Park.

On the other side of the attraction scale was Folly Farm. It is neither a farm or a folly but a combination of zoo, indoor playbarn, steam funfair, adventure rides and the eponymous farm. This is much more of a modern attraction with a good selection of exotic animals (including the only giraffes in Wales) and with more to come. Indeed on our visit they were building a large enclosure to house lions which is due to open later this year. The indoor play area was enormous with three stories of interconnecting tree-house to lose yourself in. That was only half of the indoor attractions, in addition there was a complete funfair (the largest indoor funfair in Europe) with chair-o-planes, ghost train, golden gallopers, dodgems and a waltzer.

Again, we spent the whole day at Folly Farm having another fun-filled day and although it is a regular winner of ‘Best Day Out’ awards (and 400,000 visitors a year can’t be wrong) if you asked Éowyn and Amélie where they wanted to return, it would have lost out to Dinosaur Park. However the visit to Folly Farm was capped with a visit to the gift shop. Before leaving West Bromwich, Nanny Fran had given all the children some money to spend on their holiday and I had told them that they could spend it on whatever they wanted but Daddy wouldn’t buy them anything else. They have to learn the value of money somehow. So the gift shop was the perfect place for them to hone their purchasing skills.

Amélie, saw exactly what she wanted within a minute, a fairy and horse model. She could not be dissuaded from her choice. Eowyn, however, was a little more economically savvy. It must have taken over 20 minutes for her to make a decision, weighing the different combinations of toys that she could afford. Eventually, she made a decision and left the shop with a pack of three mermaid dolls, a cuddly mermaid and a pink unicorn – sounds like a good night out! Ezra wasn’t left out either and indeed he made his own choice too. Lucinda was pushing him around the shop while I calculated the running total of Éowyn’s purchases. As they passed a display of cuddly cowboys, Ezra pointed at them and said ‘that‘. Lucinda gave it to him and he cuddled it. She then gave him a cuddly pirate and he cuddled that too. He then looked at them both and threw the pirate on the ground. He had made his choice. So with Eowyn’s armful of toys, Amélie’s fairy and Ezra’s cowboy we headed to the till, paid and left to grab an Italian meal in nearby Narberth (Arberth) before heading back to Kiln Park.

After two fun-filled days we decided to take it easy on Saturday, with a walk into Tenby and day spent on the beach, building sandcastles for Éowyn’s mermaids! Saturday was also the day that Éowyn’s friend from the next door caravan, Emmy, left to return home. Éowyn got herself all upset, although Emmy didn’t seem quite as upset. So we made a fuss of her and headed to the leisure complex to play Éowyn’s favourite game, Air Hockey.

For our final full day in Pembrokeshire we decided to explore the county and both decided that we would head to St David’s. Although it doesn’t look that far on the map it took longer than expected to reach the smallest city in Britain. When we reached St David’s we were a little disappointed and instead of stopping too long decided that we had passed a couple of interesting spots on the way and would prefer to head back to those. So we turned the car round and headed a little bit further down the A487 to Solva. Lower Solva (to be accurate) lies at the bottom of the ravine at the mouth of the river Solva on the north side of St Bride’s Bay.

We parked in the harbour carpark and walked down the A487 stopping in the various galleries and the three story gift shop(!) but the highlight of this short stop was Sunday Lunch at the Harbour Inn. A traditional carvery was served with a good selection of vegetables. The girls were given a little bag with colouring pens, a puzzle book and a pack of cards for playing snap as a gift with their meal. But the pièce de résistance was the desert: salted caramel profiteroles. I will leave it to your imagination but if you are ever in the vicinity I would highly recommend popping in and sampling them for yourself.

Before heading back to the caravan we made one more stop: Carew Castle. A magnificent castle it is currently being restored by the National Park Authority and you can certainly see the work that they have done so far but how much they still have to go. Unfortunately we didn’t know about it until we happened to pass by and thus we had missed out on all the half-term events that they had put on all week. Nevertheless the girls still had a good time (despite the rain) mainly due to the laminated eye-spy leaflets that they were given on arrival. It made Éowyn especially ask questions about the castle and about the items that we were trying to find. Unfortunately we didn’t see any of the bats (there are 11 species that roost in the castle) that make this a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Neither did we have time to visit the adjacent mill, the only tidal mill in Wales. Next time.

And so before you knew it and before we were ready the holiday was over. We had a thoroughly good time in Pembrokeshire and would definitely return to the area and possibly even the same caravan park. It helps that we were lucky with the weather but there were a lot of attractions in the area for children that even without the weather we could have found things to do.

I apologise that this is a bit of an epic (indeed it is the longest write up on the site), but perhaps you can understand now why I split it into two updates. However, news in the Bagnall household isn’t over and expect another update before the week is out. Meanwhile there are plenty of photos below to balance the prose.

Peace and Love

Baggie