Visiting the Fairies at The Trentham Estate

The children had an inset day on Friday, so to make the most of this, we visited The Trentham Estate just outside Stoke on Trent, we had never been before but my mum has often told me about when she used to go with her parents years ago.

The beautiful grounds were once landscaped by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, so called because of his great capabilities, the huge man-made lake which was made from the River Trent is full of wildlife and surrounded by many different species of trees which makes this a perfect spot for bird watching.

We started our visit with lunch at the Italian Garden Tea Room, some hot chocolates warmed us up and then we all had some fabulous food, the cottage pie and soup being particular highlights and the view over the lake whilst we ate was wonderful. After lunch, we headed out to walk around the lake and spot the fairies

This wonderful dandelion sculpture was the perfect place to start, my daughter loves dandelions and is forever searching them out in the summer to blow the clocks and see the time, the seeds on these ones even look like little fairies.

We were given a sheet with the fairy names and locations, to help us find them all, so as we walked round it was great for the children to be able to spot them, some are more hidden than others. They all had their own names and characters and they were well spaced out around the estate.

Next to the estate is the Monkey Forest and you walk past part of the fence whilst circling the lake, we kept our eyes pealed but weren't able to see any monkeys, this may have been as the Monkey Forest was not open yet, we have added it as another place to visit on our list. As we carried on round the lake, we stopped for snacks at the cafe at the other end of the lake, we sat outside and watched the birds as they came to feed, there were so many different ones and it was a welcome stop on our long walk.

Further round, we came across a little train track which takes you down by the river, a great way to have a seat and take it all in. We had so much fun spotting the fairies in their different locations and although the light wasn't great, it did make for some fantastic pictures of them, this one sat on top of the ticket booth looked so stunning and the fairy on the lake was mine and my daughters favourite.

After we'd walked round the lake, we stopped in the gardens and what remains of the old house, this was dismantled some time ago and if what does remain is anything to go by, it would have been a stunning house, the crumbling remains are beautiful and it is so sad that it has fallen into such disrepair.

Next to the house and the tea rooms where we started, is the play area, with several different playgrounds, sandpits and a barefoot walk, there is so much to do and there is no doubting that you could spend a whole day at Trentham. Finally, we headed through the maze, the view from the top of the viewing tower was fantastic. As we walked back down we spotted the last fairy on our list, I loved this one she looked so carefree.

We had such a wonderful time at Trentham, with so much to do in the area I think we'll make a weekend of it at some point and definitely visit again when it's warmer, a picnic on the lakeside would be wonderful.

Whether you are local or visiting the area I can highly recommend this beautiful estate to come and spend a day, see some history, art and wildlife all in one place.

Simple DIY Fairy Garden

I have been promising a fairy garden to the children for a while now, we'd seen them in the local garden centre so we decided to make our own using some simple bits and pieces from the shop.

So what do you need? Well it turns out not much, we bought a large terracotta plant pot holder, a little tiny one to put water in (fairies need a bath right) a succulent as they don't need much attention and then we succumbed to some little stepping stones and some mushrooms from the fairy garden section in the garden centre, you could however use some milk bottle lids for the stepping stones or make your own mushrooms out of some plasticine if you had the time. We also used some pebbles from our  rather over pebbly garden.

So we set to it. First, adding a little bit of compost to the bottom so we can add some more plants later on if we want, then we added in our succulent plant and the stones on top, along with some little tiny stepping stones.

We added the little mushrooms to the the plant and used a cute little windmill straw to set it off, then we added some water to our little pond and then, away we go. Putting the fairy garden in a container means we can move it if we need to and it isn't restricted to one place.

I also bought a small plant pot which I hand't really thought about what to do with, but a quick look on Pinterest soon solved that problem, we are going to turn it upside down and paint it, put a door on it and then add that. We also have a few shells we bought back from our holidays so we will be adding those too and may even make an adjoining garden

Pinterest is a really great resource for things like this, so do pop on over and have a look at my Fairy Garden Pinterest board for some ideas and if you've made one, i'd love to take a look for some more inspiration so feel free to leave your links in the comments.

Follow The Mummy Diary's board Fairy Garden Ideas on Pinterest.