Weleda Gardens Open Day

Earlier this month we visited the fabulous Weleda gardens on their open day, if you haven't heard of Weleda before they are a world leader in holistic natural cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

With gardens all over the world it feels like such a privilege to have one so close to us, I have visited the gardens before for one of Weleda's insight days but wanted to take the children so they could experience the gardens and see the wonderful flowers and plants.

First off my daughter and I made flower crowns, I had never made them before but it was super easy and so much fun. We chose our flowers from the selection they had and then carefully wound each flower onto the wire.

After we'd made our flower crowns we walked around the gardens, the plants were all labelled so you could tell what they were, some more deadly than others.

It was such a wonderful day and I enjoyed watching my children walk through the flowers, looking at the wildlife. We spotted some ant hills in the polytunnels and saw the bees that live in the gardens, we couldn't help but stop to spot the many butterflies and moths in the wildflower meadow too.

I use Weleda on a daily basis, my favourite products being their foot balm, arnica shower gel and skin food they smell great and work so well.

If you haven't heard of them before and are looking for more natural products to use as part of your beautify routine then do check them out.

Loving the Simple Things

We love to go out and explore but sometimes you don't want to leave the house, after a busy week we decided that we needed a day at home, so yesterday we got out into the garden and made the most of the sun when it peeped out from behind the clouds. You don't need a massive garden to enjoy being outdoors, a blanket on the grass, a disposable bbq, some chocolate digestives, marshmallows and a few cups of hot chocolate were enough for us to enjoy being outside.

These s'mores are super easy to make, all you need are a few chocolate digestives and some marshmallows, pop them on the bbq for several minutes each side and you have yourself some gooey yumminess. Perfect with a mug of hot chocolate and maybe a few more marshmallows.

Afterwards we listened to the skylarks that fly above the field behind us and looked for bugs in the in the garden, we planted some seeds and played with the hoola hoop, it was simple and yet made up for the fact we hadn't been anywhere.

We while away many hours in the garden like this and when summer hopefully makes an appearance there will be even more hours to fill with time in the garden and outdoors, we love to take walks in the field behind us picking up some treasures on the way.

What do you do in your garden that makes you love the simple things? 

Pretty Alpines for Your Home & Garden

After repotting some plants, I had some old pots left over that needed some love, so when I spotted a pretty alpine plant at the garden centre I decided to use that to pop in one of the more rustic looking ones.

These hardy plants need very little attention and can survive the harshest of conditions, you can even plant them in rockeries and boarders for pretty shapes and colours.  All you need is some compost or soil from your garden, your plant, a plant pot and a garden trowel.

I loved the shapes of the leaves and the clusters of smaller looking plants on this alpine, there is also a subtle red colour to the tips which makes it look really pretty.

Once you are ready to pot the plant, place some soil/compost into the bottom of the plant pot, you want it so that the plant sits at the right height in the pot, so once you are happy, remove the plant from the plastic pot and give it a try. You might need to add a bit more soil or take some out depending on where it is sitting in the pot, you want it to be sat with the start of the plant in line with the rim. 

Add more soil/compost to fill the pot, pressing down gently under the plant until the plant pot is full and there you have it, one beautiful plant for your garden and definitely on a budget. This only cost me the price of the plant as I had some left over compost from last year.

Finding old pots and cheap alpines is a great way to bring colour and shape into your garden, what do you like to grow in your garden?

Top 5 Easy Easter Activities

With an early Easter this year, there is no better time to think of some bright colourful springtime activities to do with the children, especially on the colder and wetter days.

So, I have put together our top five super easy Easter activities.

Easter Bonnets

These don't have to be expensive, most shops have reasonably priced hats now, or you could make some out of cardboard and tissue paper. We opted for some pre made hats with the addition of some feathers, little chicks, sheep and ribbons.

We started by wrapping the ribbon round the hat, using some sticky dots to attach it, then added on some tissue paper grass and the chicks, sheep and feathers. The sticky dots make it easier for the children to do this themselves, no mess which is always a plus.

Once you've finished your creation you are all ready for Easter and any parades you might have to go to.

Sweetie Filled Carrots

These easy to make sweetie filled carrots are the perfect addition to an Easter party or just as something different to put sweets in for your children on Easter morning.

To make them, all you need is some A4 orange and green card. To start, cut the orange card in half and then roll into a cone shape. Then, stick down with some tape or glue, you may need to clip with a peg until the glue is dry as the card springs back quite easily, if you had some cute easter themed washi tape this would look good too. 

Next, cut off the overhang at the top of the card to make the top of the carrot a circle, then using the green card or some green tissue paper to make yourself a green carrot stalk and stick this in place on the carrot. Now, unless you are intending to fill with lots of eggs, pop some tissue paper or shredded paper in the bottom of the cone and just place some eggs on top.

You could make smaller versions of the carrots by using a quarter of the card or any old bits of card you have lying around, these carrots could also be used as a prize at the end of an easter egg hunt.

Easter Cakes

I love baking with the children, it's a great way of getting them to help me in the kitchen and they can also enjoy the fruits of their labour afterwards. These are almost too easy but they look cute and can be altered to suit everyones tastes, cornflake cakes are by far the easiest of things to make, even for the non-bakers. You'll need chocolate (I use milk), cornflakes, chocolate mini eggs and some cake cases.

Take some chocolate, 200g should do it and melt in a heatproof bowl over some water, once melted add in some cornflakes, no real amount here just keep going until they are all coated and you've mixed them into all of the chocolate.

Once you've mixed all of the cornflakes into the chocolate, place a large spoonful into each cake case, add a few eggs onto each cake and then pop in the fridge to cool and harden.

Serve on a pretty plate at an easter party or just because!

Easter Tree

Each year we have an Easter Tree, don't ask why but we love to decorate a branch or piece of tree we've found with some easter decorations we've either made or found in a shop. It's a simple way of adding a little fun and colour to our home and has definitely become a tradition.

This year I have chosen some pussy willow branches as our tree, we already had a few branches from a winter bouquet so I bought a few more from a local florist. We would normally find a branch from a tree on one of our walks but as these looked so great we used them instead. 

We have some little felt chickens and wooden eggs to add this year, I will add a few more as I find them and we will be making some more over the next few weeks.

Easter Egg Hunt

I love to do Easter Egg Hunts for the children, we don't go overboard on chocolate and just do a few eggs for them to find around the garden, but they love it and if the weather is fine it is the perfect way to get them out in the garden first thing to enjoy the morning sun.

You can buy cheap Easter egg hunt kits from places like Asda for about £1.50, and with some fillable eggs you can add your own chocolates or healthy treats or even something completely different, some little toys or pieces of a puzzle maybe.

These are just a few but there is so much more you can do, whether inside the home or out and about. 

If you are in Nottingham then Rufford Abbey have an Easter trail, you pay £1 and they give you a sheet to follow round the gardens. Once you've found all of the clues you get a chocolate, an easy way to get out and about an enjoy some fresh air and join in the Easter fun without having to set it all up yourself.

Why not check out your local garden centres and some of your favourite spots to visit, they usually have something on, either over Easter weekend or during half term.

I have started a Pinterest page with some of my favourite activites from other fellow bloggers too, there is some great inspiration.

Follow The Mummy Diary's board Easter Activities on Pinterest.

Bringing Birds into Your Garden

Even though we used to live in the city boundaries, our garden had lots of trees and was always teaming with wildlife, from foxes to squirrels and many different birds. However, since we moved and only have a hedge behind us before fields, the amount of wildlife we see in our garden has dropped dramatically. For me and the children, this is somewhat of a loss. I had seen a few birds moving about in the hedge but with a few cats next door, they seemed reluctant to come down onto the garden to eat some mealworms we had put out for them.

So when we were at the local garden centre and spotted some suet blocks, we decided to get some to put on the fencing at the back of the garden. The idea came from when we visited Center Parcs last year and one of their wildlife experts gave us some to put on the window of our lodge. It was an instant hit with the birds who would fly up to the corner of the window and eat the suet. The children and the adults loved to watch the birds and it was a great feeling to be able to feed these wonderful little creatures.

So why I am telling you this, well this simple and relatively cheap food is a great way to bring wildlife into the garden and so easy to get your children involved in, all you need is a suet block, available from most garden centres and some supermarkets, you can even make your own if you fancy. You can even put out a few mealworms for them, these little fellas are super nutritious for our little garden friends, full of protein and a sure fire way of getting some visitors.

You’ll need to find somewhere that the birds will visit, our fence backs onto the hedge and the birds also have a good vantage point to spot cats so they are happy to visit here. We stuck some of the suet blocks onto the top of the fence and then on the ground below on our side of the fence we poured some meal worms, the black birds really love the meal worms and although I can't stand to look at them they are the perfect source of protein for the birds.

You don't need a lot of be able get these little feathered friends into your garden, with just a few simple ingredients some time and a little love you too can bring some wildlife close to your home, as well as helping to protect our beautiful birds.

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.

Exploring Clumber Park

At the weekend, we were invited to Clumber Park, to explore the grounds by bike and enjoy some of the facilities on offer.

When we have visited previously, we walked around the pleasure grounds near the chapel and played on the woodland play park, so the cycling was a first for us, not just here but I don't think I had even sat on a bike since I was about 12 or 13!

After parking the car, we headed first to the cycle hire centre, where the staff kitted us out with bikes, helmets, a lock and a map of the cycle routes, as well as offering advice on which route to start off with and where not to ride. 

As the children do not ride, my husband had my son on a tagalong bike and I had my daughter on a seat on the back of mine. It was a bit wobbly at first, but got easier as we went along. Traveling by bike meant that we got to see parts of the park that we had not seen before. Past the village of Hardwick, on the other side of the lake, there are fields, full of butterflies, insects and birds of prey, it was wonderful to be able to stop and look at these.

The view from the other side of the lake is amazing and I am quite sad we haven't seen it before, it is definitely a walk or ride we will be taking again. The cycle paths are flat and steep in equal measures, though if you don't mind dismounting, then you can follow the flat path along the edge of the lake.

With the kit Clumber Park gave us, we had binoculars and bug spotting kits so the children enjoyed being able to spot the wildlife across the lake and beyond.

After we'd been round once we stopped for lunch, there was a short wait for lunch from the restaurant itself so we opted for the BBQ outside. 

My daughter chose the child's lunch box which contained a freshly made sandwich, mini cheddars, cheese and crackers, yoghurt, biscuits and a drink, not bad for £4.50. I had the pork cob, hubby had the burger and my son had the sausage cob, with two portions of chips and a couple of beers it came to £31, it certainly filled us up for the rest of the day.

Afterwards we payed a visit to the second hand bookshop and the discovery centre, this is a great little spot to chill out with lots of space to explore, sit and read, learn and play.

After another cycle round the lake, we headed up to the walled garden, you have to pay to get into this area unless you are a National Trust member, it isn't much though, it's free for children and then £3.65 per adult without Gift Aid.

You could spend a good hour and a half  to two hours in the garden and they run talks and tours too, as it heads towards the summer holidays they also have lots of activities for children with the new Sunflower Alley opening this week.

There are so many beautiful flowers and areas to explore in the gardens, from the fruit and herb gardens to their many varieties of rhubarb. It was great to be able to get up close and personal with so many different plants, many of which we hadn't seen before. There was a bug house kit in the bag of goodies we were given so we took a look at the ones in the garden, which made the children excited about making this.

We really had an amazing time at Clumber Park, getting to see so much on the bikes was great and although my legs ached for days afterwards, it was by far the best way to see and explore. As a final treat before we left we headed over to the cricket pitch where there was a match on, we had an ice cream and then took it in turns to fly the pocket kite from the gift shop.

These things are normally something we might overlook in the shop, but actually they made our day out that little bit more special.

Clumber Park is a great place to visit this summer with so much to offer, see and do whether it is just to kick a ball around, go exploring in the woods or go biking round the lake.

NB: We were given free entry to the park, cycle hire and meal voucher to form this review. All opinions are my own.

Barbie Bubble-tastic Mermaid Giveaway

A few weeks back we reviewed the fantastic Barbie Bubble-Tastic Mermaid, the perfect summer toy and great for bubble and Barbie lovers alike.

So you’ll be excited to hear that I have one to giveaway to one of my lucky readers, your little one can spin and twirl with Barbie creating bubbles as they go.

A great way to get your little ones out in the garden as well as the perfect companion for bath time.

All you need to do is enter via the Rafflecopter form below, T&Cs apply and can be found on each entry criteria.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Black & White Photography Project Week 2

Garden Fun

We had a busy day at home today with some things we'd been putting off around the house, so to keep the children busy we got them both to make some treasure maps and bury something in the garden so me and my husband could find them.

It was lots of fun and proved we don't need to drive anywhere to have outdoor fun, our garden is a bit of a messy jungle at the moment whilst we attempt to renovate it so please excuse the mess.

First of all checking out the map...

Hmm, looking here and there, my sons map skills leave a little to be desired as there were about 3 xs marking the spot...

Dino spotting and also we love these big castor oil leaves, they look so prehistoric...

The previous owners of the house made these fab fern prints in concrete, we call them our fossils and the kids love looking at them...

Getting outside needn't be about being far away from home, you can have just as much fun and fresh air in the garden and we did and loved it.

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