Visiting Newstead Abbey in the Spring

The last few weeks have seen us decorating and sorting our house out ready for it to go on the market, it means that getting out of the house has been for just an hour at a time. So yesterday, now that everything is complete, we managed to get out of the house for longer.

We headed to Newstead Abbey for a walk around the beautiful gardens and to see the snowdrops, it's a magical place steeped in history and it's a short drive from Nottingham city centre.

Stood behind the waterfall, watching the water made us notice how relaxing and thought provoking it actually was, though it was pretty noisy! There was so much wildlife about, birds, ducks and these rather cheeky swans!

The Japanese gardens on the other hand are peaceful, beautiful and full of fabulous corners to sit and relax in, the waterfalls here are more about gentle running water and are so serene.

With moss covering the stones and the odd clump of snowdrops it wasn't as luscious as the rest of the year but I think that added to the atmosphere as we hopped across the many stepping stones.

We stopped to look bugs under logs, we only spotted a few millipedes, a woodlouse and a cobweb but it was still fun.

The gardens where full of winter plants and the hedges always look beautiful no matter what time of the year, we played in the park and ran around.

And finally our treasures of the day...

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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