We are lucky enough to live in a rather picturesque part of the country.  Granted, we don’t always get the nicer, warmer weather of the south of England but we are within a short driving distance of beaches, woodlands, countryside and plenty more.  It’s funny though, despite the fact we live so close to such beautiful places we don’t always take advantage of them.  In fact, for the past few years we’ve almost managed to miss bluebell season only remembering at the very last minute to head out and experience them!

So this year I was determined not to make same mistake and when we had some free time on a mild Saturday morning, we headed to the nearby Fairy Glen in Parbold and had a wander to see what we could find.  I’ve mentioned the Fairy Glen before on here, it’s a lovely little place and one I would definitely recommend exploring if you are local to the area or visiting.  Our trip was one of those days where everything just works together and works together well.  I was on my own with the kids which is usually a cue for one of them deciding to play up but they were both more than happy to don their wellies and come on an adventure.  Even the dog managed to stay out of mischief and we achieved the most blissful walk.

It was made even better, if that could be possible, by the discovery of a fairy door nestled away in one of the trees.  Meg was over the moon and insisted that we find and leave some flowers for the fairy in case they needed to find their way back.  Naturally we tried to find flowers which had already been plucked from the ground, rather than destroying any perfectly pretty flowers ourselves.

Once we had reached the bluebells we had a quick look around and then decided to slowly amble back towards the car; I think you can cross over a style and head further into the glen and we certainly saw a number of people armed with picnic baskets heading that way but we’ve never headed that way, I definitely think that’s something we should do next time as I’m curious where it all leads.

The kids waded back through the water and it was definitely the right time to go as it had started to get a little busier.  I think people had initially been caught out by the warm weather but we really got to make the most of having the glen to ourselves.  Meg nearly went over once or twice in the creek, and had to empty a whole torrent of water out of one of her wellies when we got back to the car but overall I think we achieved a wonderful and magical walk down among the bluebells.

It certainly feels as though the spring has been a long time in coming this year.  I have heard countless people remark that the winter seems to have dragged and dragged, so when we awoke recently to blue skies and sunshine we were determined to make the most of it.

Since we moved we haven’t really had the chance to explore our local area so a warm day was the perfect opportunity to do just that.

I know I have said it countless times and I’m sure I will say it more in the future but there is something so revitalising about enjoying the sunshine.  Whether it’s the simple pleasure of listening to the giggles and squeals of the kids playing in the garden or donning the wellies and heading out on an adventure, any chance to soak up the sun’s blissful rays can be a joy.

And then that feeling, come the end of the day when faces are a little sticky, skin is sun-warmed (or in my case…sunburnt) and you have this exhaustion from being outdoors all day but it’s a satisfying sensation rather than a worn out one, do you know what I mean?

Of course, typically, the rain wasn’t far away but I’m glad that we decided to make the most out of the warm day when it appeared.  At this time of year those days are few and far between in the UK!

I think the fact that it has been almost a month since I wrote a post here is testament to just how busy our lives are at the moment.  I have found the jump up from three days at work to four rather more challenging than I thought it would be; just having one day to get things done without the kids under my feet is so tricky!  I’m hoping that I will crack it this month though, fingers crossed for that one.

That said, we’ve had a lot on this month too.  Both work related and just for fun.

We kicked off the month with an unexpected snow day, although even as I type that I’m thinking about the rest of the weather we had in March and realising that nothing is really unexpected anymore.  I think I’ve mentioned before that we just don’t do snow in this part of the North West, it’s generally too wet and so waking up to find fat flakes floating down and sticking, actually sticking, was something of a shock.  The kids ended up at home because school thought it wasn’t safe for parents to try and bring them in so we got to spend the morning having snow ball fights and making snow creatures which was lots of fun.

It was also World Book Day at the beginning of March and this year we proudly sent off two children dressed as characters from books.  Meg chose to be Violet Beauregarde from Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, post-blueberry transformation, and we managed a compromise with Eli that he would go dressed as Newt Scamander.  Originally he had wanted to dress as a stormtrooper but with me being such a bookish soul, I tried my best to encourage him to choose someone who began their life as a literary character, rather than someone from a movie.  Newt was a good compromise and with the addition of a case and a niffler he actually went to school as a very happy chap.  He might actually be coming to terms with the realisation that being a Hufflepuff isn’t so bad either.  Whoop.

We celebrated Mother’s Day here in the UK at the start of the month.  James was, unfortunately, working on actual Mother’s Day so we headed to our local safari park the day before.  The weather wasn’t great (big surprise) but we did manage to have the experience of a lioness walking right past our car.  You can see that in the vlog here – it certainly gave us a real appreciation for how big those cats really are.  It’s the sort of thing that you know but until you get up close it isn’t something you can appreciate.  That is definitely not the case now.

Finally, we rounded off the month with the long Easter weekend.  It was a washout in terms of weather but we managed to fit in an Easter Egg hunt, a visit from my parents and my sister and even some good old fashioned fun at the seaside arcades.

Now as we head into April I am really hoping for some nice weather so we can enjoy the outdoors without having to wear gloves and hats.  It feels like we have had the longest bout of winter and I’m sure most of us are ready for some vitamin D from those sunny rays right about now!