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Blenheim Palace is one of England’s finest stately homes. It’s been selected as one of the 10 most magnificent in England, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is one of the 1000 Places to See Before You Die.
And, despite what one would expect of its princely pedigree. it’s a cheap day out with kids. Well, at least it is if you live close enough to take advantage of its annual pass offer. We do. My initial £19 investment in a ticket has paid dividends as we’ve now easily been a dozen times this year. All now in my mind “free.”
I’d gone to Blenheim Palace a couple of times during the pre-toddler era. But it wasn’t until I had the Little Monkey in tow that I really saw how great the place is. The family focused Pleasure Gardens in particular have become our “go-to” day out during the summer months. Now sadly fading away into winter…
First and foremost on our visits, we ride the train. Sir Winston Churchill takes us on a winding ride across the grounds.
And we LOVE the train. Sometimes we just stay on the train and ride it back and forth a few times because it’s just that cool.
We visit the Butterfly House, home to numerous species of tropical butterflies. And while we sweat profusely during the visit to this tropical climate, we enjoy spotting the butterflies as they fly around in the open all around us. Sometimes they narrowly miss our heads.
We play chess. Well, that is if either one of us knew how to play chess. Mostly we just move the pieces around and disrupt the games of other people playing actual games of chess.
We try to solve the colorful mazes. We ventured once into the Marlborough Maze, the second largest hedge maze in the world. But, I’ve since decided that doing this with a toddler is maybe not the best course of action. I mean, there are people out there trying to use advanced mathematics to solve this maze. Seriously. So we stick to the mazes that are out in the open.
We climb on the Adventure Playground. Full of ladders, slides, and bridges, it offers plenty of activities to help expend toddler energy.
And, finally, we slum around on the aristocracy’s front lawn playing silly games on the most perfect grass I’ve ever seen.
When you travel places you expect them to have gorgeous scenery and interesting sights. That’s the reason to travel isn’t it? To see places, things, and cultures that you don’t encounter on a daily basis.
But, I’m not sure I’ve ever expected a destination to smell really amazing. Taking advantage of a gloriously sunny weekend, we took a drive into the Cotwolds to the Snowshill Lavender farm. I’m not sure how I even came across the place. I think hunting for English lavender fields in bloom became the natural extension of my poppy hunting journey in June. On the way we travelled down some single track country lanes, as you do in England, and I was sure we were lost (apart from my sat nav telling me otherwise). I even thought to myself that it would be funny if we drove the hour in the car to get there only to find there was nothing to see. But, I was pleasantly surprised as the car came up over a hill and we looked out across fields of purple.
It is an amazing sight to see the countryside covered in shades of purple but it was the smell that really caught my attention. They’d recently started this year’s harvest and were bringing truck loads of lavender into the distillery where they use steam to extract the essential oils. Just standing in the distillery for a few minutes breathing in the wonderful aroma of fresh lavender was enough to make me feel better about life. Even late into the evening that night everything smelled just that bit nicer and with a hint of lavender. To be sure, the distillery was the Little Monkey’s favorite part of the journey. Nothing says fun like big tractors driving around.
I did eventually drag him away from the tractors so that we could enjoy a walk around the farm and the lavender. And, he felt the sunshine was bright enough to merit shades. He was right.
So, if you’re in the area and you’re looking for something to do on a sunny day in the Cotswolds, head to Snowshill Lavender. Soak in the sights of the gorgeous purple fields and get a little aromatherapy on the side. Just do it soon as they’re in the middle of the harvest and it won’t be around long. Well, until next summer.
I have to say that in Spring and early Summer the English countryside is a beauty to behold. In May the English landscape was a patchwork of golden-yellow rapeseed fields. In June it was dotted with gorgeous scarlet poppy fields. But, unlike the golden rapeseed fields which are everywhere you turn, the poppy fields are like little secret gems that you randomly stumble across. I honestly didn’t even know I was supposed to be looking for them or that they even existed until my photographer friend said she was on the hunt for them for a bridal shoot. Even after almost three years, I learn something new about England every day.
I finally found time to shoot some photos of a poppy field I had found nearby but I have to say I’m pretty disappointed with most of my shots. I think it’s easy to get into habits with your camera settings if you shoot the same subject the majority of the time. And then when you do something a little different, it’s easy to forget the fundamentals. Like just because you shoot wide open most of the time because you’re shooting people doesn’t mean that is in any way appropriate for wide landscapes. And, when you do that, most of your photos will be horribly out of focus. So, my close up shots were ok but the wide-angle shots are nowhere near what I would call “tack sharp.”
Also, besides going out in the blazing sunshine I chose completely inappropriate footwear. If you’re going to take a wander in a farmer’s field with waist-high vegetation, flip-flops are really not your best choice. I wanted to wade deeper into the sea of red but felt that was inadvisable.
Not sure I can even tell where the focus point was
Lots of red here but mostly out of focus
Up close and back in the comfort zone
Lessons learned from my first attempt, a new field found, and desperate to capture a good wide-angle shot of the expanse of red, I ventured forth with my tennis shoes. This time however, the footpath ended well before I got to the field I wanted to shoot and I found myself again wading though a thicket of vegetation. And, while I had addressed my footwear issue, I failed to understand that I should have worn body armour as well. Stinging nettles on the arm, ouch!
For the wide-angle shots on this trip, I paid much more attention to using small apertures so that most of the shot would be in focus. Regretfully, even the power lines. Still didn’t really get what I wanted to achieve with a wide-angle shot, but now I’ll be ready when next year’s poppy season rolls around. And, will have purchased some Kevlar clothing and steel toe boots.
Much better focus, still couldn't get close enough
Sometimes simple is good
To say that Little Monkey is obsessed with the Peppa Pig show would be an understatement. In fact, I firmly believe that the first word out of his mouth was Peppa. He already knows how to hand me the remote and look up at me with his big brown eyes repeating “Peppa, Peppa, Peppa.” I already wonder if I’m going to go to hell for letting him watch television in the first place nevermind that I have now allowed him to become obsessed with one specific show. Although, to be fair, it really is the only children’s show we watch.
How did we become a Peppa Pig house while others become Waybuloo or In the Night Garden houses? I have no idea how this evolved. Maybe it was the catchy little tune. Maybe it was the bright colors and talking animals. Maybe it was the cheery depiction of family life. Or, maybe it was because it’s filled with just enough irony and comedy that I don’t feel like I need to take hallucinogenic drugs to watch it over, and over, and over, and over again. All I know is that from the beginning, Little Monkey’s face would light up and he would giggle and laugh (with his little Beavis & Butthead laugh) every time he heard the theme tune.
Well, last weekend, thanks to the lovely Amanda, we enjoyed at day out at a special preview of Peppa Pig World, a new theme park in Hampshire. OMG! Could there have been a more perfect day out? No! It was a warm, sunny spring day and we enjoyed Mr. Potato’s Playground, Peppa’s Balloon Ride, Daddy Pig’s Car Ride, and Grandpa Pig’s Boat Trip. What a load of fun! Watching Little Monkey run around and see his favorite characters come alive was just brilliant. This was a day when I really found out what it feels like when you’re able to give your child an experience that brings absolute joy to their life. He was so excited he even managed to last the entire day without a nap. And, then he was sound asleep before we were out of the car park. Highly recommended way to wear out a toddler.
Because it was a VIP preview day before the park officially opens this weekend, we were lucky that the crowds weren’t bad and we never really had to wait for anything. I can only imagine what this place will be like in the middle of summer. So my advice if you’ve got kids that love Peppa, get yourself to Peppa Pig World in the middle of the week, before the middle of the summer, and maybe when it’s cloudy because it’s going to be a hit.
