"Passion surprises. One doesn't search it. It can happen to you tomorrow."

Day 101-102:

Yesterday seemed to fly by and I didn't take a single photo so I'm lazily adding these two days together. Last year we visited Attingham park a few times around this time of year in search of the Lesser stag for Opeies photo collection of found beetles. Each visit we came away with some photos of some interesting new beetles but sadly never the Lesser stag. As we walked home yesterday through the woodland near us, we turned over logs looking for beetles and there she was, sitting there waiting for a photo. I love how things like this can really make our day and we can now cross off Lesser stag from our list. Next up... we still haven't found Opeie's favourite, the elusive violet ground beetle.

"The most important thing in the world is family and love."

Saturday felt like a little bit of a wasted day. Mrs M was working for a few hours and the weather was awful so me and the little super hero spent the day in apart from a trip to the game shop to trade in some unwanted games for newbies. Yesterday really made up for it though, the sun was out and everywhere looked cheerful again. We didn't have any plans so we spent the first couple of hours of the morning trying to decide what to do. eventually we decided and packed a picnic and headed to Attingham park. We took a stroll towards the house on the grounds and it was really peaceful, I love walking around holding Mrs M's hand, we don't seem to get to do it very often and it always feels quite romantic.

 Our game of hide and seek in the garden was made a little easier by the big red super Mario hat that Opeie was insisting on wearing all morning. He was looking rather cute though.

After eating our grub and spending some time in the walled garden we jumped back in the car and took a slow drive towards Mrs M's parents house. Opeie was feeling exhausted so it was a great opportunity to get him down for a nap so that he was full of energy for all of those kisses he was going to get off nanny.

After a cup if tea, racing some toy cars and a game of Bigjigs skittles with Nanny and Grandad we all jumped in the car and drove to Auntie Lottie's house...

Opeie was so excited that he got to have a ride around on one of uncle Aaron's vintage tractors and i even got to drive it around the garden too which was lots of fun. The weather was so lovely all afternoon and being around the people we love the most made for a pretty perfect Sunday afternoon.

Searching for bugs and wildlife at Attingham park.

I try and write about things as soon as they happen, sometimes though i half write posts and then get wrapped up in other things, my bad. Last week we all had a morning out at Attingham park, our friend Chris had stopped at ours the night before and we managed to kidnap him for the morning and took him along with us which the boys were very excited about. Mrs M had been before but even though its not far from ours I had not been. We managed to get out of the house at a reasonable time, even if Chris did have a lie in (lie ins are unheard of in our house).

We arrived at our destination and after flashing our new National trust memberships we headed on to our adventure. The grounds were beautiful and although there was a chill in the air and Mrs M needed my shirt to keep warm, the sun was shining and was desperately trying to warm the place up. The boys were in their usual excited mood, laughing and running about.

There was a 'searching for bugs and insects' activity on which the boys couldn't wait to join in with so armed with a magnifying glass, tray and sheets with pictures of wildlife to search for, off we went turning over rocks, rummaging through bushes and checking the skies.

It wasn't long before we made it to the orchard which I think was what kicked off the last two weeks of apple scrumping (which I will write about very soon). The walled garden around the fruit and veg being grown was like Mrs M's personal heaven and she walked round in awe of all the crops and was even more excited when she saw the beehives (one day we'll have that self sustaining life that she dreams of).

The flowers there were stunning too...

Seth was desperate to get to the play area and I was parched so we headed there next. Clearly the boys had even more energy to burn off and who were we to deny them that. The play area was great, lots of climbing things handcrafted from wood and long dark tunnels built into hills, great fun for any inquisitive child, although the tunnels were slightly to small for grown ups and me and Chris ended up with neck cramp.

And then it was time to head back for lunch and i suppose we needed to let our hostage go back to his wife. So we headed back to the car. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours before Lunch the adventure got me wondering where our next National Trust adventure will be, any ideas?

The sun did not shine, it was to wet to play...

...But there was no keeping us in on this grotty wet day. After dropping Mrs M at work a few days back we headed out on a mini adventure desperate to make the most of the afternoon. We had been to Attingham Park a week or so ago but seeing as we don't have to pay now we thought we'd venture that way. On arrival the weather seemed pretty bleak but it wasn't raining and Opeie had a huge smile on his face as always, so our adventure began...

But as expected the rain soon started thrashing it down and we excitedly ran searching for somewhere to take cover. We made our way to the dark tunnels built into a hill. Opeie armed only with the Darth Vader torch on my keys lead the way, the flash on my phone came in handy too.

The rain slowed down a little but neither of us were going to let a bit of water ruin our fun so we continued our mission to the playground. Opeie stopped us ever few minutes to show me mushrooms he had spotted.

The playground as you can imagine was soaking but our backpacks made excellent bottom protectors stopping us from getting wet...

Not the slide though, Opeie made it quite clear that he was not prepared to put up with a soggy bum walking back to the car so the slide was a definite NO NO! (Arms crossed to make his point clear)...

Opeie found us a little hut with a roof to stop and have a snack, it didn't have any sides and we were still getting wet but it was cute that he wanted to sit there for cover.

Soon after, the rain started thrashing it down again and we both had wet feet so we began our hike back to the car but not without Opeie stopping at and standing on every "Lorax stump" that he spotted...

And then it was shoes and socks off for the journey home which Opeie found very entertaining

When you see a pair of shoes on a radiator you know that fun has been had.