"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."

Dinosaurs are still on the top spot of Opeie's interests which is great but he is starting to now branch out a little (I could have turned that in to a pun had I have used it later on in the post but sadly it is lost now). Anyway back to what I was talking about. Opeie's latest topic of interest is birds since watching a couple running around in our garden a few weeks back. So yesterday we had one of those days where Mrs M was in London working and there was no afternoon school run so we decided to go bird spotting and where better but Lake Vyrnwy which is the centre piece of the RSBP reserve.

We've been before a few times but back then we were there for the stunning scenery, the huge dam and the very beautiful Rhiwargor waterfall. This time though it was all about the birds and we were really excited when we pulled in to the car park and was greeted at the door by a Robin (a great start to our bird watching morning).

It was freezing, but we had wrapped up warm (despite my usual shorts) and we were armed with grandads binoculars (which I should have returned 2 years ago, oops). Apart from the Robin when we arrived, as we walked around taking in the sites the bird watching was pretty slow. We could hear them but had no idea where they were hiding.

Being able to have days like this really makes our home schooling special, it is effortless learning. we talked about the the dam, the bridge and the wildlife and I also got to hear about how Opeie felt about the pieces in the sculpture park.

Opeie was desperate to see some birds though so we made our way over the dam to get to the RSPB visitor centre, not before making use of Grandad's binoculars again though over the lake. The view is stunning and Lake Vyrnwy is definitely one of my favourite places to visit.

While at the RSPB visitor centre we picked up a Michelin I-SPY bird book and asked where the best place was to spot birds and we were pointed towards a cabin that we had walked past everytime we had visited before. The cabin is a large hide where you can sit and watch so many different woodland birds up close while they feed. We got to tick off Greenfinch, Siskin, Blue tit, King tit, Nut hatch and a few others, when we stood up to look about the cabin we saw lots of Pheasants too picking up the dropped seed. Being able to watch the birds up close like that was a lovely experience for Opeie and we sat there for quite some time, chatting to the other visitors and reading the information on the boards inside.

As I have been writing this Opeie has sat next to me and we have been talking about visiting Lake Vyrnwy again soon, but in the dark for a spot of star gazing. Because there is minimal light pollution around the area I think it would be a great spot to take in the magic of our solar system at night and maybe add that to Opeie's list of learning interests.

"The happy combination of fortuitous circumstances."

A few weeks back a last minute trip to London fell in to our lap because Mrs M had to be there for work. So we jumped at the chance to tag a long (well what else were we going to do?) . Rather than ramble on about what we did though I thought a series of pictures would suffice, I'll leave you all to make your own minds up whether we had a great time or not, enjoy...

"It's a genuine daisy! I've seen them quite often in fields growing wild. But never before on the head of a child. Now what in the world ever made this thing sprout? I have no idea. But I'm going to find out!"

Despite a couple of little accidents Opeie  seems to have got in to quite a good routine with his potty training. We've been pottering around the house for the last week and a half but after dropping Mrs M at work today (and knowing that Opeie had taken care of business a few times today) we headed over to the lake to feed the ducks. We hadn't been to feed the ducks for a few weeks and were concerned that warburtons may go in to liquidation though the lack of our bread buying. Opeie was really excited and was clutching his bag of bread like some crazy duck enthusiast.

Opeie got the ducks all riled up by hovering his bagels over the railings but not throwing any in. I wasn't sure what he was up to but when an army of ducks arrived i just put it down to the fact that he wanted a feathery free for all. He finally decided to share his bread with the ducks and then cackled as they started biting each other to get at their lunch like some evil overlord.

After feeding the ducks we had some time to kill before picking Seth up from school so we went for a trek around the lake. Opeie started pointing out "pretty flowers" so as we have been learning about colours today at home i used the nice selection to get him practising again which he seemed to find fun.

Our little game was going lovely until Opeie spotted a Dandelion to blow and then the rest of the walk back was taken up by Opeie picking every one he saw and blowing raspberries at them, very cute. Opeie loves flowers especially daisies after the first time we read Daisy-head Mayzie (great story by the way). Its nice to be out and about again, i think i will start venturing out further now he's in a bit of a routine (armed with our potty of course).