"The toad, without which no garden would be complete"

Day 94:

When I popped out in the garden last night I saw this little cutie quickly disappear under the shed. Tonight when I walked outside they were obviously feeling a little braver and came over to say hi. Our garden is only really small but backs on to an undisturbed piece of land with a stream so we get all sorts in there. The frogs always freak when I pick them up but this little dude happily sat on my hand for a photo shoot, my toady encounter really made my evening. 

"One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak."

I'm determined to take full advantage of this glorious weather we've had over the last few weeks and with Seth being off now too there's even more reason to get out and about and soak up some vitamin D. Before Mrs M left for work she put the words Carding mill valley in the boys heads so thanks to that there was nowhere else we would be. It was a beautiful morning and after packing a lunch we piled in to the car and headed to our destination (but not without grabbing the usual bulk of toys).

Being up, dressed and ready for action to drop Mrs M at the train station is great as like this morning when we arrived at Carding Mill it was quiet and peaceful, there was only one other car on the car park... Bliss! Seth wanted to head straight towards the waterfall as he had never been before, I knew it was going to be quite a struggle for Seth because of his muscles but I don't ever want to hold him back. With plenty of patience, long stops and a bit of carrying I got the boys there safely and from the look on Seth's face it was well worth the wait.

I'd never ventured any further than the waterfall but Seth being the adventurer that he is insisted we climb to the top. This part was a little more difficult and it meant I had to carry one of them up and sit them somewhere safely while I went back for the other. When we got to the top we spotted a small flat piece of land for our picnic that was next to the stream running down to the waterfall. It was such a beautiful spot and gave us the chance to cool our feet off in the cold water.

After messing around for a while, chatting about everything and nothing and hunnting for grasshoppers we headed back in the direction of the car throwing rocks in the stream a long the way. The boys were clearly shattered but we still managed to stop for a game of frisbee before heading home.

Within five minutes they were both asleep in the back of the car and because of the heat I felt like I could have joined them. I really hope this weather carries on because its beginning to shape our summer holidays perfectly.

"After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb."

If someone had have told me four years ago that in four years time you will be signing up to be a member of the national trust I'd have laughed in their face. I was a party boy through and through and I would never have been found traipsing around a stately home or castle ruins. Just goes to show how much my life has changed and as we sat in a valley coffee shop filling out our application i had a little chuckle to myself.

These days I've traded in the alcohol, late night partying and waking up and not knowing where I am for quality time with the three people I love the most. We asked Seth what he wanted to do yesterday and he told us he wanted to splash around in a stream with his wellies on so I packed the car and we headed on our way. Thankfully the weather was great, warm and with a sun that was shining bright. As soon as we had reached our destination, used the facilities and filled out our application it was wellie time and as soon as Opeie had got his famous and very glamorous pink sparkly Peppa Pig wellies on we were being pulled over to the nearest hole with water in it.

I'm not a huge fan of stomping through streams and turning over rocks but if it makes the boys smile then I'm happy to pop my wellies on and get wet. The stream was pretty shallow compared to our last visit, so Seth's plans at catching fish with his bare hands was soon shattered. Opeie soon got bored of looking down at clear water with nothing going on and dragged me to the foot of the valley where there was a rope climb and informed me he wanted to go up. Excellent i thought, my boy is going to be a climber, that's exactly how I was when I was young, always climbing trees and tall hills. It worked out quite well as while me and Opeie went climbing Mrs M and Seth continued their nature hunt.

It was a steep walk but surprisingly apart from steadying himself on my shorts for balance a couple of times he managed the hike by himself. A huge change from the boy a year ago who could only roll to get about. He was more interested in saying "Be careful daddy" every ten steps (i guess he knows first hand how accident prone i am). When we reached the top Opeie let out a loud 'yeah we did it daddy', looking very proud of himself.

Opeie spotted Seth and Mrs M from way up high and gave them a shout which echoed through the valley. They looked up and waved so we took a photo, not a great one but that's them smack bang in the middle of the picture.

After Seth had finished splashing around and me and Opeie had made our way down we went for a gentle stroll as Seth's legs were starting to hurt. Me and Mrs M being the grown ups that we are took it in turns to sprint up the steep hills while being timed to see who won (I'll let you decide for yourselves who you think was fastest). 

It was so nice being out in the middle of nowhere for the afternoon and spending quality time together. Although Seth Struggles to walk to far,pottering about was lots of fun. The only sad part of the day was the amount of dead bees that we saw. We're always reviving bee's at home with honey and our trip out as made us realise that we need a utility belt with a honey dispenser on it. We did spot one interesting bug though that was happily strolling about.

Well i guess being part of the National Trust now we better take advantage of all the beautiful places in the UK. We will definitely making the most of it over the next year and have already spotted some interesting looking places so stay tuned of the coming weeks. 

"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped."

Have you ever decided to do something and then half way through said activity wish you hadn't have been so stupid? Well that was me yesterday.... What an idiot, More from that later in the post though.
 

Seth has another life away from us and sometimes that can be quite difficult. We really miss him when he's not with us and sometimes its just not the same when we are doing things without him. This weekend Seth had a choice of where he wanted to be (which doesn't happen very often) and being the very caring and grown up boy that he is he decided to split his time equally so that he could spend his time with everyone.

We asked Seth what it was he wanted to do yesterday and he told us that he wanted to go somewhere where he could put his wellies on and go splashing in a stream. No problem i thought although on Friday night as we were heading to pick Mrs M up from work i was about to tell Seth that he was in charge of making sure the wellies were packed when i realised i hadn't picked up his wellies from school, Oops. Seth's idea... Break in to the school and retrieve them! As i didn't want to wind up on next weeks school news letter i thought i better not. Instead i quickly popped to the shops to get him a new pair (and that's why they call me super Dad).

We reached our destination and put the blanket down on the grass, it was lunch time and i was marvin. Unfortunately the great British weather had other ideas and although I'm happy sitting in a bit of rain Mrs M ran back to the car locking me and the boys out. What a sweetie. Thankfully it didn't last too long and after having a party in our tummies (Opeie's favourite phrase), we changed in to our boots and headed to the nearest water for adventure.

Seth was having a great time looking for wildlife and Opeie... well he had found the magic of Moss and was really investigating it.

After  a little more stream adventuring Opeie made it clear that the nap he should have had on the journey there was due now and as the sun was out and it was warm we all sat on the grass and Opeie drifted off to sleep. Seth dragged me back in to the water and was desperately looking for fish, unfortunately all we found were rocks. so after half an hours disappointing fishing we headed back to sleeping beauty who was still fast asleep. Mrs M had sat down opposite a huge hill and as we all sat there staring at it i said those stupid words 'I reckon i could climb that no problem' what an idiot! 'go on then' Mrs M replied, so thinking i now had something to prove i jumped to my feet and trotted off confidently over the stream and to the bottom of the hill (i wanted to put 'mountain' here but i think that may have been a slight over exaggeration). I looked up and thought 'easy' and i began to climb the hill. Using a lot of energy to sprint up the first part wasn't a great idea and as my legs started to ache my motivation was the next thing to go. Who did i think i was, I'm not a fit person!

I managed 3/4 of the way before realising what a fool i had been and going any further wasn't an option. It was a lot higher than i had thought while looking up it and it was really windy. I sat down and had a little bit of a panic, i couldn't see Mrs M or the boys now and i knew if i didn't head back down soon Mrs M would freak out and probably do something crazy like call mountain rescue (are they on 999 too?)

 Can you spot me???

I'd love to say that i came down gracefully but the wind was blowing me all over, i slipped on some wet animal muck, tripped on a vine and sat on a prickly bush leaving spikes in my bum which wasn't pleasant, cut my ankle and my hand and almost sprained my other ankle. By the time i reached the bottom i was a bit of a wreck and every muscle in my legs seemed to be aching. Ive never been more happy to see my three favourite people. There was no rest for poor daddy though as i had to carry the little prince on my shoulders back to the car.

A valuable lesson was learnt that day, lets just say i wont be running up any valley hills any time soon, the boys seemed impressed though and as they are unaware of my panicking up there ill take that as a win. Soon after that it was obvious that Opeie had had his fill of watery excitement and his entertaining moss so we headed home (i was thankful of the sit down even if i was driving).

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine."

 I am feeling far to tired to be sitting at the computer this evening so tonight's post will be photo's from our day (i say that but Mrs M has just put some rubbish on the TV so i may end up on here all night), Enjoy.

Opeie launched a banana at a sheep and he wolfed it down, oops!!