My one night off....

For the first time in what seems like forever I got asked out with friends, everyone had a sitter. Everyone was getting ready, including me.

 I'd even gone through with getting my haircut and buying a new dress. Anyone that knows me, knows I'm not a dress fan but for tonight i went out and brought a new maxi dress from M&co in Blandford. I love their clothing range I have to admit at some point I'm not as young as I used to be but when I do have to dress like a grown up this is usually the first place I shop.

Dress I choose

Tried on a few dresses one was multi shades of pink which is not really my color. Although it was a lovely dress I opted on the one you can see me wearing.

Its slightly stretchy and not to heavy, felt lovely on, plenty of room to move in and best of all the price was very good.

Grumpy pose due to concentration

M & co do such good deals on clothing providing not just for women but men and children also.

If you shop online I would recommend M & co.At least once every two months there are sales (this week its 25% off. 

I love this shop so as soon as Friday is here I will be doing a little retail therapy.

Upton Country Park

Taking the dogs for a walk is generally a chore when it comes to doing it with TJ. Today was no different TJ rode his bike off into the distance, leaving me and my oldest dog for dust.

It's days like this that I love living where I do only minutes from the beaches and moments from Upton Park and it's breath taking trails. Where the children and dogs can run around like lunatics and there's still plenty of room to play football.

A visit to Bucklers Hard

I decided that our day out would be to Bucklers Hard. An 18th century village where warships for Nelsons navy were built. Set in an idealistic village, surrounded by Beautiful scenery on the Beaulieu river.

The Maritime museum has items dating back to Admiral Nelson and his crew members, as well as many other boats that were made at Beaulieu. 

Ships built at Beaulieu

With open houses to wonder around life in 18th century was definitely hard. Reading the information provided and listening to the guided tour. I can imagine how hard life was back in the 18th century when listening to the historian.

Guided tour 

  To look around the little village and the museum it took us around 2 hours.

Outside the museum

Costing £6.50 an adult and £4.50 a child.
There's is an option to upgrade the ticket to an unlimited yearly pass which was only £10 a person.
This did not include the additional price of the river boat cruise.

Shipwrights cottage and St. Mary's Church 

Along the houses on the left there are two houses in which you can look around. the shipwrights cottage and St. Mary's Chapel which holds a hidden room.
As you progress down the hill towards the waterfront there is a pub and grill area. with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating.

Shipwrights School

The building in the background at the waters edge has just been re- built with 150 year old oak wood. Provided by the Beaulieu forest.

Homemade juggling balls

After spending a lot of time this week working and being busy, I decided that a bit of TJ time was in order to cheer me up. 

So we decided to make homemade juggling balls.

So preparation was the key today.

• 4 Balloons 
• 1 Bottle split in two 
• Flour ( for filling balloons)
• AIR PROVIDED BY TJ 

You will need

Challenging TJ to blow it up

Swapping air for flour 

One happy boy and a few added balloons

When TJ finished making the juggling balls all 3 of them, he took them to school to show his friends and apparently everyone wants one.

Theyre so easy to make, but when the flour and air mix up it can make an awful mess. We choose to do the loading outside (better safe then sorry).

National Trust - White Mill

Where else can you get such an amazing view. I find I'm never let down for beauty and peace with the National Trust.

White mill was original built in the 18th century. Rebuilt in 1776  where it worked as water powered mill until 1866 when a bad flood destroyed the mill making it unusable beyond repair.

It wasnt till 1994 when the National Trust started to conserve the property.

When visiting a National Trust property, usually take the dogs. Today was no different.

TJ all excited to look into the building running ahead before the rain started to fall three dogs trying to keep up whilst I was getting dragged behind.

The rear of property

On a Quiet road in the middle of no where stands a small mill. The mill is no longer in use but is lovely to look around.

Entrance passage 

Along the entrance passage the mill has many low hanging beams but for short people like myself I walked around with no problems.

The stairs are steep going up to all three floors. On each level the view from the windows are fantastic. 

View from loading door 1st floor

When walking around the building you can imagine where the grain used to be held. The amount of work that the old millers used to work. with the original elm and apple wood machinery still in the building. 

Elm and apple wood machinery

The river stour

Old well at the rear of property 

Review of the new kid show - Herbie hound

When watching a kids animations I generally look for fun loving friendly characters.
I was not disappointed when looking at the main character.

At first thoughts on watching the pilot episode of 'Herbie Hound' I thought oh no another talking animal show.

The English personality of Herbie has a calming voice, but there is a slight twist to this hound.
He has a French side of his personality with the phrase 'oh la la la' being spoken every time he spoke. This started to annoy me during the introduction but once the show got going, I didn't mind it as I realised it was part of the shows personality. Although a little annoying my 7 year old was enjoying listening to Herbie talking as well as trying to copy his accent. (I did find this amusing).

Herbie goes to school and is nervous about meeting other classmates. Whilst there Herbie makes a few new friends and helps encourage children in to speaking a little french, along the way.
This program encourages children to make friends with other classmates at school, and to listen to their teachers as well.

There is also a brief sound when Herbie's voice changes to French, That helps child distinguish between Herbie hounds personality.

At the end of the show there is a short quiz from Herbie asking simple questions about who we remembered Herbie meeting.

When watching the programme I was watching my sons face and looking at his facial expressions, he was smiling and interacting with the animation which he doesn't often do as he looses interest to quickly.

I look forward to seeing more of the animation and hopefully my son may pick up a little French along the way.

At a small price varying from 69p for the sing along, £1.69 for the animation.

You can also buy the ebook priced at £3.99 or a paperbook for £7.99.

 Natasha Hamilton at the launch in London

More information on Herbie hound can be found : 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Herbie-Hound/1591850061053290?sk=timeline&ref=pyummymummysblog.wordpress.com/2015/05/07/her

Peaceful morning

When walking by the river, I dont usually call the dogs back but after TJ calling me across to look at black wriggly things in the water I couldn't quite believe what i was seeing. 

On the edge of a slow flowing river was several large groups of tadpoles.

Not understanding how the tadpoles reached where they were without getting eaten I tried to explain to TJ that he couldn't take any home and we had to move away before any of the dogs trod on them.

Although fascinating to watch the tadpoles just slowly swimming without a care in the world.

My best guess is that they recently got washed downstream by the recent rainfall.