Umm, I had this mostly written out when I pressed the wrong X which closed it all down :-(

Right I’ll try again :-)

It was a beautiful day yesterday so we decided to go for a lovely Sunday afternoon walk in some local woods that a couple of my mates had been talking about recently, we’ve never been there before so we thought it well worth a wander to see what it was like. We called up family and they met us there.

We ended up parking on a grassy area tucked behind one of the many little churches and graveyards in the area and when we saw the style we knew that was the direction to go in so we all trundled over and this opened up before us...

Then off into the woods we wander, all 18 of us, 15 kids and 3 Adults :-)

We cut up onto a track that runs through the woods while we had a good look about...

Then we cut down towards the river which was about 150 meters down hill from us, it's quite a shallow slope down and quite open and fantastic for camping which we've got permission for :-) Here's where we hit the river - naughty river, naughty river :-)

It's quite deep, we were on the bank that's been cut out and Owen pushed a 8 foot stick into the water and it didn't touch anything, the far bank looks like it gradually shallows out in the water but it drops quickly...lovely for playing in.

Kids love being in the woods, there's no doubt about that and when they find skulls their imaginations run wild, what hunted them, what were they, who can i scare with this? Here's one of those that was being carried around, the other was on the end of Will's staff :-)

Here's some of the kids relaxing

Rowan called me over into the woods to see some fungi they had found, while getting there I thought i'd take some snaps of all the signs of wood left stranded after the winter floods that we have every year, these were all along the river side in the woods.

The kids had found some good sized King Alfred cakes so I nabbed a couple, yes, even though i've got loads already :-)

Then it was on to the lovely big Oak that had come down many years before where I got a pic of this beauty, old and dry but still impressive at about 2 feet across...

This is my Erin wandering on about 30 meters ahead of us, it seems the ideal setting for her...

Then we cut out of the woods down another track and into some pasture that leads down to another part of the river, I'd just twisted my ankle on the holes made by the horses in the mud that had all dried out, it's quite sore today. There were a number of injuries - scratches, grazes, bumps and bruises, all the things that make up an active childhood and create fond memories...

In case anyone is wondering, the blue backpack is a VauDe baby carrier with our 7 month old Jenna riding in it.

We spent about 45 minutes taking it easy next to the river, well some and some of us spent the whole time skimming stones, seeing how many bounces we could get and how high we could bounce them into the big bank on the other side, this would be a fantastic spot to canoe to and camp....Umm, I feel a plan coming together.

We drank lovely fresh elderflower cordial that Shelly made this last week and really appreciated what a beautiful place we live in.

Time to be off, some of the kids have a school music event in the local Church, it's a struggle to leave...

We're nearly back to where we parked, my nephew and nice - Jarred and Imogen are coming down the meadow, it seems like a nice picture to round off a lovely day.