I was woken up this morning by the gentle pitter-patter of raindrops falling through the leaves outside and a symphony of birds. As I turned over I could feel the dawn's light through my eyelids and smiled inwardly; holidays! The view that greeted me was a towering mesh of deciduous skeletons.
The night was a mixed bag. I flitted between sleeping soundly and then getting really hot legs and feet and having to throw off the bed covers; I'm used to a 7.5tog duvet at home not a 10tog! The Boy first stirred at 5.45, but then settled back down by himself until 7.15 (a full 12 hours in the end)! Hoorah for the great outdoors and fresh air!
We had a fabulous breakfast of variety pack cereals (like children aren't we?), croissants, pain au chocolat and coffee, accompanied by yet more bird song as the window in the kitchen slides all the way back to bring the outdoors in. Wellies on and up we squelched through the mud (by the way, the Maclaren didn't get bogged down at all) to the reception centre for our welcome talk. It's a lovely touch to have this chat explaining the facilities, the ranger's job (including activities for children and night-vision walks), the food & wine delivery service (to your room, ordered through your television!), the bike hire and the local attractions and walks. All of this is accompanied by a bacon butty and a cup of coffee. Vegetarian like me? No problem, would you like a croissant or an egg roll?
After lunch, we visited Dick Whittington Farm Park. We will never go again & I wouldn't recommend it. It's £6 for adults and children over 3 years old, and £5 for children under the age of 3. Babies who can't walk are free. Personally I think that's really steep, toddlers should be cheaper than that, if not free. I don't think I've ever heard of a place that charges for at least under 2s. The total cost was £17 and we were there for 1hr and 15 minutes. In that time, we spent 40 minutes in the reasonable-quality soft play area, which was packed: lots of weekend dads who unfortunately were spending more time on their iPads than playing with their children. The toilets are, um, functional but the floor is quite frankly filthy.
And so to the animals. Yes there are a selection of farm animals including pigs, some sweet lambs, donkeys, goats, chickens and geese. However, these chickens are in a ridiculously low pen which made me think of battery farming. I was not particularly impressed with the conditions that many of these animals were living in. The aviary is four foot by five foot housing a large amount of small birds, too many for that space. There is a 'tropical' house with a couple of terrapins, one tank of goldfish, some lizards and snakes, tortoises and something large and worrying, I forget it's name which is quite frankly probably for the best. To be honest, the place looked like a pet shop rather than something intended for visitors. 'Extras' on the farm included a snowy owl, a pedal-kart track (an extra £1) and a sandpit. I will admit that we were chuffed to see a couple of llamas, The Boy thought they were camels which I thought was quite an impressive connection to make.
However, back we came to out beautiful cabin which The Boy is calling our 'little house'.
Oh and his new favourite word is 'huh-woh', as in 'hello'. Very cute!
We rocked up to the Bracelands site mid-afternoon. Check-in isn't normally until 4pm, but we were there an hour earlier and they were happy to hand over the keys. The cabins are at the top of a hill nestled into the middle of a forest which has carefully been cleared in strategic places to make way for 77 cabins, a Forest Retreat welcome centre and a few gravel tracks connecting them together.
We've already made a start at having fun together, just the three of us. The Boy has already experienced something new: splashing in puddles. Don't get me wrong I have taken him out but puddles in tarmac aren't quite the same somehow. He has thoroughly embraced the concept and we almost had to drag him away from them! The Boy was absolutely captivated with the cabin and the whole idea of 
I've used the Techno XLR a fair amount around town, but also in off-tarmac locations. We went to a local country park in the squelchy mud and it more than handled the ruts and pot-holes. It was also a freezing afternoon and The Boy was able to tuck his arms under the apron of the foot-muff and was toastie-warm. The top of the apron is designed to fold back, and he's quite happy to rest his arms out, but the minute he thinks it's a bit chilly: "armies in!"
We popped to the 
The Boy love his new pushchair and finds it incredibly comfortable. Following a Monkey Music session a fortnight ago, I had to pop to a couple of the shops in the town centre. I knew I was pushing it for his nap-time, but I really had to get a few things and he ws quite happy chomping on his snack and observing the world. I nipped into the library and having picked up the information I wanted, I asked The Boy if he was ready to go home for his sleep. No reply. I glanced down and he'd fallen asleep! He was so snug and warm that the silence of the library had pushed him over the edge. The Techno XLR is so easy to adjust as it has four positions for the back, so I reached down and pulled the lever on the back which lowered him down to almost flat. He could have gone lower, but the change bag was hanging off the back so I didn't want to knock his head.
I had had a minor gripe about the size of the shopping basket underneath, in comparison to what I was used to. However, I also couldn't stand my change-bag anymore because it was an inconvenient shape; big but the wrong dimensions. So I bought a new one in the style of a messenger bag which fits in the shopping basket with room to spare for smaller items of shopping, but is far more convenient slung over the handlebars. I can get to my purse and his drink more easily, and it frees up a lot of space in the shopping basket for its intended purpose. Loads of space for grocery shopping in the town centre!
