what we've been up to

It's been a busy first week of the Easter school hols.
The house is a tip and the things I had loosely planned for each day didn't quite happen, but we've been busy and had fun.
Last Saturday we all went to the cinema to see Nanny McPhee and thr Big Bang. We all enjoyed it although I have to say I still prefer the first one more.
I was more than a little distracted by the lovely clothes that the actress playing the mum gets to wear. Below is my favourite outfit and I especially love the button necklace.


Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I have already managed to blog about
so now we are on to Thursday.
T was invited to go fishing with a friend. He'd never been before and was very excited about it. Whilst T and his friend went round to the Pond, S and I wandered around the wildlife area and found a spot to stretch out in the sun, play frisbee and blow bubbles.

Just across from us was a horse taking it easy too.

We saw lots of butterflies and bees and the air was full of birdsong.

As it crept closer to lunchtime we made our way over to where the boys were sat to drop of T's lunch to him.

S and I sat further along on our picnic rug and we were very happy watching the ducks ducking

and gazing up through the trees at the lovely blue sky.

Friday was probably the children's least favourite day. A trip to town for an opticians appointment, a quick meet up with G on his lunch break was their highlight,only to be followed by a dash into Primark and then a short play at the playground before home again.

Yesterday was a great day though.

We took the bus to Gosport.

I had packed us up a picnic and went prepared with a copy of the GosportWaterfrontTrail.

The bus journey ended more or less at the halfway point and so we had to decide if we wanted to walk up the trail or follow it down. Up was the answer.

This is the view from where we started. Across the water from Gosport is Portsmouth and there is a frequent ferry service between the two. The very tall building you can see over in Portsmouth is the Spinnaker Tower

The two tower blocks below were just to the right of us and according to the trail the mosaics which decorate them were initially quite controversial.

There are mosaics set into the pavements all the way along the walk to mark various parts of Gosprot's history. This one is to mark the passing of Queen Victoria's funeral train in 1901.

I loved these huge wire cages filled with rocks which are used instead of brick walls at the site of a new housing development.

And is this lead flashing on the tiles? Whatever it is it just reminded me of a Christmas tree and I liked the neatness and unformity of the tiles. It's these things that blogging makes you notice.

The next part of the walk takes you on to Royal Clarence Yard. It used to be the country's premier naval victualling centre but is now being transformed into housing. And from what we saw very nicely done too. This lion and unicorn sit at the top of the original entrance. My photo is quite rubbish, the link shows it so much better and you get to see the grand Governor's residence.

The walk draws to an end after you cross the Forton Lake Bridge

and reach the Explosion museum. We didn't go round the museum but G did visit the coffee shop which was very reasonablt priced

whilst I sat and admired the chippy, peeling paint on the outside!

We sat in the sun eating our picnic before an energetic game of 'it' and a more sedate game of frisbee.

Back in town we had just under an hour before our bus home where we found a plethora of charity shops. And yes I did buy a couple of bits which I'll put in my next post.

I hope the holidays have been good for everyone else so far.