Podheim on Instagram

It is obvious that my blogging is somewhat sporadic these days. As much as I love our family adventures, making memories and taking photographs, I find myself with very little free time for blogging about them these days. If you would like more regular updates, I update my Instagram account more regularly than my blog. You don't have to have the Instagram app to view my pictures as you can view it on a web browser. I have included a link below that takes you straight to my profile. For those of you who have not used Instagram, once in my profile you can click on each picture to view it larger and read any text I have written to go with it. I do try to update the blog when I can, but as you can tell, that isn't very often these days. Instagram is kept rather more up to date, although with fewer photos. Here is the link if you would like to follow me on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/podheim/

By the sea

Our caravan site in Northumberland had beautiful sea views and direct access to a tiny little beach. The Podlings love being by the sea. It seems to have such a calming affect on all of us. Alex, in particular, would happily spend hours throwing stones in the water, climbing on the rocks and watching the waves. A visit to the beach was high on his wish list all weekend and we were happy to oblige before leaving. It was such a tiny beach, but we must have spent over an hour there. The Podlings came away happy with pockets full of beach treasure.

The Podlings with their Nanna and Grandad

Exploring the rocks by the shore. 

Lily collecting beach treasure

Playing with grandad

It was remarkable how quickly the fog rolled in.

A boy in his element

Barter Books

No trip to Northumberland would be complete without a visit to Barter Books. One of Europe's largest second-hand book shops, it is housed in the old Victorian railway station in Alnwick. It is the most charming place with an open fire, a model railway running across the top of the bookshelves and a delightful children's room. I love it! I always come away with a lovely selection of books and this visit was no exception. The Podlings have cottoned on to the fact that I rarely say no to books, so they always come away with a few themselves. On this occasion, Lily actually came away with more books than me! Happy to be raising bibliophiles!

Alnwick Castle

The Podlings are all Harry Potter obsessed (even Alex!), so during a recent weekend away in Northumberland we decided to take them to Alnwick Castle. Alnwick Castle was used to film parts of Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter films, so we thought they would be excited to visit it. Unfortunately, they were expecting something rather closer to the CGI version of Hogwarts that you see in the movies, so to be honest they were rather underwhelmed with the real thing! We still had a lovely day out though. Tom, who has a very good memory for such things, was able to point out various parts that had been in the films. "This is where the flying car lands in The Chamber of Secrets and that's the arch it drove off through" were amongst his helpful observations as I didn't really have a clue! I would like to do the tour next time which tells you where different scenes were filmed. I am rather a fan of Harry Potter myself!

We all enjoyed the falconry display and were astonished at the size of the golden eagle. The state rooms were naturally very impressive and the girls enjoyed looking wistfully around the gift shop. We were able to upgrade our ticket (at no extra cost) to give us a yearly pass to the Castle, so we will definitely visit again. Emma was particularly keen to have a go at the broomstick lessons, which take place at the exact spot that Harry has his first flying lesson in the first film, so hopefully she will get an opportunity next time.

A Day at the Zoo

Twycross Zoo had a wonderful promotion on over half-term, so since the Podlings had filled their marble jar again we decided to take them to the zoo for their treat. The last time we went to the zoo, Alex was only a year old, so he wouldn't have remembered it. He absolutely loved it and loved the giraffes and the penguins the most. Emma adored the lorikeets and was thrilled to have three of them land on her arm at once in the lorikeet aviary. It made her day! Lily was slightly less keen on the one that landed on her head! 

We met up with Mark's parents and his brother Greg and his family in the morning and we had a lovely day out together. You can probably tell from the photos how cold it was, but we were just thankful it stayed dry as rain had been forecast. We were able to warm up with our picnic lunch as Twycross Zoo has a very civilised heated indoor picnic area.

We all had a really enjoyable day out and managed to listen to most of 'James and the Giant Peach' in the car on the way there and back. Audio books are wonderful for longer car journeys and we are particularly enjoying our Roald Dahl set at the moment. All in all, just a really lovely day that I am sure we all remember with fondness.

Lorikeets - Emma's favourite

That's a lorikeet's on Lily's head

Watching the elephants

I love owls!

Mark and I were rather enamoured of the bush dogs!

Everybody loves the penguins!

Alex really loved the penguins and spent ages watching them, running between the underwater viewing window and the wall where he could look over and see them walking and swimming about.

A treefull of cousins. I gave up trying to get a good shot1

Alex enjoying a ride with his cousins Taylor and Freddie

Under rainbow skies

We've been feeling so cooped up lately. What with one thing and another, we haven't really been out anywhere since Christmas and we were starting to feel that if we didn't get out into the countryside soon we might burst! Saturday promised to be mostly dry, so in the afternoon we filled the Thermos, filled the biscuit tin and headed out to Greenway Bank Country Park. As we arrived the heavens opened and the most vibrant double rainbow appeared in the sky. Thankfully the shower was short-lived, so after some rainbow gazing we headed into the woods for a short walk. It felt so good to be outdoors again!

Pretty snowdrops telling us that Winter is coming to an end and Spring is around the corner

Playing in the woods