Easter Egg Hunt

Yesterday, between the rain showers, we set off into the wilds around Woodburn.  (Well we set off eventually when everybody had found their way to the car park that signals the start of the wilds.)

Husband has bought himself a go pro which he was keen to try out...

We quickly walked along the forest path, pausing in the trees only once to search for paper eggs.

Then we followed the signs

to the side of the reservoir

where, once Dilly and Beans had enjoyed their swim, we ventured into the deep, dark woods to begin the egg hunt in earnest.

Some eggs were very tricky to find...

But once you spotted one, you popped it in your basket.

and then carried on hunting...

Dilly and Beanz, side by side.  

Giant dogs to terrorise small children and make them feel like they spent an afternoon in the forest with real bears.

Then, with a gorge to traverse 

and a mountain to climb, our hunting continued.

Once we reached to top of the mountain, Molly found that paper eggs did not satisfy her hunger...

so it was time to climb on the old tree and have a snack.

And of course there was time for a selfie

Then, with only a few more eggs to find and ditches to bound across, our egg hunting was nearly done.

There was not extra credit given for finding a carpet of moss

... but much joy to be had from looking up.

Then it was back to the car park to swap the paper eggs for chocolate ones.

To watch husbands go pro video click here

Finding Fairies

On Saturday, we headed off to a very special place with Molly and her Mummy.

We bought our adventure trail books in Arthur's Cottage and began to hunt through the woods for fairies.

The first few were easy to find....

Our next stop was at the Troll's headquarters, where we had to be extra careful not to be eaten....

We were spotted by a Troll, but thankfully the sunlight had turned him to wood...

Our maps lead us across a bridge made more for little people than for us...

...and then it wasn't too long before we found some fairy houses...

They were easy to spot as the doors were gleaming in the sunlight.

Then we were on the lookout for our next clue...

The map lead us past the car park to a huge fairy village.

Then we strolled past the Songbird Ceramics gallery and past the old waterwheel deep into the woods.

The fairies had put up many signs to remind the big people how to behave... like this one...

... and this one...

Some of their signs reminded us of the dangers we faced...

Indeed, there were many dangers!

We managed to find ribbons to tie onto a wishing tree (for future visits I must remember to bring some ribbons)

Just before we came to the Tooth Fairy's cottage (where you can leave any teeth should they have wobbled out) there was a place where you could leave your worries with  the fairies.

All worries gone!

See...

Nope, this one is a better picture :)

Then it was up to visit the Tooth Fairy

Wandering deeper into the woods we passed through many pixie doors.

Molly and Bea were unimpressed with the smell of wild garlic here and it added credence to the nearby presence of Trolls...

It was tricky counting all the fairy doors here!

We kept walking through the woods and finding little house like this...

Then we finally found our way to...

...where there lurked a Dummy Fairy (should anyone require one)

Can you see why it is called "mushroom meadow"?

There were also storybooks in the fairy library to read...

But eventually, we came out of the woods and wandered past Galgorm Castle, definitely worth a picture.

Then we were on our way to the Fairy shopping village...

and then back past the castle on the way to the Fairy Hotel.

Quite a spectacular hotel...

Of course, no Fairy Hotel is complete without some giraffes!

Molly collected the final clues and then...

It was off to the Garden Centre for some lunch

(once we'd got past the guard dogs of course!)

The End

of a lovely adventure.