The Great Outdoors

One of the great benefits of the beast shown above is that we have become 'outdoorsy family'. Our wellies have never had so much use. Weekend mornings that would ordinarily be spent faffing around in the house are now firmly spent in the outdoors whatever the weather, walking the dog.

Brighton has a huge selection of parks and woods and with the South Downs on our doorstep I think it's an amazing place to live with so much countryside and the beach too. These are from a visit to Stanmer Park, where the woods are just coming alive with tiny leaves appearing on the trees and bluebells springing up.

The dog moves at speed, 90% of my photos were of her tail disappearing out of shot.

Woods are a really good place to take kids,  I'm not sure if this is universal, but mine are obsessed with finding the biggest stick and then lugging it around nearly taking out your eyes, the eyes of strangers and their dog's eyes too.

Still it's all jolly, good, healthy stuff after apologising to those strangers, the kids were off in the woods making up adventures. A welcome alternative to trying to trying to get just one more game on the ipad. 

I love that when you get up high in Brighton, you get the view of this beautiful countryside in one direction and the sea in the other. The view of the sea always takes my breath away (not in this awful photo obviosuly, I should have climbed a tree or stood on someone's shoulders).

Of course in the woods, there are terrifying bears to watch out for. With muddy feet, aimed right at your coat.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend, and wishing you a happy week ahead!