Dunster Castle without a bump!

We are huge National Trust fans in our house.  We've been members for 6 years now (well, I was a member as a child for most of my childhood too) and we get so much out of our membership.  If ever we can't think of something to do there's always a National Trust place to visit.   I love how if we go on holiday somewhere else in the UK there are places for us to visit at no extra cost.  When we visited Yorkshire two years ago it was wonderful to know we'd have activities that wouldn't cost us more.

There are many properties local to us that we visit several times a year such as Tyntesfield and Stourheard.   Then there are other places that we visit every few years such as Dunster Castle in Minehead.  We visited Dunster last Saturday as the weather was beautiful.  The last time we had been was almost exactly two years ago when I was heavily pregnant with Felix.  The time before that I was pregnant with Ethan.  This was the first time in 6 years I'd visited Dunster without carrying around a baby bump!

There's lots to enjoy in Dunster.  When you arrive there are a few fields next to the car park in which you can walk and picnic.  Last Saturday and the time before we had a picnic on one of the picnic benches.  This area is fenced off from the car park so it's nice to know your child can't get too far!

There are some beautiful grounds to walk around and a really lovely natural playground that was built a few years ago.  Our boys loved this.  We all did actually, especially the huge tree trunk stepping stones!

The castle itself is fascinating.  We like the spooky areas best!

Once you've looked around the castle, walked through the ground and enjoyed the beautiful views it's always nice to walk into the village itself.  My parents had their honeymoon in Dunster 40 years ago this March so it's quite a special place for our family!  There are some great little shops, cafes and pubs.  We particularly like the chocolate shop!

I heartily recommend Dunster for a day out!

Linking up with Coombe Mill.

Westbury Court Garden - National Trust

Lovely bank holidays - an extra family day!  If there is something we love in our house, it's a bank holiday. I love the way it stretches the weekend out.  An extra evening off chores and the like!

This bank holiday just gone we took ourselves for a picnic.  We like to picnic as often as we can throughout the year.  We have a little tradition, we go to the shops, buy fresh bread, cured meat, olives, salad, cheese and something nice to drink and then we head out on the road.  We usually go to a National Trust location because we are members.  On this occasion we visited somewhere new.  Westbury Court Garden in Gloucestershire.

The journey there was very pleasant.  We came off the motorway and travelled over the old Seven Bridge.  Something Ethan always enjoys.  We drove through some lovely towns and villages and enjoyed seeing sheep at the sides of the road.

The gardens themselves were very pretty.  As National Trust properties go, it's one of the smaller locations.  There is no house, there are few facilities, just a loo.  It was perfect for us though - lots of space for the boys to run around in and explore and lovely picnic areas.

We found a spot and settled down to eat.  Felix spent most of his time romping around.  Ethan managed to get sheep poo on his foot.  Nice!

After our picnic we strolled around the grounds.  It was lovely being able to let Felix go off a little now he's starting to walk.

There were quite a few long grass areas which Ethan enjoyed running through and Felix enjoyed batting with his hands and shouting at.

A lovely peaceful way to spend our afternoon!

Linking up with Coombe Mill for Country Kids.

Trendy Tuesday - Easybelt giveaway

Do you remember my EasyBelt review from a couple of weeks ago?  If not, you can get acquainted with it here.  Well, today I have something exciting for you!  A giveaway!  The lovely Kay, founder of EasyBelts is offering up 4 EasyBelts to be given away to my lovely readers!!  That's 4 chances to win!  You get to choose any size and design of belt as well so this is a really fantastic giveaway.

All you've got to do to be in with a chance of winning is to us the Rafflecopter form below.  There are only a couple of mandatory parts, the rest are optional but will give you a greater chance of winning!

As this is Tuesday, I'll share a few photos of my gorgeous little man - I hope to see a few of you linked up today showing off your fashionable little ones.  The linky has been very quiet of late which leaves me wondering if it's worth continuing with, but the thought of ending it makes me sad.. so for now, it stays, but I really do need your help in advertising it and joining in with it.  Honestly, it makes me week when I see people linked up!! Please don't forget to leave a comment on my blog though! Nag over...

We visited Dunster Castle at the weekend, a lovely National Trust property.  It was the first time we've taken Ethan there, though I've been there many times over the years.  So, here's Ethan having fun at Dunster:

Jacket - Sam & Jo via TKMaxx

Jeans - Asda

Boots - Lidl

Hat - Hjorn Horth (a Danish brand I can never find a link to!!)

Snood/neck warmer - Polarn O Pyret

Well, If you're joining in with Trendy Tuesday this week, here's the boring bit:

RULES:

1) PLEASE link to my blog in your blog post and/or display my badge on your blog.
2) PLEASE leave a comment on my blog post & visit others who join in - share the love!
3) Tweet me @MedicatedFollow with your link & I'll retweet it to my followers

Thank you!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wonderful weekend

We have just had the loveliest weekend.  One day of gorgeous weather, the other a total wash out, but both days have been lovely, just lovely.

Saturday started slowly, I needed a lie in to get over my insomnia ridden Thursday night.  Pete woke me up at about 9:30 am with a herbal tea and a freshly made bacon and brown sauce sarnie. Mmmmm.  I opened up the curtains and the sun was shining down.  Ahhhh!  Now, that's got to be the best way to wake up?!

As it was so beautiful outside, we decided to pick up some picnic provisions and head to one of our favourite National Trust properties, Stourhead.  We've been there so many times, but it's so beautiful and there's so much walking to be done there, we always find something new.  I could never get bored of the fantastic views there.  We got going slowly, so by the time we arrived and had eaten our picnic (by the side of the car!) many people were setting off home.  It was actually quite nice, it was quieter and we felt very relaxed, everyone else was rushing home and we were taking our time.  That's one of the benefits of Ethan being a bit older now and quite often not falling asleep until 9pm.  As he'd slept in the car on the way to Stourhead we felt we had no need to rush home.

We had a lovely stroll around, it was a delight walking with Ethan, he pootled around pretending to vacuum the ground with sticks, as he does!  A couple were getting married there and were having their photos taken so we spied on them from a distance.  What a place to get married, their wedding photos will be beautiful.  I must admit to feeling quite emotional and wistful, seeing them on their wedding day.  It brings back memories, even though our wedding was quite different!

After our walk, we bought Ethan an ice cream and then made the decision to stop at a country pub for supper on our way home.  So nice to make spur of the moment decisions sometimes!

We weren't sure which pub we would stop at, our route to and from Stourhead takes us past quite a few pubs as it's cross country.  In the end, it was Ethan needing the loo that led to us stopping where we did, and we couldn't have been happier.  We ended up at a pub/restaurant called The Mendip Inn and we were SO impressed. The decor was gorgeous, there was a warming log fire (we chose a table right next to it) and the staff were lovely, just the right level of attentiveness without being annoying.  The menu wasn't cheap, but it was sooooo worth it.  Pete and I both chose lasagne and we both agreed it was the best lasagne we'd ever tasted!  Home made pasta, you could tell the meat was great quality and the sauce home made.  Lovely, just lovely.  Ethan chose fish and chips and we were impressed with his as well.  It was from the child's menu but though it was £5 it was a very decent sized portion, two pieces of battered fish (home made batter, no bones found in the fish at all) home made chunky chips and a huge amount of peas.  Ethan ate almost all of it!  They also had the most fantastic range of soft drinks from Orchard Pig - I had pink grapefruit and mint and it was the most morish refreshing drink I've tasted in a long time!

When we left the pub, the sun was setting.  Ethan found that thrilling!! Being out whilst the sun sets!!  The rest of our drive home was fun, we were singing along to songs and enjoying chasing the sunset.  We didn't get home until just before 9pm but Ethan went to bed happily.  It really was one of our happiest family days.

On Sunday we woke to find a very wet day, but we were determined to do something, so headed to Puxton Park, a local farm park we have membership at.  Ethan loves it there.  They have a huge soft play area, but best of all, they have owls!! At weekends they have an "owl encounter" where you can have a go at holding owls.  Ethan and I had done it before but couldn't wait to do it again!  So much fun.  The owls are just beautiful and awe inspiring.  I'm so proud of Ethan, he has no fear when it comes to animals!

After Puxton we headed over to Pete's parent's house for a lovely home made beef pie.  Yummy yummy!!

What a lovely weekend!  I hope you don't mind all the writing today, but it was such a lovely weekend, I wanted to get it down!  I thought I'd share photos of all us so you can see what we all wore over the weekend!!

Did you have a lovely weekend?  Do anything special?

My outfits:

Stourhead: 

Green cord skinnies - Matalan
Cardi - Asda
Stripy t shirt - Primark
Converse

Puxton:

Light brown skinny cords - New Look
Jumper - New Look
Socks - New Look
Pac-a-mac - Cath Kidston


I'm linking up with Sunday Style and Watch What I'm Wearing.

If you've managed to read this far down, well done! I have one more thing I want to mention.  I run a weekly linky called Trendy Toddler Tuesday where I show off Ethan's outfits and encourage others to link up with that their babies/toddlers/children have been wearing.  I'm trying to grow this linky, at the moment only about 6 people join in each week.  If you have trendy children and want to show them off, please consider linking up with me on Tuesdays!  Thank you!!

Trendy Toddler Tuesday - Katvig, Polarn O Pyret & Smafolk at Newark Park

Last week we were still on holiday.  Not away, but on a "Home Holiday" as we call it.  On Wednesday we had a family day out - the three of us plus my parents and the family dog Alfie.  Despite the rain we managed to have a lovely day.  We visited a National Trust property, Newark Park.

We were all impressed with Newark Park.  There was a very relaxed atmosphere, especially among staff which you don't always get at a NT property.  A very interactive and interesting building, but the part we loved the most were the gardens and the peacocks/peahens.  I've never seen so many in one place!  I adore Peacocks.  Apart from the obvious (their gorgeous colours and feathers) I love the over the top crazy noise they make!  I went a bit OTT on Peacock photos so I'll share one or two of those with you.. but of course, none of this is really relevant to TTT!

As we were going to be walking (read running after Ethan) and travelling in the car, I wanted to make sure Ethan would be comfy.  So, out came some of his classics - Katvig trackie bottoms and his Smafolk outdoor gear:

Hand ball!

la la laa... I'm ignoring you camera woman!

Mother Nature - the original fashion designer..

Boo!

What you lookin' at?

Don't you just love the contrast in pattern and colour?

Oh wow!

Top - Polarn O Pyret

Trousers - Katvig

Vest (poking out) - Katvig

All in one/jacket - Smafolk

Wellies - bought in France last year.

Whilst Maria is away in Chile, Angela from Mum of Three Boys and I are taking it in turns to host TTT.  It's Angela's turn this week, so pop along here if you want to see more trendies!