I reckon my parental CV is looking pretty good after last week. We managed not just one, but two day trips - plus I went to my parents for a whole week and came back with almost everything we originally packed (minus my toothbrush, but that ranks as very low casualty figures compared to normal).
The second visit of the week was to Belton House, near Grantham in Lincolnshire. At the risk of sounding like Troy McClure, you may know it from the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice where it featured as 'Rosings'. In fact you can even buy Darcy-inspired memorabilia in the gift shop, although sadly no drip dry shirts were on offer.
Best Bits for Kids
The formal gardens were a hit with the children which sounds a little incongruous until you realise there's a huge fountain and pool at the centre of one as well as grassy banks all round the side. Unlike Ickworth, these weren't out of bounds and although we spoke to one of the staff who said the sport of child rolling was not ideal, they seem to feel they'd be taking the role of King Knut if they tried to stop it.
I'm guessing the same could be said of the practice of putting small children up trees.
The orangery made a great jungle set for Oscar and they both loved the fish pond at it's centre.
They also loved the sprinkler, but I'm not sure this is a permanent feature...
Further away from the house off from the Statue Walk is a relatively small and simple box hedge maze making it ideal for the under-8s and particularly for my slightly panicky daughter who does not embrace the idea of getting lost for fun. It also allowed my father to indulge his maze solution theory which appears to work judging from the slightly smug look on his face that afternoon.
In this same area were some lovely areas of wildflower meadows in which Ava again felt weirdly drawn to lie down (I'm sure there must be a name for this phenomenon - the Little House on the Prairie syndrome perhaps?).
Of course, I am saving the best until last, because that is the only way I was able to get my children to spend anytime enjoying all these other areas. You see Belton House has the most sublime adventure playground. It's set among the trees in a wooded area near the house and always reminds me of the lost boys (in a Peter Pan rather than Keifer Sutherland sense) with tree houses galore, huge slides, forts, flying foxes and so much more. There's even a miniature train which runs alongside the whole area.
The only downside was that there was a storybook trail running that day which led the children past 10 clues all hidden in the woodland. This was a lovely idea but some bright spark decided to place the first five clues in and around the adventure playground. As you can imagine, answers six through 10 were decidedly blank on our sheet.
I must also confess that there may have been other areas I should have mentioned but I seem to have lost the map we were given on arrival. I have a niggling feeling that Archie may have eaten it.
Bonus parenting points for finding a garden with such an amazing adventure playground. You will be surprised at how quickly they grow out of these things!! Enjoy while you can
Posted by: Helen/patientgardener | June 01, 2009 at 02:13 PM
I haven't quite grown out of them yet, so perhaps there's some hope!
Posted by: Dawn Isaac | June 03, 2009 at 03:52 PM