It's time to dust off the passports here in the Carr household as very excitingly I managed to win some holiday vouchers at the start of the half term holiday - just hours in fact before we headed off on our first family holiday in ages! Having now tested the theory that we can get further than the local supermarket with two children and all their kit I'm determined that this is just the start of our family holiday adventures. But, as any parent knows travelling with children isn't always straightforward so here are my top ten tips for making it as stress-free as possible. 1. Plan, plan, ... read more
The weekend I went to Amsterdam and won a new kitchen bin
When you become a stay at home mum after years working in a career where you were actually someone with quite an important busy job it can be a bit of a shock. Looking back, managing multimillion pound projects with stakeholders with conflicting requirements actually seemed quite easy in comparison to trying to get a Duracell fuelled two year old to lie still whilst you change a particularly nasty dirty nappy. Even those arguments about conflicting requirements were a piece of cake compared to two children both wanting the same toy. Back in my working days I would have thought nothing about ... read more
Featured Post: Manchester – beyond the cobbles
When I was a lass growing up in Yorkshire the first thing that sprang to mind when anyone mentioned Manchester was Coronation Street. Eastenders was never a big thing up north you see. We watched Emmerdale, as it was from Yorkshire, and Coronation Street so we could keep track of what was going on on t'other side of the Pennines. We were always wary of them over there - after all, look at any map and it's clear to see that there's only one "right" side of the Pennines. So in my mind Manchester was this large city of small cobbled streets, local boozers like the Rovers Return and people with ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 17 – Castle Drogo and the journey home
After our journey down to Cornwall we were pretty sure that the journey back wasn't going to be fast, but I don't think we realised just how long it was going to take. We said our sad farewell to Fiona and everyone else at Coombe Mill and headed east with an aim of stopping off at the National Trust's Castle Drogo. We'd seen signs for the castle on our journey down, but had run out of time then to be able to visit. Now, the thing that's slightly unique about Castle Drogo at the moment is the fact that they're in the middle of a huge piece of conservation work there whilst staying ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 16 – Boscastle and the Beach
The penultimate day of the holidays at Coombe Mill can only mean one thing - the last feed run! The children had come to love the feed run and were sad that it was their last one, but this also meant that time was running out for Little Miss C to actually drive Farmer Nick's tractor. Luckily though she finally plucked up the nerves to do so and she now talks about it as one of the highlights of her whole summer. As if driving the tractor wasn't exciting enough, this was also the day that she actually managed to find an egg herself too. A perfect end to a week of feed ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 15 – The Eden Project
I really need to play catch up a bit with my holiday diary or we'll be into the Christmas holidays before I've finished writing about the summer! But then again there are plenty of days later in the holidays where the write up will probably just say "kids watched far too much CBeebies today" and that should speed up the blogging process! For our penultimate full day at Coombe Mill we decided on a day trip to the Eden Project which is about a 40 minute drive away. Now the Eden Project is probably one of Cornwall's best known tourist attractions now and somewhere that everyone wants to go ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 14 – Bodmin and Wendford Railway and Lanhydrock
The Wednesday of our week in Cornwall was a perfect opportunity for me to indulge my inner train-spotting geek. I don't hide the fact that I love a good steam train and seeing as both the kids are huge fans of Thomas the Tank Engine too I was pretty sure that they wouldn't mind me dragging them along to the Bodmin and Wendford Railway after that morning's feed run on the farm. So, the start of our trip to the railway wasn't exactly brilliant. Somehow me trying to pay by credit card caused the whole chip and pin machine to blow up when I entered my pin number and then when they'd ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 13 – Discovering the Camel Trail, revisiting Tintagel and Port Isaac
After all yesterday's excitement we kept things a bit closer to Coombe Mill today. We started off with the feed run which once again the children loved. Master C found a new way to rock his baseball cap, Mr C got a ride in the tractor trailer and Little Miss C loved helping to find eggs in the chickens' field. After the feed run we decided to head towards the Camel Trail and in particular the Snail's Pace Cafe which we'd seen lots of signs for, and which sits at one end of the trail, just a mile or so down river from Coombe Mill itself. This lovely little cafe holds the title of ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 12 – Trelissick and Godolphin
Time to step back a couple of weeks to our wonderful holiday in Cornwall. Determined to make the most of our National Trust membership yet again we set off this morning to Trelissick Garden. Now Trelissick isn't like all the other National Trust gardens as there's something very special about its setting - on its own peninsular. The garden is high up with some spectacular views of the River Fal and some lovely twisting paths that lead you down to the water, and the ferry port at the bottom. When we were there the colours were absolutely amazing - with the hydrangeas providing a palate ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 11 – A first feed run, a train journey and hitting the beach
Our first full day at Coombe Mill started off pretty much perfectly. A reasonable night's sleep (never likely to be good whilst looking after Master C!) and a beautiful morning. So nice in fact that I was able to sit outside with my morning cuppa and listen to the birds and the River Camel running through the site. A much more relaxed start to the day than I'm used to. Once the kids had woken up though everyone was buzzing with excitement as this was our first morning on the famous Coombe Mill feed run. The way this works is that every morning, bar changeover day, Farmer Nick (or one of ... read more