Enjoying the Early Spring in the New Forest

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." - Anne Bradstreet 



When people ask us for our reasons for having such an extended holiday we often answer that we want to let the children see the season change on the other side of the world. Now we are coming out of winter and into spring our wish has come true.

13 degrees - time to hit the beach

This winter has been quite wet, well to be honest it was the wettest winter for one hundred years, but it hasn't been any colder than winter in Perth. But suddenly, as if by magic, over night spring has arrived.

 Until today, which has given us a brief return to winter, we have had a few weeks now of sunny skies, warmer temperatures (13degrees here feels like 18degrees at home at least) and daffodils popping up every where. People are wearing colourful clothes, the winter coats have been put away and the beaches are packed with people. 

Hengistbury Head

Before the lovely weather arrived we had a visit to Kingston Lacy, renowned for its beautiful gardens. Unfortunately it was before the daffodils bloomed and after the snow drops had finished so no glorious flowers for us. We were very lucky however to be there for the opening weekend and so we were treated to a lovely display of regency era dancing performed to beautifully played recorder music. Sadly the photos are on Emma's camera which I cannot locate at the present, but I will add later when it is found.

 

Children might not always enjoys hours in a museum or gallery and that's where big houses come in handy for parents. Kingston Lacy has some wonderful artworks by Rubens and Sir Anthony Van Dyck, and as a lover of all things ancient Egyptian, the biggest private collection of Egyptian artefacts in the UK. In a house like this we can see a few things before the kids attention span fails and we moved onto things that are fun for them. In the case of Kingston Lacy, Julian was keen to leave the house after the dancing but Emma and I were able to enjoy the rest of the house while the boys went outside to play.

Since coming back from our half term break our plans were somewhat disrupted by a couple of cases of Chicken Pox. Two weeks after we arrived back Emma's spot appeared, it could have been a disaster for her as it was only a few days before her birthday but disaster was averted due to Emma's good friend Meli's family. They had us over for a birthday dinner a few days before the big day, as the whole family has already had Chicken Pox, and with birthday dinner, cake, streamers and good friends it was a wonderful night. Even better Meli came back with us for a sleepover and the girls had a ball.

 

 On the actually day of Emma's birthday she was still infectious, so no school, but not at all ill so we had to come up with a great plan for the day. We decided on hiring bikes in Brokenhurst and taking a nine mile ride through the New Forest.

 

 I must admit the original plan was thirteen miles, taking a route through the forest that would lead us to a gorgeous town called Bank, where we would have lunch and then ride back through a Deer sanctuary. We found a table away from everyone else and enjoyed a lovely birthday lunch with ponies peeking their heads over the fence to watch us eat. It was about three o'clock and we were concerned that we wouldn't make it back before the hire place closed and so we skipped the deer sanctuary and the extra four miles.

By the end of the ride we were all tired and had sore bottoms but were very proud of ourselves. We plan to go back soon to walk through the deer sanctuary to see what we missed. We are so pleased that we chose the area around the New Forest as our base, it must be one of the most beautiful places on earth.



All in all a lovely birthday which shall be remembered for more than just the Chicken Pox. Also a few day later Emma was back at school and looking forward to a weekend away in London. I'll tell you all about that terrific weekend very shortly.