Whitby, another day out with the girls

We went to Whitby yesterday. Hubby had the day off work and I don't work Mondays so we went to the coast for the day. We had a car full! A dog, two daughters, daughter No2's boyfriend, me and Hubby. The boot was also stocked with blankets to sit on, a cooler box of sandwiches and other bits to eat and we had a bag of drinks.

 We had a picnic at the car park at the top of the hill where the abbey is. The weather was lovely and we had good views of Whitby. After our picnic we went walking around the town and harbour. Daughter and her boyfriend went off on their own and met up with us later.

Parking cost £4.00 and the only other expense was on a couple of ice creams at £2.70 and £2.80 in a cafe on cups of horrible tea.  After walking and getting very tired we went back to the car and lazed on the grass on blankets for a while before setting off home. A very nice day.

Did not get my menu plan sorted for the week with being busy and going out for the day so need to get that sorted sometime today. I shall just call into a shop on the way home from my voluntary job today and buy a packed of sausages for tea tonight. So the menu plan so far will be -

TUESDAY - Sausages, mash, yorkshire puddings, veg and onion gravy

WEDNESDAY - leftover lasagne, salad and garlic bread

the rest of the weeks meals will be sorted sometime today.

Bird update

The little sparrows we saved the other day survived the night. I told daughter to take the box they were in into the garden yesterday afternoon so the chicks could get some fresh air. I returned into the house and could hear a lot of chirping so went back to the garden to see why all the chirping and there, sat on the arm of the garden chair was the mother sparrow with food in her mouth for her chicks. We released the chicks onto the lawn and the mother went up to them and started to feed then. They were following her all over the garden. All afternoon they stayed in the veg patch and the mother kept feeding them, it was lovely to watch. The garden rarely gets cats in because of our dog so I think they will be fine now with their mother feeding them. A happy ending, aw.  

THE YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK

Anyone need the loo?

Today took the girls and the dog to The Yorkshire Sculpture Park at Wakefield. It was a lovely hot day so we packed a bag with suncream, dogs water bowl, drinks and a packed lunch and off we went. The venue is free but parking costs £5.00. I was a bit disappointed with the park really, I was expecting a bit more than there was. Don't get me wrong, we had an enjoyable day, lots of walking and nice views to see. Won't rush to go again though.

 
It got us out of the house, in the fresh air and we all got some exercise. We must have walked a fair few miles around the park and lakes. When we returned to the car I noticed a man going to the ticket machine to buy a parking ticket so gave him my ticket to use. The ticket is valid all day so that was my good deed for the day.

How have you been occupying your days over the school break?

Lovely Sunday

Had a lovely day today just doing things together as a family. We went to our village boot sale this morning. I remembered to put some sun cream on but wish I'd remembered to bring my hat. My head got very hot and uncomfortable with the sun beating down on it.

Hubby striding ahead

The boot sale was quite busy and it had a good amount of stalls. I made a few purchases and the girls bought some bracelets.

My boot sale finds

I bought two wooden puzzles for the grandaughter, a jar of damson jam and a nice medium sized bowl which I shall use for salads. In all I only spent £4.00. We went home and I did some tidying then we had lunch then we went out to visit a 'Pick Your Own' farm. The weather was really hot by now so I remembered to take my hat and apply more suncream. Here I am picking raspberries.

Me picking raspberries

My Girls picking strawberries

The strawberries were put in the basket after we tasted one to check they tasted good. We seemed to eat one, save one until we got full on eating strawberries. Daughter no 3 was rather excited about going fruit picking because she has not been before. We picked a basket of strawberries and half a basket of raspberries.  The farm also had blackberries which we sampled and blackcurrants, sampled these too but did not pick any because there were not many left. Daughters sampled a gooseberry but neither were impressed with them. I don't like gooseberries neither. The farm was very busy, it seems to be a very typical English summer pastime to pick strawberries on a Sunday afternoon. We had a really enjoyable day  and went home with our booty.

Our booty

We shall have some with whipped cream later after our our meal and daughter No3 wants to take some to school tomorrow in her packed lunch. I'm sure none will go to waste. Summer fruits are just lovely to eat with nothing done to them, they taste so gorgeous.

Hope you all had a lovely day today.

Day Out

Shibden Hall

We had an afternoon out with the girls and our granddaughter's this afternoon to Shibden Hall Park http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/leisure/openspaces/parks/shibdenpark/index.html  We have never been here before and it turned out to be a really nice place to visit. We only spent £2.00 on parking so it's a very frugal day out. Parking is only £1.00 on week days unless it's school holidays.

We arrived just before lunch so decided to have a little walk around then have our sandwiches. The weather was very breezy and it was quite chilly. The park would be great to lay a mat on the grass and have a picnic or if you wanted they had many picnic tables. We ended up having our picnic in the car! It was bloody cold after our walk round the lake and it began to drizzle a bit so eating in the car was thought to be the best option.

We went to the children's park which was very good and Granddaughter No1 loved it. We saw a group of brave people venture onto the rowing boats, think I'll leave that for a warmer day. We would have
stayed a lot longer if the weather had been better but we eventually set off home when it began to rain heavily. This is one to revisit on a warm day in the school holidays.

Have you been anywhere nice this weekend?

The aftermath

Well it's Saturday lunchtime and we have just waved good-bye to the last of our daughters friends . We continued birthday celebrations yesterday evening with a trip to Xscape at Castleford to do sledging for her birthday treat. Now this is not cheap but your only thirteen once.

Birthday girls in pink

A good time was had by all. Would like to have joined in myself, it looked fun but cold. They came off frozen and very wet. Birthday celebrations continued back home with food and then a chocolate fountain and a birthday cake finishing with a sleepover.

Went to Aldi yesterday to buy one of their weekly offers which was a mushroom growing kit for £3.99

The box says should get 2-3 crops so I'm going to grow them and weigh the mushrooms when I pick them and see if it works out cheaper to grow my own rather than buy in the supermarket. I will do a search on the internet for mushroom kits and grow my own if it works out cheaper. Will let you know how I get along with them in a few weeks time.

Cinema Treat

Don't go to the cinema often but promised the girls we would see the new Harry Potter film. We had planned a drive to the coast for this Sunday but because the weather was so bitter and because of the snow we changed our treat to a cinema visit. I HATE paying the extortionate prices at the cinema. Just to get in costs a fortune so if they think I'm going to spend £2-3 on a drink or £8 for a family scoop of ice cream they can p**s off! We always take our own bottles of pop, a bag of Aldi popcorn and some sort of chocolate bar.  Today I took an Aldi chocolate bar and everything was smuggle in my large bag.

I prepared all my vegetables and yorkshire pudding mix so when we returned from the cinema tea could be put straight on and we could be eating within half an hour of getting back. Me and the girls then had a lovely walk with the dog in the dark in the snow before settling down to watch X-Factor. A very enjoyable Sunday was had by all.