I’ve worked out that the key to great adventures during miserable weather, is to make sure Ebony is wearing the snow suit. She gets cold in her coat, and soon wants to go home, but the snow suit keeps her warmer for longer.
By some miracle, we had a whole day this weekend to spend some quality time as a family, so we decided to make the most of it. After struggling to get out of bed (Ebony is still getting these bloody molars), we drove to Hare Hill. It’s a National Trust property that we haven’t visited before, but as we neared the gates we discovered it was closed until March. We continued driving, and just a minute later came across Alderley Edge, another National Trust property, so we went there instead.
There was a choice of trails to follow, and we decided to attempt the medium trail. It was two miles long and included water falls and lots of mud, so it sounded pretty toddler-friendly. Ebony was happy to be wearing wellies so she could jump in puddles, and spent the first part of the walk looking for “more puddles!”
Since acquiring the book Stick Man for her birthday (I love this book, the stick family sleep in the family bed, which makes it a wonderful book for any other cosleeping families out there) Ebony calls all sticks ‘stick man’. She carried a few stick men round with her on our walk, stopping occasionally to discard them in puddles and streams.
For the trail, the National Trust use a very complicated system where they have coloured arrows pointing you in the right direction. It may not sound overly complex, but it must be because we ended up walking in the wrong direction. I’m not entirely sure how or where we went wrong, but I certainly didn’t see any waterfalls during my walk which ended abruptly at a main road, so I’m assuming we encountered navigational difficulties.
There are beautiful views to be seen from Alderley Edge, and we stopped on the hill to appreciate them. Laurie picked Ebony up so she exclaim “Ooooh views!” while looking in the right direction. When he popped her back down I noticed some snowdrops near by. I love that flowers are starting to creep in again now, I’m really looking forward to springtime adventures in fields of buttercups and daisies.
Ebony asked to be carried, but I managed to entertain her with some pawprints in the mud. They were deep footprints, she thought they were probably a dinosaur but I’m pretty certain they were a dog. We decided to run ahead to see if we could track the dog. We couldn’t, but it convinced Ebony to walk for a little longer.
After our failed dog hunt, Laurie picked her up and put her on his shoulders for our walk back to the car park. She loves sitting on his shoulders, playing with his hair and occasionally kissing his head, while demanding that I carry her muddy wellies.
All in all, it was a pretty successful great adventure, and I’m hoping we’ll manage another long one next weekend.
Every week I take Ebony into the great outdoors for an adventure, and write about it here. Whatever the weather, no excuses, for a year. So far, so good. Find out more here.
