Wimpole Estate & Hatfield Forest

We took a couple of local day trips while Paul's mom was in town. I didn't get hardly any pictures, though! We headed to Wimpole Estate one afternoon after Charlotte's nap -- with a late start, we didn't have much time to explore. And then it started raining! We did have a fun time playing some bocce on the lawn of the manor house there, but by the time we started exploring the walled garden the rain had started. We ducked into the greenhouse to try to wait it out, but no such luck. We decided to call it a day and headed for the car. We did get to see a pretty rainbow on our way home, though! Charlotte is now fascinated in rainbows and asks to see them. The other day, I told her there were no rainbows today, and she replied "Rainbows sleeping." Sure!

Bocce on the lawn. Charlotte enjoyed tossing the little ball but struggled with the heavier ones.

Not scared of umbrellas anymore, thank goodness.

Rainbow from out the car window

Later in the week, we headed to Hatfield Forest in Essex. It was a Saturday, but Paul had to work. It's about an hour from our house, and is an old medieval oak forest. It is owned by the National Trust now, but was once the hunting grounds of the kings (dating from around the 11th century). There were some neat old trees around, although we think some of the more impressive ones were off of trains that were too muddy for use to traverse with Charlotte's umbrella stroller. If we go back -- we will bring her more all-terrain jogging stroller. And we'll bring some bread for the ducks! There is a lovely lake there, overlooked by a cafe -- and lots of hungry ducks! A sweet family offered us some bread to give Charlotte her first experience feeding ducks. She loved it :) There are also red-coated cows that graze the land, which started following us at one point (enough to make us briefly nervous, but they quickly lost interest). We enjoyed a light lunch at the cafe before heading back home. 

Hanging out at a campfire site, playing with acorns

Young girl, old tree :)