What to do on cold Winter weekends?

Always a struggle to entertain wild children on wet weekends, particularly more so when all you want to do is stay in, stay warm, and finish your Christmas shopping on line!  This morning is blustery and we've got hail showers.  We've already watched the bestest film of all time, Labrinth, and have run out of cheese.

As I've been spending even more time on my laptop writing business plans and trying to finalise new business ventures and create a highly successful business empire to soften the blow of redundancy, I really owe it to TT to take her out somewhere!

So here's our choice that we're going to meander through....

Dean Castle has a Christmas fair on today with "crafted gifts, toys and food items you will find everything you need for the perfect Christmas celebration" apparently.  I've never been to Dean Castle before, so that's enough of a reason for me to go exploring.  Santa has a grotto there too today, and as TT is only just starting to understand what Santa is, that's just the ticket for today.

Then we might meet Daddy Native on how way home from work at Seamill Hydro which looks like it has plenty to keep a wild toddler entertained for a while, with the choice of Santa in his magical ice palace grotto, a giant bouncy castle in Rudolph’s play room, an outdoor ice skating rink  and more.

It's likely that I'll get lost on way to Dean Castle, so good to know also that Troon's monthly craft fair is on too.  I need to go check it out as part of research for my future business plans in any case!

Hopefully I'll have some nice discoveries and photos to share with you to come....

PS....Thanks to Visit Ayrshire-Arran and Explore AyrshireArran for their suggestions this morning via Twitter!

This weekend?

Well for those of you following me on Twitter, you'll know I was hoping to take part in some of Scotland's Food & Drink Fortnite.  In particular I was thinking how lovely it would be to take a little trip to EatBute as I've never been there before and it sounds ace.  Mount Stuart looks stunning and a splendid way to spend a Saturday with my girl, and if I'm lucky Daddy Wild might be able to accompany us too.

And then I got distracted by the many, many events on in Dumfries & Galloway for the Food & Drink Fortnight.  Which actually just prompted me into a big sulk, as it's simply too far away for a day trip, and purely underlined the fact that there is simply nothing similar happening near where we happen to live.  Sometimes North Ayrshire sucks.  Sigh.

Then there's Doors Open Days all September, to which I haven't managed to make a single location.  Some nice places to seduce you this weekend, including some of Glasgow's museums.

If you've ever read my other my blog you'll know I'm well into my foraging.  So I'm also torn to go along to Finlaystone Country Estate's Food For Free foraging walk.

If I were in Edinburgh, I'd head to the Edinburgh Mela with an empty tummy so I could eat my way around the day!

Closer to home, I'm probably most excited about taking part in River Cottage's Seven Mushroom Challenge!  I say this because we've had a mammoth amount of rain this week and all of a sudden today the temperature rose again, which I think makes it pretty ideal for a lot of mushrooms?!  I guess there's only one way to find out....

In reality and complete honesty..... if Daddy Wild is off work this weekend, then we'll be making the most of that by finally building the greenhouse I bought about 2 months ago.
Oh joy of joys.

What are you doing this weekend?

There's so much to choose from this weekend.  Daddy Native has a Saturday off for once, so we shall be sticking close to home & working on projects in the garden then.  Mostly I shall probably be avoiding the heavy lifting by playing with my new D90 so look out for some stunning photography to follow! No pressure here then!
Then we are torn on Sunday between Largs & Glasgow.  Kelburn Castle is awash with Vikings this weekend so we'll be paying them a visit at some stage.  I can't work out whether it'll just be TT & I, or whether we'll borrow some cousins to join us too for the added exhaustion. 
Sunday is also my chance to see if any of the items on my wish list at The Forgotten Island are leftover and available to the public.  I am desperately seeking tyres and some of the wooden items for my new garden plans, so fingers crossed!

Other options this weekend...

• If you're in need of new baby bits and bobs, the Glasgow Baby Booty Sale is on this weekend at Kelvin Hall International Sports Arena from 10.30am.
• If I were in Glasgow's West End I would like to go to Byres Road Makers Market and sample some beautiful crafts.
• If TT were a tiny bit older I'd be galloping to the free Saturday Art Club on Saturday morning in GOMA, perfect way to spend a wet morning!

Of course I shall also come back with daring adventure stories to tell you all, as I try to never let the boring truth get in the way of a good story - read this for similar. Happy weekend! x

Please stay Forgotten Island!

If you haven't been to the Forgotten Island yet, I must insist that you go this weekend. Because for some god awful reason it's disappearing much earlier than planned on Monday.  Boo hiss!  We actually went ages ago, but I've been so busy the past while I didn't get round to post this before now. 

The Forgotten Island is the latest project by Glasgow art organisation, Giant. Giant is an amazing company, whose company vision is rather wonderfully "to create inspiring, curious and unexpected arts experiences for children under 12 and their families" and what's not to love about that!

Not content with turning a piece of wasteland beside the new Transport Museum at Riverside into an inspirational place for children to play and explore, Giant also designed the space to evolve and grow with visiting children's interactions.  Everywhere you look there are delightful creations on display from previous explorers, like hundreds of mini-installations.

Visiting explorers can take part in activities teaching them to grow plants, create plastercine sculptures, draw posters, design their own postcards to leave messages for the Secret Gardener... the list goes on impressively.

The island has been designed by artists working in collaboration with local children who requested that their dream island could have tropical beaches and rainbows. 

The Rainbow maker - I'm not going to ruin the fun, I'll leave you to discover this yourself!

There are so many things to do and play with here, it made me even more depressed that I am supposed to be a grown up!  I thought the sound forest, where you have to peddle like crazy to generate the sounds of children playing, was a stroke of genius; and spent ages trying to see the image in the camera obscura.

TT was a little young to totally take everything in and get as excited as her loopy mother did, but man did she love discovering plastercine!  I'm not sure whether she spent so long in the Museum of Curiosities because of the little plastercine sculptures donated by previous explorers or because of the rain that was trying failing to ruin our visit.  I tell you what though, she was terrified of the monkeys!

My absolutely favourite bit, and it was a difficult choice, was seeing the fantastic things kids had chosen to grow vegetables and sweet peas in. 

The idea is that visiting explorers can make their own 'pots' by recycling anything and everything, decorate it, adopt a plant to carefully add to your 'pot', put it on display with a little stick with your name and then come back before the 15th August to proudly take it home.

What a wonderful, and simple idea!

I spoke to the lovely man who sells snacks and coffee from his Smoothie Van on the island and he said that the land is rumoured to be redeveloped into a cinema complex after this summer.  I'd rather have The Forgotten Island as a permanent feature please!

I got tons of ideas for my own garden, as well as activites to do with TT when she's a little older.  I'll be blogging about that on my other blog later.

I hear the weather's to be better and drier tomorrow so I'm borrowing TT's youngest cousins and taking them along before the island disappears- see you there?

Glasgow Riverside Museum, in pictures

Seriously great morning out.  If you haven't been yet, get your shoes on and go now. 

In fact, better still wait and go first thing in the morning, preferably not on a weekend as the place is jumping.  We arrived at 10am and had a blissful hour and a half of space and quiet before literally coach loads of people, mostly children emptied into the museum.  The ratio of children to adults is pretty frightening!  But hey, that's because we're bang in the middle of summer holidays, and this is Glasgow's newest free attraction. 

I've heard that a lot of people have been complaining that the car park is too small, and there are signs everywhere naming the overspill car parks nearby to deal with this.  But I don't believe that the museum will continue to attract such huge crowds once the initial buzz of interest calms down.  Also, the museum is well serviced by buses and ferries, so there's no need to drive there.

As well as being a stunning piece of architecture, by the wonderful Zaha Hadid, the museum is really cleverly put together and truly caters for everyone whatever their age and taste.  Even TT with her minuscule attention span was enthralled by some of the features.  We split up so that Daddy Wild could enjoy some of the displays in peace and quiet whilst I zipped around the place with TT.  The hour and a half we spent inside, and half hour playing outside was not long enough at all.  However we just know that we'll be back many times, probably more so when the weather changes and we are desperate to get out and about on wet afternoons later in the year!

There are two cafes inside the museum and three vans outside selling hot dogs, coffee, sweeties, sandwiches etc so there's good choice whatever the weather and the age of your party.  We were so lucky to be there on a hot sunny day so sat in the sun outside watching TT build sandcastles and silently stalk other children.

 I loved how interactive most of the displays are.  With games for children & adults to play with whilst learning more about some of the engineering and history of transport in Scotland.  Best of all, all of the interactive displays are voiced by locals with great big broad Glaswegian accents.

 We couldn't agree on our favourite parts on the journey home.  I can't decide between Arnold Clark's Wall of Cars, or the cinema documentary showing in one of the stalls.  Daddy Wild had to be torn away from Colin Macrae's rally car, and lingered by both the motorbike corner and the model ships.  I think making a display of model boats interesting is a pretty impressive feat! If TT could answer I more coherently I think she would be split between the model street and the old subway.

 Baby Wild was beside herself with so many cars. She's mad into cars at the moment, in particular tractors for some bizarre reason!  So maybe that was the one minor downfall - there were no tractors!

Inside, you are still aware of the stunning design & architecture of the building.  Everything is streamline and sleek & modern, with great attention to detail and is typical of Hadid's genuis.  The layout is clever and busy, so that I reckon every time we return we'll find something we missed before.  I paid a quick snoop around the small shop and saw things I would have liked to buy for a lot of friends and got plenty of inspiration for some upcoming birthdays!

Lots of toilets, baby changing, cafes, seats, easy access, tall ships, boat rides, interactive displays and things for toddlers to climb on and ride in, making it possibly the most perfect day out around Glasgow.  And it's FREE!

 Amazing!

Logistics / 10 baby friendly            10

toddler friendly         10

adult friendly             20

educational               10

toilets/changing         10
accessibilty               10
car parking              get there early or get a bus/ferry. Cheap parking though.

cost                         Free!! So do please leave a donation.

Going to Edinburgh with a toddler.. Part 2

Gorgie City Farm

After lunch we headed to Gorgie City Farm as an additional quick treat for TT before we headed home.  Fabulous. PERFECT for toddlers. Besides the obvious attractions, it's free, small, has toilets (no baby changing again) , a play park, and a small cafe. There is virtually no parking, but if you're lucky you might manage to get one of the 5 or 6 spaces available on the farm for a donation of £2.  We actually parked at the front entrance to Tynecastle stadium for free and walked the few minutes along Gorgie Rd to the farm.

I've read poor reviews of this place on other forums, saying that it is a bit run down etc. It costs £900 a day to run the farm, and as entry is free the farm really does rely on grants and donations.  Please bear this in mind and leave a donation when you visit because they do an outstanding job and provide a hugely important space in the city for kids to connect with nature and animals.  Whilst we were there we had great fun watching a class of teenagers, each with a special need, try to catch the chickens to take them for check ups.  They were so happy and getting so much from the day.  Sure, a few of the chickens have been fighting and are a bit scraggly looking, but I loved the genuine and unapologetic mess of some of the corners because this place is hard work to look after! There are loads of animal who take a small army to feed and clean out I imagine.  There are fantastic raised beds growing every vegetable you'd imagine and flowers dotted around everywhere they can squeeze in.  There's a stall selling this produce too for great prices to help sustain the farm.  And they offer pet sitting services too.

TT certainly loved it, and all I had to do was follow her running with squeals of delight from one animal enclosure to another, occasionally stepping in to save her fingers being pecked off by the chickens.

In short, don't leave Edinburgh with small kids without paying it a short visit.

Logistics / 10
baby friendly            05
toddler friendly         100
toilets/changing         07 (no babychange)
accessibilty               06
car parking              £2 but only 5 spaces - get the bus!

cost                         Free!!  So please leave a kind and much needed donation

Going to Edinburgh with a toddler... Part 1

I have to admit something here, at home we actually refer to Baby Wild as "The Terrorist", due to the tantrums as mentioned previously.  So from now on, or at least until she matures into a more mature and calm child again, I shall abbreviate this to TT for blogging here.

I wanted to meet up for lunch with one of my bestest friends in Edinburgh.  As said 'Terrorist' can be a bit of a handful if things aren't going her way I played it safe by driving us through rather than getting the train.  So entailed the beginning of the usual military precision planning for such a major feat......

First off where would we go for lunch? Where was toddler friendly? Lets be clear here- this is completely different from child friendly.  Babies tend to keep themselves to themselves, and children above the age of 3 should be well enough behaved to be allowed in public places occasionally.  But who and where is happy to put up with a tiny tearaway who is referred to by her parents as the terrorist?

A google search pretty much came up with soft plays, pubs with soft plays (Like Brewers Fayre etc), really expensive tourist attractions.  The websites such as Tripadvisor and Babycentre etc only had ideas for babies or older children.  Yawn.  What about us?!  After some furry at the uselessness of babyfriendly.com and many facebook messages with my friend, we decided to have a picnic.  Is this a gap in the market?

Anyway, so ever hopeful of the weather we arranged to meet at the Meadows, so should the sun be in our favour we could let TT run riot whilst we were suitable close to coffee/toilets/toys/shelter all available at The Pavillion Cafe.  The sun wasn't shining, and the ground was soaking, so we abandoned the picnic to the car and ordered lunch in the cafe.  Totally recommend it for kids of all ages, maybe not babies though as there's no baby changing and it is tiny inside.  Only downside for toddlers is that there is no lock on the toilet door - so I spent lunch concerned that TT could storm any poor punter whilst on the loo! The staff were really friendly, trying to get TT to dance with them.  There are toy trucks and scooters outside and jigsaws & books inside for kids to help themselves to.  Now, I wouldn't recommend this to you unless like us you went to art college, or have a quiet hippy living inside your heart.  It's not a conventional cafe, it's independent and a spin off from the former successful Scott's Deli near Morningside.  So TT's generous slab of homemade pizza was amazing, with a wholemeal and cheese base.  I think TT's favourite part though, was charging through the puddles outside, destroying everything she was wearing!  What can you do, puddles are the bomb!

Raspberry Bounty!

 We went foraging yesterday in Spiers Garden in the sun and found hundreds of ripe raspberries to gather!

Baby Wild wasn't much use at the gathering process however, she gobbled everyone she picked, leaves and all!  We had set off with hopes of finding some mushrooms following the earlier downpour. but all I found was this ugly looking specimen below.  I'm not sure whether it is Jews Ear or not, so I left it alone.

I still managed to take home a full punnet of raspberries though and we've been eating them ever since.  I think we need some recipes to use them up.  I've had enough jam making to last a while so fancy something new....

Possibly Raspberry Cake

Or a Berry Cocktail

and I really fancy this Iced Raspberry & Basil Creme Brulee

and also this Raspberry Rose Sorbet which would be great in the garden in the sunshine this afternoon since I'm off on holiday!

Spiers Garden is pretty toddler-tastic and we had lots of fun running around and finding hidden paths.  The whole place just smells sensational just now with all the wild flowers in bloom.  I loved finding this wishing tree which local kids from the after school club had hung their Christmas wishes onto some time ago.

 

I shall leave you today with this Wild Raspberry poem, which sums up our Raspberry bounty!

Best day ever

We plumped for Kelburn. The sun was so fantastic that I decided to get us both dressed up and crash the festival for a couple of hours.  I figured that if we failed to get in then at least we were near to beaches and the sea and would find plenty of other treats in that direction.

But lo and behold we got in no bother, for free seeing as we were staying until 6pm. And holy crap but it rocked!!! I was actually jealous of the children (and there were many) present as the whole place would have totally blown my mind when I was a kid. There was so much effort in to decorate trees, creature sculptures hiding in bushes, lots of folk dressed up as fairies and spirits to tell stories and throw riddles and secrets to unravel to kids in the secret forest. 

There were illustrated maps of where are the stages, bars, toilets etc were with the music and entertainment line-up on the back.  There were plenty of food stalls, and lots & lots of stalls selling crafts, hand made toys and lotions etc.  It was very hippy, I was very happy, but very aware that my toddler was not so laid back and chilled as the rest!  On saying that, there was a great mix of people, so don't let the hippy vibe deter you if that's not your thing, man.  There were entire families there, from old grandparents right down to ickle babies, with men in football tops basking in the sun right next to teenagers decked out on all their day-glo glory swigging from their merry carryouts.  It was a completely eclectic affair, with a lot of truly imaginative and sensational fancy dress.  We even stumbled across a mad hatters tea party where some poor sweating folk were sitting all day in full character costume to entertain surprised kids who stumbled across their path.

All of course back dropped by the stunning painted castle.  Well done to the folk at Kelburn -  a lot of hard work and effort, and it all paid off for a great weekend.  I shall be going back again next year, for a whole day at least, and will be bringing every child I know!

Afterwards we couldn't resist a quick trip to the playground in Largs for an ice cream and a play on the slides in the evening sun.  Messy, sticky but extremely happy, I think one toddler had the best day ever this weekend.

PS - here's a list of other things nearby in Largs....

Spiers Parkland, Beith

Sometimes there is only time to squeeze in a short walk to see what's growing wild and let Baby Wild run wild for 20 minutes.  Not far from us is the site of an old school, which has been looked after by Friends of Spiers who have turned the space into a wild garden with help from some funding from the council and other organisations.  I'm including it on here because it's a great example of little known local gems, proving that sometimes community spirit in the west of Scotland still survives!

It 's a great place to go for a stroll rather than a walk, so ideal for toddlers and older folk too should you have great granny visiting!  If you're in Beith and wondering how to get there, here's a link with directions.  You could park your car in Beith, and walk to Spiers, spend some time nature hunting before setting out Geilsland Road towards Gateshead where you can enjoy a pint and lunch in the very child friendly pub there. 

 Many community activities have come together to improve the site and to promote use. These have included a community clean up organized by the Beith Community Council, bulb and tree planting by Gateside Primary School and the construction of new paths by Ardrossan Academy pupils. Earlier this year funding from North Ayrshire Council and Forestry Commission Scotland enabled a network of paths to be provided which meander through the quiet park, flanked by wild garlic, ferns and wild flowers.  There is also a 'Living Fossil' tree, the slow growing Dawn Redwood. The tree was originally surrounded by a key shaped edged path network with other ornamental plantings.

Local schools and youth groups are involved in the restoration project and this has enabled the young participants to get new practical and social skills. For those pupils who participate the garden has acted as an “ outdoor classroom”.  The initiative is in line with the Curriculum for Excellence and will help achieve   the  national outcome that young people are successful learners; confident individuals; effective contributors and responsible citizens.  I love that some of the Out of School clubs have been building a 'Bug Hotel' or 'Munchy Bug Restaurant' with the help of the NAC Garnock Valley Ranger. The group collected a number of old wooden pallets, nailed them together, roofed the 'hotel' with turf sods and filled the 'floors' with wood, sticks, bricks, slates, stones, tree tubes, etc to create a wide variety of habitats which will encourage a 'high occupancy'.  The group are keeping an eye on the 'hotels' progress and any interesting species found will be added to the National Biodiversity Database operated by the NAC Biological Records Centre at Eglinton Country Park.  I think that's a cute idea!