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.

The vikings have landed!

We made it to Kelburn and we weren't disappointed!  The Vikings were battling and the weather was kind.  We spent a long time wandering through the Walled Garden, playing in the play fort and walking beside the waterfalls before we spent some time with the Vikings.  If you're interested in the gardens, I'll be posting on that on my other blog when I find a chance tomorrow.

Why the Vikings, you ask?  Well the Largs Viking Festival has just kicked off this weekend... Didn't you know?

They were really rather good, and nearly  succeeded in frightening TT.  Nearly.  She's made of sterner stuff however.

My favourite shots are these though - modern day Viking checking his Tweets on his mobile?  (Shame I ruin the shot in my haste by appearing in the background!)

Anyways, we had a ball as ever at Kelburn.  TT loved her special treat of lunch out and told everyone in the cafe just how good her sausage, beans & ships were.  Definitely deserved on a Viking battle ground on the first days on Autumn.

Well done yet again Kelburn folk, and well done to the Vikings for their spirit and entertainment!  See you next weekend at The Pencil!

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