Harcourt Arboretum

Today we celebrated the first day of the holidays with a trip to the University of Oxford's Harcourt Arboretum. Poppet (age 4) insisted in the car that we wrote a list of things to look out for - a strategy we invented last year to encourage her to approach a country walk with more enthusiasm! So today's list included: different shapes of leaves; pink, white, and yellow flowers; a pinecone; a feather; a peacock; bluebells; leaves and flowers just emerging from their buds, etc. It was a glorious morning, and we were treated on arrival to the magnificent peacock display pictured above.

We went on to find everything on the list, and more, including this stunning camelia,

and this beautiful rhododendron, about to burst into bloom:

We then found the first few bluebells coming out (much earlier than I expected):

before ending our walk through the glorious Lime Wood, which has yet to come into leaf:

Here we were lucky enough to come across a den someone had built of sticks leant around the trunk of a small tree:

Poppet and I set about making our own, scavenging for more sticks and propping them in a rather haphazard fashion around a neighbouring tree. Unfortunately BabyGirl (14 months old) had had enough by this time, so we had to abandon it unfinished. Poppet was unfazed: "It can be a woodlouse house," she said, quite happy with our efforts. On the way home, she asked me to spell the words so that she could write "woodlouse house" on our list, and add a tick to show we'd found one.

If you'd like to visit the Harcourt Arboretum too, now is a good time - the bluebells are beginning to come out,the peacocks are strutting their stuff, the azalea walk will be glorious soon, and the staff have also emerged from their winter hibernation so it is now open at weekends as well as weekdays. And no, I'm not being sponsored for this - we have a family season ticket and it remains one of our favourite places to take the children, come rain or shine! All it lacks is somewhere to buy a cup of coffee, but we're getting better at remembering to take a flask...