Delamere

Delamere Forest has been like a second home to our family of late; over the past few weeks we've been at least six times! Today we met Josh's parents there for, what turned out to be, a rather wet walk round the lake, but this time we were prepared! The boys rode their bikes, though Isaiah was on and off his and ended up being carried by Josh on his bike for the last stretch as the walk proved a bit too long for his little legs.

Being in a forest we were surrounded by nature but a couple of notable aspects were a flock of geese honking and flying over the lake, Isaiah discovering the plant that I'm named after, and many a larch tree, which I can now recognise thanks to Josh's mum! The pine cones on them are quite delicate; I likened them to little wooden flowers! Apparently the larch is the only 'evergreen' that isn't actually evergreen - it sheds its needles in winter. Isaiah delighted in his finds of various pine cones and Grandma produced him with a brackon branch as an umbrella, the stem of which he proceeded to slide his hand up and down, pretending to open shut it! We mused over whether or not the lake is man-made as there are trees in it which must have started their lives without being covered in water. Josh's dad wondered if it has appeared as a result of subsidence from mining. Toward the end of the walk we happended upon the woodland area of musical instruments, which we have passed by on our last few visits so it was fun spending a bit of time in there sheltering from the rain and hitting them with our sticks to hear the sounds they make.

When we got back to the visitor centre it was all closed as is often the way (we always seem to be the last there!) but we sat in the picnic area watching the birds and avoiding the wasps, and managed to make an acceptable meal for Isaiah by throwing together a few bits and pieces we had between us. He was very hungry because we'd tried to feed him on the course of the walk but he had been far more interested in running into the woods and exploring :) Seeing the various birds around the forest really got me thinking it would be good to be able to name them all; I feel its a bit of an insult to Isaiah to refer to all but a few as 'birdy'! After all, he knows all kinds of different names for flowers, and Thomas the Tank Engine characters! I might take a little reference book next time..

Upon our return home Isaiah stopped in his tracks as he ventured from the car to the front door. He had spotted two slugs travelling across our path so close to one another that the back one's head was touching the front one's bottom; he found this fascinating and showed Josh who pointed out the white areas on the sides of their heads which they apparently breath through!