Hale Beach, Sudley House..

Oh dear, I need to try and keep up with this blogging thing, or at least remember I have one!! Time runs away from me and it would seem weeks have now passed since my last post! There has been a trip to Cornwall in that time though so I shall cut myself some slack..

Anyway, I digress..

Isaiah and I went for a walk down the country lane, looking at the farmers fields on either side, to Hale Beach recently. I followed his lead and therefore didn't get to the waters edge but spent all our time at the beach exploring round the rocks which are beautifully smooth and weathered by the water, if that's possible..! He had fun with an old rusty barrel which he climbed on top of and pretended was a drum. He also discovered what a kissing gate is and used it repeatedly thereafter! Jeremy slept in the sling and enjoyed the fresh air on his face and new things to look at when he woke up :) The 10 minute walk back took about an hour because we were going at snails pace until a passer by used the phrase 'a hop, skip and jump and you'll be there!', which was a godsend because I was secretly starting to lose the will to live and this sprang Isaiah into enthusiasm so we hop, skipped and jumped the rest of the way, from stone to stone, puddle to puddle, etc!

This week we visited Sudley House for the first time and ended up spending the entire day there - we arrived before they had opened and left as they were locking up! It is one of the Liverpool museums so free entry and is really closeby so I don't know how we've managed not to really know about it fully til now!

The gardens have some fabulous low trees in them ideal for small people to have a go at climbing, and there's a lovely veranda at the back of the house overlooking the gardens (now Sudley Park playing field) and River Mersey to Birkenhead. We had a picnic lunch on the veranda and a clamber on the wall and stones. I wouldn't massively recommend he cafe, though isaiah found it very exiting and as we walked up the hallway away from it he stopped a passer by in her tracks, saying "Do you know what's down there? ..A CAFE!!!!!!!"

The inside of the house was great too; really child-friendly and the staff were exceptionally friendly as well! Isaiah pulled up a chair to stand on to get a really good look at a model ship in the library room, and he studied it for ages, twice (after going round once we went round again)! He also had a good look at some of the artwork on the walls, especially the piece of Jesus as a young boy. All three of us had an extended play/reading time in the childrens rooms which exhibit genuine childrens toys from the day as well as modern ones to play with. Jeremy, of course, sat on the mat and mainly just slobbered on the toys, but he was loving getting his hands on them all :)