Woodland Walk at Felbrigg

We had been trying all half-term week to get to Felbrigg but events have conspired against us but we finally made it! We wanted to try the Victory V Woodland Walk, which was a gentle 1.5 miles although I was able to rest my hip numerous times as the boys stopped to take in their surroundings.

Molly saw this stone and thought it looked like.....well, can you see it?

Charlie took his binoculars to go bird spotting but he didn't get much chance with Harry hogging them!

At the start of the walk was a wooden noughts and crosses game. They had great fun playing a few rounds and Harry was chuffed to beat his older brother. 

How I would have loved to have been up in this microlight with a fab bird's eye view of the park.

I'm rarely able to get many photos of Molly but I managed to zoom in and get this one. How did my baby girl get so grown up?

Trying a bit of natural weight lifting.

"Go over there and get that stick for me"

Feeling pleased with his den building skills.

The other side of the 'V'. 

The rather poignant reason for the creation of the Victory V Woodland Walk but it is truly beautiful, particularly at this time of year and I can see it being enjoyed for many, many generations.

The Ice House was built to look derelict (although I didn't find out why) and it's now home to bats. Charlie wanted to go inside to see them *shudder*  Fortunately it's all locked up. 

Our trip today was a great sensory experience for Harry as he spent ages touching and stroking plants and trees and smelling the flowers and herbs in the walled gardens.

We thought this tree trunk looked like it had a face. 

Charlie couldn't make up his mind whether he could use this as a giant slingshot or as huge reindeer antlers.

Charlie really liked this collection of tree stumps so he borrowed my camera to take a photo.

The circular walk brought us around to the side of the house and joined the path we followed when we last visited Felbrigg and walked to the lake.

The eldest two had made up a silly song and were racing to be the first to sing it to me.

My cheeky chappy.

On the lawns there was a selection of toys for the children to play with; skittles, hula hoops, bats and balls etc so my gang spent 15 minutes or so burning off more energy. It would have been longer but it had become rather blustery and I was quite chilly standing around.

Harry made himself a little obstacle course.

We headed into the walled garden but I didn't expect much to be in flower but I was pleasantly surprised.

I think these Wyandette chickens are absolutely gorgeous and Harry loves seeing them roaming around the gardens. Shame he doesn't feel the same way about all of the dogs we encountered on our woodland walk.

Molly's mischievous grin gives away the fact that she was cheating in a running race through the tunnel!

Ever since discovering Felbrigg with our National Trust membership I have fallen in love with the place. I adore walled gardens anyway but this, as Charlie declared in the summer, is the best walled garden we have ever seen.