Woodchester park a hike through the past

We were starting to miss our long hikes in the lake district and decided to find a beautiful place to walk closer to home. 

We looked at our old faithful National trust book and found Woodchester park a secluded valley hidden amongst the Gloucestershire countryside.

 A lost landscape from the 18th to 19th century it was a former landscape park left to become overgrown

With its five lakes a heronry and old unfinished gothic mansion it sounded right up our street 

We arrived after a pleasant drive through rolling hills with views of the Malvern hills along the way.

Adam had packed soup so we got out our camping stove but he had forgotten to bring a pan, being the resourceful types we used the can and a pair of socks 'clean, spare ones ' as oven mitts. 

The walk started in a forest full of wild garlic we were following the longest trail that let us explore the whole park 

 

Hidden amongst the trees and overgrowth were reminders of the past from crumbling ruins to old benches 

The mansion was never finished and has been left abandon over the years.

 It was built in the place of a grand Georgian hunting lodge

Capability brown designed its landscape that is now overgrown, the National trust are currently using historical documents to transform it back to its original glory.

Along with the abundance of wild garlic there were signs of spring and colour 

There were even a heard of Jacob sheep with there lambs 

The old boat house was uncovered by the trust as it had been hidden by the overgrowth

It is now home to Horse shoe bats with fly across the lake at dusk 

A hike would not be complete without a flask of tea 

After a long day we had explored the whole park seeing lots of wild garlic wildlife and hidden streams we would definitely recommend Woodchester park.

Forage On Friday | Dandelion

 Today was a gloomy rainy day, perfect for staying in with tea and a fluffy blanket.

 Maybe reading a good book or magazine? 

 In spring every day feels new, a good down pour seems to refreshes the plants, makes the leaves look greener and crisp for the picking. 

This for me is just as good a time as any to collect some salad leaves for dinner.

I walked down the path from the house with my plate in hand and spotted some dandelions straight away in they open grassy spot under the garden magnolia tree. 

I picked the leaves from the outside in laying each leaf out on the plate so not to squish them all together.

  When I got home i gave them a quick wash under the cold tap and chucked them in the fridge for later. 

I normally eat them right away but Adam isn't home yet and its only fair to share. 

Dandelions are packed full of good stuff, iron, protein and apparently a natural anti-inflammatory so will help your digestion. 

Plus they are free and great in salads or you can cook them, add them to scrambled eggs just take out the hard stalks at the ends. 

They are a bit peppery but this time of the year they are a bit milder and always try before you throw it all in as it might be more powerful than you think.

What are you getting up to on this most gloomy Friday? We now have twitter and are always updating it @sarahandthebear

Allotment Update

We have been spending all our spare time at the moment when we are not on the road here. It is in full swing at the moment, our plants our sprouting, the weather is changing but this is what we have been doing the last few weeks and months. 

We saved a bit of money and treated ourselves to a a shiny new Shed from Argos and managed to pick these pallets up from our allotment guru bill. 

Adam and our family spent a long time helping us get them level, the ground was an old compost heap so the soil wasn't compacted which made it a bit tricky but he got it bang on in the end.

After much deliberating we finally decided which way to have the shed looking out over the apple tree and down to the chickens

Then came the really "fun" part if you can't tell I'm defiantly using fun sarcastically 

View from the door 

When it was finally finished "weeks later" we decided to paint it a bluey-greeny colour something to brighten up the plot, 

Ta-da!

 All finished on the outside its like having a beach hut in the allotment we are like proud parents. 

We put in some flowers to draw the bees in, we are huge bee fans if we could we would love to keep some here.

Sarah putting in the flowers which we later moved because it didn't look right

Flowers - Violas, Delphiniums, wild flower mix with - ox eye daisies, cornflowers ,calendula and poppies (at the moment its hard to tell what is flowers and what is weeds) 

Herbs - Sage, Lavender and rosemary

Me planning where to put everything this year its so confusing but I'm a strong believer in a good plan, trail and error plus a bit of hoping

Our onion sets doing amazingly

Adam looking over the potato plot

The onions new bed 

Potting up my seeds

Beets went straight in the ground and we are just now starting to see some lovely seedlings coming up

All our seedlings have come up and are looking lovely so pleased 

Clearing our fruit bushes ready to mulch in march and we put in a little path made from found bits a bobs from the rubble pile

chickens enjoying there freedom and the warmer weather

Our baby rhubarb settling into its new bed after we moved it in the winter, it was growing in the middle of the path so he has now its own lovely bed. 

Before we painted it this is a little bird house we put together. we want to encourage as much wildlife as possible to the plot i hope to have a pond and a little hedgehog house to. 

Thats all for today but i will do some more updates when its in full bloom of summer or sooner but if you have any questions please do let us know and we will love to reply either here or on our Instagram @sarahandthebearadventures