Hever Castle

If the weather behaves, I can't recommend a visit to Hever Castle enough. There's plenty to do, for both adults and kids, and the surrounding grounds are just lovely.

We started our day by going to the water maze, which is great fun. If you go the wrong way, some water shoots up in front of you, and you're meant to turn around, and try another route. Needless to say, most of the kids simply ran through it, getting wetter and wetter!

This is Beth, trying to find her way around.

After this, we sat by the lake for our little picnic, and then fed the remaining sandwiches to the 100s of ducks, then we made our way to the archery display.

This was also good fun. The costumes are as close as they can get to the originals, and they showed us archery and face to face combat.

Following this we queued for the actual castle. I've been reading some historical fiction about Anne Boleyn, so it was interesting to see her childhood home. However, even the girls seemed to enjoy it!

What with the grounds, the gardens, the model houses and the play areas, that was the rest of our day taken up.

Read more here.

2006 Holiday

Yep, this was how the girls were dressed the first night of our holidays! It was wet, windy, and cold.. in the middle of August!


This is how the girls started off, behaving beautifully, and reading before bed. However, Amy didn't like the sound of the wind and rain, and Beth was soon complaining she couldn't get to sleep because of Amy talking too much! So Beth moved in with Daddy, and I settled in with Amy.


This was in the play area in the caravan park.. Amy really has no fear, and was soon climbing up everything she could find. It took Beth years to get that brave! lol

Mid week the weather became much nicer, and on Tuesday we went to Hastings for the day. I took Beth up the cliff lift, and we visited the castle, and the Smugglers Caves.


Then back at the sea front, Beth surprised me by wanting to go on the kiddies roller coaster by herself! And she came off with a smile on her face! lol That's her in the pink cardigan.


The next day we all went on the 'Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway'. It has a little station in the caravan park, and so Amy was very excited about finally going on it. However, about halfway along, the movement sent her to sleep! She'll make a great commuter! hehe


Dymchurch is a lovely place for kids.. there are outdoor rides, an indoor play area, amusements, and a lovely beach, complete with donkeys! I recall Beth being quite nervous of these last year, but once again, Amy's response was quite the opposite. In fact she started laughing when they first set off!


On Thursday night, the clubhouse had a 'pirates' theme night, so when we shopping in Folkestone, we had to hit the charity shops and the market to see what we could find. One waistcoat and bandana later, we were all fixed!


The kids entertainers did face painting for them. Beth became a 'princess pirate'.


And for Amy, they said she needed something cute!

Has anyone else been away this summer? Dd you get better weather then us?!

Interviews / Holiday

I know I haven't been around much recently, but I've been busy with various things. Bethany is on her school holidays now, so having both girls at home is keeping me busy!

Mind you, it appears I wasn't missed too much, so never mind! ;-)

For those of you out there who like reading, you might be interested in a couple of interviews I've just carried out for my book forum.. Tess Gerritsen and Kelley Armstrong. They were fun to do, and make interesting reading. At the end of the month, I will interviewing Jodi Picoult.. forum members are invited to send me questions to include, so if you're interested, pop along to the forum.

Tomorrow morning we're off on holiday. According to the 10 day forecast, we're expecting showers every single day, and temperatures in the 60's. How can that happen in August?! Sigh!

Anyway, assuming we manage to leave he caravan, I shall be back in just over a week with a few photos!

Have a good week!