Pick your own pumpkins- Autumnal fun.

I know this has been blogged about quite a lot recently especially by those living locally to Pickwell Farm and you can clearly see why.

We took a trip down to the farm this morning with friends and it was the most fun catch up with the kids.

They adored exploring the fields and the various fruit and veg growing, running around in the fresh air and picking their own to take home.

We popped them in a wheelbarrow (provided at the farm) and bumped and bounced along the fields in the fresh air.

Pickwell Farm is located just off the M27 Junction 8 in Bursledon and is a family run 'pick your own' farm. It is a wonderful place to escape everyday life for a few hours and we easily spent almost three hours with the children exploring all the fields and the wonderful crops to enjoy.

Currently Pickwell Farm has pumpkins, sweetcorn, rhubarb, blackberries and delicious raspberries. 

We also saw kurly kale and Brussel Sprouts growing.

This post might be a bit picture heavy because I simply adore the Autumnal background of the vibrant orange pumpkins dotted around the fields. Autumn is such a beautiful season to capture, with crisp cool mornings ,beautiful blue skies and the changing colours of the leaves.

We loved all the shapes and sizes of the pumpkins and the huge variety of them. The supermarket pumpkins just don't compare to exploring all the interesting ones we found out in the open fields. To top this off it doesn't matter which pumpkin you choose they're all priced at a reasonable £2 each.

I let Oscar choose which pumpkin he wanted, we picked up a couple of corns and I couldn't resist a beautiful blue squash. I've never seen them this colour before but it's a very pastel duck egg blue shade. Apparently it is a Blue Hokkaido, a winter squash with a bright orange flesh of a subtle sweet but nutty flavour. I'm going to enjoy looking up some recipes for our blue squash but at the moment it's just sitting pretty in the living room.

The children were so inquisitive on our visit and it was nice to show them where produce comes from and how crops grow, it is just as much an educational and sensory activity with us all able to touch, smell and even sample a little taste of the fruit and veg we picked.

I can't recommend visiting enough, if you have a spare hour or so then pop along to the pick your own fields or even the shop, they have an immense range of delicious fresh produce.

To top our visit off we saw Zeeberry from the Marwell Zany Zebra trail arrive at Pickwell's Farm today. The Zebra sculptures and trail were dotted around Southampton during the Summer as part of a campaign to raise awareness and funds for the Grevy Zebra species. Pickwell were sponsors of Zeeberry and secured the sculpture in the recent auction this week. It's delightful that this beautiful piece of public art will remain at the farm for people to continue to enjoy.

In the afternoon we painted our pumpkins and covered them with glue and glitter to show Daddy when he got home.

We'll definitely be returning to Pickwell Farm again soon, if you're thinking of popping along then there are still heaps of pumpkins to pick in time for Halloween.

We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a BIG one- Birthday Celebrations.

I can't believe it's this time of the year again but it's party season and Oscar's 3rd birthday has arrived. Recently he's been rather infactuated with the story book 'We're going on a bear hunt' written by Michael Rosen ,we didn't fancy the cost of hiring out a hall or the whole party planning shenanigans so thought we'd have a gathering with friends at home.

We decided to entertain the children with a little activity, a story and a obstacle course running through the garden and fortunately the weather stayed bright and clear for us.

For anyone who hasn't read the book 'We're going on a Bear Hunt' it's a cute and simple story about adventuring outside with the family in search for a bear. The family pass through various obstacles on their walk including swishy swoshy grass, a deep cold river, sticky oozy mud, a forest and a hailing snowstorm before reaching a cave with a grizzly brown bear inside which follows them home.

The children each had a set of binoculars (2 toilet roll middles covered with wrapping paper) which they decorated with stickers, this activity was a nice interactive way to start the party and gave the children the perfect tool for 'bear watching'.

We took great inspiration from Pinterest and Mudpie Fridays for putting our party together and for some fabulous activities to fill the afternoon, they are both full of creative ideas for a bear themed party.

We watched 'We're going on a Bear Hunt' the animated version so that each of the children were aware of the story before we started.

Then outside was our bear hunt obstacle course, we recreated all the scenes from the book for the children to walk through and to find the bear hidden in the garden.

The children seemed a bit apprehensive to start, but once out in the fresh air they throughly enjoyed the course and playing outside.

The food buffet was bear themed ,with Pom Bear crisps, Billy Bear sandwich ham, Barny Bear cake bars and even an 'Oscar the Bear' birthday cake (thanks Sainsburys)

Rather than gift bags we gave each of the children a bear themed book to take home which we ordered from The Works.  The Works have an online offer £10 for 10x children's books and we loved the idea of the kids taking home a story to keep and enjoy.

I think we're well and truly 'beared out' for the day but hope all the children had a wonderful time.

We're pleased to say that the binoculars and brown bear have now been donated to a local preschool so more children can enjoy the fun and adventures of keeping on the look out for the brown fuzzy bear. 

Zany Zebratastic Event

If you have any spare time this weekend and enjoyed the Marwell Zany Zebra trail that ran over the Summer then I'd throughly recommend a visit to the Zebratastic Event being held at The Ageas Bowl over the next three days.

The Zany Zebra Trail was introduced this year following the success of the public art trail featuring Rhinos back in 2011.

Marwell teamed up with local businesses and organisations as sponsors to decorate the sculptures. The large sculptures were adorned by talented artists and the street art has been enjoyed by thousands of local residents and visitors to the city. 

Schools and Colleges also took part in the Zany Zebras Education Programme giving them an opportunity to join in with the fun and get creative designing their own miniature Zebras.

If booked in advance tickets for this farewell event were only £2.50 per person and under 3's are free to enter. (Entry at the gate is £4 per person)

The event is being held inside the Ageas Bowl and the whole collection of Zebra's can be seen across two floors (there's a lift for buggies and wheelchair access)

My kids absolutely loved it as it was a unique opportunity to see all the Zebra's up close without needing to trek across the city (a saviour on little legs)

We had seen a couple of the zebras across town and some of the smaller ones at Marwell but this gave us a lovely close up look at them all and their amazing and beautiful paintwork and designs.

There was also a raffle to enter for your chance to win your very own Zany Zebra and raise money for the cause.

There are 197 Zebras to see in total including all the sculptures and miniatures. 

The event is running 14-17 October, 2016. Doors open at 9.30am until 4pm each day (last entry is 3pm)

Following the goodbye event the sculptures are being auctioned off, the charity auction will take place on Tuesday 18, October 2016 commencing at 7pm. 

If you want to go that step further and be in with a chance of owning a Zebra sculpture you can bid online here.

Marwell Wildlife Auction

The trail has been aimed at raising awareness for the plight of the Grevy's zebra breed, all monies raised will go towards conservation projects undertaken by Marwell Wildlife with organisations in Kenya. It is a sad statistic that there are less than 3,000 Grevy Zebras in the wild.