The Go To Girls Blog playing in the woods……..

I was a sat there thinking what we can do with Theo this weekend, we wanted to do something where we take him outside and now it’s getting colder we tend to stay in a lot.

We were trying to think of places where we could take him that could be, kind of little adventure.  We used to take the dog up to a place called Peggy Farrow Lane.   It’s like a long wooded sort of area with fields with horses and then a big forest at the end of the hill. It brings back memories of the dog and gets Theo out for a bit of an adventure. 

On Saturday afternoon Mike dropped Theo off and off we went to  Elloughton Dales and to Peggy Farrow lane.  We parked the car up with Theo still a bit unsure of what we were doing and where we were taking him. We promised him we would have a fun time so we got there about lunchtime maybe 1.  We put our wellies on as it was destined to be muddy. Theo decided that he wanted to go in clean puddles, not dirty ones.  LOL!

I have never heard that anywhere would have clean puddles but he was convinced they were real.  We got him ready, got his little jacket on, his hat on and off we went. We crossed the road and went down the path couple of minutes, Well, not really a path kind of a grass verge and finally came across the gate that leads up to Peggy farrow Lane.   There’s a legend that the house at the top of the lane used to be the house of an old witch.

Further down the lane is the cemetery where the witch is supposed to be buried.   So we open the gate first thing we teach Theo is about safety so if we open the gate what do we do? We close the gate!  We walked straight through the biggest puddle down the lane.  Theo helped me close the gate and as he helped me he spotted all of the muddy puddles.  He decided he was going to go in the muddy puddles after all.  I asked him not to get too wet going up the hill cos it’s quite a walk.

Down the lane a couple of yards we come across the cemetery which is not a nice place to take a toddler so we just sort of took a quick photo and moved on.  Next to the cemetery is a farm now that used to be just an old house but now they’ve turned it into house, stables, fields and a fishing pond. We saw a little tabby cat walking towards as looks like he wanted to come and say hi. 

Theo got all excited and waiting for the cat to come over that was really soft and gentle and started rubbing itself on all our legs. We will take a few photos and Theo said Hello Mrs. Cat.  He is so funny.  We walked a little bit further into the land and a horse popped its head out of one of the stables then quickly followed by a few barking dogs.  Theo was shouting Hello Mr. Horse,  Hello  Mr. Dog.  We carry on up the hill,  in the middle of the field on your left is a sectioned off for horses on the farmers land and then there are some sheep at the top in the right-hand side.

Otherwise, the rest of the landscape is made up of fields. I suppose ready for growing just all clear for next year.  We were showing Theo different trees and he actually was helping take some of the photos of the different plants.   When we were walking further up the hill Theo wanted to look at everything.  We taught him how to get the horses to come to you so when we used to own horses ourselves we have to go up to the field and just shout ‘come on’ and the horses would walk across thinking you’re going to feed them.   

Obviously, we weren’t going to feed the horses that came across.   Theo said I’ve never seen a horse before granny!  Whether he actually has or not I’m not really sure but I’m sure he probably has.   The next field full of sheep, Theo thought he could shout ‘come on’ thinking this was a universal language for the sheep as well as the horses.  No Theo! just the horses LOL!  I took some photos of the scenery and the surrounding views absolutely beautiful from the top of the hill. 

We had to teach Theo how to get through the gate when he actually climbed through it instead of opening it.  He is only four after all.  Chris and I walked around the next gate and Theo quickly learned it was too big for him to climb through but he got through the right way.  Next was an episode of hide and seek, I counted and off  Theo and Chris went to hide.  I laughed so much searching for them,  I nearly fell over two or 3 times.  Then it was Theo and my turn to hide.

We were trying to hide but I was laughing so much hiding behind the tree, Chris told us later that as soon as he opened his eyes he could spot Theo’s coat is sticking out from behind the tree. I think we were trying too hard with a toddler to hide behind trees which were too small to hide behind.  Then we did not stop giggling while we were behind the tree so gave ourselves away.   Then it was Theo and  Chris’s turn  again and exactly the same happened I open my eyes and there was Chris’s coat stuck out from behind a tree. 

We’re just not as good as we thought,  so I looked around, walked away from where they were hiding to hear Theo shouting, no not over there turn around and walk the other way!!  There I could see two little heads hiding behind a tree but still with their coats popping out.  Theo decided that he wanted to find me and Gramps!  No! we’re not going to go and hide from a toddler in the middle of a wood and leave him on his own stood in the middle of a wood!?!  Sorry, darling too dangerous. 

We went tree climbing, Theo really loved it we found a really old fallen tree that was about as high off the ground as Theo is tall so he actually thought he was climbing a really really high tree.  Chris grabbed his hand on one side and me on the other as we walked him across it for probably 20-30 yards.  He absolutely loved it he thought it was the best tree climber ever.   He was so funny. 

There was a tree that gramps thought he would go and have a go climbing, It had a slight bend on it so that gramps could climb up a little bit so then Theo wanted to have a go because obviously, Gramps had done it.  Theo climbed probably 4 ft high with the help to Gramps and thought he was a mountain climber.   He was so amazed so he carried on climbing.  We walked a little bit further up the woods and Theo decided he needed to go to the bathroom.

What are we going to do with a toddler in the middle of the woods no potty, no public convenience, but anything is better than wet pants.  He’s only four so he usually goes on his potty. We asked him if he could go to the toilet like a big boy and he said could and asked us how high would we like him to aim up the tree.  His daddy must have been teaching him big boy toilet use?!?!?!? I don’t think we laughed so much in our whole lives.   That’s the end of that piece of information you probably didn’t want to know. 

 We carried on walking through the woods having a look around all the fields, playing a few games and met a few more dogs.   Theo absolutely loved it, then we came across a massive dog called Red.   

Theo could have probably ridden him. He was all slobbery and the owner’s kindly wiped his face so we could stroke him.  Not that would matter because we’re already been covered in mud.

We decided it was time for us to go back as Theo was very tired and we had walked quite far into the woods.  We turned around and walked back and we’re gonna start back on down the hill when gramps decided it would be a good idea for everybody to have a leaf fight.  He showed Theo how to run through the leaves and make as much mess as possible. Then gramps decided to kick a lot of leaves at me including all the mud that was underneath them. 

I ended up with mud all over my head. Yes, I did. Thanks, Chris!?!? We were walking back so we thought we’d get a couple of action shots of Theo and Gramps, we would carry on running through leaves and throwing them at each other.  It was a lot of fun.   Walking down the hill Theo turned to Chris and I and told us that was a great adventure.   When we originally planned to go out we were going to take him to the park.    We found a lot more to play with within the wood than we would have done at the local park so good job all in all.

Just another day in the lives of The Go To Girls Blog. 

Another reason why I love being me. 

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