The South of England Show, Ardingly

I forget just how massive the South of England Show is!  Nik and I went along on the Friday in June to explore the stands, displays and shows and found so much to see, eat and drink, it was epic!  There is so much going on with plenty to entertain little ones and grown ups alike. We happened to be there "on duty" without the kids in order to take photos and make notes but we kept seeing things the twins would love and had we not already had plans to be at Woodlands family festival that weekend, we would have gone back on the Saturday with them.

My personal favourites were the blacksmith competitions, the wine walk, the motocross stunt bikers, the WI displays and of course, the shopping!  I bagged myself a bargain waterproof coat in a gorgeous bright yellow with polka dot lining, it's come in handy already with our somewhat wet June so far.

The Young Artisans tent was so inspiring with some truly gorgeous designs by such talented young people, we spotted a few from Uckfield College!  The three crowned winners ranged in age from 17 to 21.

The blacksmiths made for some awesome photo opportunities with the sparks, fire and steam against the dark backgrounds, it looks like such hard work (and it really is, I tried it once helping make a spike for St. Marks' Church gate back in 2017, see my sparky photo I took back then).

There were some beautiful flowers and brightly coloured WI made crafts in the WI/flower tent, there were lots of categories with some amazing interpretations in each craft competition, of course I was drawn to the rainbow ones ;)

The Wine Walk was informative and fun, we really enjoyed learning more about some of our local vineyards, I never knew there were so many and we've now been inspired to plan a tour of some East Sussex vineyards this summer which will make a great feature so watch this space come Autumn time!  Of course, having a few tasters of the various offerings was fun too, the English sparkling wines we have locally are truly wonderful!

Of course, there's a lot more going on with lots of agricultural areas, various farm animal competitions and displays with sheep-shearing demos and the like.  There are lots of food stands with food to eat as well as plenty to take home such as local cheeses, meats, booze and sweet treats. We bought some Sussex Charmer to take home which is a mix of mature cheddar and Parmesan so has a lovely deep, tangy flavour and is almost gone already!

Despite the rather dingy weather with a few downpours, we had a brilliant day out!

Tulley's Farm Spook Fest 2018 - review

A Halloween festival, hell yes!  I was so excited to visit Tulley's Farm for their annual Spook Fest (the family friendly daytime version, not to be confused with the terrifying looking Shocktober Fest which is on in the evenings for older kids and adults).   I'd never been before but had heard it was good and was excited to spend a Halloweeny day with the twins since Nik and I were away for Halloween itself.  You know how much I love Halloween and when my friend Steph asked us to join her family there for the day I was even more excited, Priya adores her eldest daughter Bella and they are all so cute together, holding hands and generally being cute!

Blackberry Farm birthday party

The twins were invited along to a birthday party at Blackberry Farm last weekend and had a great time (in between tantrums and clinging to me that is)!  It wasn't our party so I'm not going to "review" it but I will say it was awesome and the twins and all the other kids had so much fun!  I have permission from the Mum to share a few photos with you of her little boy's awesome day out with his friends.

We started off meeting by the cafe before all heading through to the petting area with rabbits and guinea pigs.  Most of the little ones were great, sitting down patiently waiting for their turn to hold or stroke the animals.  The twins were in a bit of a funny mood (possibly related to my stress dealing with a poorly timed tantrum as we left the house - all Priya's fault declaring that it was HER birthday and no one else could have any cake, setting Kalyan off crying and complaining to me that Priya said he couldn't have cake, me telling her it was Eliot's birthday and his cake to share triggering her meltdown - the joys!) so they didn't want to touch the animals and were pretty clingy with me so I didn't get many photos here as Daddy was at work so my camera was swiftly tucked away again.

My Sunday Photo - Picking Pumpkins at Sharnfold Farm

I have loads of photos from our trip to Sharnfold Farm yesterday to check out this year's pumpkin display but here are a couple of favourites for now.

We were lucky to get some dry spells and even sunshine amidst the squalls and gusts of wind but the twins loved it despite the weather!