Stocks Wood Outdoor Centre | Days Out in Cumbria
We had such a fabulous time when we were at Stocks Farmhouse and Wood, there was no end of things to see and do while we were there, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves from the smallest member of our family, Little L, to the biggest, daddy! We couldn't wait to slip on a pair of wellies each and go exploring with my uncle and cousin. P.S. They don't know I've written this post until now... surprise!
My uncle was so excited to show us around his new found haven, grinning from ear to ear as he waved us onto his driveway while cutting the grass verges of his land on his ride on lawnmower. Directly opposite their beautiful new farmhouse home is the gateway to their land. As we walked along the grass covered walkways through Stocks Wood we could see the starts of the areas that will soon be the forest school, the solar panel lights that lit the small hut in by one of the ponds and the pretty spring flowers as they reached for sunlight in small open clearings.
We even found a patch of Stocks Wood bluebells, something that I was super excited about. Having seen so many beautiful photos of fellow bloggers and their children in bluebell fields I felt kind of jealous that we have been unable to find any local to us at home, and so I haven't been able to have any cute photos of Squidgy amonget them. Until now!
Stocks Wood is absolutely amazing, set in six acres of woodland, with so many things to see and discover. Located in the beautiful Cumbria countryside with a backdrop lucious rolling hills and just minutes from the M6 it is the perfect location for my Aunt and Uncle to be setting up their business and home. It's only a few miles from the coast too, which is something I will be sure to check out next time we visit.
Squidgy is renowned for getting bored very easily and even she was having a ball as we walked through the woodland, calling everybody to keep up and asking what everything was. Julian was fabulous when it came to keeping her engaged throughout our ramble. You can tell he has had years of working as a teacher, and how good he must have been at his job as one.
Whether it was lifting the logs to see what creepy crawlies could be found in the damp darkness beneath or holding his great niece up to the squirrel feeder to pop some nuts down for the local squirrel population, he kept finding new and exciting things for her to explore.
One of Squidgy's favourite parts was the fairy clearing that has been set up in a small area of Stocks Wood. No amount of knocking on the door brought the fairies out to play, but that didn't stop her giving it a good go! She even picked up the iron key to see if she could unlock the door and have a peak inside! She was not impressed that she didn't find any fairies but she soon moved on to have fun exploring the next part of the woodland.
We had such a lovely day as a family, using my uncle's bug pot with built in magnifying glass to check out the teeny millipedes and beetles hiding in the undergrowth and holding hands as Squidgy skipped about the woodland paths. Being dragged about by an excited toddler wasn't such a bad thing though, her bouncy, fun eagerness to run around Stocks Wood and touch every tree stump, bush and flower and investigate every nook and cranny was infectious.
I am so excited to go and visit again, we already have our next trip planned in for the summer. The plan is that our girls and I will go back up and spend some time there, longer than just the few hours that we were able to enjoy last week.
In the mean time I will be watching the Stocks Wood Outdoor Centre social media accounts for all of the updates on how things are progressing there as they get the woodland ready for visiting schools and other groups to come and enjoy learning and skill development!
Click here to visit and like Stocks Wood Outdoor Centre on Facebook.
Click here to visit and follow @stockswoodoc on Instagram.
Click here to visit and follow @stockswoodoc on Twitter.
For more posts about our family adventures, from UK staycations to days out for kids visit my Travel blog. If you have any questions about Stocks Wood outdoor centre, feel free to ask in the comments section below.
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