I have stayed in a wonderful array of youth hostels on my own, with friends and then, as time went on, with my children. But the time came a couple of years ago for me to start thinking about letting them go it alone and considering a UK summer camps. Whether I like it or not, they are getting older, and although I hope they will always holiday with the ‘old ma’, they do relish any opportunity to spread their wings just a little.
Continue reading “Youth Hostel Association (YHA) UK summer camps”Cycling at Bedgebury Forest, UK
If you Google ‘Bedgebury’ you’ll see that this is the National Pinetum and has been the UK’s finest collection of conifers since 1925. Which is gorgeous, but not if you are my teenage boys, who sort of lost me at ‘pinetum’. If you research a little more deeply, however, and this is the point where my lads zoned back in again, you’ll find a load of cool videos of skilled mountain bikers taking on the singletrack trails of one of South-East England’s most exciting forest enterprises. Cycling at Bedgebury Forest is a superb day trip from London and a regular family day out from London for us now.
Continue reading “Cycling at Bedgebury Forest, UK”Seamus Heaney Homeplace, Bellaghy, Northern Ireland
Words fail me right now as I visit the newly opened Seamus Heaney Homeplace in his homeland of Bellaghy, Northern Ireland. A moving experience that captures not only the great Irish poet’s work, but also his extraordinary life as a family man. Here is his daughter, Catherine Heaney, talking about how she feels about its opening, the details of which were run by the family meticulously and with great sensitivity. And it shows. If you love poetry, and Heaney, don’t come to Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland without coming here.
Continue reading “Seamus Heaney Homeplace, Bellaghy, Northern Ireland”Secret Adventures
The element of surprise becomes more elusive with age. Social media hasn’t done much to help that either with every event, personal or professional, publicised from nascence ad nauseum. Which is why the new initiative, Secret Adventures, is so refreshing. You know a certain amount of what you are signing up for in advance, be it a kayaking, hiking or swimming, as well as the city, or the nearest station, but the exact location is left to your imagination until the last minute. My secret adventure in London was a treat.
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