Beeston Castle

(Originally written around July 2015 but never posted.)

You see now that I am a very grown up and responsible member of English Heritage my poor son will get dragged to all sorts of interesting (or not, in some cases!) places. The nearest decent place (i.e. not some piece of stone or square of grass listed in the book but an actual place you can spend time in), in England, to us would be Beeston Castle, so that's where we started.

It was a nice day, a little windy but nice and warm. We didn't realise the extent of the hilly walk up to the castle until we got there but it was enjoyable on the way.

The above photo was taken just after it dawned on me that I should appreciate my days out with my youngest more as they would shortly come to end no doubt (noting that Child #1 and 2 were not with us). So I mentioned this to Child #3 at the time...

"Who's going to come out with me on days like this when you get big?"

"What? When?!"

"When you get bigger and would rather be doing something else?, who will come with me?"

"I will still come out with you mum, of course I will!"

"Ah, that's good, I was just thinking and getting a little sad, I'm glad you think you will though"

"Wait...do you mean next year or when I'm like 14 or something"

"Well more like 14, I think"

"Oh...right...well I don't know then because I won't be here, you're right! I thought you meant next year!"

Kids!!

A Cave!

And places to hide

Its only a little castle but the surrounding woodland is nice, and the views from the top are pretty cool.

And....

There's a well! 

I think this was his favourite part, and we managed to find some stones to throw down it too. After this we headed off to the local Ice Cream Farm, just around the corner, where we ate huge ice creams. He had Raspberry Pavlova and Sticky Toffee flavours, and I had Lemon Meringue and Rhubarb Crumble!