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Trampolining for the Whole Family!

By Mum's the Word on May 24, 2013 in Family

One of the things that we’ve been looking forward to about the warmer weather maybe/possibly/potentially arriving is getting Sausage back on her trampoline. She’s been a bouncy child ever since she could first take weight on her legs (which, and I’m not exaggerating here, was at about 6 weeks old. We nicknamed her Tigger and everything) and when we were trying to come up with something to get her for her last birthday, a trampoline was the obvious choice.

The trouble is, her birthday is in August and we didn’t have a particularly brilliant summer last year, so the amount of time she actually spent on it was limited. We were hopeful that she’d be springing into action as soon as spring arrived (did you see what I did there..?!) but that was not to be as, despite being a fan of extreme sports, ‘Dodge the Lightening Trampolining’ is not my idea of healthy recreation for a four year old.

I was having a little Google up, as you do, and I found AllTrampolines, a site which does exactly as its name suggests and sells all things trampoline related. I saw this little 5ft trampoline and it got me thinking; trampolining doesn’t have to stop when the rain and snow starts! There’s even a smaller one on the website called a ‘Jogger’ which is specifically for keeping fit indoors and I’m genuinely considering investing in one for myself. I’ll need some serious sports-bra-chest-binding action before I even get near it, but I reckon indoor mini-tramping could be an amazingly fun way to bounce back to fitness. Not that I’d get a chance to use it, once Sausage got her mitts on it.

Another thing that looks amazingly fun is this trampoline tent – on more than one occasion last year, Sausage asked if we could throw blankets over the net enclosure of her trampoline and make it into an enclosed den for her, but this tent would be an amazing accessory to have for days when she wants to do that and it would save my bed sheets too!

So, here’s hoping for the scorching July and August that I keep hearing about from the grapevine of British Weather folklore so that we can all get bouncing again!

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Closer to Nature – Photo Linky

By Mum's the Word on September 4, 2012 in Closer to Nature, Photos

I’ve been totally slack with getting a Closer to Nature post up the past couple of weeks, so apologies to anyone who’s been patiently waiting to link up any nature photos! Here’s my photo for this week:

I took a photo of this moth, sitting on our living room wall, a couple of weeks ago and fiddled about with contrast and lighting in Picasa and I think it came out rather well! We’ve had something of a moth infestation this summer, but I read in the news that that’s happening because of their woodland habitats being levelled, so I didn’t begrudge them a place to sleep. I do have a couple of items of clothing with holes gnawed in them though, which takes the mickey a bit!

So, now it’s your turn, I want to see your nature snaps and you can use the widget below to link up. The rules and details are here if you need them.

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Closer to Nature – A Photography Linky

By Mum's the Word on August 7, 2012 in Closer to Nature, Photos

After I put this up two Tuesdays ago, I had a really healthy response to the idea and had 14 or 15 people link up, which I was completely thrilled with, so as promised I thought I’d do it again. Welcome to Closer to Nature!

As with last time, there are no real hard and fast rules other than your photo must be something nature related, but that leaves a heck of a lot of scope for your imagination to go wild (pardon the pun…!). Also, don’t forget to visit the others and leave some comment love, we all like a bit of that

There’s a linky widget below and button code in the sidebar, I can’t wait to see your photos, here’s mine:

Wild flowers.

This was taken on the day that Husband and I decided to take our daughter to Hadleigh Country Park, home of Hadleigh Castle and now the site of the Olympic Mountain Biking track. While we were there, there were loads of fenced off areas and mysterious portacabins dotted around the place, so I’ll be curious to see what it’s been left like after the Olympics. It’s been a site for mountain bikers for many, many years, Husband and his friends have spent many a happy hour hurtling down those hills, but apparently once the Olympics has buggered off, people will have to pay to ride the trails, which I think is a bit of a cynical move by the council, to be honest. Hopefully the flowers will all still be there to enjoy for free…

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Closer to Nature – A Photography Linky

By Mum's the Word on July 24, 2012 in Closer to Nature, Photos

On this week’s Silent Sunday entry, my friend commented and said “You guys are very Attenborough on a Sunday, love it!” and I realised that I really do love taking photos of nature, creatures weird and wonderful and generally anything that makes a good macro shot!

I decided that, in honour of the school holidays and the good weather we’re having, that I’d do a little linky where you can get ‘Closer to Nature’ and post your best nature photos. There are no rules other than that it must be a photo of something nature related, but it can be just a photo or have a story with it. I’ve made a little badge too, that you can add to your post, which is in the sidebar and will link back here to everyone’s posts.

Have fun, I can’t wait to see your photos! If enough people link up, I may do it again throughout the holidays.

Here’s mine – Husband took it using my Canon Ixus compact camera with the macro on: