A cosy wooden cabin in the woods (with a hot tub) is there any better way to start a new year. Staying at Delamere Forest was amazing. Once we entered the woods on Monday 3rd we didn’t leave, there was so much to do and explore. We went on walks, relaxed in the hot tub, watched movies, hugged trees and so much more. I can’t believe we were only there for a week!
We took a walk down to a beautiful lake and sat on a bench to chat, eat and enjoy the beautiful view. Sophie was pointing out unique twisted trees that we saw as we walked. On the way back the sun disappeared and we got stuck in a sudden snow/hail storm which came as a big shock. But once we were back we got into the hot tub which was so warm – much warmer than our’s ever gets – and it is colour changing.
We also took part in a forest school session where we got to work as a family to build a den and a fire. We built the den by putting two long and strong logs between two trees, then we put lots of logs across them creating a roof, to create the walls we leant logs against the roof. Finally we had to add some finishing touches, Molly waterproofed it with fern leaves and made a path leading up to it and Sophie made a sofa inside the den. To built the fire we found lots of spindly pieces of wood to use as kindling so that we could get the fire going. To start it we used cotton wool and petroleum jelly (vaseline) and Molly lit it using flint and steel. Whilst we toasted marshmallows we got lots of good foraging advice which we are very excited to use.
We had a selection of many films that we could watch and we were able to enjoy multiple of those but we were also able to connect other devices to the TV so that we could watch our own movies too! Sophie got to enjoy Harry Potter for the first time as we all snuggled up on the super big and comfy sofa to watch it.
There are many walks to do around Delamere, we decided to do the Peter Rabbit trail, Sophie got to fill in a trail sheet keeping her busy and happy during the walk , she also got a Peter Rabbit toy at the end of the walk. On the walk we used our first bit of foraging knowledge as we tried flowers off gorse bushes, they were actually really nice! As we reached about half way through the walk we became surrounded by so many beautiful trees, their energy radiated off them and we could feel it so we took some time to connect with nature and we hugged the trees soaking up their energy.
The woods were so relaxing and peaceful and it really helped to clear our minds as we take on this coming year.