Puzzlewood and Skenfrith- 30 June

This morning we went to Puzzlewood, in the Forest of Dean. It's very picturesque, and was allegedly Tolkien's inspiration for Middle Earth. When you get into the woods, you can see why. There are big tangles of yew tree roots on mossy rocks everywhere you look. You could easily imagine that elves were in there.

And in fact, we know that there are fairies in there. Because they kept dropping chocolate coins everywhere! We were finding them along the trail and in little gaps in the rock and all over the place. It was great fun!

The trail was very twisty and turny which just added to the atmosphere. We had a great time in the woods today.

In the afternoon we drove over to Skenfrith Castle, which is a old Welsh border castle on the banks of the River Wye. The kids went crazy, climbing on walls and rolling down the hill, over and over....

It was such a hot day that after a while we went down to the river's edge to paddle and cool off. I am so relaxed these days that there was no bin bag and duct tape on Ellie's arm. I told her not to fall in, or if she did fall in, to put her arm above her head, and that was the extent of the precautions I took!