The Plastic Problem from Lonely Planet Kids

Posted on May 22nd, 2020 - Fiona

We all have the message that we need to look after the health of our planet. The amount of waste we produce is becoming a real problem.  Understanding what we can recycle and reuse, what we should avoid, what is harmful and what we should encourage can be confusing. Lonely Planet kids have a super helpful book aimed at 9 – 12 year olds which looks into our plastic problem with 60 sensible ideas for how to reduce our waste and help save the earth. Read on to discover more about The Plastic Problem and for your chance to win a copy.  

About The Plastic Problem

The book aims to educate the reader on the complexity of plastic. Learn the history of plastic, how and where it is used and how you can make a difference. Discover the different formats, which can be recycled, which can be reused, which are safe to eat from and so much more. It turns out only 8% of plastic is recycled around the world yet it is found in so many products from our home to our clothes.  

Understanding is the first step to doing something about our plastic habit. The 60 initiatives set out in the book are both achievable and practical; an easy way to make a difference and look after our planet.  

What we Love

• Educational: the book is packed with useful facts in child friendly small chunks.
  
  
• Engaging: From history to making a difference today, the book tackles its educational role in an interesting manner. 
  
  
• Activities to start right away: Everyone can play their part with the suggested tasks in the book.
  
  
• Helpful actionable summary to becoming a plastic patroller.
  
  
• Checklist. Tick off each of the 60 activities as you do them.
  
  
• Helpful glossary and further reading suggestions.
  
  

Need to Know

Taster video of Wild The Plastic Problem

Win your copy of The Plastic Problem with Lonely Planet Kids and Coombe Mill

For your chance to win this thought provoking call to action book for young environmentalists, simply follow the instructions below. Good luck to all taking part.

Myths and Legends from Lonely Planet Kids

Disclosure

We were sent a copy of The Plastic Problem book for the purpose of this review, however all thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own. Our copy of the book is available to borrow from the Coombe Mill Games Room for our holiday guests.   

May 2020 Farm News 2020 under Lockdown

Posted on May 1st, 2020 - Fiona

And just like that, May has rolled around. If you are anything like us, the hours, days and weeks have begun to merge somewhat under lockdown. Routine is out of the window, except that the animals soon make it known if we are late feeding them! I hope you are managing to stay safe, sane and enjoy the amazing spring weather in your garden or as part of your daily exercise. I have to say the farm has never looked more vibrant in spring. I’ve even taken to brining a little of the outdoors inside each day.

To those holidaying with us this year

We have now moved March, April and May bookings forward up to 12 months. Much as I’d hoped we wouldn’t need to, it does look like we will be offering this to our June bookings too. Watch out for an email from me if this applies to you.  

The Easter Bunny still came to visit

Easter is one of the calendar highlights here. Our Easter egg hunt has become quite a tradition with much rushing around and clue solving. With just me here this year I had a bit of fun dressing up and creating a virtual Easter Egg Hunt. I know quite a few of you watched it; I hope you were able to follow the clues and stay one step ahead of me. If you’ve not yet tried, you can still give it a go:

On the Farm 

Sally is back

Piglet has gone on holiday and Sally has returned to a lovely clean house and the freedom of her garden which she was straight out to enjoy. She has been away seeing her boyfriend for 2 cycles so we are hopeful of piglets towards the end of July. The return features in one of my weekly video lockdown updates.

Chicks on the Move

The little baby chicks have grown and moved from the small steel shed under a heat lamp into a larger half covered fox proof house where they have access to daylight, a half covered roof  and a cosy bed to retreat into at night. The move was successful until we had our first night of rain. Some of them didn’t work out that half the enclosure was undercover and stood out in the rain all night. There are only 3 sensible and hardy ones remaining. I thought even chickens could work out moving into the dry, apparently not so!

Chickens all outdoors

I mentioned last month that the chickens were beginning to move from their winter home into Jurassic Park outside for summer. They are now loving the freedom to scrap at the earth and explore a much wider area. Secure perimeter fencing protects them and the ducks and geese  from  foxes. 

Norman is in the fold

Do you remember me mentioning the young wild stag pacing the perimeter of our deer field and desperate to get inside? We named him ‘Norman no mate’ and made it our mission to attract him in with a little food each morning. Alistair (our eldest son) and I set off to try and open a gate and lure him in one evening while the rest of the deer were in another field. We were successful, but not as we thought. Norman managed to squeeze through a section of fence he had clearly been working on and missed the easy option of walking in the gate. Anyway he is now safely inside and happily running with our deer. We have patched up the fence gap, so it is it a one way journey.

A Goose Egg has hatched

Success comes to those who are patient. Goosy Gander has been diligently sitting on her clutch of eggs for weeks. It would appear not in vein, she now has a fluffy yellow gosling under her wing and all the geese are being particularly protective over her as you can see in the latest video update. She is still hopeful the rest will hatch, but I fear their time has passed.

Pony grooming

The dry spell was a great opportunity to help the ponies with their malting coats. The loose hairs came out easily in an hour of grooming. Thanks to the bribe of carrots I even managed to trim mains and fringes. I think the ponies enjoyed it too as they have been actiting like youngsters again gallopping around the field chasing one another ever since. You can see this and more in the latest weeks video update.

With chippings to be delivered, the turkey still sitting on eggs and our lambing mid way through, there is plenty to look forward to here in May. I will continue to try and keep the videos going so you can stay up to speed with events as they happen.

Wishing you and your families a safe month ahead and hoping there will be holidays to look forward to soon.

Fiona x

Myths and Legends from Lonely Planet Kids

Posted on April 13th, 2020 - Fiona

Myths and Legends of the world is the perfect story book for children with a flair for imagination. The 21 stories in the book are based on historical narrative from ancient times. Many have a moral tale to them, inspire courage or simply explain away phenomena that were once a mystery, like a volcanic eruption. Animals, gods and goddesses form the characters in these captivating short stories.  

Read on to discover more and for your chance to win a copy. 

About Myths and Legends of the World

Travel through Africa, Asia, Europe and the Arctic and discover the creatures of the sea and land that were used to explain ancient history. There are some imaginative explanations for some of the big questions such as how the world was created.  The stories are too farfetched to be mixed up with reality, but do give a little insight into different parts of the globe, their history, culture, climate and environment as the backdrop to the stories.

What we Love

• Each story is easy to understand and captivating.
  
  
• Clever Illustrations bring the myths and legends to life.
  
  
• A helpful map at the start of each continent section helps the reader place the story.
  
  
• Stimulates imagination, creativity and an interest in our ancient history.

Need to Know

Taster video of Myths and Legends of the World Book

Win your copy of Myths and Legends with Lonely Planet Kids and Coombe Mill

For your chance to win this delightful non- fiction book to fuel young minds with an interest in travel, simply follow the instructions below. Good luck to all taking part.

Myths and Legends from Lonely Planet Kids

Disclosure

We were sent a copy of Myths and Legends of the World book for the purpose of this review, however all thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own. Our copy of the book is available to borrow from the Coombe Mill Games Room for our holiday guests.   

Farm News April 2020 under Lockdown

Posted on April 3rd, 2020 - Fiona

I wasn’t going to post this month, after all, who wants to hear from me when you are worrying about day to day life under the strange lockdown rules we all find ourselves affected by. But then I decided, those who don’t want to hear can pass on by, and for those who want to keep up with news from the farm here it is. I make no secret of the fact spring is my favourite time of year here, I am simply sad that we are spending it alone.

Your Holiday this year.

If you are holidaying with us this year please don’t worry, we have been in regular contact with everyone as their holidays have approached. The first wave affected in March and April have had more than their fair share of correspondence from me as we have grappled with a fast changing list of rules and regulations. I think we finally have a formula going forward that should work for everyone. Essentially hold tight if you haven’t yet heard from us, you will from the time your balance is due.  In essence we  are delaying the time to pay balances till we know if your holiday will take place this year. If the government is still banning all holidays, then we are offering to move your holiday, up to 12 months ahead. If you choose to cancel your money will be lost unless the ban is lifted and your week re-lets. Don’t worry you will all be emailed.

If you are not yet part of our Facebook group I strongly recommend you join, it is where all the information goes first and there are some great ideas coming back from those in there too.

The Lockdown Feed run with just me and Farmer Nick 

Someone in our Facebook group suggested that it would be lovely if we could live stream on Facebook or Instagram from the farm, sadly our WiFi doesn’t extent to the farm and mobile data in the valley is very limited. However I record  a morning animal feed and upload it to Facebook which frankly blew me away in popularity. It will now hopefully be the first of many while this situation lasts. The kids and Nick are already bored of me filming them everywhere about their daily chores!

Administration Overload

While Nick has been busy on the farm, I have been snowed under trying to keep pace with questions coming in from phone, email and all forms of social media concerning your holidays. Hopefully we now have it sorted.  I’d like to say a huge thank you to many of our regular guests who went out of their way to say some lovely things in the face of a few tricky public messages. These are hard times for us all and no one wants to get back to normal and open the farm to visitors again more than we do.  

Spring on the Farm

Twin lambs

We now have 3 sets of twin lambs. Our best ever lambing season and no one here, it’s like nature is laughing at us. The dry weather arrived just in times for our lambs and all are yet to experience rain. We had a very near miss with one of our first twins were some walkers with a dog scared it onto our lake. Thankfully they told us straight away and Clio and I rushed over. I grabbed a stick to beat back the brambles it was trying to paddle through but the poor lamb was losing strength, Clio took the only option left and jumped in, scoped him up and handed him to me on the bank. We were just in time as he was giving up with his brave doggy paddle.

I do like a happy ending, after a worrying morning on our patio wrapped in towels he was up and about and taken back to Mum. We had a worrying 24 hours of him being accepted back but all ended well and they are a lovely family unit again. We should have 8 ewes still to lamb before the end of May.