Family farm holidays in Cornwall magical for children, toddlers and babies.
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Coombe Mill Blog
"Tales from the farmers wife" shares the funny and interesting happenings on our lovely holiday farm with Farmer Nick and our 6 children. A behind the scenes look on balancing family, farming, the holiday business and cooking for all.
Easter Card and Decorative Log Craft
Easter card and decorative log craft session inspired by nature and a few recycled bits and bobs. A great way to let creativity florish for ... Read More
Baby Robins Hatch in Farmer Nick's Shed
From a clutch of eggs to fledling baby robins, we have watched the plight of Mummy Robin and her brood this spring in Farmer Nic'ks shed.... Read More
Sticker World Farm, Castle, Airport
Sticker World Farm, Airport and Castle books from Lonely Planet Kids are perfect for children to learn and create on each topic. ... Read More
Scratch and Learn Human Body is a great KS1 help to understanding human body for 3 - 7 years. An interactive nonfiction book, friendly and f... Read More
Holidays are perfect for enjoying family time and creating memories to last. Here at Coombe Mill we work hard to create the perfect holiday environment for families to do just this. It looks like our friends at Lonely Planet Kids also have preserving holiday memories on the mind with two adorable new titles in their kids range. My Holiday Scrapbook and My Holiday Drawing Book are two books designed to help children record their time away in a fun and memorable way. If you have a holiday coming up and want it to make a lasting impact with your child then read on to discover more about these lovely books and how you can win them both.
Holiday memories
Whether you are jumping in a pool in the sunshine after an exhausting flight or unpacking the car for a week on the farm with us there are moments you want to capture and remember. It might be swimming in our river, learning to fish, helping drive the tractor or cuddling a rabbit, they are times to cherish. With these lovely books you’ll learn some tricks of the trade for drawing and be encouraged to collect snippets from nature to bring back those holiday experiences long after they have finished.
Holiday Drawing Book
We love this book for the great first tips to drawing it gives. Learn how to draw in 3D, create perspective, give stick men emotions and much more. Our favourite is the lesson in turning basic shapes into creatures. You could create all the animals on the farm in this way.
My Holiday Scrapbook
This book with over 150 stickers will have you scavenging the countryside for flowers and feathers, saving bus tickets and activity entrance passes to stick into your book. Make the book unique to your holiday with the things you collect along the way. Even a rainy day is an adventure when you play dot to dot with raindrop splashes! We took inspiration from the book for one of our activity hour crafts here on the farm and filled in the nature colours to make flags for the children to keep.
Need to Know
My Holiday Drawing Book
My Holiday Scrapbook
RSP
£8.99
RSP
£7.99
Dimensions
172mm × 215mm
Dimensions
232 x 304 x 9mm
Author
Gillian Johnson
Author
Gillian Johnson
Publisher
Lonely Planet Kids
Publisher
Lonely Planet Kids
Warning
this book is not suitable for children under 3 as the handy book mark cord could be a strangulation hazard.
Warning
this book is not suitable for children under 3 as the handy book mark cord could be a strangulation hazard.
Last week I shared the lovely spaces pure and unedited here on the farm. This week I wanted to home in on colour. The transition from spring to summer brings out all my favourite colours on the farm; the rich Rhododendron, the delicate wisteria and lilac and the bright yellow and wonderful scent of honeysuckle. Rich oranges merge with burnt russets against crisp lime green leaves. These vibrant colours can seem lost in the green spaces on the farm, but going on a nature colour hunt reveals a rainbow of vivid colour. Nature is so clever and manages to make stunning combinations which in any other context might appear quite gaudy. Rainbows of summer colour has been the theme of our activities here this week and from nature hunts to flag making the colours have been fun to spot and collect.
Rich pink Rhododendron and sweet yellow Honeysuckle in the garden to Water Mill cottage.
Close up on the Honeysuckle.
Rainbows of summer colour all in one leaf on this colourful bush.
Flowering each year this rich orange flower frames the Coombe Mill train track.
Wisteria hangs over the old 16th Century Miller’s House.
Every summer I want to pause time and keep these wonderful colours for longer. Yet this is the cycle of nature, the summer colours will fall to be replaced by the burnt oranges of autumn before winter takes hold and the whole cycle starts again. Perhaps I appreciate the rainbows of summer colour more for not having them all year. For more beautiful gardens in Cornwall Lanhydrock National Trust is awash with Rhododendron at this time of year and they line the approach to Pencarrow House. The Lost Gardens of Heligan are full of colour as are Trebah Gardens. If the names sound familiar that’s because our Scandinavian Lodges are all named after these delightful Cornish Gardens.
Country Kids is the original outdoor family fun linky designed to:
“Encourage family fun outdoors, in an age where technology and screens are such a draw to a sedentary indoor life”
Welcome back if you are a regular to Country Kids and if you are new please join in. You will find plenty of inspiration for enjoying outdoor space and please do share your own adventures. We support the National Trust #50 things along with all other ideas for family fun outside.
Hello June
How is it June already? Summer really feels set in now. The farm is buzzing with summer life, our half term holiday makers have enjoyed a lovely week looked after party by us and party by Amber and my older boys in between revision while we have taken the triplets to Greece visiting family for a few days. I have so many outdoor adventures to catch up on, I hope you do too and will share them with me on the link up below.
Guidelines for Joining in:
Post must be predominantly outdoors such as in the garden, the park, the woods or the beach with crafting, learning, exploring or playing.
Despite the title, both countryside and urban outdoor adventures are welcome.
Unheated covered areas like a barn or tent count as outdoors.
Please comment on my host post and a minimum of 3 others of your choice.
If you use #CountryKids when commenting the post owner will know where your found them and hopefully come back to visit your post.
Please take my badge, without it you won’t be considered for winning the lovely Rockfish Wellies.
Linked posts should be written and made live within the last 2 months.
I understand sometimes you need to do catch up posts and write about something from a couple of months ago but the publish date should be within 2 months.
There is no restriction on the number of posts that can be linked up, however please be sensible, if you have more than 3 consider linking over a few weeks.
Thanks to all of you who joined in last week and for the comments you took time to leave, we had a week with no link dumpers so a pat on the back to you all!
Rockfish kindly sponsor Country Kids
Win a pair of wellies from Rockfish Monthly
I am delighted to have Rockfish as the sponsor for Country Kids. Rockfish are a local Cornish company specializing in stylish quality wellingtons for all the family. We have been offering their country wellies in our borrow room here on the farm for over a year and they are always popular for their style, comfort and durability.
Each week my favourite #CountryKids posts, which include my badge or a link back here, will be considered for a free pair of Rockfish Wellies at the end of the month; the perfect way to enjoy the outdoors whatever the weather throws your way. Keep your posts coming, it could be you winning next!
For more more information on the Rockfish Wellies on offer with us and terms and conditions to win see here.
May Welly Winner
Congratulations to Lucy from Kids of the Wild who is our May winner of the lovely Rockfish wellies. Lucy and the family came to Cornwall for a children’s cancer charity event and made the most of a lovely weekend whilst raising awareness for the charity. Lucy, do DM or email (mail@coombemill.com) your choice of wellies from the Rockfish range including size and colour as shown in stock.
Favourite posts from last week added to the shortlist for winning the June Rockfish Wellies:
Top Commenter: Louise from Little Hearts Big Love
Four Acorns have been on a magical weekend wild camping in Ireland.
Join the growing Country Kids Instagram Community with #CountryKidsFun.
I'll like and comment on all and share my favourites from the week with a tag on a Friday on Instagram and Twitter. With over 10,000 posts this community is flourishing with outdoors photos.
It was our eldest son Alistair’s 20th birthday and the bank holiday weekend. His favourite past time is surfing and the heat wave, the bank holiday and his birthday all fell on a day of great surf. It was pretty much a done deal that we would be a birthday beach day. There was only two flaws in the plan, one was that the temperature fell from a gorgeous 24 degrees at Coombe Mill to just 14 at the beach under the mist from the sea, the other was that we were far from the only ones heading to the beach. In the end neither turned out to spoil our enjoyment.
In the end it was Ally, Clio Jed and I that headed out after the feed run in search of the surf. Theo and Felix have GCSE’s and A levels fast approaching requiring reluctant revision and Guy was exhausted from a sleepover. We have a well oiled routine at busy times of year where by the kids carry the stuff onto the beach while I go off and park the car. I get the raw deal on this as they are always changed and heading to the waves as I arrive.
The sea mist was visibly rolling across the beach and the cliffs came and disappeared from view. It was very atmospheric and before going into the water I stopped to capture a few photos.
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Down at the water’s edge I tried to find the kids but there were so many in the sea all in wetsuits it was almost impossible. I came back with so many photos of kids surfing I felt sure I’d have one of them all but in the end it was only Jed I had correctly identified! I suspect Ally was too far out for me to see but he assured me he caught some great waves and stayed in the longest.
I couldn’t resist a little stylised shot of my drained coffee mug before heading in to the water myself.
Usually I like to hang around on the beach and warm up but it was too cold for that when we knew Coombe Mill was most likely still in full sun and anyway Jed had left the football he brought in the car. Using my coffee mug for a game of catch was not going to end well so I soon called Clio and Jed over as I saw Ally finally emerge from the water.
Driving back inland we soon left the sea mist behind and watched the temperature creep back up again. Sure enough it was still 20 degrees and beautiful back on the farm. Clio and Ally flaked out on the trampoline making up for the sunbathing time they missed at the beach.
I caught up with Guy and the guests over at the train and they all confirmed it had indeed been beautiful all day on the farm and they had enjoyed paddling in the river here. It is hard to believe it was just gone 6pm at the start of May and everyone was in short sleeves.
A family meal with everyone back home and of course a homemade birthday cake for Ally made the day just perfect.
I do hope the gorgeous bank holiday weekend was just a taste of what’s to come this summer. I never tire of beach days.
If you are a lover of jigsaw puzzles or traditional style wooden toys you can’t fail to covert the Wentworth wooden puzzle collection. There is something for little ones aged 3 all the way to challenging puzzles for grownups in intricate designs and shapes. Loose yourself in the puzzle theme from the design to the wooden pieces themselves. These are puzzles with a twist you’ll like. We have been putting the Noah’s Ark 50 piece puzzle for children to the test and discovering the unique whimsy pieces for ourselves, not to mention enjoying the challenge just as much as the kids! Read on to discover more and for your chance to win your own puzzle box.
The Puzzle image
Packed with colour and created in a cartoon style this 50 piece puzzle is perfect for children. Who can resist a rainbow of butterflies or a sea filled with every sea creature you could think of and that’s before your board the ark! On board the ark cheeky cartoon style mammals lean out of the boat with Noah and his family at the centre. The design by Peter Barrett is cleverly illustrated and a delight to create with plenty of learning opportunities for children not only in the Noah Ark story but in animal identification.
The puzzle pieces
Not only does the design draw the creator in, but the pieces themselves have a unique whimsy factor being carved by laser jet into animal shapes. See the puzzle design on one side and the animal features on the reverse. A clever touch we love.
What we liked
The animal shaped pieces
The quality and feel of the puzzle pieces
A drawstring bag to keep your Wentworth wooden puzzle safe.
The wood is from sustainably managed forests and the box from recycled materials.
Our concern
The puzzle could be a challenge for the recommended age group but if worked on with a little prompting and encouragement from an older sibling or grown up it is both manageable and fun to make.
See how we created our Wentworth wooden puzzle : Noah’s Ark
There are lots of other puzzles in the children’s range including dinosaur and fairy themes or even a personalised photo puzzle, you are sure to find one there just right for your child’s interest.
Win your Noah’s Ark Wooden Puzzle with Wentworth and Coombe Mill
If you fancy starting your Wentworth puzzle collection with this colourful Noah’s Ark design just follow the instructions below for a chance to win. Good luck to all taking part.
“Tales from the farmers wife” shares life on our lovely holiday farm with Farmer Nick and our 6 children. Step into our beautiful 30 acres and experience nature close up with farming and educational crafts in stunning North Cornwall. Family, fun and adventure start here.
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