My Precious...

Look who I bumped into today! We took the family out to visit the Anglo-Saxon village at West Stow and saw these guys there too, who were thankfully more approachable than Gollum.


So what were they doing hanging around West Stow? Well not many people know that J R R Tolkien's Middle Earth, as featured in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was not just a place of fiction, but it actually did exist. According to resources at West Stow, Middle Earth was an Anglo-Saxon name for the early European world of the first millennium(AD0-100) and West Stow was a typical settlement in this period of history. Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon and thanks to his epic trilogy, Frodo and his team of friends can help people create a link between West Stow as a place and how Anglo-Saxons perceived the world around them.

We dropped in at West Stow to follow the Ring Quest, which offers the opportunity to explore the Anglo-Saxon village and surrounding parkland, while hunting for clues and riddles.


Even though we could have explored the whole of the parkland, we only managed to complete the hunt for runes in the village before disappearing off to a birthday party.


However, it was very interesting and fun. It was a great opportunity to explore the houses in the village and we've come away with a better understanding of the runic alphabet.

If you haven't already been to West Stow. It is well worth a visit, as there is normally lots to do to entertain both children and adults alike.

Dinosaurs at West Stow!

We took four little dinosaurs to West Stow Country Park today...that's two pairs of little dinosaur clad feet stomping around the lakeside on a lovely family afternoon walk, just outside Bury St Edmunds, our home town in Suffolk.

It was a great place for the kids, as we got to experience lots of wildlife including grasshoppers, butterflies, mayflies, canada geese, swans, gulls, ducks and other odd looking birds.

All this...for free. So, it got me thinking about all the free things that we can do in the Summer holidays in and around Bury St Edmunds. After all...that time will soon be upon us, in just a week's time.

Here is my Top 10 of the things that I am planning.

1. Cycle to the Pig Farm (see earlier post)
2. A visit to Bradfield Woods
3. A picnic at our favourite playgrounds (see earlier post)
4. Walk around the bat at Natterers Wood (see earlier post)
5. Art in the garden (see earlier post)
6. On sunny days...set up a make-shift camp in the garden (see earlier post)
7. On rainy days...go puddle jumping (see earlier post)
8. Cycle into Bury St Edmunds (see earlier post) - might incur an ice-cream bribe though
9. Snail-picking (see photo in earlier post)
10. A walk to see how the Ayres Rock of Moreton Hall has changed (see earlier post)