27 March 2014

Lifestyle - Honeysuckle Farm, Hornsea

I have taken some more photos of Spring flowers to add to my collection of signs of spring, but I shall restrain myself for today as there were loads to add to this post already! (I collaged them to save space!) 

Yesterday (26/3) madam's school was closed due to the teacher's strike. So we decided to take advantage of the situation and go and visit our local farm. This is one of our favourite days out and we try and go a couple of times during their short opening season. 

They opened this weekend just gone (22/3) and they will close on the last day of the school summer holidays. Meaning madam cannot have her birthday party there no matter how much she wants to! Anyhow, we had avoided opening day as we thought it would be stupidly busy and had planned a visit this weekend coming. Having to find something to do on Weds led to a rather easy choice. 

We decided that we would try and make it in time to see the milking demonstration. This is at 1.30 and we don't usually make it in time! This is cause we usually go after lunch. Madam and I petitioned to be allowed to have a picnic this time and this meant we set off early enough to get there...

When we arrived we were impressed with the new entrance and layout of the milking area. Madam wriggled to the front and then ran away back to my dad as everyone shouted good afternoon to the dairy hand! She's a wimp with loud noises. The guy was really good, very informative and pitched it at the right level for the 5yr olds to understand what was going on. 

the milking demo
that's the Pearl parents getting their heads in all my photos!

The woman behind me that was surprised that cows needed to have a calf to provide milk made me rather depressed. She was a teacher... FFS! Also, the guy that asked why they only used female cows... (really. Really!)

After the milking demo we let madam loose in the barn to play on the hay bales, we also saw the rabbits, guinea pigs, kids and goats that live in there. We wandered round to see the pigs in their new enclosure which now has space for them to root. They were having a famous old time in there. 

Rabbits, pigs, madam taking it all in and the goats with their kids.
Rabbits, pigs, madam taking it all in and the goats with their kids.

The red squirrel and the *massive* carp in the pond were all hiding out of the cold weather (don't blame them!). But what we came to see were the lambs. And there were loads of them, everywhere! So cute! We found a field with sheep who were still waiting to lamb and one of the farm hands explained that the different colours told you how many lambs they were having. Yellow for 1, Red for 2 and Orange for 3! 

sheep and lambs
So many sheep! 

The lambs once born all had matching numbers to their mothers and madam was rather thrilled to see a pair together! We did see lots of other things too. The calves and cows were in one field and horses in another. Everywhere there were beautiful primroses in bloom and we saw loads of frogspawn in the ponds. 

There weren't as many ducks as we've seen before, but many more chickens! Tommy the horse was pulling the cart for the rides and Tinkerbell was in the stalls getting her feet seen to by the farrier. I didn't get a photo of her though, sadly. 

Tommy in his bridle, a duck, some cows and a sleeping madam
Tommy in his finery, an all-over blue/green mallard, the herefords and madam in the car on the way home!

All in all we had a great time as usual and it's a fairly inexpensive day out. I think my dad paid £15.50 for all four of us. We will be back again at the end of the Summer to see how much everything has changed in those months. Madam would go every week if she could! There are loads of play areas dotted about and you can feed all the animals as you go round.

It's definitely a favourite place of ours, do you have anywhere you go all the time?

Love, Pearl.

   

2 comments:

Tabatha Tweedie said...

We love it there too! Looks like a great day x

Unknown said...

We'll have to take the kids in the summer hols :)