Our Holiday at Home July 2011: Norfolk beach

Norfolk beach, a photo by Bev & Paul Mynott on Flickr.

This is the beautiful and remote beach we visited in Norfolk on the last day of our holiday - it was amazing! Looking at those waves, we were glad we had Harry the Helmsman with us to stop us being swept out to sea - he has a radio and can call for help. Poor Harry lives inland most of the time, so was delighted to see the sea again and catch up with his RNLI friends!

Our Holiday at Home July 2011: Hamish, Bill and Harry the Helmsman on a Norfolk beach

Hamish, Bill and Harry the Helmsman on a Norfolk beach, a photo by Bev & Paul Mynott on Flickr.

Our week's holiday ended with a lovely trip to a Norfolk beach for us bears, Bev and Paul. We brought Harry the Helmsman with us in case we needed to be rescued - you can never be too careful near the sea, and look at those waves!

Our Holiday at Home July 2011: Diana Memorial, Althorp

Diana Memorial, Althorp, a photo by Bev & Paul Mynott on Flickr.

This is the beautiful memorial to Diana at the Oval Lake, Althorp.

Our Holiday at home July 2011: Part 3 Althorp

Last Wednesday we visited Althorp to see the house and grounds, and the Lady Diana Spencer (Princess of Wales) exhibition.  This was an amazing day out and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The house was fascinating - it was originally built in the 1500s but there have been lots of changes since then.  The gardens were lovely (mostly grass and mature trees), and the oval lake was a beautiful setting for the memorial to the present Earl's sister.  She is buried on the island in the lake, but there is a lovely memorial to her at the south-end of the lake.

We also got to see some very cute and very tiny ducklings, who were close enough for us to photograph.  Of course, we bears were told not to snaffle any as a tasty snackette or we would get our bottoms smacked :-(

The Diana exhibition was wonderful, and included her wedding dress, her childhood memorabilia, the books of condolences and video footage of her funeral - it was very moving.  We also saw some of her clothes and there was a section which celebrated her life and the work of the charities she supported.

Our Holiday at home July 2011: Part 2 Butterfly World

Our first day out on our holiday was to Butterfly World, near St Albans.  Wow, this was amazing, especially the butterfly house where you wander around while the butterflies flutter around you!  We thoroughly recommend this trip - it was fantastic.  And we saw some huge caterpillars.
The staff were very friendly and knowledgeable, providing information on the butterflies and the Butterfly World centre.  We had lunch there (no, not big juicy caterpillars - ploughman's lunches) and then wandered round the gardens and lake.  Bev's favourite garden was the "spooky" garden, where it was laid out like a normal house but all the furniture and ornaments had trees and flowers growing round them - it was beautiful!  Bev had her camera on the whole time and must have taken thousands of photographs!  Look out for them - we'll be posting photographs from Butterfly World and other places we visited over the next month or so.

Our Holiday at Home July 2011: White Tree Nymph, Butterfly World, St Albans

White Tree Nymph, Butterfly World, St Albans, a photo by Bev & Paul Mynott on Flickr.

Photographed on our trip to Butterfly World near St Albans.  This was a wonderful day out, especially getting up so close and personal with the butterflies and juicy looking caterpillars.

Our holiday at home July 2011: Part 1

Ok, so the humans took a couple of weeks off work to empty the boxes (we've only been back in our house since April 19th and everything is still boxed up).  So, did they empty the boxes or did they take us for fun days out?  They were very good and unpacked some stuff, but they also went out and about, taking us bears to some new and exciting places.
So, where did we go?  What did we see?  More to follow........