One place we simply had to visit on our latest trip to Scilly was the Abbey Gardens at Tresco, an extensive sub-tropical garden set among the ruins of a Benedictine Priory. Despite the rather chilly winds this Easter, the gardens were very sheltered and on a south-facing slope, which made them something of a sun trap.

We are fortunate that James and Little Brother love going for a walk. We don’t always describe it as ‘a walk’, and we normally call it something which will spark their interest: ‘an adventure’, ‘a treasure hunt’, or something similar. This time it was about finding all the cannons.

We have got an exciting new gadget: a new sledge. Our plastic one literally fell apart during the fun we had when it last snowed. This one is more like the ones Daddy and I had as children, and we’ve been engaging in a bit of nostalgia.

Over the last week, we’ve been out and about enjoying the snowdrops. A couple of places near here are Colesbourne Park and Welford Park.

Since the Big Garden Birdwatch, James has turned into a bit of a birdwatcher. We’ve explained how easily birds are frightened, and that he’s more likely to see them if they can’t see him.

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, why not take part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch? Birdwatch is an opportunity to get involved in the world’s biggest wildlife survey, and you can do it from your own garden!

Perhaps we can go for a ride when the snow melts...

The Little Trekkers in this household are very excited today. We woke up to find that we do indeed have some snow. Not quite the ‘40-hour snowstorm’ we’d been promised – at least, not yet, anyway – but snow nonetheless. Big Brother was more impressed than Mummy and Daddy.

There was great excitement when a parcel arrived containing a very cool Smartwool hat and a pair of socks. ‘Ooh, Mummy, that’s a nice hat. Is it for me?’

Do your Little Trekkers ever ask you, “What was it like a long, long time ago?” Well, what better way to find out than at an Iron Age activity day?

Today, we went chasing rainbows! We didn’t set out to chase rainbows, but that’s what we ended up doing.

At this time of year, I always lament the diminishing daylight. I have to tell myself that it’s only a month or two until the winter solstice when the days start getting longer again. Small boys, of course, don’t care about the amount of daylight. They are excited at this time of year, because of the amount of sticky, gooey mud.

At this time of year, we are usually firmly focused on collecting conkers. Sadly, in this part of the country at least, conkers are a bit thin on the ground this year. James’s enthusiasm is touching: he refuses to give up. In truth, this is because he just doesn’t get the idea that if there are no capsules there will never be any conkers!

Although Hallowe’en has been and gone, I’ve just got to show you some photos of our lanterns.

From being about two years old, James waited eagerly for the day when he would be old enough to use the pressure-washer. (Under supervision of course, because it’s very much a ‘Man’s Gadget’ and is jealously guarded by Daddy). That day came a couple of months ago.

Whatever you do this autumn, you really should get out and see the trees. In our part of the country, they are at their best right now. A good place to see lots of autumn colour is the National Arboretum at Westonbirt.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to wander through Middle Earth? If you’ve read ‘The Lord of the Rings’, then you’ll know what I mean. You can get an idea at Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean.

Two weeks ago, we helped the National Trust to re-chalk the Uffington White Horse. No chalk figure – especially one which is 3000 years old – survives by accident and in times gone by, villagers would have scoured and re-chalked the nearby chalk figures as part of their village fetes. Nowadays, it’s usually done by volunteers.

Did you know there are crocodiles in Witney? We were looking for something to do on a very wet day, and it was a bit of a surprise to discover there was a crocodile conservation unit in Oxfordshire, but for a small boy obsessed with crocodiles it sounded perfect.

I used to love going crabbing when I was a girl, and remember many long, happy days spent with bucket and line. Actually, it would be fair to say that I never stopped loving crabbing but when you're grown-up you need an excuse to go and I've been waiting eagerly for James to be old enough to provide me with one.

We often enjoy a good potter around the Coleshill and Buscot estate. There are lots of nice walks, pubs and an excellent tea room in each village. But there seemed little evidence of Coleshill’s secret history… until last week, when a replica secret base opened.

I’m sure pretty much everyone has heard of Stonehenge. But how many of you have heard of Avebury? I hadn’t until we came to live in Wiltshire last year. We stumbled across it by accident: driving back late one night from a trip to the coast, we suddenly found ourselves on a country road with huge shapes looming surreally at us through the darkness. They turned out to be huge stones.

We love stone-balancing and can spend hours doing it. Recently we were in Wales and went to a beach where a lot of the stones were shaped like flat rectangles. This opened up a new world of possibilities. We decided to build a model of a famous landmark in Wiltshire – can you recognize it?

When did you last have a water bomb fight? If, like me, it’s probably 25 years since you did, then let me remind you it’s great fun.

James loves pottering in the garden. He often collects stuff (feathers, leaves, twigs, snail shells, whatever) and puts it in a bucketful of water, then stirs it up with a stick.

At some point, although I’m not sure exactly when, I stopped looking forward to my birthday – it had become just an annual reminder of getting older. But one of the presents I got for my birthday this year made up for being another year older.

Which games did you love playing as a child? A little while ago we stayed in a holiday cottage with a Swingball, and a quick game reminded Mummy and Daddy how much we’d loved this as children.

Badbury Hill has become a bit of a favourite with us since we discovered it in the autumn. James has been refining his den-building skills over the past few visits. We’ve moved on from stick-gathering and stick-balancing, and now his favourite activity seems to be to find the biggest possible stick that he can and to prove how strong he is by relocating it so he can add it to a den.

We were excited to find that a few Jubilee beacons would be lit near where we live and that help was needed to build them on the Sunday of the Jubilee Weekend. “Would you like to go and help build a beacon, James?” “What’s a beacon, Mummy?”

The beans we planted last month are growing nicely, so the little pep talk that James gave the beans when he planted them is obviously working!

Like many small children, James is fascinated by dinosaurs. Although he can trot out the line that “the dinosaurs died a long time ago and their closest living relatives are the birds”, he’s rather disappointed by this and doesn’t really believe it. So, he was really excited when we discovered a ‘lost world' at The Lost Gardens of Heligan.

We’ve had a lot of rain recently. April this year turned out to be the wettest on record and, so far at least, May has been pretty wet too. One of the good things about having a lot of rain is that our waterfalls are at their most spectacular.

One of James’s favourite trees is at Thorp Perrow Arboretum in Bedale. It’s a huge oak, planted to mark the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1935, with a bench encircling its trunk, and is a favourite place to sit for a “picnic”. I am in awe of big trees and this one is particularly impressive as well as being 77 years old.

Shall I tell you a little secret? I’m sure that since you’re reading an outdoor blog, you already know it, but just in case you don’t, here goes… You can have a lot of fun in ‘bad weather’, or to be more precise, you can have a lot of fun in what other people call ‘bad weather’.

The great explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes said, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.” And he was right…

Growing your own vegetables is fun and is definitely worth a try. We’ve tried growing lots of different vegetables and found that some work better than others.

One of the best £3 we’ve ever spent was on a pocket kite. It’s a single-line design so it’s really easy for a small boy to fly on his own and it can be out of the bag and ready to go in a jiffy.

What’s the oldest road in Britain? It’s widely believed to be The Ridgeway: an 87-mile trail across the south of England from Overton Hill in Wiltshire to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire.

Have you ever ridden a tandem? It’s something I’d occasionally thought about, without ever taking the idea too seriously. I never expected I’d end up riding one with a 4-year-old!

Last month, we had a great visit to Stourhead, a National Trust property near Warminster and one of the world’s finest landscape gardens.

Once you have children, even something as simple as going for a walk in the woods can seem as complex as a Himalayan expedition and, if you’re not careful, you can end up taking almost as much gear. But what are the essentials? Here are a few ideas: things we wouldn’t leave home without.

Every small boy knows that winter isn’t winter without snow. And so James was really excited when, last week, we woke to find that the world had turned white during the night. He was so excited that he took some convincing that it really would be best to get dressed and have breakfast before we went outside.

One thing James really enjoys is going for a walk up White Horse Hill. Carved into the chalk hillside above the village of Uffington during the Bronze Age, it’s the oldest chalk figure in Britain.

Since we moved to Wiltshire, we’ve been trying to find equivalents for James’s favourite places we’ve left behind in North Yorkshire. One place that’s proved particularly hard to match is Hackfall.

One of the great things about being in the North is that there’s a good chance of snow at Christmas. In North Yorkshire, there was lots of snow for Christmas 2009 and Christmas 2010, and fortunately, it was ‘the right kind of snow’ for the trains on the Wensleydale Railway.

Small boys love engines, especially steam engines, and particularly ones with special passengers on board. Of course, it’s not just small boys who love steam engines – Mummies and Daddies love them too! Yesterday, we went for a ride on a Santa Special on the Watercress Line near Winchester.

Now it’s December it’s often decidedly chilly, and James is learning that he has to dress according to the weather before we’ll let him out to play. He finds this a bit of a pain, and normally rolls his eyes and sighs – where does he get that from? – but eventually he will give in and reluctantly put on his coat, trousers, jumper and even gloves.

We are very lucky that James loves going for a walk. Even better though, is that he considers a trip to the pub to be an essential part of any walking trip. And so we normally select our route carefully to ensure that it includes at least one pub (although a tea room is an acceptable alternative!)

Ruins don’t get much more spectacular than Corfe Castle. Built a thousand years ago, the Castle was reduced to ruins during the English Civil War. Set on a hill high above the beautiful Dorset countryside, it’s an imposing sight. James had admired it as we’d driven past it on our way to the beach at Studland and was thrilled at the idea of a visit.

We have just got back from a brilliant half-term holiday in Purbeck. After six weeks of school, James was ready for a break and, as ever, top of his list was a trip to the beach. Our first day was spent around Studland Bay, a beautiful, curving bay of soft sand with stunning views out to the Isle of Wight and Old Harry Rocks.

As soon as we’d moved to Wiltshire - and I mean as soon as the removal lorry had driven off down the road leaving us with a house full of boxes - we went to Stonehenge. I hadn’t told James where we were going, but the visit got off to a good start: as we drove the last mile and the stones came into sight, he shouted excitedly: “Mummy! Look at those stones! Wowwww!"

We had a brilliant holiday in Pembrokeshire in July. As well as beaches, cathedrals, farmers’ markets and coast path walks, we enjoyed visits to a couple of burial chambers.

I was telling one of my friends how much James loves a visit to Brimham Rocks. “Is it a theme park?” she asked. “Oh no,” I said, “it’s much better than that!” It’s more like a natural rock playground: hundreds of gritstone tors carved by wind and weather into weird and wonderful shapes, set on a moorland plateau with fantastic views over the surrounding countryside.

James went to school for the first time today, accompanied by his trusty Spotty Otter. Mummy and Daddy were rather emotional but James was simply excited! He trotted off obediently when the whistle blew and emerged six hours later to show off his sticker collection. Remarkably, one of the stickers was “for being good” and another one was “for being REALLY good”.

We have discovered a great Pick Your Own place at Lotmead Farm a short drive away. It’s a nice way to spend an hour or two with James and you can also watch the cows getting milked.

We have been very busy having a holiday (more about that later) and moving house. We’re sorry to have left North Yorkshire behind, but we’re looking forward to blogging about our new adventures in Wiltshire.

After a ‘hard day’s work’ at the seaside (carrying sand up and down the beach, stacking stones, and dodging waves) there’s nothing to beat fish and chips. And if you’re after fish and chips on the North Yorkshire coast, then Whitby is a great place to get them. We normally eat ours overlooking the harbour or on the pier so we can watch the boats coming and going.

Centred on the picturesque village of Pateley Bridge, the Nidderdale Way is a 53-mile circular route almost entirely within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. A quick glance at the map showed that it winds along river banks, through rolling fields and across open moorland, visiting numerous small villages (hopefully with pubs or tearooms!) and might, I reasoned, be neatly divided into fairly short walks achievable with a young baby in a pram and an intrepid 4-year-old.

Most of us can probably remember those childhood days when the sun always shone in the summer, snow always fell in the winter, and Walnut Whips were about the size of Wales. Your next birthday was something you looked forward to (rather than an annual reminder that you’re just getting older).

I’m sure most parents would agree that small children can be very contrary. One day back in April, James and I were on our way to visit Rievaulx Abbey for the first time ever. Our conversation went like this:
“Where are we going, Mummy?”
“Rievaulx Abbey, James.”
“No, I don’t want to go there. I don’t like it.”

It was James’s birthday earlier in the week and our childminder had given him a ‘Make Your Own Insect Box’ kit. This was a fantastic present for a small boy who is fascinated by insects. He was really keen to get house-building, and by Friday, he could wait no longer.

“Mummy, let’s go somewhere we haven’t been before,” said James. This was handy, as I had been thinking the same thing, and high on my list of ‘Must See Places’ was the Bridestones in Dalby Forest near Pickering. A series of gritstone tors strewn around the watershed of a valley, you may well have seen pictures of them, particularly the Pepper Pot, a huge, iconic, mushroom-shaped rock.

North Yorkshire has an almost dizzying array of ruined castles and abbeys, and they are great places to visit when you have a small boy with lots of energy and a vivid imagination. There are plenty of nooks and crannies to explore; space to run around; drawbridges to stomp across; and, often, banks to roll down.

If you’re looking for something a little bit different in North Yorkshire, then how about a visit to a miniature Stonehenge? Unlikely as it may sound, that’s exactly what you’ll find at Druid’s Temple at Ilton. It’s an incredible collection of standing stones, archways and towers, which the landowner had built in the 1820s to keep the local population busy. James loves it because of all the opportunities for hiding and imaginative play.

I think one of the best sights in the Great British Outdoors is a wood with a carpet of native bluebells. We decided to go and see some this weekend. If you’re out and about on the northern fringes of the North York Moors National Park, you can’t fail to spot Roseberry Topping. At ‘only’ 320 metres, it’s fairly small as hills go, but its distinctive, half-conical shape makes it an iconic landmark.

April and May are wonderful months to be outdoors: the trees and hedgerows are simply spectacular. Right now, Thorp Perrow is in full bloom and well worth a visit. Last week, on one of our trips there, we admired the daffodils and the cherry blossom and checked on the progress of the horse chestnut trees.

There’s a field near us that’s full of dandelions, and James has been eagerly awaiting that magical moment when they turn to clocks. We went out on Friday and found that the yellow flowers had vanished overnight and there were suddenly dandelion clocks as far as the eye could see. There was also one very happy little boy.

We are lucky enough to have some big fields near our house and when we go for a walk we often take the kites with us to see if the conditions are right. Now, I am no kite-flying expert. I well remember the frustrating times I spent trying to fly a kite with my Dad when I was little.

As most parents will know, if you want to keep something secret, it’s best not to tell young children. The day before Mothers’ Day, James went out with Daddy, and when they came back, he told me proudly, “We got you some very nice chocolate, but you can’t have it till tomorrow.” Daddy looked sheepish. James added quickly and seriously, “But you need to be quiet about it ‘cause it’s a prize [surprise].”

Like most little boys – and girls – James loves going to the beach. But for a couple of weeks in mid-March, we had to find our adventures closer to home, because Mummy was nine months pregnant and wanted to stay within dashing distance of Northallerton Hospital!

Whenever you ask James where he’d like to go, you can be fairly sure that he’ll give one of three answers: Thorp Perrow, Hackfall, or the beach. Hackfall is a Woodland Trust wood near Masham, and we love it for lots of reasons. Whatever the season, it’s truly beautiful, whether it’s the trees themselves, the bluebells, the wild garlic, or just the tranquillity: quite often, you can walk all round this magnificent 120-acre wood without seeing anyone else.

We live about 30 minutes away from Fountains Abbey. As a World Heritage Site, it’s very definitely on the ‘Tourist Trail’, and with good reason. The Abbey ruins are quite spectacular and James loves exploring them, especially at Christmas, when they are usually lit up with coloured lights.

“Mummy,” said James, “I’ve been good today so please can we go to Thorp Perrow?” James is always thrilled by a trip to Thorp Perrow Arboretum. He was especially delighted today, because the stream (where he likes to play pooh-sticks) was flowing properly again, and because we were given some bread by the nice lady in the tearoom so that we could feed the ducks.

January 2011: A beautiful, clear, but very cold day. Went for a walk round the Ribblehead Viaduct. James was more taken by the huge frozen puddles with thick crusts of ice, rather than the soaring splendour of the 24-arch viaduct, until we stood underneath it and he could hear how every sound was magnified.