Scrimpy days out: Wheelock Farm

Wheelock Farm is located just outside Crewe and is an entertaining day out for ages. I'm speaking from experience here, I've been going to Wheelock farm since I was a little'un! What started off as a barn with a few animals is now a large petting farm complete with adventure playground and a maize maze!

Part of the fun of Wheelock farm is that it is free to get in, it always has been. All you have to do is buy a bag of animal feed at the very reasonable price of 50p and off to toddle for a great afternoon feeding the animals (or nanimals as a 5 year old me would say). In the past there was a small play ground for the little uns to enjoy but that was long since demolished and there is now a huge adventure playground that I wish I could play on! The only catch with this shiny new playground is that it's £2 per child, still not bad compared to other places.

Now, back to the important bit, feeding the animals, even Richard got involved! 

They had sheep, goats, donkeys and horses that you could feed.

Scrimpy days out: Little Moreton Hall

So this is the start of a new series of blog posts. Like most students this summer I'm pretty broke but I still want to have fun and visit places with friends and family so came this series of posts, fun days out for prices that make you smile.

Malta 2014

On thursday I landed back in England, I'm back at my parents house for a while before I head back home to Wales. I can't move into my house until the 1st September and I'm counting down the days! I had a great time in Malta though, it was a great experience and I've learnt a lot.

I was primarily there to complete a 4 week placement on a Permaculture research farm. Permaculture is a merger of the words permanent and agriculture, even now I'm still learning exactly what it is but basically permaculture is a way of living where you work with the environment to fulfill your needs, so you don't over exploit the land. One person summed it up as the organic gardening revolution.

The farm was a pretty awesome place to be, the views were quite beautiful.

A Malta update.

So I'm half way through my stay in Malta, the tan is building well and we've had some great adventures. I'm not going to lie though I'm missing home, yesterday was a particularly low point, I wasn't feeling well and I just wanted to be at home. I'm feeling a little better today though so onwards and upwards!

Work at the permaculture farm is going really well and I'm beginning to realise that permaculture isn't just about producing food in a sustainable and eco-friendly way it's a whole way of life. It's about working and living with the land. The farm is a very calming place to be and I wish we could spend some more time there. I'm working on a research report about the health benefits of wheat grass (if anyone has ever tried it please let me know!). Also we've been working on a few projects including trying to perfect the method of making biochar, on our 4th attempt we finally did it! A full barrel! It's probably my favourite project on the farm. We've also been working on the micro greens that are grown here and are the farms main source of income, the greenhouse is partially underground meaning it's always nice and cool in there.

Biochar- This is mixed with compost (which is made on the farm) and it created a nutrient rich soil that plants love.

Just a quick note

So I may have forgotten to mention that I'm heading to Malta for a month, and by heading to I mean that I'm already here. It's been an awesome week so far.

My first view of Malta from the plane!

The struggles of summer

I've just got back from a really lovely catch up with the beautiful Alex,I haven't seen her in ages and it was great to finally sit down and talk. Alex has just finished her first year at uni and you can tell she loves it there, she's like my little sister and I'm so proud of her.

One of the things we talked about was adjusting to being back home after being away all year and it got me thinking about how I adjusted last year and how I'm coping now. Truth is, after my first year of uni I didn't and to be honest I'm still struggling now.

Bangor- Year 2

So today I'm heading home, second year is done and because I really don't want to pack just yet I'm going to take this time to reflect on the year just passed.

I'm 2/3rds of the way through my time here. This year actually counted towards my degree. This time next year I'll have to be a proper grown up and get a job. Those three things are a little scary.

Latest bargain buys

It's been an amazing couple of weeks, exams are now over and I'm now finished for second year! Over the past few weeks I seem to have refreshed my wardrobe due to a considerable amount of procrastination shopping and some amazing sales. Today, partly to cheer myself up after a disastrous exam yesterday and partly because I've been dying to for ages, I headed to Upper Bangor to my favourite vintage shop and spoilt myself with even more new clothes, then on my way home I popped into a charity shop and found myself, once again indulging myself in new books, here's a quick tour of my favourite purchases from the past few weeks.

SENRGy Love

Warning, this is a long one!

Last week was a very stressful one for all, we've all been working hard getting the last few bits of work done for the year and third years are getting dissertations done, now it's just exams to tackle! I took a couple of evenings out this week to attend two awards ceremonies, firstly, Tuesday night was a Peer Guide awards ceremony and Wednesday was Course Representative and Student Lead Teaching Awards. Come Thursday I was so proud to be a member of the School of Environment Natural Resources and Geography (SENRGy). We kick ass!

The Peer Guide Awards was to celebrate all the hard work that peer guides across the university put in not only in welcome week but throughout the year, we are already working hard on freshers week 2014. It was also a chance for us to say thank you to those that won't be here next year, either because they are graduating or because they are taking a year out.A special mention goes to our lead peer guides from last year Tom and Chloe, two of them took on the role that would normally be taken on by three people, quite frankly they were amazing, we couldn't have had such a successful welcome week without them. For 2014 the baton has been handed to Richard, Chris and Jane, I know they are an awesome team and will be amazing lead peer guides!

Just a small section of the SENRGY Team. I'll be genuinely sad when some of them don't return next year.

A much needed break and some desperately needed cocktails.

So life has been a little quiet on the blogging front, every other bit on life has been far too busy! Easter came at exactly the right time this year, frankly it has been an awful semester and I was in desperate need of a break so I took a week off from my mountain of work and hopped on a plane to Corfu with Richard.

We booked about two weeks before we went,we found the deal on icelolly.com and I spent the whole day calling various companies trying to get us the best deal possible, we added transfers and insurance which we found ourselves (NEVER get this through the holiday company, it's way more expensive) and ended up with a week in an all inclusive hotel in Gouvia, Corfu. We stayed at a lovely hotel called the Aquis Park Hotel, I would definitely recommend staying here, some people were complaining about the food but we thought it was lovely! Also the cocktails were amazing!

A little cloudy (and wonky) I know but a decent size pool, always sun beds available!