All Bran 5 day challenge

My poor tummy suffers a lot with bloating so I am adopting a healthier lifestyle of late. Having the allotment makes things a bit easier as for a large portion of the year I have fresh fruit, veggies and herbs to cook from scratch with. For the rest of the time and the days when I can't be bothered much I like to make sure I'm eating something convenient that is also filling.

I saw the Brit Mum's Real Mums of All-Bran 5 Day Challenge and thought I'd give it a go. We always have All-Bran in the house. It is the only cereal that my 4 year will eat, no milk just a bowl of All-Bran and he calls it Jum-Bat which I think is a great word.

Also in the range is Golden Crunch, Red Berry Crunch and the new Chocolate Wheats flavours which I was too slow off the mark to get a trial of but we did go out and buy the first two - always keen to try new foods. 

The challenge is all about embracing our tummy's and trying All-Bran for 5 consecutive days to see how it made us feel.

Golden Crunch was my favourite although Red Berry Crunch was ok too and I alternated the two. Having them in the morning made me feel much less hungry by late morning. Normally I would be snacking on all sorts by 11am but a bowl of cereal rather than toast kept the hunger away. By the end of the 5 days, do I feel less bloated....I think so. Certainly I've not had any pains for a while so maybe this has helped. 

This post is an entry for the Real Mums of All-Bran Linky Challenge, sponsored by Kelloggs

5 Home Summer Activities To Bring The Family Together

The summer months should be a time when we can go outside and enjoy the sun – but with countless electrical distractions and indoor attractions taking you away from the sunshine, it can be difficult to spend some good quality time together as a family. But, there's a lot more families can do than just sunbathe. Many summer activities can help to strengthen a family bond for - and get us away from relying on the TV as our main source of entertainment! This latest guest post runs through five unique and inventive ways to spend time together as a family, without a tablet or smartphone in sight!

Keeping Chickens 
Looking after chickens can be an enjoyable experience for all members of the family. They not only make great pets, but they pay for their keep through producing eggs! The best time of the year for chickens is the summer, when they love getting outside to sunbathe or have dust baths. All chickens have unique characteristics, and individual members of the family can take turns in feeding them, and cleaning out their coop or house.
Before adding chickens to your family the first major consideration is ensuring that your chickens will have a home that is conducive to their good health, and which properly protects them from potential predators. A company such as Eggshell Online  are specialists when it comes to chicken coops, houses, and runs.  

egg-laying hens in the yard from Shutterstock

Blackberry Picking 

Blackberry bushes are fairly easy to grow in the garden, and once they start flowering they can grow very quickly. Blackberry picking can be a fun thing to do in the countryside, but having a blackberry bush at home is much more convenient, and can give the family a regular food source throughout the second half of the summer. A happy consequence of blackberry picking is obviously eating them, and, to that end, making blackberry tarts together can also involve the whole family! 

Create A Wildlife-Friendly Habitat 

With many of Britain's birds, butterflies and bees sadly suffering a serious decline in numbers in recent decades, building a habitat in your garden is one way of restoring the balance. Creating an attractive habitat can be a combined family effort, and be a way of helping children in particular to appreciate nature. Buddleia bushes will attract a variety of butterflies and bees, while berry bearing plants will attract different species of birds.  

Little Boy painting from Shutterstock

Photography And Art  

A pleasant summer's day can be an inspiration to creativity, whether it's capturing beautiful plants, birds and insects with a camera, pencil, or brush. Drawing supplies are relatively inexpensive if you’re not after professional-grade kit, and the same can be said for most cameras – although most phones come well enough equipped for some family photography. As well as being a rewarding activity, it is also a good way for each member of the family to record aspects of the garden for posterity.  

Puzzles And Quizzes 
Though often thought of indoor activities the summer months offer a good excuse to take puzzles and quizzes outside. A jigsaw puzzle, for instance, could be something that stimulates co-operative behaviour, with each member of the family taking it turns to add a piece. While quizzes should be seen as just a bit of fun rather than being too competitive, and should help underline just how enjoyable spending time together can be for a family.

Armed with these five great activities, it’s time to embrace the sunshine and spend some family time together this summer – you’ll be glad you did!

Disclosure: This was a collaborative post for Eggshell online

Starting a veg patch

Start a veg patch this summer and get the whole family involved

If you’re looking to make the most of your garden now while the sun’s shining and the evenings are long, why not start a vegetable patch? This is a great outdoors activity and it’s one you can share with all the family.

Also, as long as you have the right garden furniture, you’ll be able to dine alfresco and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Top tips 

If your veg patch is to be a success, it’s important to bear a few top tips in mind. For example, try to select a piece of land that gets plenty of sunshine. Ideally, it should receive at least five hours of sun per day. Also, by keeping your patch away from other plants, you can help to reduce the number of slugs that attack it.

When you get started, make sure you dig your chosen spot over to remove any weeds and to break up the soil. It also helps to add plenty of compost and some rotted manure will speed things along too.

Always ensure there is plenty of space between the vegetables you plant. For example, you should leave approximately 20cm around a row of salad leaves and 35cm around a row of carrots. Also, when you plant crops like beans that climb, don’t forget to provide a stick or trellis to help them grow upwards.

Vegetable garden - lovely gardener with bunch of carrots from Shutterstock

Get your kids involved 

Veg patches offer a great chance to teach your children about gardening and to get them eating their greens. To help pique their interest, try to choose some fun crops. For example, plants you can pick and eat, like tomatoes and peas, are ideal.

Pumpkins are another great option. Kids love carving these at Halloween and you can make great soups with the flesh. Fast growing crops like lettuce are perfect for children too. Let's face it, youngsters aren't renowned for their patience, but these plants can help to keep little gardeners keen.

Making your children planting assistants is a great bonding activity and it will give them a host of important life skills - and hopefully a greater interest in food as well.

Post done in co-operation with Web Outreach Team

Posh garden in summer

With the weather so beautiful we decided to go back to the local gardens to see how they had changed in just a month. The new show of flowers we saw was amazing. 

Everything was blooming.

The newly planted prairie garden was starting to grow.

The tropical garden was full of broad leaved plants and huge spires. In the conservatory (the orangery) is a cafe so it's a great view to look out at over tea and cake. I feel so lucky to have these gardens to look around on my doorstep.

Sweet peas, lavender, so many shades of pink and purple.

This is the garden around the conservatory where they hold weddings. Beautiful to walk out as newly weds into these pretty gardens full of seasonal flowers. A gardener was very busy here, making sure everything was perfect. 

The pergola walkway was dripping with clematis and roses now.

A row of dahlias I think. This is what I want to do at the allotment next year and have a whole section as a cutting garden.

The Pool Garden, flanked by verbena now - it was tulips last time. 

We had such a peaceful afternoon and I'm looking forward to visiting much more over the summer and into autumn. Officially my favourite garden in Cheshire.

{Abbeywood Estate, Cheshire}

Joining in with How Does Your Garden Grow? at Manneskjur. 

Eco friendly furniture to keep an eye out for

Style your home with eco-friendly furniture

As we become more environmentally friendly there’s lots of furniture popping up here there and everywhere that claims to be eco-friendly.
Buying this type of furniture sure is a great place to start when looking to become more eco-friendly in your own home. We’re on hand to start you off with 2 excellent materials to look out for when searching for this kind of furniture.

Let’s start with reclaimed teak

Teak itself is a beautiful wood and one that’s incredibly durable. Locked into the grain of the wood is an abundance of natural oils, because of this it’s a lot more weather proof than other woods making it perfect for outdoor furniture. Over time, the teak turns from its original honey brown colour to a lovely silvery grey as the oils build up and protect the furniture.
Reclaiming teak is the process where existing teak that’s come to the end of its natural useful like e.g. railway sleepers and canoes, is reused to create something of use.
The product you receive is a beautiful piece of furniture with history, often with marks and dents in it from its previous life which add tons of character to it. The reclaimed teak is as durable as ever and still contains the natural oils it’s loved for.
Reclaiming teak helps towards reducing the rates of deforestation and sustaining the rainforests as fresh teak isn’t being logged from them.

reclaimed teak garden furniture and deer statue

Water Hyacinth

Water Hyacinth is widely recognised as a weed and one of the worst ones at that. It forms thick mats across water surfaces which are incredibly dense and extremely hard to penetrate. This limits access to important shipping, animals and man, causing all sorts of problems.
The hyacinth needs to be maintained to stop these complications from occurring; environmentally friendly programs that are effective over long terms to control its growth have now been introduced in most countries where it causes problems.
The bonus is there is no wastage, the harvested weeds are distributed and put to excellent use such as being turned into furniture. Lots of conservatory furniture is now being made from this weed with beautiful results especially when hand woven. It can be woven into stunning intricate plaited weaves that add style and elegance to furniture.
The tight weave of the hyacinth makes it incredibly strong and gives you furniture that is going to last you for years to come.

If you’re looking to make changes in your home and contribute in helping your environment then making small changes like investing in natural products and reclaimed woods is a fantastic place to start.

From this to this!!

water hyacinth and conservatory furniture

If you’re looking to make changes in your home and contribute in helping your environment then making small changes like investing in natural products and reclaimed woods is a fantastic place to start.  

This was a article from Conservatory Furniture who have an extensive range of furniture for your conservatory.

Roll up roll up.......

Items that remind me of the carnival I went to recently or rather the idealised carnival that's in my head. Fun items to inject some colour and humour into your home. I am loving the bold geometric wallpaper and the kitsch cotton candy tin.

Vintage style carnival cushion, Redbubble £12 // Hemingway Design Carnival 50-592 Wallpaper, Home Feature Wallpaper £16.49 a roll // Ampersand marquee light, St Aiden's Homeware Store, £110 // Blossom Blue Side Table, Habitat £50

Ashcroft Soft Play Bean Bag Pouffe, Wayfair £24 // Circus Garland by Maileg, Sisters Guild £31 // Moustache Doormat, Flamingo Gifts £15.99

Circus Festoon Lights With 10 Multi Coloured LEDs, Lights4fun, £29.99 //
Bearded Lady Circus Print, Caroline Mcgrath £30 // Pompon petillant clown cushion, Petit Home £25 // Rainbow chevron rug, Great Little Trading Co £120

Elephant Coat Hook, Etsy £9 // Yellow Chest of Drawers, NOTH £395 // 

Cotton Candy Sugar Tin, Big Blue £2.77 //  

Bubblegum, Candy Shop Flamingo Candle, Flamingo Gifts £9.60

Retro Inspired Carnival Clown Toppers (6), Etsy £1.96 // Pink n Mix Wedding Sweet or Popcorn Holders, Party Parade £4.99 packet of 8 //  Lexington Icons Authentic Star Bedspread, Red, John Lewis £199 // Carnival Art Print, Etsy £20

Carnival time

The town carnival in a little part of England, nothing special, nothing grandiose. Just community getting together as they have done for many,many years to celebrate the crowning of the rose queen. It's an annual summer tradition since as far back as the 1920's as far as I can see in the archives. They looked a lot prettier an occasion back then in my opinion - little bit garish for me with princesses sat in car boots and atop cars. 
Still we showed our support and ventured along to the centre of town, Found a gap in the railings for one little 4 year old to push his nose through to see the parade.  Bagpipers, costumes, soldiers, a young dance troupe, a fire engine, local business advertising - with somewhat little effort. It was sadly all a bit of a lacklustre jumble as I saw member of our older generation watching, I couldn't help but feel a little sad as I bet the parades were wonderful once upon a time. In fact they were wonderful when I was a child with floats with so much effort. A shame really.  This local preschool was the best with their pirate ship. A huge effort. Lovely. I fear the rest of the parade perhaps had a lack of interest.....and/or money! I sound so miserable but it was a disappointment and hopefully our town will get its act together next year. Leaving the parade we headed to the park where small pieces of poetry were tied to trees and gates. It was such a joy look for and read.
A funny dog show that we watched for a while until Little Bird got restless. I love dogs so much, all shapes and sizes, pedigree and a mix of all sorts. Waggy tails, the best condition coat and the dog that looked like their owner.
The rest of the park had a car boot sale on but I didn't look around as I am trying to curb my desire to fill my house with things I do not need at the moment.
 Then of course, there was a funfair. Little Bird just likes looking around the fair and is not showing any desire to go on the rides. I love it for the bright colours and snapping away with my camera. The fair was very quiet and rides sat empty. I spoke to people afterwards and many did not know the carnival was on that weekend. Tskk! My council really needs to advertise events more for families. I wish I could work for them :) So that was the town carnival . I hope they improve things next year. I felt very sorry for the fair who must have not made much money. This was on the Sunday so perhaps the Saturday was busier but even still it surely should be bustling for a Sunday afternoon. 
Still it made for some good pictures and Little Bird had a brilliant time and thought it was all very exciting so that's good enough for me.