We spent our October half term holiday in a static caravan in Sussex. Apart from one day, the weather was fantastic, so we got out for plenty of trips. One day we visited Bateman’s, the former home of Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book, now owned by The National Trust.
The gardens were full of beautiful Autumn colour and the boys enjoyed taking part in the spooky Halloween trail. My best bit of Autumn is going for lovely Autumnal walks and seeing the trees in their colourful Autumn glory. Even the flowers were still colourful to add to my pleasure, as captured in my photograph.
Beautiful Autumn colours
The spooky trail was well thought out. When you found each clue, there were different challenges for older and younger children as to what to draw on their spooky picture. So son1 did the older version whilst son2 did the younger version. And great for learning map reading skills too. They both got a medal at the end of the trail.
We also did a whistlestop tour round the inside of the house and mill. Had to be quick as son1 refused to go inside. No I don’t know why he wouldn’t. And the weather was glorious – end of October and we were able to sit outside the tearoom for lunch. A nice browse round the shop too and I couldn’t resist buying some cheap pear windfalls, which I stewed for dessert that evening. A very basic pudding but tasty as I hadn’t bothered equipping the caravan kitchen with anything like flour. Pear trees weren’t the only crop as I spotted some chillis in a greenhouse.
And I loved how each bench outside had a pocket at each end containing a different laminated fact sheet. From one I rediscovered a poem of Kipling’s that I probably hadn’t heard since I was a child and read it to my boys. This was “I keep six honest serving men”and you may read it here.
I would love to hear what is your best bit of Autumn?
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Yet another blogging mummy!!! 
This is not an attraction I had heard of, and it looks beautiful! Thanks for such a lovely post.
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Yes the National Trust owns many beautiful places. We visited another one new to us this half term – Lyme Park near Manchester
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Oh this looks like a lovely day out – and I love the sound of the laminated fact sheets on the benches. My children love finding out facts at the moment, I’ll have to try and get over to Sussex sometime for this,
Thank you ever so much for sharing and joining in x
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Yes definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area sometime
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