Today the travel restrictions were lifted in Wales, and we were finally allowed to venture further than our local area. For our first adventure we decided to visit The National Botanic Garden of Wales. We are annual pass holders and usually visit a couple of times a month, so it’s been sad not to be able to visit for so long, especially having to miss seeing it bloom during spring.

My oldest child was in school all day today, so I needed somewhere to take my two boys without venturing too far away, and I needed to be fairly certain they would like wherever we went. Without my outgoing oldest with us, I can very quickly get outnumbered if the boys (who’d pretty much always rather be at home) aren’t having a good time! Thankfully the botanic gardens provided just what we needed, even with the new set up post lockdown.

The great glasshouse, the park and the butterfly house are all closed, which is understandable, but they do make up a good chunk of our visits usually, so I wasn’t sure what the boys would make of it all. Luckily, the changes meant we had to break out of our normal routine of visiting the same places, and we actually found new areas we hadn’t ventured to before. It was also great to see how much the restoration project has come along since our last visit, and there is now a whole new lake there, which is amazing to see.

I think my attempts at making our daily walks during lockdown educational, in an attempt at some easy homeschooling, has actually had a far greater effect than I had realised. The boys spent a considerable amount of time at the gardens looking for wildlife and insects and talking about all the plants. It was so lovely to see, and of course the gardens didn’t disappoint and they had a lot of fun talking to the ducks and watching the birds, as well as listening to all the grasshoppers in the meadow, and we even got lucky enough to spot one jumping amongst the grass. They watched a spider who had captured a fly in its web, and had fun poking the lily pads in the pond and looking for insects in the water.

The fairy woods seemed to have even more little houses than I remembered and they managed to find some sticks to play on the giant wind chime there. They also enjoyed their usual climb on the fallen trees in the ghost forest, and they had fun dancing for me on the pineapple stage. They burnt off all their excess energy running around all the lovely mown paths in the meadows, and they loved pretending they lived in the little house in the Japanese garden. I wonder if other kids do that there too?

They came away smiling and surprisingly didn’t seem to miss any of the closed areas, and I loved being back amongst all the beautiful flowers and gorgeous scenery. Hopefully it won’t be long before they can reopen fully, but for now it is still a fun filled day out for kids, and I’m going to call all that bug hunting and wildlife watching our “homeschool” for the day and call it a win!