Almond Valley

Almond Valley Heritage Centre, Millfield, Livingston, West Lothian EH54 7AR. Tel: 01506 414957
web: www.almondvalley.co.uk

During half term I took the little one off to Heritage Centre at Almond Valley. It's part museum, part farm, and part children's playground. A perfect place for a 4 year old to run around - or so I thought. She was too cold and so spent ages inside the museum which shows a lot of the farming / mining history of the area. It was pretty cool seeing the large mill with it's grinding stone and waterwheel up close.

We walked around looking at animals and loved the tiny horses but were a bit phased by the chickens from the wartime garden. They are allowed to wander free but I think the little one would have preferred to have them locked up in cages. Some of the animals were not around as I think the farm moves them when the weather is too cold but it was fun trying to hunt them down.
Another part of the park had a shed with rabbits and other furry creatures. Those rabbits were HUGE  - some of them are for sale (hopefully as pets rather than food). Can you tell I'm not used to being around animals.
The centre also has the coolest trampolines laid into the ground. I wanted to have a go but as they were full of little kids, didn't think it would have been appropriate. There is also a giant bouncy mound for older children which again looks fun apart from the little tykes who were chucking sand in eachother's faces.
There are also mini tractors which are fabulous and luckily for me, hard to manoeuvre else she would have been off like a shot. And once again, older children are catered for too with a separate track and large wheeled toys for them to run around in.
On this visit we didn't visit the cafe but I am sure I will in future. I will also not use my sat nav to get there as on this visit, it kept trying to tell me to drive down a no-through road!
The cost was a little high at £5 for adults and £3 for children however, if I was going to go regularly, I'd get an annual membership.

It's a wild life

There are a lot of birds in this area probably because we live quite close to Almondell and Calderwood country park. So a few weeks ago, tot and I went off to the local chain DIY store and bought some cheap bird feeders. I decided to buy a pack of 3 feeders which came packed with peanuts, sunflower seeds and mixed seeds - I wasn't sure what the birds around here eat. Our neighbour gets regular visitors for the peanuts they put out. I put up the sunflower seed one to give a bit of variety. And for weeks we had NO visitors. The birds continued to go next door. Then all of sudden I noticed some sort of yellow breasted bird hopping about the feeder, making sure he was safe, then swiftly grabbing a seed to take to a nearby branch and munch. Wooohoooo success. Since then, we have put up an apple dotted with some seeds (rather than throw it out) which the birds are munching on too. A couple have also been sniffing around an old bird box attached to our shed. I was going to clean it out until I discovered that it's only legal to do so between August and January. I hope the couple will nest in it and I cross all my fingers there are no parasites to attack their little babies and that the mould inside the shed doesn't extend to this bird box.

Sun, sand and nature

What do you do on a beautifully sunny but freezing day in winter? Well we went down to Broughty Ferry just outside Dundee to visit Granny and then down to the river's edge to feed the swans. The birds are huge so the little one hid behind Granny - I wasn't that upfront with the giant birds either! Afterwards, we took a quick trip to the Castle Green playground which was desserted...the joy of a 4 year old who can go on any of the playthings knows no bounds and warms up even the most frozen Mother and Grandmother. Tomorrow, we will be putting up bird feeders in our garden just in case the winter turns nasty.