"He has knobbly knees, and turned-out toes, And a poisonous wart at the end of his nose."

The weather has been glorious today and we made the most of the sunshine this morning by searching for that elusive mythical beast the Gruffalo. They have been popping up all over the country at Foresty commission sites in celebration of the books 15th Birthday.

We were house sitting for our bestie Chris this weekend and before heading out to his place, his sister Stephanie posted a picture online of a Gruffalo not far from where we were staying so we knew we had to go. So while Mrs M did some work related things this morning I took the boys adventuring, searching for one of their favourite book characters.

The Gruffalo was hiding somewhere at Birches Valley Forest Centre. We had never been before so we were looking forward to adventuring somewhere new. The place is beautiful and was perfect for a hot sunny day as the really tall well looked after trees were the perfect cover stopping me from burning my head. Well we took that walk through the deep dark work but the first thing to grab the boys attention was the playground which was lots of fun, timber climbing frames that were asthetically pleasing and fit well in to the forest surroundings.

There was so much to look at as we walked along the paths looking for our friend with his orange eyes and purple prickles all over his back. Lots of lovely wooden carvings and art pieces kept us entertained along the route and the boys wanted their pictures taken with all of them.

Opeie spotted the back of the Gruffalo from quite a way back but then he does have the best spot perched on daddies shoulders. Before heading over to see those knobbly knees and turned out toes we had to walk through Fernley Thickett, which was a magical mini area of the forest with cute hand carved tree trunks with miniature doors where the fairies live. Opeie was hooked and before leaving that day we must have visited that area at least five times, I wish we had had our minifigures of us, it would have been great for LEGO photo's.

And then there he was, with his terrible claws and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws. As expected though there was nothing terrible about this very lovely looking beast and Opeie (with no fear of splinters) couldn't wait to give him a big squeeze. I would absolutely love one of these for our pack garden, it would look amazing.

I was busy taking a selfie of me and Opeie when i heard Seth shout 'Bases!". Stephanie had let us know about an area of the forest that had lots of huge branches for making dens and it was great to see so many built, the forest looked like so much fun so we made our way in and started adding branches to the dens. Seth surprisingly had other ideas and started looking for certain branches that we could take home as he has an idea of something he wants to make. More on this to follow.

It wasn't long before the Gruffalo hunters started to get hungry, I offered them 'Roasted fox' and "Scrambled Snake" followed by "Gruffalo crumble" with a side helping of "Owl ice cream" but as expected they wanted mommies lunch as she makes the best meals according to Seth. So we headed back to Chris' for a bite to eat. I loved walking around Birches Valley and its got me now thinking of visiting the other Forestry Commission sites harbouring that lovable beast.

Also the trip to Fernley Thickett and a picture in Chris' bedroom has given me a great idea for a new weekly feature on the blog so stay tuned.

Until next time adventurers....