"A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood..."

We had a lovely week last week with Mrs' M being off work and we've really made good use of the extra time that we have had with here. Sadly the writing had taken a bit of a hit because I was lazily enjoying being tucked up on the sofa with her every night, watching TV and cuddling. So now I am playing catch up a little. I would love to have time to write about every little thing we get up to as a family, but we pack so much into our weeks that if I did, I would be constantly writing.

Me and Opeie recently had another one of our London adventures and this time headed to some new places that our friends Sam and Jamie had told us about. We decided to drive to London this time, which isn't that great for Opeie being stuck in the car for three hours so we decided to detour when we were close to Buckinghamshire and visit Wendover woods as we knew from previous visits to Foresty Commission sites that there was a Gruffalo lurking somewhere in the woods. We had had so much fun visiting the ones at Wyre Forest and Cannock Chase that we were both eager to find another.

The sun was out and we were ready for adventure. It was great to find that there was a Stickman trail there too, Julia Donaldson is fully monopolising our UK forests. As expected the boards along route were the same as the other sites but it was lovely to take part in the activities in unexplored surroundings.

We built a tower of sticks....

...Rode on a bear and built a den (which to be fair I was really impressed with). We kept well and truly entertained as we searched for the star of the show...

...and then there he was! not lurking in the woods at all but standing in the sunshine looking out over sunny Buckinghamshire. There is something really magical about these large carvings out in plain site and Opeie has gotten so excited during every visit when we have found them. Our favourite though is still the sleeping Gruffalo in Wyre forest.

This was intended to be a post about the whole London trip but it has been dominated by our 'little' detour, so I will have to write a part 2. Wendover woods was a great diversion and really made a huge difference to the 3 hour drive. If you have a forestry commission site nearby, they are definitely worth a visit and if it is one of the homes of the elusive Gruffalo then it is even more special visiting that deep dark wood.