Soggy Gruffalo hunting at Alice Holt Forest

Two things I did not know until I became a mad Instagram convert (I'm cathybussey1 by the way, come say hi!)

1. There's an entire forest just an hour's drive away from my front door and
2. THERE'S A GRUFFALO IN IT!

When I saw a picture of he of the terrible teeth and terrible claws on IG posted by lovely Katie I thought, we are SO GOING THERE.

Unfortunately the day we chose to visit it rained. All. Day. Absolutely poured. Proper wet rain, relentless rain, the kind of rain that could totally ruin a lovely day out with friends.

Only it didn't, because GRUFFALO!

Alice Holt is stunning. It took my breath away, and the enormous, ancient firs kept the rain at bay too. I couldn't stop thinking how lovely it would be to come back one non-soggy day and just spend the whole day exploring.

As it was, we spent a good few hours with our intrepid, drenched-to-the-bone-but-couldn't-care-less children, soaking (literally) up the beauty and the adventure of the place. Despite Cherry's face in some of these pictures (that girl KILLS me) all the children adored it.

I don't know if it was the magic of the forest, strength in numbers or just their wonderful little spirits, but there was not a complaint, whinge or moan out of any of them. They were energised and invigorated by the forest and us mamas were too.

The light was magical and everything looked so green - the joy of summer rain. In fact it was so magical Cherry was a little put out that the Gruffalo himself wasn't a real Gruffalo.

Silly old Cherry. Doesn't she know?