After the Storm

The nursery went on a trip today, on the Sunshine coach, to Sudeley Castle in the north of the county. The weather forecast was so dire that we considered going to a local soft play centre instead, but fortunately all the children turned up with sensible clothing, wet weather gear and wellies as well as a packed lunch!

So we set off anyway, and when we got there, headed straight off to the massive adventure playground with its giant wooden castle complete with treetop walkways and slides. That way, when the heavens opened and the thunder and lightning came, we could take shelter in one or two of the little rooms in the 'castle'! The children absolutely loved splashing in the giant puddles that soon formed outside.

When the skies cleared, we went to the actual castle, and gave ourselves a whistle-stop tour. I'd only been there once before, with TMLHereandThere and her children in the summer of 2002, but there seemed to be a lot more to see this time around! Of course, nursery children of 2 and 3 aren't interested in looking at old stuff, on the whole. unless it's giant bathtubs or posh loos with red velvet seats(!) and it was funny to hear them describe all the busts and statues of Tudor kings and "Ogres". Quite right!

We arrived back only 15 minutes late, despite heavy traffic and the usual last-minute clothing changes. Our staff got straight into planning pumpkin-themed activities for next week's whole-school harvest festival, and only later did we discover that many parts of Stroud had been flooded: many drains overflowed as the result of freak hailstorms! The roof of the Co-op supermarket had fallen in: poor shop! In the Great Floods of 2007, their staff had to be rescued from the same shop by the Fire Brigade as the flood waters swirled around at chest-height!