I am LOVING this autumnal weather – it’s dry enough to be out all day long, warm enough not to want to hurry inside but cold enough to get just a little bit wrapped up and cosy. It’s perfect hot chocolate weather and makes exploring the outdoors an absolute treat.Apparently, National Trust visits are like buses – you don’t go in ages, and then all of a sudden, two come in quick succession. After our wonderful trip to Charlecote Park at the weekend, I quickly arranged to meet some of my Mummy friends and Pickle’s baby friends at another local property: Packwood House.

Kitchen Garden Packwood House
This isn’t actually a photo of the house itself (you can JUST see it in the background), but one of the walls of the Kitchen Garden.

There’s always so much to chat about when I meet up with ‘the NCT girls’ that we ended up just standing outside the entrance for ages, nattering about how each of the babies were doing. We had a couple of sleepy babies that morning (following not very good nights’ sleep!) and some new teeth! Once we’d made our way inside though, we headed straight for the fields for a bit of a walk.

Walking with four pushchairs isn’t easy at the best of times, but I think we all felt we were doing okay until we’d trekked across a field only to be floored by a rather pram-unfriendly kissing gate. No matter how hard we tried, there was no way we were going to fit the prams in and be able to operate the gate at the same time. I love a challenge, and was determined to figure out some way in which I could ‘solve’ the gate riddle, but this totally defeated me. Pickle seemed to quite enjoy it all and looked at me as if to ask ‘What? Can you believe this, Mom? We can’t get through the gate?’

Shocked baby Packwood House
Pickle looked very shocked to be stuck in the kissing gate! ‘What’s going on, Mom?’
Packwood House gate
The offending gate… and a gaggle of locked out Mummies.

We wandered back the way we came (warning another pram user of the tribulations ahead!) and managed to find the other end of the circuit – which had a much easier gate to use. The trail was all bumpity and wriggly and it wasn’t long before all four babies were happily snoozing away. It’s crazy how much jostling they can sleep through! As we started to approach the aforementioned kissing gate from the other side, I managed to spot a normal gate for us to sneak through instead.

Packwood House gategate
Yay! A gate we can actually use.
I abandoned Pickle to take a photo of our cross-country pushchairing.
I abandoned Pickle to take a photo of our cross-country pushchairing.

It turns out when you’re working hard to push the pram over all the lumps, bumps and long grass, you end up stepping (and rolling) in lots of sheep poo. It has a very distinctive smell, doesn’t it? I was fully prepared as I wore my wellies but it did make me think I should probably cover the car boot with an old sheet for future days out like this so it doesn’t get filthy!

After all that hard work, a treat was in order so a sausage sandwich and a flapjack was waiting for me in the cafe. With our pushchairs and the mild weather, we all sat outside which was a real treat actually! The babies had fun babbling away to each other. It’s so lovely to see them starting to clock each other and socialising. I really do hope they become really good friends as they all get older. I’m not sure we’ll give them much choice!

Mummy and Baby National Trust
If I look a bit excited, it’s because my friend taking the photo was making a waving gesture to try and get Pickle’s attention. It obviously amused me much more than him!

Before we left for home, we had a quick explore of the Kitchen Garden and look what we found… a whole pumpkin patch!

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It was a really lovely day out, once again. A day spent outdoors is never a day wasted. Thank you National Trust and Packwood House – we’ll be back again soon. But maybe with the baby carrier next time!