I’m a little ashamed to say I’ve spent most of the past winter months trying my best to hibernate. I have been rather reluctant to spend any real-time outside. I have wrapped the munchkin up and thrown her, not literally, on the drive to play on her bike or in the garden and get much-needed fresh air but we haven’t been outside for any real quality time.

Last Sunday we rectified that. Our friends had asked us if we fancied meeting up for a walk and I knew we needed to get out of the house so at the very least the munchkin could burn off some energy, plus we always have a really good day when we meet up with Tommy, Nikki and their boys.

We arranged to meet at Haigh Hall Country Park. We’ve been there loads of times in different seasons over the years as it’s in Wigan and is fairly close to where we live. This time we approached it from a different entrance which was a first for us, it gave us a much nicer and longer walk up to the actual Hall, café and playground and we didn’t have to find change for parking.

It was foggy, really foggy. It gave a really eerie look to the woods as we walked and the kids who ran off enjoying the freedom, often became little dots disappearing in the mist. We passed a fallen tree, someone at some point had knocked a penny into it. Now it is covered in 100s of them. Each of the kids had a coin to knock in a penny and make a wish.

It was also bitterly cold, good job we were all wrapped up. The actual Hall, which is an impressive stately home, is on top of a pretty big hill so the closer we got to it, the colder and foggier it got. On a good day you can see for miles, it’s one of my favourite views, today you couldn’t see a thing.

There’s all sorts of extra things to do in the park, like crazy golf and a little train that costs £1 a person and goes round in a big circle around an area that has no set footpaths. In all the times we’ve visited I’ve never seen it running but that day it was so we decided to have a go. After quite a bit of walking up past the actual hall and closer to the main entrance, we stopped for a hot drink in the café and the kids (and big kids) played on the playground, giving me one of the funniest moments. You’ll have to watch the little video to see why!

We had a really good day and we enjoyed being out in the fresh air for a change. By the time we set off on the walk back to the car it had started to get dark. It was nice to stretch our legs and it really did feel like we were blowing off wintery cobwebs.