Colourscape at Waddesdon Manor #CountryKids

Back in the Easter Holidays Iona and her son were coming down to spend the day with us and I saw something that I thought we might all enjoy trying out. The Colourscape at Waddesdon Manor event was running throughout the holidays and I’d heard some good reports. We decided that hopefully both boys would be ok with the idea and that there was safety in numbers! So on a lovely sunny day we headed off to one of my favourite National Trust properties. The plan was to arrive early to avoid the worst of the queues, sadly my brain seemed to have other ideas, and I suddenly realised I was headed in the wrong directions, to another favourite, Stowe!

Cue quick change of direction and much laughing from the back seat drivers. What a plonker! Anyway, once we arrived at the right place, we caught the bus to the main drive at Waddesdon Manor and joined the queue for Colourscape itself. We were warned fairly early on that we might be waiting for up to an hour. Luckily the weather was with us and there was plenty of grass for the kids to run around on. We decided to have an impromptu picnic to help occupy the children while we waited. They both coped with the queue really well. Thankfully it wasn’t raining or it might have been a different story!

Eventually we got to the front of the queue. We had to take our shoes off and were given coloured tabards to wear. Monkey of course wouldn’t wear his and I was left to carry it. He had a little wobble as we entered Colourscape at Waddesdon Manor and I think having his younger friend with him gave him the courage to be a bit braver.

Once inside it was time to explore the caverns which were lit in different colours.

In the centre there was a musician playing but the music freaked Monkey out a bit and it took a whole before he could be persuaded to go anywhere near the middle.

But he soon relaxed and enjoyed running from space to space with his friend. Seeing the different colours.

It was Monkey who realised that his blue Coombe Mill hat changed colours depending on what room we were in. We then realised that our tabards changed too, he couldn’t be persuaded to wear his, but he liked seeing rate effects on Iona and I.

Having zero sense of direction I was the worst person to be in Colourscape with as it was fairly easy to get disoriented!

But once the boys had finished exploring we eventually found our way outside again.

I’m really glad we stuck with the queues and it was definitely worth a visit. Of course when we’d finished we still had the grounds to explore. I have to say I don’t think I’ve ever seen Waddesdon Manor so busy. We walked down to the playground area by the Stables but it was packed. For our two it was better for them to let off steam amongst the trees, so we changed direction, grabbed a coffee and headed for the aviary and the area behind that.

The boys were getting tired so we decided to head home. We’d had another lovely day out, tried something different and had some fun in the sun.  I’m sure we’ll be back for Colourscape at Waddesdon Manor if it’s held again next year.