Another beautiful Sunday saw us all at a loose end, yes, all of us.   Lyns had a rare Sunday off so we were able to go out as a family.   Lyns had suggested Beningbrough Hall, however, I managed to persuade her to venture a bit further.   I thought it might be nice to head to Helmsley.   A lovely little market town with a castle as well.   We headed out in brilliant sunshine and it was not long before we were pulling up outside Helmsley Castle.   It is an English Heritage property so, being members it was free to get into.   Incidentally, this is where I was hoping to take James later in the year to see the Clash of Knights which, personally, I am really excited about.

We arrived and James was given a lanyard to collect badges on from different properties.   We might have accidentally taken two badges but no one seemed to mind.   We did not realise when we arrived that there is a quick route into the castle.   However, we turned left rather than right and walked the long way round.   Not that it mattered as it was a lovely walk through, what was, the moat and we entered the castle through the original gate house.

When we got into the castle we found a boules set.   James did not quite get the hang of it, but Lyns and I spent a good hour or so playing whilst James ran around helping collect the balls and chasing after them.   As much as it pains me to say it, Lyns won most of the games.   Not that she gloated much!

Next it was onto a game of quoits.   Lyns did not want to play this, so James and I played.   Only problem was, I threw them over the wooden poles, James threw them directly at me!   Not sure he is getting these games.   He had loads of fun though.   One day I will get him playing properly.

After spending a good few minutes dodging out the way of James' wild throws I put the quoits down.   More to save my head than anything else.   Then of course, with three balls to hand, there is only one thing I could do!

Once I had shown off my juggling prowess, and admitted I could not do four balls, it was on to wandering around the inside of the castle.   Here we found some amazing dressing up clothes for James.   There was a knight and a princess outfit.   James was over the moon, Lyns not so much as she ended up on the receiving end of some charges that King Arthur himself would have been proud of.

There were also a few books knocking around, so once James had finished slaying the enemies, a new word for him, it was time for a quiet story.

After we had finished inside, we had a lovely walk in the sunshine around the other half of the castle.   It was only when we got back all the way round that we found the short cut.   Nevermind, we will know for next time.

We headed into Helmsley for a spot of lunch.   We found a lovely little cafe call the Cocoa House, which did all sorts of sandwiches and snack lunches, all of which looked very good.   The owner was very welcoming and was very chatting.   The lunch for the three of us, with drinks, came to less that £20 so cannot complain.   Only word of warning is that they do not take cards.   Other than that, very hard to fault them at all.

After we had finished lunch we had a walk round Helmsley itself.  There were loads of quaint little shops and we did not have time to look in them all.   With the weather being as nice as it was we have to end our day out with an ice cream in the town square.   We found someone selling locally(ish) made Brymor Ice-cream.   Very tasty indeed.   

We had gone to a barbecue the night before and were served some tasty smoked sausages.   With the weather being what it was we picked up some sausages from the butchers in Helmsley and headed home to fire up the smoker and, for a first attempt, it was not too bad at all!   In the immortal words of Cpl Jones, "Very Tasty, Very Sweet!"