Pull a Pine – Arne RSPB Nature Reserve

Since moving to Dorset, we’ve made it our mission to explore as much of this beautiful county as possible. We stumbled across Arne about 2 years ago now and it’s one of our favourite places to go.

Every year, they host a ‘Pull a Pine for Christmas’ event in order to help clear away the pine trees to enable the rest of the plants and vegetation to grow properly. Last year, over 2000 people cleared 17 football pitches of pine! In return for helping, you get to take away as many Christmas trees as you like! It’s a completely win win situation.

Non-RSPB members had to pay a £10 entry fee with members only paying £5. When you consider that even the smallest real Christmas tree will probably set you back £25 in the shops, this represented incredible value for money and you are helping with conservation at the same time.

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Snow and Sunset – what an amazing weekend away

This weekend we booked to go to the Brecon Beacons to celebrate my birthday. In light of recent events (Our Happy Place), we very nearly cancelled it but decided a change of scene would do us the world of good.

Before setting off (at stupidly early on a Saturday morning) we did a bit of research and decided that we would head to Merthyr Tydfil and then drive straight into the Beacons from there. The journey was super easy and we got to cross the Severn Bridge which none of us had done before.

RSPB Nature Reserve – Arne

One of the best discoveries we have made since moving to Dorset is the stunning RSPB Nature Reserve at Arne.  On site, there is a small RSPB office where you can sign up to a range of membership deals if you so wish. If you decide not to join the RSPB, car parking costs £2.50 for 2 hours and £5 for over 2 hours. I would say that 2 hours isn’t really long enough to fully appreciate the beautiful surroundings so would recommend the £5 option.

There are a number of different routes you can take through the reserve. We tend to take the red route as it is the quickest way through the forest. On the way, you are greeted with some lovely natural play areas which our little boy loves to explore.