Enid Blyton IV - The Eileen Soper bit

This weekend we finally visited the last place on our Enid Blyton trail - 'Eileen Soper's Illustrated Worlds' in Poole. A sweet little museum dedicated to the illustrator of many of Enid Blyton's books. The museum has it's own mystery in the secret passage with a torch pen to hunt for clues. The little jammers loved it, particularly becasue of the darkness - very important in a mystery.

Once you've solved the mystery and emerge into daylight there are plenty of old fashioned scenes to play in. the jammers favourite had to be the caravan. emily Button made a friend and little Jam poured copious cups of tea inside

and out in the pretend camp. This is the kind of play my girls love and they would have been content for hours had we not dragged them off to see the rest.

Virtually all of it is hands on so they played the piano, typed on the typewriter, played shops (love those Avery scales) and explored the vintage toys and games.

I popped into the 'cinema' and watched a little film about Eileen Soper. I remember her illustrations from books I read as a child but didn't know anything about her and her amazing wildlife garden until now. She sounds like she was a fantastically eccentric woman!

 

In amongst it we remembered we were hunting for the final clue and found it hidden away. I love the fact that the trail has not been easy peasy and I struggled to spot one clue (I wont tell you which one)!

So clues all found we had a grid reference and luckily there was a map in the museum. Eldest Jammer told us where we needed to go to find the hidden postbox.

 Off we drove until...

 We finished the final stage on foot!

The baddies had been well and truly caught

and we posted our entries with a little help from our friend.

Now all we need to do is keep our fingers crossed.

I'll be back with some Emily Button news later in the week.

x

 

 

 



Enid Blyton III

Last week the little jammers and I had a treaty day out.

We embarked on what we thought was the final part of our Enid Blyton trail but to make it a bit more fun I decided we'd go by boat.

There's nothing quite like messing around on a boat so they say. So we caught the boat from Wareham Quay

and sailed off down the river

and watched it grow wider and wider





until we spotted Brownsea Island and realised we'd arrived in Poole Harbour.

This was our destination. We were heading to Poole Museum to collect our next clue. The eldest Jammer had been here before with a friend and kept telling me about the 1940's floor and how I'd love it.

She knows me well! I cooed over the shop and chemist but not the dentist.

I love these kind of old chemist drawers with the lettering and cut glass handles. I've bid on them at auction before but never rich enough to get lucky!

We admired the electric shoe driers!

 And then what she'd really been waiting for and I'd already heard all about. Take a peak through the window and you'll see she's made herself at home.

The 1940's kitchen!

We love and use lots of this kind of stuff at home and 12 years ago kitchenalia was what we were dealing in. So much went to Japan and America it was unbelievable.

 Luckily it was all very child friendly and the lady said they could put the apron on and get stuck in. And that is exactly what they did. They read the old recipe books and baked me Egg Mornay! They cooked imaginary biscuits and offered them to other bemused visitors.

I love the way role play is still one of their favourite forms of play.

I couldn't decide whether I loved the cooker or the chairs best.

The cooker would have looked perfect in our old kitchen a couple of houses back which was all cream and green '40's style.

I am pretty sure the kitchen was the highlight of their day. Shame they can't remember my version of it but then they wouldn't have got excited about it.

We ended up skipping the last clue as we didn't have time to do it justice. Something saved for another day.

Now I'm off to look for photos of my old kitchen. I have a feeling they may be pre digital but I'll post one on here if I find them.