Summertime is truly the best time to be a parent, which is why this weekend’s stupendous weather had me and Jack both leaping about like a pair of over-excited toddlers.

This was, in part, the impetus behind our early start and trip to the shops on Mother’s Day morning.

But with the great weather extending into the afternoon, the whole family felt it was our duty to pull on our wellies and go for a ramble across some of the local countryside.

For Jack, this was possibly the best thing we’d done all year. Not only does he love wellies and stomping about in the mud, he also loves miscellaneous outdoor adventures that indulge his three-year-old imaginative whims.

So, our walk began very much in the spirit of two of Jack’s favourite books: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and The Gruffalo.

As we scampered after each other across the grass and over turnstiles, we were feeling every bit at home in the fields. Quite the country bumpkins.

That was until we encountered a field of horses, which all too hastily revealed our collective fish-out-of-water attitude to unfamiliar, large animals. By we, I mean myself and Jack’s mum, who were only too keen to get behind the safety of the field fence as soon as the horses started trotting towards us.

However, Jack was entirely prepared to greet the horses. Sensibly (I think), I took the executive decision and scooped Jack up and made for the stile as quickly as I could.

Fortunately, any frustrations at not being able to meet the horses ‘head-on’, were soon laid to rest as we happened upon a fairly fast moving stream. After splashing around in it for a while, we decided to play a game of Pooh Sticks – a game named after loveable children’s character Winnie the Pooh.

The principle of Pooh Sticks is simple: each player finds a stick that will float, chucks it into a stream from a bridge and the winner is whoever’s ‘stick’ appears from under the other side of the bridge first. Jack loved this – not only did he get to poke around in the shrubbery and grass, but also got to chuck sticks into the water.

Unfortunately, all this playing saw the time fly and we had to go home. However, we have promised Jack we’ll be going back to the field very soon in the summer, and this is a prospect I’m more than looking forward to myself.