Archive for March, 2009

Stop Press from Old Macdonald’s Farm

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

qa.jpgjoey-march-09.jpgpicnic-table.jpgimages.jpgElsewhere on these webpages you can learn all about our Spring and Easter programmes, but we thought we would just give you the very latest from here in Brentwood.

First of all, to add to our superb achievement of winning the East of England Tourist Board Award for Excellence for our environmental policies, Old Macdonald is delighted to tell you that his farm has been awarded the Quality Assurance Standard from Visit England, the national tourist board! This reflects the service that you, our customers, deserve and we are proud to provide. So you can rest assured, next time you come here you will receive the very best in a value for money leisure day out.

Secondly, and this is most exciting of all, we have a baby Joey in his mother’s pouch and Old Macdonald has finally managed to get a decent photo for you, as you can see above! Mum and bouncing baby, in every way, are doing very well. We also have dozens of lambs, kids, and also have just received some new friends for you in a donkey named Noddy, and his pals goats and sheep!

Finally for today, our new picnic tables are all around the farm, and we show an example here so when you come and are worn out from the fun and excitement you are experiencing, all quality assured!, you can sit and enjoy refreshments in one of these fun seating areas!

So, hot from the press or whatever equivalent the internet has, that is the latest news!

One Great Weekend Coming Up in June

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

farm-photos-john-labor-024-2.jpgfarm-photos-john-labor-022-2.jpgfarm-photos-john-labor-019.jpgfarm-photos-john-labor-003-2.jpgfarm-photos-john-labor-013.jpgJune 7th is Open Farm Sunday, and Old Macdonald’s Farm will be joining in this event where many traditional farms open their doors and admit the public, and whilst we always do that (or we would not last long in this business) for June 7th we are running a special petting day where we will focus on your farmyard friends just a little more.

Our sheep, goats, ducks, chickens and pigs will be available for you to meet even closer than usual, and you can learn about farming and cereal crops too as you visit us on that day. We always hope to be educational and fun, and June 7th will be no different, but we will add even more of a flavour of the farmyard to the day and join with our colleagues all around the country so hope you will join us for this special event. You will still find more unusual animals here, such as the Alpacas and Meerkats (and Alpacas are farmed in Britain anyway as you will learn) and have lots to do such as the Adventure Bridges and other entertainments, but learn about farming with us.

Plus there is another reason why you should put us in your diary for Open Farm Day because it coincides with our Local Heroes Day where we welcome staff from the Fire Service, the Police and the First Responders who will come and meet you and let us all climb into fire engines and sound police sirens! More about all this to come soon.

However there is even more for our visitors on this first weekend in June, when the summer will start in earnest (and we hope Ernest does not mind too much) because on June 6th we will enjoy another visit from Mr Punch and his long suffering, but feisty in this version, wife Judy with a modern take on a very traditional show. So come to the farm in June when our superb value for money day out will actually be unbeatable (as is Judy in this show too!)

As Others See Us- So will you see us this Spring?

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

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The great Scottish Poet, Robert (Rabbie) Burns, whose life is being celebrated this year on the 250th anniversary of his birth, wrote, “O wad some Power the gift tae gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us! ” which translated (by me to make it rhyme) means “If someone gave the gift to free us, to see ourselves as others see us.” Well thanks to the Internet we can relate how others see us, with the following article and the photos above from the website of the Royal Association for the Deaf. Read on and see why we are so pleased with the wonderful day out they enjoyed, and we hope other school parties and community groups will come and have an enjoyable, and educational, time too.

Now Spring and the weather, touch wood, is good, come and see us and enjoy a great value day out in the Essex Countryside, just outside London.

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Picture yourself on our farm this Easter

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

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Old Macdonald is always looking for ways to make this great value day out for families in Essex even more fun, and has found eggsactly the right thing for Easter. To add to the popular Easter Egg Hunt, from Good Friday right through to Bank Holiday Monday, you can now have your picture taken by professionals for a bargain price!

As you can see from these examples, Photographic Synergy have set up a special open air studio here at the farm and are snapping away. Here are some of our happy visitors, and two of our friendly staff who sneaked in to get their pictures taken with one of our real live Easter Bunnies (the rabbit is the one in the middle in case you are confused). We have also got a photo of the lovely Laura and Larry the gorgeous goat who thinks he is a dog and is named after a lamb! They can both be found walking around the farm every day. Plus as well as the photos taken at the farm you can enter a competition for a Home Photography Shoot worth £500!

Just another reason to visit Old Macdonald’s Farm this Easter School Holiday period, and whilst the Easter Egg Hunt is just over the bank holiday weekend, the photo shoot is every day right up to the end of the school holidays so come along and do not miss out!

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Treat Mum on Mother’s Day March 22nd

Friday, March 6th, 2009

spring-lambmum-08.jpgotters-pair.JPGgirl-feeding-goat.jpgfarm-photos-john-labor-009.jpgBring Mum to Old Macdonald’s Farm in Brentwood, Essex, on Mother’s Day and we will treat her to a relaxing cup of tea in our cafe whilst you explore the farm and enjoy all our activities. Your mother deserves a rest and you deserve a great day out here on the farm, where in addition to meeting our fabulous collection of farmyard favourites you can also see exotic animals such as the Meerkats, Otters and Wallabies, and also enjoy leisure attractions such as the Caterpillar Roller Coaster, Snake Slide and fabulous Carousel.

To keep you active you can bounce along on our trampolines and inflatable castles, or play in the Construction Site Sandpit and run on the Adventure Walk. Then you can pop indoors and shoot your pals in the Barn Battles, or become King or Queen of the Castle on our Climbing Frames, indoor and outdoor.

We have lots of our own Mums here on the farm, with lambs, goat kids,  baby Meerkats, baby bunny rabbits and many more, including our first Joey born to the wallabies on the farm, still in his mother’s pouch.

So you can play and pet the animals, whilst Mum puts her feet up and enjoys the refreshing cuppa char! Every day is great at Old Macdonald’s Farm, but this will make Mother’s Day that little bit better! We hope Mum will also take some time to play with you too, and of course pet the animals herself!