EAST Hampshire is offering a host of unique events, activities and opportunities for treating mum this year.

From cream teas on a steam train to glamping in a shepherd’s hut, there is something for everyone to enjoy this Mothering Sunday (March 11).

For those who enjoy gardening and floristry, the grounds at Chawton House will be open on Sunday (February 25) for the annual National Garden Scheme Snowdrop Day, while on Friday, March 9, there will be an opportunity to attend a spring hand-tied bouquet floristry workshop with the owner of Orchard Flowers.

On March 6 and March 13, there will be rose-pruning workshops, while an exhibition of ‘Pens, Paintbrushes and Pioneers: Portrait of a Woman Writer’, based around the portraits of pioneering women writers Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Mary Robinson, Maria Graham and Jane Austen, running from March 5-21.

For more details, visit chawtonhouse.org.

* If history is the key to your mum’s heart, the unique experimental archaeological site at Butser Ancient Farm at Chalton, near Petersfield, will provide a great opportunity to step back in time to prehistoric Britain. Open from 2pm-4pm on Mother’s Day, visitors can walk through prehistoric houses and enjoy the warmth of the crackling fire while the surrounding landscape begins to wake up for spring.

There will be activities for children, and afternoon tea will be served in the Iron Age roundhouse. Spaces are limited.

For more details or to book, visit butserancientfarm.co.uk or call 023 9259 8838.

* Or you could go back in time to the heady days of steam, taking a traditional cream tea while travelling on the historic Mid-Hants Watercress Line. The Mother’s Day cream tea train departs Alresford station for Alton at 2.40pm.

For more details, visit

watercressline.co.uk.

* Get a taste of country house living with Sunday lunch at historic Langrish House, near Petersfield, or enjoy afternoon tea and a spa break at Champneys Forest Mere Spa.

For adventurous mums, there is an opportunity to experience a special sleepover on March 10 at the home of 18th Century pioneering ecologist and author Gilbert White in Selborne. Children can bring their mums along to an exciting evening of nature activities at the Gilbert White Field Studies Centre and sleep in the heated 16th Century barn.

For more details, visit gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk.

* Or you can treat mum to a stay in a shepherd’s hut or camping pod at the award-winning Two Hoots adult-only site nestling in beautiful countryside near Alresford. Shepherd’s huts have their own washroom and toilet with well-equipped kitchen, as well as log-burning stove and electric heating for year-round cosiness. The eco-friendly camping pods provide a great alternative to a tent, with full insulation to provide a cosy, warm environment.

For more details, visit twohootscampsite.co.uk.

* If environmental sustainability is your thing, the Sustainability Centre at East Meon offers courses and workshops in how to create your own willow sweet pea baskets, learn all about bushcraft survival (overnight course), kitchen gardening, cordial making using hedgerow ingredients, starting your own medicine chest from foraged herbal finds, and furniture painting.

For more details, visit sustainability-centre.org.

* Other places to visit include National Trust properties at Hinton Ampner, near Alresford, (nationaltrust.org.uk

/hinton-ampner) and Uppark, near Petersfield (nationaltrust.org.uk/

uppark); Birdworld at Holt Pound (birdworld.co.uk); and Jane Austen’s House

Museum at Chawton, which will be marking the 200th anniversary of the publication of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk).