The Lawley

I have long been fascinated by the Stretton Hills but only really knew Carding Mill Valley as that's where my mum & dad used to take us as children. But since I have been geocaching and learnt to map read have felt more adventurous and yesterday I walked over the Lawley.

The above photo shows the Lawley next to his big brother Caer Caradoc - that's my challenge for next week! The hill in the background is the Wrekin - also on my list of hills to climb.

The Lawley is a perfect hill - that's the only way I can describe it. I loved the walk so much - I am definitely going back to do it again. The walk is a gentle and steady climb up a well defined path - only getting steep as you reach the summit - I just took my time here. I was lucky with the weather for November - there were blue skies and it was dry but very very windy - I thought I was going to get blown off the top as I was admiring the views.There is a short climb from the car park which leads you to here - the start of the walk over the Lawley - it looks a long way to the summit!

Getting a bit closer.

and closer still

The weather vane at the top

Gorgeous views in all directionsOh well I did have to fit in a little geocache on the top!On the way down - with Caer Caradoc in front and the Long Mynd over to your right

Scrapbook supplies

Well just because I cannot scrap at the moment does not mean I have forgotten all about it. I still think about it - about 50% of my waking time!, read about it and spend money on it!

I have this new book by Lisa Bearnson -

Its OK - I can't say its one of my all time favourites - but she has some nice ideas. I thought it would be family occasions to record but it seems a lot about ourselves and as I have done an A-Z about me (which I love by the way) not sure if I want to continue going on about me, when I have so many photos of everyone else to scrap.

Today I am reading through my new copy of Scrapbooks etc. mag - I really enjoy this magazine - I find it much better than the other USA magazines. I still prefer the Aussie mags but they are not so easy to get hold of.

I had 2 parcels delivered from QVC - Stamps from Prima craft hour last week - I am not a great stamper - in fact hardly ever use them - but these looked so good that I thought I would give them a try. The swirls stamps came with bling swirls - I have a layout in mind to use them on - Jessica's first ball at uni - she is going to her third soon - so I am a bit behind the times.
I managed to pick this Anna Griffin box set up in the QVC outlet shop for £12.99. It is a year album with all matching pages etc.


Not sure whether to do it for 2009 or look back over 2008 and in what context to do it - our family or me etc. I loved the album I did all about Liam last year - I like things being specific rather than general - I don't want to do another one of Liam just yet, as it is too soon and the Anna Griffin papers are not for boys at all. Mary Lou had one which she was doing at our crop which she has done beautifully.

So I have plenty to keep my mind ticking over scrapping wise until either I can get back into my craft room or I get a dinning table back.

Back into Wales again

Thelma & I were joined by Rachel today on our trip out. Rachel is a veteran walker and she geocaches with her husband and son - so we had a great time. We did 2 geocaches up in the muddy Welsh hills.

First was Long Mountain (GCM5EN) this was quite a way from where we had parked so was a stiff up hill walk, but the cache was located easily when we got there.

Sorry Rachel has her eyes shut on this pic - but I have just changed my camera setting from multiple photos to single shot because I was getting fed up of 3 photos of the same thing. But now I can see why I set it like that - at least with 3 I usually got one good photo!
The second one was a puzzle cache Redwoods Grove (GC1A4N2). This entailed a downhill walk - but as it was so muddy - this was quite tricky and afterwards we had to walk back up the hill again and back through the mud - I only fell over twice! We eventually found the clue for stage one - but it did not really make much sense - but once we followed the path around - we found something that did and we found the cache easily.

Rachel has 2 dogs and with Thelma's one - that was 3 dogs I had to contend with today. In fact they are all very well behaved and they can tell I don't like dogs so just tend to ignore me - thank goodness!
Goodness - just look at the size of me - I am nearly back to my pre-diet weight and nothing fits again. I can see the diet calling again after Christmas - well its silly to start before Christmas isn't it?

Another waterfall...

This time only a small one - Lightspout waterfall on the Long Mynd

It was such a beautiful day that I ventured out to Carding Mill Valley to do some geocaching ( I have got to do something to get me out of the house - this kitchen business is driving me around the bend!) You really would not believe that it is a November day. It was quite busy in the hills - everyone else must have had the same idea as me.

After I had done 3 geocaches at Stretton, I crammed in 10 more! One was quite memorable :- Shropshire Church Gems (Upton Cressett GC19R27). I had missed reading the word 'remote' in the blurb about it - and it was - but to get there you had to venture up a very very steep and winding narrow path and once you started there was no going back - so I had to do it - but I was very scared! Once I got there though - found a little gem of a church with 2 Elizabethan houses next to it - you could even see where their moats had been - bizarre.


Off to Wales again tomorrow to do a bit more geocaching - do you think the kitchen fairy may come while I am out?

wet & windy weekend

Steven took me away to Aberystwyth for my birthday weekend - it was quite wet and windy but we discovered some real geocaching gems so it was worth it.
I had a long list of geocaches to visit - in the end we managed 8, so have got plenty left for our next visit.

We decided to do Watery Wales - a series of 4 caches by lakes. We drove up high into the mountains - which was very scary as they were shrouded in mist and we could hardly see where we were going along single track roads. However once we had parked and walked a short distance came across our first gem -( Watery Wales 1 - Llyn Pendam GC10DXW) because we could not see it - Steven nearly fell into it!

All 4 were just gorgeous - this one was my favourite stretch of water (Watery Wales 1 - Llyn Rhosgoch GC10DY3) and I took quite a few photos but because it was so dull, they do not give the lakes their true justice. We are definitely returning in the summer.

This was the largest lake (Watery Wales 1 - Llyn Syfydrin GC10DXZ) and just look at the mountains behind it waiting to be explored.

fantastic waterfalls

It was my birthday today so I wanted to go out and do something special - so off to Phystal Rhyader waterfalls I went. They were gorgeous and because of all the rain we have had they were in full force.



I ate my lunch at the top of the falls.I did the geocache (Pistyll Rhaeadr (Nearly) GC62FC ) up on the mountain behind the falls and then celebrated my birthday - well I am not quite 50 yet! Will have to be more restrained next year!

After the cache I made the long hard hike up over Cader Berwyn - it was very steep but it was such a gorgeous day that I just had to do it. The clouds came down a bit at the top but it did not spoil the views.

I have a new cooker!

Yes Steven eventually got fed up of stirfry, slow cooker meals or takeaways that he decided that perhaps it was time he did something about the kitchen. So he said I could choose a new cooker for my birthday pressie.

Here it is -Rangemaster Toledo 110 - I have only had it for 2 days but it is so lovely to be able to cook again! I have made jacket potatoes - lovely & crisp and they did not take 3 hours to cook - like the old one and tonight have just made a lovely pasta bake. I am going to christen it with some cakes and buns tomorrow.

It has 2 full size ovens, separate grill, 4 hobs, 1 wok pan and one of my favourite features is the hot plate - I did not choose the cooker for this but it is really useful. It warmed the plates for tea up really nicely and kept Liam's tea warm for when he came in from his Volunteer session at the Hive.

With some decent food inside his belly Steven has been motivated, so he came home from work early this afternoon to take me to Magnet to order the kitchen units!