Night time photos - bit of practice - then we got it right!

I took hundreds of photos in Crete and am pleased to have discovered how to use the night time function on my camera.

This photo - clearly rubbish, was taken with me trying to stand still for the 5 seconds exposure time needed - obviously I couldn't do it - so the next night we took the Joby Gorilla tripod out with us and got these fantastic shots of the port using night time scenic mode.

We then went to the pool at the hotel and I tried to take this one of Steven - which did not work - he is the dark blob at the front - because we had kept the camera on night scene mode.

Once we changed it to night time portrait and set the timer so I could be in it we got this lovely shot of the two of us.
Going to use this night time setting again - but only when I have my tripod handy.

From 27 degrees to minus 2 in 4 hours....

Yes thats how long it took us to fly from sunny Crete to shivering snowy Britain!

We have been on holiday for 2 weeks, just sitting by the pool & swimming in the sea in Agios Nikolaos - it was lovely and this is how we left it yesterday afternoon - but what a shock when we arrived back to snow & frost - especially for Steven who still had his shorts on - silly boy!

Anyway the house was still standing - we left the 2 boys to their own devices - and they had done some laundry and put the dishwasher on.
We stayed (as usual) at the Miramare Hotel and this is why - the most gorgeous views from our room - turquoise seas surrounded by rugged mountains - heaven.
We had a very lazy holiday and did not do very much at all. Partook of a fresh orange juice and latte at our favourite cafe - the Sirroco by the harbour.

Did a little holiday reading - 7 books for me & 4 for Steven and I read through my scrapbook magazines about a hundred times - I can't wait to start scrapping some of these photos.

Had fun playing with my camera on night time mode - will post these tomorrow.

Give me shelter exhibition

Amongst the trees and wildlife of Attingham Park have sprung up some strange sculptures. They are part of a Give Me Shelter exhibition there and were very interesting to look at and examine.

This is a house / hut made of wooden branches, mud and clay pipes which allow light into the structure. Some visitors were quipping that this is what we may all be reduced to living in if the credit crisis continues!
We thought this one was a rather non descript shed until beady-eyed Steven noticed the natural light cover in the ground at the back of it - so on further investigation we found a beautiful wooden floor complete with trap door which lifted so show living accommodation below ground.

We could not get close to this one - but it looks like somewhere Fred Flintstone may have lived in.

Not sure who would want shelter here as it was made out of razor wire!

And some folks just carry their shelters with them all the time!

Autumnal Autum

We have just spent a gorgeous Autumn afternoon at Attingham Park. It was rather sureal being surrounded by conkers and falling leaves amid beautiful warm sunshine and blue skies. How strange that in October Steven would be out wearing T shirt & shorts!In celebration of the English apple - the orchards were open for the public to eat any of the apples on the trees. All the apples had gone from the lower reachable branches so Steven had to throw some windfalls into the trees to get some from high up. They were gorgeous and makes you never want to eat a crappy supermarket apple ever again. Wandering from the orchard we found a traditional walled garden - just like the secret garden. The produce was mostly finished now but you could see it had been very productive over the summer.

Now you see it - now you don't!

This is the sad story of my craft room - this is my craft area in full swing - creative mess and all - but Ross comes home next week and needs his space back - well it is his bedroom! so I have had to move out and this is what it looks like now. I am sure it will be back to messy again when all his stuff arrives back. Think I am going to use some creative thinking to get creative without anywhere to be creative in. Especially as Jessica and Eleanor come home after Christmas and will want to reclaim their bedrooms where I have stashed all my stash for now.
I will not let it beat me as I still have 18 layouts to do to reach my 104 target for the year (I am on 86 at the moment).

More photos of Shrewsbury

I took over 300 photos in and around Shrewsbury earlier in the week - don't worry I will not post them all - but have so many lovely views of Shrewsbury that just want to share the last few.Shrewsbury was defended by some strong town walls in Medieval times, but this tower and short bit of wall are all that remain of it now. We are surrounded by a river -the Severn which does a very good job of keeping people out of town when it floods!This beautiful building is Abbots house and used to be the grand home of my GP - but the surgery moved into purpose built out of town building a few years ago - which is ideal, but I do miss walking up the old creaky stairs in this place.There are many little passages and 'shuts' in and around town. This view is at the top of 'Grope Lane' - not sure if I want to know how it got its name!Shrewsburys famous son - Charles Darwin. He was born here and went to school here as his father was the local Doctor. His house is owned by the tax collecting department and despite many battles by the Council they have not been able to get the tax people to part with it to allow it to be opened up as a Darwin Museum. We have this fancy sign in front of a shopping arcade though! This is the library where Darwin went to school - it has been very well restored. Shrewsbury School is no longer housed here but in large grounds overlooking the Quarry (our park)

This avenue of trees is found in the Quarry.This house at the entrance to the Quarry houses the Horticultural Society which puts on the famous flower show in the park in August each year.

St Chads church overlooks the quarry and is rather lovely and is famous for being one of just a few round churches built.

This is the dingle inside the quarry and a delightful garden it is. The world famous Percy Thrower 9he made the blue peter garden) was head Gardner here for many years and my not so famous dad was one of the gardner's who worked here!

Unsuccesful day!

Oh dear - we did not have such smiley faces after this photo was taken!

Thelma & I went out for some geocaching along the Montgomery Canal near the Queens Head. The first cache was a puzzle cache (Beyond the Boneworks - GC1BG7V) and after working out the maths thought we had the spot for the final cache but could not find it, so moved on to the next one (Graham's Cache -GCTJC1) an hours walk away. This was a beautiful site for a cache next to a lock on the canal, but this was also a tricky cache but I was not going to be foxed twice so after a bit more searching eventually found it.

There are 3 of us on this photo because we bought along Cathy along to discover what we kept going on about, unfortunately she is not a walker and struggled on the way back, with her feet (bad shoes) hips and knees causing her a lot of discomfort and in the end was reduced to a hobble - poor thing - then the heavens opened and we got drenched!

Thelma went on ahead and bought the car back to pick Cathy up - but her car developed a flat tyre (we found a large nail stuck in it!) and we had to wait an hour for the AA to come and rescue us poor damsels - whilst we were freezing cold because we were wet. Then it cost her £150 for a new tyre!

So all in all not a good day and these photos were taken before we looked like drowned rats after the downpour. Thelma & I are not defeated - not sure if Cathy will want to come out with us again though!!

Proud Salopian Geocache.

Steven and I completed this geocache today (The Proud Salopian Cache -GCMP4C) what fun it was. It is a multicache which required us to visit different points around town to pick up clues to give us the final cache. We visited lots of different places which are so beautiful, that I thought that I would share some of these historic sites with you.

This is Rowley House mansion - used to be Shrewsbury Museum - but has now been sold to a private developer - so who knows what will become of it.

Some of many old timbered buildings in the town.This is the old Market Hall in the square - this is where trading was done in the olden days. It has now been beautifully restored and is now a cafe and cinema - which are both worth a visit. The cinema is fab and shows films which are not the usual blockbusters but other but equally worth watching films - we love watching the films here.

This old house is at the entrance to the castle.

This is our castle - I waited for ages - but the white van man would just not move!

The Bear Steps cafe with art gallery next door

I took so many photos around the town that I would like to show you - but far too many for today so will post these another day.

Our geocoins have been picked up!

I invested in some geocoins for me & Steven - because we love finding them in caches. I hope these 2 will travel far and not get lost.

I have also joined the Geocoins collectors club - I will be sent 2 coins each month - but will not receive my first coins until the November posting. They come from the USA and previous coins have been lovely so I am quite excited about this and really looking forward to setting off new coins each month.

This lovely coin is my Brecon Beacons geocoin (its huge!) and I set it off last week at Battlefield. It was picked up yesterday and is now residing in Snowdonia - yey!

This is Steven's coin - chosen because Eleanor is at Liverpool. Steven left his coin at Craven Arms last week and it has also been picked up and now resides in by Clee Hill. This is the other side of his coin.