Right I have calmed down a bit now...

so will try and catch up on some photos.

Monday 12th May photo is this

Steven & I went Geo caching to Snailbeach - to do the puzzle cache around the lead mine there (Snailbeach Lead Mine GCQ9A2 ). Thelma - a fellow Shropshire Lass lives there and so does Pat - who wanted to know more about geocaching - I think she may be hooked now! We we made a nice little group wandering around the site. We found all 6 clues and the final cache. We left a Taz travel bug which I had found earlier in the day, when I had gone out geocaching by myself. Afterwards we went to Pat' s house - about 100 yards away from the cache and spent the rest of the evening chatting - Pat's husband Matt is a real entertainer - and admiring the view - it was a really lovely way to spend a beautiful summers evening.
Tuesday 13th May photos is this - my new toy!
I bought this on Tuesday- its a remote for my Nikon DSLR camera. I do like my new Panasonic camera but still like to use my DSLR sometimes and want to be in some of the photos of the geocache finds - but the self timer is a bit dangerous as Thelma and I have found out over the rocks on The Stiperstones!

I could not get it to work - so I rang Jessops up and said I think you have sold me a faulty one - the chap asked me if I had set my camera to remote settings - oops - I had not - so after I had fathomed out how to do this it worked fine. Trouble is - its very small - just hope I don't loose it.

Today's photos for Wednesday 14th May are these - my lovely yellow box of loveliness which has just arrived. I do like these monthly kits - though I must admit I don't use them very much - I have set myself a challenge to use them more often when I start scrapping again after this marathon photo organisation thing. Stacy Julian calls it photo Freedom - at the moment it does not feel like it - I am drowning under mountains of photos - but hopefully when I am organised and not broke after all these photo sleeves I have had to buy - I should enjoy the photo freedom she describes and have tons of photos to scrap - so therefore plenty of opportunity to use up all my kits.

Just to prove I am not exagerating here is my photo mountain - 3 weeks in and still more albums on shelves to add as well.

AAGGHHHHH!!!!!

First of all no laptop and then no Internet!!

We came back Monday evening from a lovely evening walk with friends and the Internet was completely dead. Tried again Tuesday morning - still dead - so contacted AOL and they said they were doing maintenance on the line - it was out all day. Got up this morning - now Wednesday and still no Internet - so contacted AOL again and they said the maintenance was finished so I should be able to connect - I could not! As my router was not an AOL one he could not help me any further until I put the AOL approved one on - this I have done and can get online on this main computer but not on any of the laptops - steam is coming out of my head I am so mad. I would change to BT but they have download limits and Liam downloads so much stuff he would have exceeded that in one night so I am stuck with AOL unfortunately and now will have to pay for my computer man to come out and fix it.

I had really hoped to post my daily photos each day throughout May but I can't now. Will try and catch up with the last few days that have been missed.

11th May photos more geocaching - sorry if this is getting boring - scrapping will resume shortly!

Despite it being a gorgeous day today we could only do one quick geocache today as Steven had to stay in all day glued to the telly for a big football match today - gawd I hate football. I did some more sorting out photos, but have run out of 6x4 sleeves and need a few 4x4 for old photos so I can feel another order to Arrow file coming on!

Anyway we trotted off to Haugmond Abbey (Haughmond Abbey Survives To Fight Another Day GC1A1Q6) this evening to find the cache there. The last 3 people have been unable to find it, but the owner checked yesterday and confirmed it was still there. I could not find it - but eagle eyed Steven did! he is much better at this lark than me. He was determined not to leave until he had found it. Excellent cache, when eventually found.
The Abbey was closed but we were able to get this nice photo of the ruins and also found this quaint little stone house in the woods - have no idea what is is for as they was no info next to it. But it clearly was very old.

Afterwards we went to for tea at Nandos - had lovely chicken, chips and coleslaw - very tasty. We dragged Liam along as he had not left his bedroom for 3 days, teenage boys are far too addicted to their computers these days. Though I am sure I would be worrying about him if he was off out & about and I did not know where he was! Anyway I bribed him with the promise of a meal out, he was very miffed that we had to geocache first - I had neglected to tell him that bit until we were in the car - so he sat and sulked and would not help us look at all - but did cheer up after he had been fed.

10th May photos - baking days!

Well not very exciting photos today - but delicious to eat! The top photos are fruit scones and their was another batch still in the oven when I took this photo - the recipe is very generous. The cake is a sticky apricot & almond cake and it is gorgeous. Anyway these should keep the troops happy for a few days!

I am having a home day today - loads of washing, ironing, cleaning, weekly shop and baking.

I really want to be sorting out my photos, but too much housewife stuff to do. Perhaps tomorrow?

9th May photo - more geocaching

Todays photo shows another day out geocaching with Thelma. We went back to the Stiperstones and found 2 more - 1 at Cranberry Rock and the other at Nipstone. No travel bugs at either sadly.

Thelma & Molly

Our heads are nearly cut off because we used the self timer on the camera!

Again stupid faces because we were not sure if the self timer was working! Not our best shots!

8th May 2008 and I have no computer again!

I am so mad my laptop has died on me again!

I have had it home for about 2 months this time and all has been well - when out of the blue for no reason - it just failed again. Its the same problem as before - the graphics card. This is the 4th failure in as many months and to put it mildly I am really cheesed off. The warranty runs out in October and as it keeps failing there is no reason to suppose it will sort itself out by then - so I can see that I am going to be computer-less come October.

A word of warning - don't ever buy a Fujitsu Siemens computer (our Sony & HP ones seem to be much more reliable).


Anyway enough of that - today's photo - is a very rare photo of Ross - he never lets me take any of him, but he passed his driving test today (4th attempt!) so he knew he would have to let me take one. Not a particularly good photo as he wanted to dash back to work at PGL so it was a very rushed photo session.(it lasted 1 whole minute as he got into the car and drove away!)


Its a bitter sweet moment. I am so pleased for him to have passed his test, its been a very frustrating time, as he is a very good driver, but has had the examiner from hell the last 3 times - he failed last time because he took the 3rd turning at a roundabout instead of the 4th exit even though everything else was fine. But my brother was killed at the age of 18 in a car crash due to his own inexperience, so I am rather nervy at the thought of Ross being out on the road on his own now. We would not pay for his lessons until now - he is 22 - when we thought he had the maturity to drive. Trouble is, its not always the fault of you on the road - there are plenty of other nutters about!


I am going to miss that little Ka though. We bought him the car at Christmas and hoped he would be driving it much sooner than now. So I have been using it everyday and I love it. I much prefer it to my huge Nissan Primera - it was great when we had 4 children at home but now it is just me out & about - it is too big and uses too much petrol. We have got to get Jess driving in the summer so think we will be investing in another Ka for her so I should get chance to drive one again soon.

7th May photos and a glorious day out

I have had a lovely day today - went out with Ali & her mum, Cherida, to Horseshoe Crafts, at Ellesmere. I wanted some Penny Black stamps - so I have bought 2 and hope to use them to make lots of cards.

I also picked up some Stickles glitter glue, Penny Black stickers - never seen these before
and some inks & 4 sheets of 12x12 papers.

After visiting this craft shop we stopped of at the mere at Ellesmere. It was a beautiful sunny day so it was really enjoyable to sit by the lake and watch all the geese, swans and ducks.