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.

Craven Arms again

Following the lovely walk Thelma & I had around Craven Arms a few weeks ago - I dragged Steven along today for a walk and geocache. The weather was not as glorious and we did get caught in a shower on top of the hill at one stage. We saw some beautiful autumnal foliage.I planned a circular route starting from the Discovery Centre, up to Sallow Coppice - through the woods, then up to another wood and up the hill to View Edge. The down the other side ending up at Stokesay Castle. It was a great route and the journey took about 3 hours though we did stop for lunch. We managed 7 geocaches! but I only have these few photos to show as Steven gets cross if I am forever stopping to take photos.

Boys will be boys

Here is a lovely layout I have just managed to do using the Love Elsie - Toby papers.

It shows Liam sitting on the John Lennon Superlambanana in Liverpool, when we visited earlier this year. I was not sure what to call this layout until I found some quotes "boys will be boys" & "caught red handed" -so decided to go along the route of there being signs saying do not climb on these structures - and him ignoring this instruction. He is not impressed that I have chosen to show a criminal side of him - when he does not have a rebellious bone in his body! But all the scallys in Liverpool were climbing all over them so whats good for them is good for us!

The striped backing paper is the fabric paper called Cabana, the squares cut from the Toby paper. Domed embellishment all from Love Elsie. The chipboard journalling block is from Buzz & Bloom painted with acrylic paint and the 2 quotes are DCWV clear stickers.

It is layout 86 in my 104 target for 2008.

Normal service will be resumed - shortly!

Apologies for lack of blogging lately - we are living in chaos and am finding it difficult to do anything constructive in the house. Here is the reason why:-

The kitchen has been taken apart and trying to live like this is very difficult. My dinning table has become my make do kitchen.

My craft room work top is covered in more boxes of food and crockery. However the new kitchen has still not been ordered and I can see me struggling on like this for a while. On a positive not though the ceiling and coving have been painted!

So unfortunately scrapbooking has had to take a back seat - I do not have anything to share with you at the moment.

So this blog is taking a few weeks off until we are sorted. I hope to have a fantastic new kitchen to show you at some stage!