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!

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).