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!

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.