6th August 2009 - our first tomatoes

We have just been able to start picking the tomatoes grown in the hanging basket in the garden.

Not surprisingly with all the sun & rain we have had this year we have a bumper crop from just 2 plants. They taste sweet & juicy - so much nicer than the mass produced supermarket ones - hopefully these should see us through till September.

5th August photo - geocaching at Llangollen & Graigfechan

Today T and I spent a fab day out geocaching in Wales. We were so lucky with the weather - blue skies and sunshine all day - summer has returned! We started off at Llangollen doing a few caches around there.

This is the view from high up on a hill of a very old Abbey - I don't know whats its called - but I think well worth a return visit to see it close up.

These are the Horseshoe Falls - a man made creation to divert the water from the river into a nearby Thomas Telford canal. It was stunning here - I could have stayed and soaked up the view for ages - but we had caches to find!

This next photo does not show what I wanted to show - we were here doing a cache called 5 bridges - because there are 5 bridges here - but I could not get them all in. It looked good in real life though, because 4 of them criss crossed over each other..

This is the 5th one - a footbridge over the river from the railway station to the hotel - it would be an idyllic spot to stay right next to the river.

Then we headed up the Horseshoe Pass - a windy road high up in the mountains but with a huge cafe at the top - I think it must qualify for the highest cafe in Wales award! I was very excited because I had never been here before. After a picnic lunch where we sat admiring the gorgeous views, we did 2 caches - one was called 'bikers & bolshy sheep' - because it is a motor bikers heaven up here - they love tearing around the bends and the sheep are very wise to picnickers - like us and come over to join in with your lunch!

Then we drove to Graigfechan - a small village but with some lovely woods were quite a few caches had been set up. This one was in a spooky cave - which we had to battle through the undergrowth to find the entrance - I have cuts & scratches all over my legs & arm snow - but it was worth it once we got inside.

(Sorry photo is blurred - camera slipped off the right setting - in fact I think it was on the wrong one all day as the colours in all these photos are really pants - when really they were bright & vibrant - will I ever learn to keep checking?!)

One cache was called Goldilocks and the 3 bears - and we had to find a cache each for mama, papa & baby bear which then led us to the final cache - the 3 bears house. This tumble down tiny cottage was a real find in the woods - don't know what it was for - but it was cute and this was T's 500th cache find - so congratulations to her!.

It was quite late when we set off home - but we stopped back in Llangollen for one more cache so we did not end up on no.13 We found a nice easy cache by the Motor museum - so 14 caches in all - not bad and lots of walking and fab new sights. I spotted this sign here which made me chuckle!

There was a lovely red sky here - but as usual my photos don't do it justice - it was so intense.


Then I pestered her to stop for just one more photo here outside the railway station - a beautiful shiny Welsh Harp - which actually looks nice in the evening light.

So a great day out in Wales again - its our favourite caching destination.

4th August photo - Cathy & I walking over Haugmond Hill

Today Cathy & I visited Haugmond Hill and had a lovely walk over it - our only disappointment was that the cafe where we were planning to have our lunch was not open! Must remember not to visit on a Monday or Tuesday next time. I think this photo of me & Cathy will be my POTD.

The weather was mixed - certainly not a sunny summers day - our waterproof coats kept coming off and on according to the showers and temperature.

The woods on the hill were lush and green - because of all the rain we have had lately.

They have opened a new viewing platform over the quarry next to the hill which was really interesting as I have never seen it in action before. The quarry is going to be closed in 2020 - when this big hole in the ground will be filled in with water and the area managed as a nature reserve.



Just some interesting fungi on a rotten tree stump.

3rd August photo - at the hairdressers

Today I have been and had my short hair cut even shorter! My hairdresser Sonia has been cutting my hair since I was 20 - so a very long time - crikey 30 years!!

She has become a very good friend and we talk about 60 to the dozen when we get together. She has 3 lovely children - all the same age as my 3 eldest ones, so mostly chat is about the delights and tribulations of them - occasionally we talk about our hubby's. They got a mention today as it was her 34th wedding anniversary on Sunday - a day after ours.

2nd August photo - these are our anniversary flowers

I thought these gerberas were so bright and cheerful that I had to buy them for Steven for his anniversary flowers - he does like them too. He said they were bright & cheerful just like me !!!! NOT!!!

Think my POTD will be this first close up - but I do like the whole bunch photo as well.

1st August photo - our wedding anniversary

Today is our 28th wedding anniversary! I am a very lucky girl as I still adore him.

Today's photo is of the cards we sent each other. We exchanged some nice flowers and sweeties & chocolates. Ohh and I got 2 lovely bars of my favourite L'Occitane soap!

31st July photo - apparently I am the biggest geek of all!

Well thats what Jessica thinks because I got so excited yesterday when this arrived in the post.

It is a CLICK FREE 500 GB external hard drive. (this is my POTD)


I have this thing about backing up my data - Its a bit of an obsession really. I already have 2 x 500 GB hard drives - one for my lap top and one for the desk top PC. But I still felt the need for another - hence this new one. The girls both have the older smaller version of it and they are so easy to use - it does what it says on the tin - you just plug it in and it automatically backs up with out me having to do anything.

This is the screen you see when you plug the USB cable in

And this is the screen that came up after it had backed everything up without me doing anything - it is so clever.


Its back ups are incremental as well, so after the first full back up - it only backs up new things that have been added or changed. It has a little button on the side - so if you leave it plugged in all the time - you just press this button and it backs up - handy when I am doing lots of work.

So its official - I am a geek - just spent the whole of this blog writing and getting excited about a piece of computer hardware.