Catching up with the family

We're doing well on weekends away the moment: this time we went to Stow, as did Rachel, David, Andy, Sam and Isabel. It was lovely to catch up with the littlies again. Sam is full of his own thoughts and opinions these days, while Isabel has just started to talk and tries to copy everything Sam does. Meanwhile Rachel and Dave were introduced to the delights of Apples to Apples in a hard fought match on Saturday night.
Among other things this weekend we went to the playbarn, where Sam and Issy tried out the slides:


And a roman villa, where there were snails:

Tim captured lots of photos of everyone - there are more on his Flikr page. This was a stray shot, which made me smile:

Another Welsh weekend

Another camping trip, this time to our usual campsite in the brecon Beacons. but this time we had company:

A mother duck and her ducklings came to say hello on the first morning we were there. It was a perfect opportunity for Tim to play with his new camera - more photos are on his flikr page.

After the ducks had gone we were joined by Andy, Catriona, Ian, Will and Emily. Here we all are Planning a Walk:

This is the Walk Tim and I did on Friday, and this is the group walk on Saturday. It was all topped off with a trip to a cave/dinosaur park on the Sunday - bizarre but good fun!

All in all a good weekend. Next stop will be the Peak District in two weeks time for another camping extravaganza...

Weekend walking

This is the Walk Tim and I did today - again, aiming for a faster pace than usual. It snowed in Bedfordshire today, so keeping going wasn't a problem as it was too cold to stop for long! Highlights of today's walk included a fishing competition with lots of very serious anglers at regular intervals along the canal and a very chilly tea break stop afterwards at the Bridgewater Monument.

I promise the next post will have some photos to liven this up a bit!

...and relax...

I have just discovered the delights of a good massage. I was given a gift voucher for my local beauty salon for my birthday, so on Saturday I headed off for a back and shoulder massage, facial, manicure and pedicure. All I can say is bliss! How have I managed to live this long without discovering the delights of a massage? I hadn't realised how tense I was until afterwards. I'm heading back in a month or so...

Weekend walking

We're still trying to get fit for the coast to coast walk this summer. This weekend we went for a Walk around our local reservoir - not a long walk, but our aim was to walk steadily, at a faster pace than usual. We did 7 miles in two hours which is what we were aiming for, then sauntered the last little bit back to the car (and adjacent tea shop).

Easter Fun, Part 2

I know, Easter was a couple of weeks ago, but I'm still catching up!

After the visit of the littlies, Catriona and Ian came over to spend Easter with us. We exchanged chocolate, ate roast lamb and a very nice ginger parfait, and played lots of board games. We also managed a quick trip to Burghley House for a wander round the scuplture garden. Apart from a few hail showers, it was beautiful spring weather and I played with the camera again:

Easter Fun, part 1

Fun things to do when you visit Uncle Tim and Auntie Elspeth:



1. Run straight through the dining room and on through the kitchen, then back again, and again, and again - there are no stairs in the way like at home!



2. Slide down the staircase on your bottom or tummy



3. Help Elspeth make Hot Cross Buns



4. Help Tim play his tuba:

Practising with the camera

We went to visit my Aunt today, at the same time as Mum and Dad were there, so we had a family outing to the local National Trust house, The Vyne. I've been inspired by this site to try to take more photos, so I spent my time behind the camera. Annoyingly, most of my photos came out slightly blurred (I need to get the hang of allowing the camera to auto-focus before I press the button), but here are a few which worked:





I also tried to get family shots, but my family don't pose! I did get this one, though which I'm quite proud of:


Caught in the act of fish-spotting!

A perfect day

We got up at seven and left the house by eight, headed up the motorway and were Walking by half past ten. It was cold but the surroundings were beautiful, and there was even snow on the tops:

Our path took us up a rocky scramble through the snow:

Once on the top, our original plan of heading across the moor had to be shelved. The clouds had come right down, and even if you took a bearing there were no landmarks to head towards. So instead we headed along the ridge with amazing views out over the valley below:

We stopped for lunch on a rocky outcrop to shelter from the wind. The warm soup was very welcome! Finally a muddy path led us back down to the valley, with views over the hills where we'd been walking:

We rounded it all off with a nice cup of tea!

Life doesn't get much better than this.

Autumn is here

If you walk slowly and look around you, Bedfordshire is actually quite beautiful. Autumn is definitely here!










The walk took us past Woburn safari park, showing that some parts of Bedfordshire also contain elephants...

A cheap weekend

A while ago Tim, along with the rest of his team, was given a bonus for exceptional work on a contract. This bonus was given with the condition it should be used to take your husband/wife/partner/family out for dinner. So this weekend we headed up to Rutland to the King's Arms Hotel for a night away and a very nice dinner - all paid for by someone else, which was rather nice. It looks like the next few weeks will involve both of us going away with work, so it was lovely to spend a relaxing weekend together.

Relaxing? Well, Saturday was. On Sunday we decided to Walk all the way around Rutland Water. There were several reasons for this:

1) We'd cycled around it before so knew the route,
2) It was a nice Autumn day and we wanted to make the most of it,
3) We're planning on walking to coast-to-coast walk next year, so need to build up our stamina on longer walks.

Longer walks? We didn't count up the miles before we set out so are feeling very proud of our 18.3 mile loop! We're also feeling very achy in our legs, and poor Tim has blisters on his toes from his walking shoes. But overall we're impressed with ourselves - it was a long, but relatively easy walk and the weather and views were lovely.

Good clouds, aren't they?

I'm looking forward to a relaxing day in front of a computer screen tomorrow!

The big three-zero

This is me at the age of thirty - I think I still look pretty good... of course, the curls hide the grey quite nicely, which is good!

Yes, this weekend I celebrated a big birthday. One of my friends at work told me that turning thirty-one is much worse, so I've got that to look forward to now! To celebrate we headed back down to Reading for some nostalgia, and a bit of swinging through the trees at the local Go Ape course:

Afterwards we headed into Reading and had a meal out, which clashed with the rugby. Still, it sounds like we didn't miss much...

Thank you to everyone who came, or sent a text or an e-mail or a card. I had a lovely day and don't feel too old. Seriously, every now and again I think 'I CAN'T be that old', but then I think about everything I've done so far and where I am in my life right now, and I realise I'm pretty happy. And who can ask for more than that?

Here's to the next thirty years - may they be as fun-filled and enjoyable as the last!

A weekend of amusements

Thursday was a busy day at work for both of us, so it was nice to have Friday off and go on a boat trip. Saturday was spent relaxing at home, then off to St Albans in the evening to watch Bellowhead, who are even better live than they are on their albums. Then Sunday was spent with the newspapers and a quick walk around some 'arable uplands' (the book's description) of Bedfordshire.

All in all, a pretty good weekend. Oh, and Tim bought some new fish which may also make an appearence on here at some stage...

A weekend away

This weekend we went back to our favourite campsite, Pencelli Castle near Brecon. We met up with the usual crowd - see above - and spent our time drinking tea/beer (see above), gossiping, playing with Isabella (see below) and playing cricket (also below). We went for a Wet Walk on Saturday to see the waterfalls, but I'm afraid it was too wet to get the camera out - shame, as the waterfalls were looking rather impressive due to all the rain!



Tim and I are now counting down to our holiday - two whole weeks off work, the longest since our honeymoon! We're planning on spending some time in the Lake District, then we're off to Malta for a week for some relaxation and sunshine. Only four more days of work to go...



Anyway, back to the weekend just gone. Tim tries out his cricket stance, while Sam is wicket keeper:
Tim entertains Isabella - or should that be the other way round?
And Chris parties with the burgers:

A nice weekend

While half of the UK is under a large amount of water, we had a very nice weekend in Bedford. Well, Tim got wet on Saturday but he was in Hitchin, so it doesn't count. Anyway, on Sunday morning we decided it was too nice to stay indoors and set off on a Walk from the front door. One of the nice things about our house is that the river is only 2 minutes walk away, and you soon get away from the houses and out into the countryside (see above). I should point out that I took this photograph - apparently if you ar Tim's height you can see houses and power lines above the crops!

Through the wonders of google, you can see our route here.

It may have been a short walk, but we enjoyed spending some time together, talking about all sorts of things, and admiring the wildlife, including lots of butterflies:



Now this one is a Tim-photo!

Not so successful...

This afternoon Tim and I decided to try out the permanent orienteering course in the local forest - we've had the map for a while and wanted some fresh air and a bit of exercise. Two things hampered this plan slightly:

1. For an allegedly permanent course, there were no posts/markers to be seen. Tim and I are both proficient enough at reading a map to be sure we were at the correct locations, but nowhere did we see any sign of a letter to fill in on our sheet.

2. It rained. Heavily. Only once we were far enough away from the car that we got very wet on the way back. Did I mention that we didn't bother to take any waterproofs? This did curtail our search for markers, so perhaps point number 1 is not comlpetely correct!

So not quite as active an afternoon as we had hoped for. Never mind - there's always next weekend. If anyone knows any other permanent courses then let us know as we'd love to try again some time!