Our Holiday

Looking back, I've not posted since last time we went to Wales - to buy my new tuba (which is still big and still shiny). Seems about time then to tell you about our holiday to Snowdonia a couple of weeks ago. We've settled on a mini tradition of having a few days away over our anniversary (three years...), and with tackling the coast to coast walk later in the year, we decided we needed a bit more walking than Bedfordshire had to offer, so away we went for a week in North Wales.

We camped at a lovely site at Llyn Gwynant, which was very peaceful - camped next to a little river flowing down to the lake, with no cars allowed on the field we chose, and indeed no people sharing our field for the midweek nights. Campfires and one-burner dinners: good stuff!

Mostly we walked: a slightly busy Cadair Idris on the bank holiday, setting the pace for the week in terms of the weather;

Carnedd Dafydd and Llewelyn, the next highest hills after Snowdon;

a demanding and fulfilling scramble up Tryfan;

and a walk in the Snowdon foothills around Beddgelert on the one day there was cloud on the tops: we met some local widlife.

We never climbed Snowdon itself - I think after the beautiful day on Cadair, the majesty of the Carnedds and the brutality of Tryfan we didn't feel the need to go up the biggest one of all. We did allow ourselves a day off to go on the Welsh Highland Railway (Elspeth's choice) and wander around Caernarfon Castle (mine).

We also had a really nice meal on our anniversary at this bistro in Betws y Coed which we'd thoroughly recommend to anyone going that way.

I am very thankful to various family members who have contributed to my birthday present - a Pentax DSLR - which I have been beginning to learn over the holiday and since - expect some more photo posts from me, and I'm always interested in hearing people's views, so comment away. I think this one is my favourite so far - probably because it's a big picture of Elspeth :-)

All in it was a really good holiday, and we're very looking forward to upcoming camping weekends in Brecon and the Peak District with friends, and to our two week walk in September! I am extremely proud of Elspeth for tackling Tryfan the way we went up - it was a challenge well surmounted - well done love.

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:

A little bit of culture

Just a selection of the music in our house at the moment - this all belogs to me, but Tim is also busy practising for the Area contest coming up in couple of weeks time. Today I am off to Woburn Church to sing in a concert with Acoustic Triangle, a jazz trio. Then next weekend I'm performing in the Messiah in Bedford - three local chamber choirs are joining together to perform it. At the same time Tim will be competing in the areas, playing a piece called 'Dark Side of the Moon', described as the 'marmite of band test pieces'!

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!

Spring is coming...

... and we have the flowers to prove it. It's been a lovely sunny day here, though still rather cold. Tim, a man who is always warm, is refusing to let me use him as my hot water bottle. I think this is very selfish of him - after all, he gets a hug out of it, even if he's shrieking from the feel of my icy hands so can't enjoy it!

In other news, we spent a week in Whistler skiiing - very good fun. So much fun in fact that we didn't take any pictures as we were too busy. To give you a tester, this is a photo from the week we were there, on one of the runs we did fairly regularly. Lots and lots of lovely powdery snow - yum.

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.

Getting older

I've just turned thirty, not fifty. Shame the junk mail senders don't know that...

New Year

We spend a lovely New Year with Hilary, Henry and Isabella in the South Downs. Note my new hat in the above shot :-) Oh, and the nice view.

When we weren't out walking, Isabella kept us all entertained. Having recently started walking she was very keen on wearing her "shoo shoos". In the photo below she's trying on my and Tim's boots for size...

Winter walks

Tim has now come down with the cold, so has been curled up on the sofa with lemsip for the last couple of days. Before the bugs hit, we'd planned to fit in a good Walk today. This got downgraded to a Stroll around Anglesey Abbey which has a beautiful winter garden, but was just as enjoyable as a walk would have been. Annoyingly, the camera ran out of battery power after three photographs. Never mind - we'll just have to go back later in the spring when the snowdrops are out!

Christmastime

Christmas day 2007

Tim and I had a lovely day together this Christmas. We cooked (and ate) far too much food, listened to lots of radio and unwrapped our presents together. Lovely :-)

Deck the halls with boughs of holly

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

(sniff).

Yes, just in time for Christmas I've come down with a cold. Tim has been lovely all day, putting up with me moping around and feeling sorry for myself. We wandered into town this morning for a nice cup of tea and cake in our favourite coffee shop, feeling smug that we'd done all our Christmas shopping so could just relax. Then this afternoon we iced The Cake:


All home made, apart from the marzipan. We're spending Christmas Day at home in Bedford this year, so have gone to town on the decorations and made mincemeat as well as the cake. Hope you're all looking forward to the festive season as much as we are!

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!

Putting the garden to bed

We have weeded. We have swept. We have trimmed. We have tidied. We have moved the furniture. We have planted the bulbs.

I think the garden is just about ready for winter now. We're busy for the next few weekends, so it was good to get it sorted, especially as the first hints of autumn are in the air. Time for a nice cup of tea and a sit down to celebrate this achievement I think!

How calm, how constant are the hills,

How green and white and golden in the summer light.

Their lakes, their leaping wells are bright

With flower, leaf and rain.

And their profounder rivers run from rocks

That are the altars of the sun.

How calm, how constant are the hills.

Our time's dark gale of ice and fire

Thunders around them but removes them never.

No tempest overthrows their strong humility

They are both god and temple

And their stones are holy, the earth's enduring thrones.

How calm, how constant are the hills.

(Words by James Kirkup - set to music by John Ireland and discovered by me at choir practice on Tuesday).