Friday, November 06, 2009

Poor neglected blog!

Summer / Autumn

So... I'm going to attempt at least one posting a week for a while - see if I can rekindle the blogging habit / rabbit / hobbit (choices from my spell checker - you decide).

I'm not sure how long it is since I've blogged - the internet is currently down (thanks to an "upgrade" that Jim installed a couple of days ago.... it requires him to have woken up before I can actually post this). Certainly not since (or not much) since I started to play FarmVille on facebook - I couldn't see the point of facebook a year ago and now I'm spending far too much time on it playing this sim-type farming game - and if you are not playing FarmVille you won't want to add me on facebook... I'll try not to mention it again in this post...

Ammonite pendent

Summer here was not very summery... lots of rain and only a few days of heat. I don't like the heat but I'm not that keen on rain either! We mostly spent summer in Bristol and enjoyed it despite the weather. The main casualty of the weather was my photography - hardly anything to show for it.

Westonbirt festival of wood

We went to Westonbirt Arboretum's Festival of Wood in August.

Active carving

Jim's mother and her friend Ted were on a coach tour that meant they were in Cheltenham for the day. We popped up there and took them for an airing on Cleeve Hill. They were glad to get away from yet another day of potential shopping!

Cleeve Hill

Autumn has been much better for weather, except the week we took on holiday - we seemed to pick the wettest week for that! But again it was fun and as we were on holiday I took photos anyway.

For my birthday (though not actually on it) we went to see the Autumn colour at Wesonbirt.

Autumn Colour

Our week up in the Yorkshire Dales was a prelude to a surprise 70th birthday party for one of Jim's aunts. She was indeed very surprised but also delighted that so many people turned up for her. We then spent a couple of days with Jim's mother before making our way back home... and to more FarmVille! (??? words before I gave way... ;-)

Prawn Cocktail!

Whilst in the Dales we visited some caves - ones with a guided tour, there was a lot of stooping but no crawling through water ;-) - there were lots of fantastic stalagmites / stalemates (my spell checker again!) amd stalagtites (no guesses for that one...) - hard to photograph but wonderful to see. The guide even extinguished the lights briefly for us all to see the caves by candlelight as the Victorians would have seen them when exploring them. And then he blew out the candle so we had utter darkness too.

In a cave

Jim had discovered the existence of a small turf labyrinth only 20 minutes from his mother's house - despite the nearness it wasn't a place she or he had been before - so we explored it whilst visiting her.

Labyrinth

One of the advantages of taking a dog on a long journey is its an excuse to look for interesting places to stop where one can let her out to have a bit of a run. We'd stopped at this place before but not discovered the topiary before!

Topiary

See all the photos from the mosaic in this flickr slideshow:


5 comments:

Johnnynorms said...

I'm glad you posted, it cheered me up, what with wooden owls, green mazes and autumnal splendours. I wanted to be a farmer when I was 5 or so - I suppose it would have been too much hard work in reality, but love of animals, one's own space out in the country, the hustle and bustle of farm activity - the ideal still appeals. Must have a go at this FleeceBook game.

Caroline said...

Hello John - sorry I've been so absent recently - as for FarmVille - its currently broken so far as I'm concerned - they've upgraded it and that's torn it for me!

Ellen said...

what eye candy! I must get myself that pendant and that lone tree blew me away, gorgeous picture. I've always wanted to visit a cave, nice vacation photos.

Caroline said...

Thanks Ellen - I love wearing ammonites! And the cave was worth visiting - I think the guide said something about them being more prevalent in limestone areas - we have some south of Bristol too but I've not visited those in ages - more showcasey - less like real caves.

Tinker said...

It's so good to see you here again! And what beautiful photo souvenirs you've brought back for us from your adventures!
What a lovely turf labyrinth and wonderful wooden owls. I just found an owl in a bit of painting last night!
I like your spellchecker's suggestions - rabbit or hobbit? It makes me wonder which one my blogging habits might be closer to...