Walking the Wye

So my gypsy birthday wasn't all about lazing around our fabulous little camp. We did 12 miles of walking round the Wye Valley before we arrived at the gypsy van. Here are a few pictures from the walk we took

The River Wye looking like black glass on the grey overcast day we had.

We got to walk across lovely old traditional suspension bridges

We went through beautiful English countryside

Explored some fabulous village churches

More river walking

Another shot of one of the bridges we used to cross the river.

My big fat gypsy birthday

This year I was a bit like the queen and had two birthday celebrations.  My actual birthday was spent with family as you saw in my post a couple of days ago.  But the weekend before Dave and I escaped to Herefordshire and had a little birthday celebration there.

Wanna see where we stayed?  You are really gonna love it.

We had this amazing gypsy van for the night.

Anyone in the UK looking at this and thinking they recognise it, well it was featured on the TV programme Three in a Bed earlier this year.  We made our booking before we knew it was going on TV, and didn't see the program before we went, I wanted the experience to be my own and not coloured by the thoughts and experience of others.  And I have to say I LOVED IT.

I mean how could you not adore spending the night in this.

Morris wasn't too keen though.  After taking ourselves on a 12 mile walk round the Wye Valley we were hungry enough to eat ... well ...a moose!

We did get the fire going, but we made sure that Morris was freed from the pot.

We had the most amazing evening in our little camp with celebratory drinks....

.... and plenty of birthday cake.

We stayed out in the candle light until well after dark

enjoying the last of the heat from the fire

and snuggling up on this hammock made just for two.  Loved every minute of our stay and will try and make sure we get back there next year.

Bedruthan Beach

It's quite possible that things might go quiet on the blogging front for the next week or so. It's going to be one of those early start and late finish manic weeks at work, by the time I get home I just don't really have the energy to do anything much.

I'll be trying to survive the week and will keep my city and guilds ticking along by making myself spend at least half hour a day on the machine when I get home but I can't see much else happening stitch or blog wise round here.

In the meantime as these pictures were already uploaded let me just share with you the final catch up post from my weekend away in Cornwall earlier this year. Some pictures from the beach at Bedruthan Steps.

How much would I love to be stood somewhere squinting into the sun right now?  It's very grey and miserable here today.  A bit like my mood, though looking at these lovely pics has helped lift me a bit :)

Roche

Time for another blast from the past post. These pictures were taken on the same weekend as the ones from Bodmin. Looking at them I can't believe how blue the sky was!This is Roche's rock. There are various myths and legends attached to the site and the chapel that was built on top of the rock. You can read about some here.

It's a pretty amazing place to visit and not particularly well know. The few times I've been have always had the place to ourselves.
If you're feeling brave enough you can climb the rusting ladder into the ruined chapel itself.While I'm not exactly afraid of heights I don't particular seek them out either and I have to admit my legs do get a bit wobbly, but on this occasion I did make myself go as far up as you can safely get. This is the view from the top.
Not everyone was as brave as me on this trip. Here I am looking down on Dave who only fancied the trip up the first rusty ladder but didn't want to take on the second :)

Considering the inelegant way I had to cling on to rock and make myself slide back down from this point, he probably made the better choice, lol

A walk on Bodmin

I've been having a good sort out of my photos recently and have come across a set of pictures from a trip we took to Cornwall way back in April which I don't think I've shared. (I knew I was behind but April is just ridiculous!!, lol)

Anyhow in the interests of making sure I have enough to make some more regular blog posts than I have been I think I can stretch these Cornwall pics in to a few posts :) This first one is all about a wonderful walk we took across Bodmin Moor.

I adore the rugged moorland landscape. We had a pretty cloudy day when we went but at the very end the clouds started to disappear, don't you just love this beautiful blue sky against the open moorland?
The route we were following took us to the top of two hills. Rough Tor - the summit had these amazing rock formations, the views were spectacular.

We also went to the top of this hill called Brown Willy - no snickering please (ok so maybe it's just me with a mind in the gutter!)
We did see a few people out on the moors but only a few, they're such a lovely place to walk you don't have to go far before you start to feel like you could be the only person left on the planet, the empty landscapes stretch for mile upon mile.
And of course no visit to the moors is complete without sight of some of the lovely wild ponies. Check out the bandy legs on this cute little foal.
Taking a look back through these pictures is making me long to go back for another visit. We do have a few weekends away booked up, but all other thoughts of booking trips and travel are on hold for the moment. There is a strong possibility that I will be being made redundant in the not too distant future so no more frivolous spending in case I have to join the ranks of the unemployed. I should hopefully find out for sure by the beginning of next month, it's quite a stress filled time here at the moment some big changes could be ahead if my job goes..... in the meantime I'll be making the most of the things that we have already planned and paid for no point being glum.

Summits

This is my final Lake District post, after the lows of last time it's time for a few shots of the highs, the places that we did make it to the top of. Not many words today mostly pictures.Lingmoor Fell

The view from the top of Pavey Ark

Pavey Ark from the bottom

The view from top of Harrison Stickle

On top of Silver Howe, looking over Grasmere and Rydal

Getting to the top of Silver Howe the first summit of the holiday

Lows of a different kind

After finishing my last lakes post on a low note, with me being all huffy about not reaching the top, I thought I'd share some lake land lows of a different kind.

On one of our days we spent our time wandering round the valley that our cottage was in.We wandered through green fields and past gurgling rivers. The hills in the morning were mist covered ........ and the spiderwebs in the hedgerows were decorated with droplets of dew.We got to admire the unmistakable peaks of the Langdale pikes, and were quite amazed to think that the day before we had actually been admiring the view from the top.The benefits of walking in the valley as opposed to hiking on the hills was that there were plenty of refreshment stops along the way, we visited six pubs in about six miles :)The downside of too much drinking was that vision started to blur and the map got harder to read as the day went on, lol.This last shot was probably my favourite view of the day. Ok so there were no majestic peaks, or pretty rivers but if you look closely you'll make out our little row of cottage. They look so cosy nestled into the hill side looking over the lovely rolling valley.

Larking Around in the Lakes

The consequence of not posting a whole lot last month is that I have plenty of catch up posts to do :) Starting with a few dodgy shots from the Lakes (I can't believe it was almost 2 months ago now!)

Of course we were there to partake of some serious walking but there was lots of larking around too ;o) It started with a game of crazy golf while we were waiting to pick up our keys on the first day. I play atrociously and Dave kicked my ass on the golf course!There was also paddling in the waterfall behind the cottage. You can take a look back here - it's been so long you've probably forgotten what I'm talking about. Please try and ignore the red face and the bad hair we'd just spent a day walking so I'm not looking at my glamorous best!We were not the only ones messing around. Take a look at this silly sheep trying to disguise itself behind a single frond of fern. I didn't want to be the one to break the news, but hey Mrs Sheep we can still see you!!Of course Morris the amazing mountaineering moose had to get in one the action too. Here he is working hard to get to the top of Silver Howe.And here he is at the top, partaking in a bottle of beer to celebrate his walking achievement!Speaking of beer I have to confess that we did partake in a few pints ourselves. Here is Dave trying to get away with stealing my pint at the end of our walk up the pikes.Now I'm not really an ale drinker ordinarily but I have grown to like the odd pint here and there. Sadly I haven't quite mastered the art of drinking and remaining lady like yet.Just in case you thought it was all fun and games I thought I'd share a picture of a rather forlorn looking me on the second to last day of the holiday. We were trying to reach the top of Pike o'Blisco and I managed to slip over a couple of times, was generally feeling tired and just had a big loss of confidence which is never good when your walking on rocky terrain. Anyway here I am after having a good cry when I had to admit defeat and realise that I wasn't going to be making it to the top on that day.On that suitably pathetic note I'll say goodbye until next time. X