Family outings and other things

A discovery near our house

Pamela — Sun, 15 May 2011 19:00:40 +0000

Today we walked down to the scout hall so that Davey could take a photo of it for his homework. We noticed a public footpath sign opposite and when I mentioned it Davey said he knew where it went as he had been down it with Beavers, so we went to look. What we found was this

with lots of this

we did know that there had been a stone quarry down there at one time but we didn’t expect to see all of this

as we walked down the quarry we found these

at the end of the quarry we walked into this

and then we reached some allotments with this view over town

and we never knew any of it was there just two minutes from our door!! We met a friendly cat on the way home

Keldy

Pamela — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:44:46 +0000

We spent the weekend in a log cabin, actually in this log cabin

We did lots of this

Click link for video

http://s248.photobucket.com/albums/gg192/purplevegan/?action=view¤t=KeldyFeb2011118.mp4

and some of this

click link for video

http://s248.photobucket.com/albums/gg192/purplevegan/?action=view¤t=KeldyFeb2011116.mp4

and just for fun a photo taken in the same spot as the last one but in September 2004

Nine Miles Along the Wall

Pamela — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:01:32 +0000

We just spent a wonderful week near Hadrian’s Wall and whilst we did lots of things the highlight for all of us was a 9 mile walk along the wall in glorious sunshine.

We left the car at the Temple of Mithras, here is Davey and his Daddy ready to set off.

Davey insisted on taking a photo of his Mummy and Daddy.

We took the AD122 Hadrian’s Wall bus to Once Brewed we then had to walk back to the car

The first milecastle of the wall, this is number 39 or Castle Nick

Just past Castle Nick is Sycamore Gap, here looking down on it

and down in the gap, that is David walking toward the tree and if you look carefully Davey is right up against the tree trunk

Cow stops walk on top of the crags (we did walk along the craggiest section )

Nice craggy bit with good view of the terrain ahead

Davey striding out along the wall more good views ahead

We finally reached Housesteads and stopped for lunch

and the obligatory dress up and play session

Knag Burn gate just beyond Housesteads

Time for silliness at one of our many stops

Follow the ridges further than you can see, that is where we had been

Davey and his Daddy looking at the distance we had walked

artistic into the sun shot

At the trig point

Reading the information board at Sewingshields turret

Still full of energy

According to the book we had this is an Anglo Saxon burial crypt, Davey insisted on laying down in it

This was the final turret of the walk

As most of the walk was along the crags there is no ditch, but towards the end the Roman ditch is very obvious

Davey and his Daddy on the last grassy stretch to the car

That red dot is our car

The last remains of the walk the Temple of Mithras

A hug from his Mummy for doing so incredibly well

Mum’s Garden

Pamela — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:05:00 +0000

About 12 or so years ago my Mum’s husband could no longer see to cut the grass. Mumdidn’t mind cutting it as she loves her grass and would rather cut it herslef than not have any. Unfortunatley Ferdi was a very old fashioned man and he felt that cutting grass was a man’s job, so he nagged and nagged to put paving slabs down eventually Mum gave in.

She always hated the paving but he was much happier now she wasn’t cutting grass. Well after he died Mum said that she would love her grass back so my husband volunteered to go and do it for her. We spent last weekend doing just that.

Cleaning the slabs

We unearthed colony after colony of ants under the slabs

Last few slabs to lift

Dug, trampled and levelled

Grass again

Hadrian’s Wall

Pamela — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:22:29 +0000

We spent a week at Easter staying near Hadrian’s Wall. Wuffy is totally obsessed with Romans at the moment and he loved every second of it. On the last morning he almost cried (I could see his bottom lip going) because he didn’t want to go home. What he doesn’t know is that we have booked to go back for a week in August

First a few compliments to places. David rang lots of sites before we went to find out if they could feed us. Vindolanda went out of their way to ensure they had beans for jacket potato (they don’t offer beans as a topping normally) and they had bought soya milk especially. So a huge thumbs up to Vindolanda.

We found quite by accident a vegetarian café in Hexham called Hexham Tans, it was only about 10.30 but I went in and had a chat about lunch, they said they could make us anything we wanted but they didn’t have soya milk. We went back at lunchtime and they had been out and bought some soya milk especially for us, so another big thumbs up there.

Most of the other sites only have tiny cafes the sort where you can get a sandwich and drink but not much else. However it was nice to be able to eat lunch out on two days rather than having sandwiches every day.

We visited the following sites:-

All of which were excellent except the Roman Army Museum which was very disappointing the advertised barrack room and store room no longer exist and there really wasn’t an awful lot to look at. That said it was worth the visit to see the Eagle Eye film it was just a shame you could not buy it on DVD as we would have done so.

We also walked along the wall from both Steel Rigg and Cawfields so we saw lots of wall going over dramatic (and very windy) countryside, a milecastle and a turret.

A few photos of places

The wall and a milecastle, this was just near Cawfields Quarry

With a Roman soldier at Vindolanda

Pure joy at Vindolanda

Walking in the footsteps of the Romans – standing on the actual floor of the granary at Corbridge

Bathhouse at Chesters

On Guard at the Temple of Mithras

I was going to add a few more pictures but wordpress is being awkward so I’ll stop here

Grandad

Pamela — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:55:27 +0000

On Friday 12th February 2010 Wuffy’s grandad died. Wuffy knew Grandad was ill but being 6 he thought he was going to get better.

This final picture was taken on his 84th birthday last July, he was ill then he didn’t get out of his chair once during the party. That’s my Mum holding the cake, I made the cake it’s the chocolate cake I make for every birthday. I’m pleased that I made his last birthday cake. Wuffy didn’t say much for a week but the last few days he has been asking about Grandad and he has been a bit upset. We have been telling him that grandad was so ill towards the end at least he is no longer in pain. Wuffy has always told us that you go to heaven when you die but when I said Grandad was in heaven he wouldn’t believe me. I suspect he doesn’t really want to accept it.

A few Camping Photos

Pamela — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:43:25 +0000

These are all from Wuffy’s first camping trip in May 2009 (I am so behind!!)

This was at Hayfiled C&CC site in derbyshire, it was the hottest weekend of the entire year!! We all loved it. We also camped in Scotland in July and North Yorkshire in August and I will post a couple from those trips as well maybe in a few months!!!

History

Pamela — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:22:43 +0000

Wuffy is fascinated with history, he has been for a long time. Last Easter we spent a week in Northumberland doing castles, this was his knights period. We did 5 castles in 6 days and he wasn’t bored I think he would have done more. Then in July we spent a week on the West Coast of Scotland on the way home we decided to drive from Carlisle to Newcastle then travel down the A1 this was purely to avoid the dreaded M6. We stopped at Housesteads Roman Fort on the way and ever since Wuffy has been fascinated with Romans. To the extent that in phonics at school they had the sound “or” on the board the teacher put an f and t and asked what it said. She then asked if the children knew what a fort was and got a 10 minute lecture from Wuffy This Easter we have booked a week near Hadrian’s Wall for obvious reasons.

So tonight Wuffy came home from school with a letter he had no idea what it was but said he thought he was the only child in his class to be given one. It says that he has been identified as a child who is interested and well motivated by history and has been chosen to take part in additional history activities over a five week period. This includes a visit to Bradford Industrial Musuem and to Salts Mill. We have to return the form to say we allow him to travel there in either minibus or a teachers car so it would appear that only a few children have been selected. He was chuffed to bits and very excited

Merry Christmas

Pamela — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:23:43 +0000

The last week has been manic but David saw the specialist this morning who said he has to go back and have the colonoscopy all over again in three years time and they think based on his lifestyle factors (non smoker, light drinker and vegan) that it is likely to be genetic. The check in a few years was exactly what I was expecting I think David hoped they would say he was fine and didn’t have to go back.

Merry Christmas everyone

Heads, trees, loneliness and compassion

Pamela — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:28:13 +0000

So we were at the supermarket on Saturday and as we walked past the fish counter Wuffy commented on the poor fish. He then asked me what was in the next counter and I said meat. He said he knew that but what type of animals did it come from. So I looked at the labels and told him ducks, lambs and cows. He then spotted the rotisserie and asked what they were. Chicken. He thought for just a second and then very loudly said “Do they cut their heads off before cooking them” There was a woman right next to us picking up some meat, she visibly shuddered and commented on the things kids say. I simply told Wuffy, loud enough for her to hear, that yes they do cut the heads off because people don’t want to think about what it is they are eating.

Then on Sunday our neighbours took a real tree into their house, I saw them so Wuffy asked me if it had roots, when I said no he was very disappointed and said but they have killed a tree they should have bought one with roots.

The later on Sunday David got out the singing Christmas toys, one is a dog that sings “lonely this Christmas” Wuffy suddenly appeared with it, he had a tear in his eye and said “he won’t be lonely anymore as he has me to give him a hug”