Geocaching on the Green Sands ridge

Tat's hobby is geocaching. I'm really not patient enough for it but she is brilliant, turning up tiny little boxes long after I've given up looking and gone off to photograph something.
I think the stinging nettles go a long way to diminishing my enthusiasm.
Along with our visits to the churches, we found 8 geocaches way out there in the countryside. I'm always amazed by how well hidden they are. I can never see them, and then when we find them they seem so obvious!
I must walk past them all the time!

So, here are some photos from our miles and miles of countryside walking, mostly taken whilst Tat's crawled about in bushes looking for teeny tiny containers. I did help a bit. not enough to really take any credit.

The biggest cake I have ever seen

Church Ruins in Ridgemont

This is a much more impressive abandoned church- It still has it's floors and the doors in place. this feels pretty post apocalyptic when you're stood in it.

The photos don't do it justice.

I had a good old mooch around the church and graveyard (Lots of very old graves :) my favourite) Whilst I was doing that Tats was collecting clues from the church to unlock a series of geocaches on the ridge.  That was the deal- I get my chriches, and she gets her treasure hunt. In the process of looking for clues she almost fell into a crypt- I have put the picture up to show the gap. There are a fair few collapsed "Family tombs" in this churchyard so you have to keep you eyes peeled with all that long grass- Between that and the falling masonry warning I feel like exploring is now an extreme sport. 

This is seriously worth a visit. even the font stand is still in place. There is something strange about pushing open those heavy oak church doors to be immediately faced with a view of the sky in place of a roof. The small things are still there, you can really see how the church was used still but nature has taken it back so quickly.

St Mary's Church Ruins in Clophill

We finally found the old St Marys church that Traff and I went looking for in the summer. It's actually shown on the sat nav, but I didn't think to check it last time! It's been done up a bit from the last time tats had been, but it's still pretty cool looking.

Xmas day

We had beers and a massive vegetarian roast dinner, watched stick man on TV and I got my arse kicked at scrabble.

Telescope

Traff let me have my xmas present early as the sky was really clear on Thursday night but today and yesterday have been cloudy- so you can't see anything.
Karl helped me to set it up and we managed to get a really clear view on the moon. until it moved and the tree got in the way. Then we had a very magnified view of the tree.

Thanks Hayley for this startling nail polish

Almost festive nails. ..

Wales

Pre xmas xmas dinner

On Sunday My mum, Dad, Aunt ,uncle, sister and I travelled to see my Nan and to have our traditional pre xmas dinner together.

It was really lovely to see everyone, it's a bit sad really as since my parents moved house to somewhere smaller and further away we haven't had a family christmas because no-one has the space for everyone to fit in any more- let alone stay over or eat a sit down meal!

In a way it's nicer, no-one has the pressure of having house guests for days at a time or the responsibility for cooking (Which always sucks because you don't get to enjoy christmas because you're dealing with a series of small pan fires- or at least that is always what happened in our household). it's much more relaxed, and some one else will do the washing up. I do get the impression that my Nan doesn't entirely approve, but I can't see her being delighted with sleeping on our living room floor either so hopefully she's weighed it up as the lesser of the evils.

I really enjoyed catching up with everyone- I write to my Nan most weeks so I'm usually up to date with her news, but writing to someone isn't the same as actually speaking to them. I especially enjoyed catching up with my Aunt who I haven't seen for ages- Her team at work won a nobel prize for their work on neutrino physics so she had loads of cool things to tell me about- and hopefully some handy stuff for work too! My uncle was giving me handy tips for my telescope (Traff got me a telescope for xmas- obviously I didn't look or anything I'm just psychic) and I had a good catch up with Ray too.

All in all, we established that my life is very mundane! 

Panto

My parents got tickets for us to go to the pantomime in Bath. We started our evening in Las Iguanas where it was happy hour. Even dad had cocktails!

After a few drinks, we headed for a mooch around bath and then on to the theatre.

The panto in Bath is extremely good, but very very rude. Well worth a watch but I'd leave the kids at home!

Thanks for the postcard!

Xmas greetings

I have a reputation at work for being obsessed with power stations.  This is my xmas catd and tree ornament from my parents.  They're just as crazy as me!

New xmas jumper

Thos was reduced £3.50 in morrisons.  I couldn't resist although it is supposed to be a boys 11-12. I'm going to assume it's designed to be baggy. ..
It's genius!

Crochet stars from Tina

Goodies from work

German xmas greetings

Soooo much post!

I bet these are all xmas cards- and 2 from Germany too! (Thanks randi & stu and Katie &Josh! ) we've never had so much post that it was all elastic banded together before!
Eeeek!
I love getting things in the post.  It's so exciting.  Christmas is worth it just for the letters!