Out and about

Now that the temperatures are above freezing and we get the occasional day of sunshine, I really feel the need to be outside, soaking up nature and getting some much needed excercise. Of course thats the beauty of geocaching, you can be out and about in the sunshine treasure hunting, and you don't even realise you are getting A LOT of excercise, lol.

Last week Nick and I spent a few days finding some caches. Some days were gloriously sunny, others were, errm, let just say, very wet indeed. Somehow it doesn't matter too much normally, only when you spend ages trying to find a cache in the rain and you don't succeed. Then you blame the rain and run off home, lol.

For now I'll just show you some pictures I took when we went to find a new cache near Bodiam Castle. Being the First To Find a new cache and sign the log book is immensely satisfying. It was such a beautiful day, the clues to the cache were inside the castle grounds, so we spend some time happily wombling about and just admiring the beautiful scenery -


The animals are all so used to seeing hordes of people, they dont get out of the way for anybody, lol, and are quite undisturbed by it all -


The castle is quite awe inspiring. Year ago, when the boys were little we used to come here quite a lot. They loved it so much, pretending to be knights in shining armour, climbing the steep stairs in the towers etc, it was quite a magic place for them




There were 3 other caches in and around the castle grounds, of course we had to try and find those as well. One of them led us past a local vineyard ( yes, I know, surprising isn't it, in England )


and the name of the cache became very apparent as soon as we saw this appearing on the horizon -


I loved that view.

Cache found and logged, we made our way down the hill again towards the castle




We ticked off another cache just outside the castle grounds and went home so happy after a lovely morning out.

I really ought to post more photos of the lovely old buildings etc we come across when we are out geocaching. Maybe I ought to put them on a separate blog. I'll think about it. For now, I'll have to try and get on with my ever growing to-do list.

Toodlepip, xxx

Every Inchie Monday on Tuesday, late again, lol

This week's inchie challenge on Every Inchie Monday really was quite a challenge, the word we had to interprete was "maudlin". Hmmm. Ok, I knew the meaning of the word, but I just couldn't think of how to combine that with my usual vintage/victorian style.

I knew the kind of image I wanted. I knew the words I wanted to use. I also knew that I didn't have anything remotely like the image I needed on my computer. Enter one loudly complaining son, a beer mug and a trigger happy, camera toting mum, lol. It took ages to get the kind of photo I needed, because we both burst out laughing every couple of seconds. In the end it was the very last photo I took which turned out to be THE one. Because by then he was thoroughly fed up. I messed about with it a bit in Photoshop, and there you have it, completely different to my usual style,

My Maudlin Inchie -


I ought to be doing my Tag Tuesday challenge as well, but, guess what? We have been geocaching again today. It was a beautiful morning for a change. DH always takes the dogs for a walk in the Firehills, and as there were a few caches listed in the Firehills, DS3 and I decided to accompany him on his walk.

The first cache we looked for was right in the woods. The dogs were no help at all, but were very intrigued when they saw DS3 and myself hunting around through leaf mould and digging under fallen ivy covered trees, lol.


Ahem, there were so many fallen trees close to the co-ordinates, we tried quite a few before we found the right one. This was the cache with little swaps, hidden under the fallen tree -


See that Guinness beer mat in the middle? I swapped that one out. I thought it was a nice image and could well be used in a collage...... Crafting is always on my mind, lol.

Cache found, we then caught up with DH and the doggies, and did the usual round with them -



Two nicely tired out doggies were then taken home by DH, and DS3 and I then started looking for another cache. It was a thoroughly lovely womble -


Sitting on one of the clues to lead us to the cache -


The sun was so bright, it created really interesting silhouettes -


Lovely way to spend a few hours with mother nature.

My DS3 had worked up such an appetite, we decided to have a proper English Fry Up when we got home. He demolished all this -


Don't worry, we only have this once in a blue moon, maybe once or twice a year. But we really fancied it today. Must have been due to the bracing sea winds.

And my Tag Tuesday challenge tag? Well, that will be a Wednesday one, again, lol.

Toodlepip xxx

So much fresh air!

I mentioned a few days ago that my DS3 got me into geocaching. I am so glad he did, all that fresh sea air is doing me a world of good. We have been doing this for a week now, not every day, and not many caches ( we are up to 37 ), and it has been quite invigorating and at times rather bracing. Icy cold sea winds, drizzle, occasionally some very welcome sunshine......... we didn't really care what the weather was like. I did say that I would show you some pics of our outings, but when I looked at the pics I took, I realised that I didn't take anywhere near as many as I thought I had. LOL, guess the excitement of the hunt was just too much for me, I forgot all about photos.

I do have a few though, and I promise, one of these days I will take a womble through the beautiful Old Town of Hastings and take some proper pics without any distractions.

The great think about geocaching is seeing things in and about your town which you have never seen before or haven't really taken any notice of. For example, there is a whole series of church caches. We have only done 1 so far, but as I love church architecture, I am sure there will be more. This was it -


On one search for a cache in the Old Town, we came across these little mosaics on old walls, which I had never seen before -



These steps in the Old Town are steep!!! Seen from near the top -


and looking up from the bottom -


I don't have a very good head for heights, I freak out on a stepladder, so these steps were a challenge. I hung on to the rails for dear life, lol.

These fabulous sea creatures also live in the Old Town -

Octopus -

Seahorse -

Conger eel -

I loved this faded and peeling advertisement on a house wall, in a different part of the Old Town. This is the area where the television series "Foyle's War" was filmed. I must go back there and take some more photos, that area is so pretty.


This was one of our failures, we spent ages searching for a cache here right on the sea front, under the cliffs, but it looks like this cache has been lost, possibly under rock falls -


The seagulls are happy though, lol -


Away from the Old Town, along Hastings seafront, another cache location. And, you can see our favourite Oriental Buffet Restaurant, " Cosmo" in the distance. You probably remember that I have mentioned once or twice that I had to bribe Nick with lunch at Cosmo for helping me out with something or other.


We got quite carried away one day and it got dark much quicker than we thought it would. We were high above Hastings and the sky above the sea looked too interesting to be ignored -


A few photos taken in Alexandra Park ( seems quite a few caches are located here ). The Park really is quite lovely and stretches for miles right through the town -


All the animals in it are so tame -





This is a small cache we found in another leisure area, White Rock Gardens, silly little things, but so much fun -


Nick, about to sign the log book -


Today we had a couple of multi caches on our to-do list. That means you have to find a number of small caches with clues and part co-ordinates, in order to find the Bonus Cache at the end. We didn't have a very good start, it was a horrendously muddy location -


Interesting mushrooms along the way though -


But FIVE caches later, we had a very good end, we found the big Bonus Cache, woohooooooo! We spent a very happy few minutes looking through a whole bunch of little treasures before deciding which ones we should swap. Just look at the size of that cache -


Ok, and now prepare yourself for a rare pic of me, yikes. NO make up, wet, very windswept, muddy, frozen, but with the biggest grin on my face, holding that huge Bonus Cache in the Firehills, Hastings cliff top country park -


Aaahhh, happy end to the day.

Oh, see how big that cache is? And you saw the somewhat smaller earlier with the goodies in it? Right, compare those to this one, a nano pod, and then try and imagine how difficult it is to find one of those -


We found a few of them, with either clues for a bonus cache or the tinest little logs. Sweet.

Thats it, all that fresh air has wiped me out, I can feel an early night coming on. Back to crafting tomorrow, we are having a geocaching free day.

Toodlepip xxx