England's Last Wilderness??

Glorious sunshine on Sunday tempted us onto the moorland high above Allendale for a caching walk with Molly. Although the views were hazy. we could still see for miles and all the time we were out, we didn't see another soul.  We were delighted to hear our first curlew of the year and to see more skylarks than we'd seen for some time. Advertising literature describes the North Pennines as "England's Last Wilderness" and although there are other areas that arguably offer a valid challenge to the "last" aspect of the description, the wilderness factor is certainly there in abundance

Green Fly

Crown Princess Margareta

 We found two green fly on our old English scented climbing roses at the weekend and it's still only March. Last year despite our good intentions to use nothing but soapy water as a deterrent to them, the evil beasties proved to be so resistant to any form of control we'd to resort eventually to commercial pesticides.  On rummaging in the shed, we found an old spray container with a drop of mixture in the bottom so Andy duly applied it as far as it would go.  Sadly it seems that the toxic battle needs to commence early this year.

Gertrude Jekyll

And more laughter....

And the geo-induced laughter continued as sitting with colleagues on Friday lunch time, chatting about nocturnal caching adventures from the previous evening, I swung my foot, accidentally catching the lever under the seat of Fiona's chair.  Mid sentence, she suddenly plummeted 10 inches, open mouthed. Already in high spirits from my exaggerated caching exploits, the look on Fiona's face sent us into further paroxysms of laughter.  With tears rolling down our cheeks, we struggled to restore her chair to the correct height.  Everyone, including Fiona, spent the rest of the afternoon in good humour, periodically chuckling away quietly to ourselves

Laughter is the best medicine

"Laughter really  is the best medicine" A new "night-time" geocache had been published some weeks ago located in a wood not far from home.  We'd never had a convenient dry and mild(ish) evening until recently so plans were made to finally tackle it as the weather forecast was good. The cache involved following a trail of fire tacks; small luminous pins on the tree trunks that gleam when lights are shone on them.  It was so much fun, we never stopped laughing all night as we wildly waved torches around,crashing and stumbling our way through the trees to the prize

Feeding Romans

The weekend was fairly hectic as we were involved with the AGM of the VIIIth Legion, a Roman re-enactment group organised by friends of ours.  Saturday and Sunday saw us preparing lunch for over 20, with homemade leek and potato soup to warm the wind battered soldiers fresh in from the parade ground on the windswept shores of the Solway Firth. Others attending the event has also brought some edible contributions including cake so everyone sat down to a veritable feast. The company was agreeable and the crack was good with much sharing of ideas and increasingly unlikely tall tales

Reivers Riddle

I had so much fun solving the Werewolf and Whitespace puzzles that I've decided to set one up of my own. Living in Carlisle I'd like to capture the history of the notorious Border Reivers and locate the final geocache in a place that has historical associations with them. That shouldn't be too difficult to find as the area is littered with buildings and place names that give clues to the region's turbulent past. Fortified farmhouses, earth works and the division of land into Marches that are still ceremoniously recognised today are all worthy legacies of earlier centuries of lawlessness

More on the werewolf.........

We've finally cracked the Werewolf!!  It's actually taken us less time than we envisaged as we'd had a head start with some of the puzzle solving techniques deployed in The Beast of Bowness and Whitespace.  Solving the werewolf was a brilliant experience, requiring us to research information, interpret cryptic clues and eventually locate a remote mountain location using cartographic techniques before the final co-ordinates were revealed.  Now we're busy planning a trip south to Blackstone Edge on the Pennine Way to find the physical container. It'll be over 20 years since we last visited so it's about time we returned!

Japan

The news of apocalyptic events in Japan has brought the important things in life into sharp focus. It's truly hard to comprehend the extent of the horror that residents of Japanese seaboard communities must have felt as they experienced the catastrophe. And for those who lost their lives, as a result of the tsunami. it's to be hoped they had little awareness of what was actually happening as destruction overwhelmed them. The power of nature is truly terrifying and on occasions such as this, we are reminded of the relative impotence of mankind and the delicate, fragility of life

International Women's Day

I had a wonderful evening yesterday in celebration of International Women's Day. Judith, who lives in West Cumbria, had invited a number of girlfriends to share a meal and favourite readings or poetry written by or for women. I drove over after work clutching my contributions of a Victoria sandwich cake and "800 years of Women's letters" to my chest. The food contributions were delicious and the poetry and prose readings had been chosen with great care.We moved from laughter to tears, from quiet reflection to exuberant celebration and revelled in the joy that the evening had brought us

Shrove Tuesday

Lemon and sugar, anyone?  Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday (Easter really is late this year)so there was the inevitable clamour for pancakes from Andy and Nerea. As I don't like the hot, greasy miasma that pervades the whole house after cooking them, they're a luxury food in our family, reserved for high days and holidays.  Andy has a fairly good wrist action (accrued no doubt, through years of bowling in the cricket team) so he adopted his traditional role of tossing them part way through cooking. His dexterity with the frying pan resulted in just one landing on the floor.

Cunning Cartography

Yesterday saw us driving over the Border on a cold, crisp morning.  We’d decided to find a geocache in a comparatively remote part of the Borderlands, never anticipating what a bizarre cartographic experience it would be.  We followed our usual routine of arming ourselves with our Landranger map and trusty GPS.  But on arrival at GZ, there were huge discrepancies between the mapping and the features on the ground (and no, it wasn’t our navigational skills). After some head scratching we eventually found a parking place down an unmarked track and tramped off into the hills in search of tupperware

I thought I was a werewolf but I'm OK nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Puzzle geocaches?  Nightmare!
So why all the Werewolf wrestling? Simply put, we’re hooked.
The Beast of Bowness is responsible; a puzzle geocache set for last week’s event.  With 15 challenges to solve before the final co-ordinates were revealed we tackled local history, cryptic clues and devilish code breaking for I3 tortuous but surprisingly enjoyable hours before finally cracking it.  (Google is our new best friend!!) Then, during our event, another cacher tempted us with tales of Whitespace and Werewolf, two other fiendishly difficult puzzles. Whitespace fell yesterday so now we’re hunting the Werewolf. But as yet, we’ve no silver bullet!

Cake Bake

Yesterday, Nerea announced there was a cake sale at school today.  As we had commitments last night, the baking took place first thing this morning.  But the buns weren’t decorated when Nerea had to leave.  As I had 2 teleconferences this morning, I stopped at home, took a banana cake out of the oven during the first and finished the cupcakes before the second.  But the piece-de- resistance was my multi tasking delivery to school.  I walked up, carrying a foil wrapped tray while on my second call, mobile phone set to loud speaker and mute to avoid background noise!

Banana and Cherry Loaf

100 g (4 ozs) glace cherries

100 g  (4 ozs) softened unsalted butter

100 g (4 ozs) caster sugar

50 g (2 ozs) soft brown sugar

2 medium eggs – beaten

225 g (8 ozs) S.R. Flour

2 ripe bananas – mashed

Preheat oven to 160° C/fan oven 150° C/gas mark 3.

Lightly oil and line the bottom of a loaf tin.   

Wash off the syrup, dry and chop the cherries

Cream the butter with the sugars until creamy. Gradually add the egg and the flour. Stir in the chopped cherries and bananas.

Mix to a soft consistency then spoon into the prepared tin.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 90 mins.  (Test if cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre – it’s ready if it comes out clean)

Remove from the oven but leave in the tin until it is cool.

When cool tip out onto a wire rack.

Freedom Of Speech

I believe that freedom of speech is one of life’s fundamental human rights but so is a right to privacy.  So it’s no surprise that I’ve unresolved issues over the appropriateness of posting comments likely to offend or encroach on another’s right to privacy on a public internet forum.  Although I’m an occasional poster myself, I’m much more of a lurker who reads with incredulity, the sort of comments considered appropriate for a public arena.  I wonder if people genuinely don’t care (publish and be damned) or are so naïve they don’t realise that what they write may be libellous

Letting go

Letting go can be a difficult step to take, but it’s one that must be made by the members of Team Awesome, the affectionate collective which evolved from following the Strictly Come Dancing duo, Ali Bastian and Brian Fortuna,.  When Ali and Brian developed a personal relationship during Strictly, Team Awesome was a comfortable concept, but after a private and dignified end to their romance, some supporters felt uneasy about the appropriateness of continuing with it. I agree; it isn’t about abandoning support for either Brian or Ali but essentially, Team Awesome is over and we need to move forward