Edinburgh again

I made a flying visit to Edinburgh on Monday evening, returning home after a meeting on Tuesday.  Despite arriving in the dusk, I still found time, along with my bemused colleague, to find a couple of geocaches.  I would have liked to have found more, as I love the city and some cache owners have put considerable effort into their cache hides and pages when sharing their local heritage.  But, the longevity and popularity of the caches will mean that they are likely to be there for another day when I‘m not visiting for work and have time to cache

S. U. W.

Since Molly and I ventured into the hills above Moffat, the Southern Upland Way is on our list of “must dos”.  We walked up the Selcoth Burn valley before stopping off for a late lunch by the sheep fold.  A steep pull up the zig-zags to the top of Croft Head was rewarded with a stunning panorama. After finding the cache, we made an uneventful descent by a more direct route with equally superb views and before long we were back on the metalled track. Surprisingly, we didn't meet anyone on the entire walk despite the wonderful scenery and tranquility.

Jervaulx Abbey - a hidden gem

Yorkshire is full of surprises and one of them was revealed to me when I passed a sign for Jervaulx Abbey some weeks ago, on my way to a meeting.  I’d never heard of this beautiful, ruined Cistercian Abbey so pulled into the tea room car park and made my way across the park to the Abbey grounds. Inevitably, I checked to see if there was a geocache and indeed there was, so during my exploration of the ruins, I was able to indulge my hobby.  This was a truly spiritual place with an overwhelming sense of peace and tranquility

Not terribly dashing

Despite recent rain, Dash Falls were not terribly impressive last weekend when Molly and I visited on our way up Great Calva.  The last time we were there (in our pre-caching days), the water was thundering down, or so it seemed.  Perhaps it’s another of those rose coloured memories that lose clarity with age? But irrespective of that, the earth cache close by was interesting and the physical cache, an easy find.  We were warmed up nicely for our “follow the fence” route to the summit where after a spot of bog hopping, a geocache was waiting among the rocks

Dash Falls

Towards Binsey

Found it!

Bog hopping

On the summit

Summit views

Summit Views

Binsey

Like looking down the barrel of a gun - A.Wainwright

Music in the Hills

Despite the dreich weather in southern Scotland yesterday, we found ourselves in the forest above Phaup Burn. Accompanied only by the sound of occasional birdsong and the musical tinkling of hidden streams, the wind song was muted by the army of conifers.  But what a different story once we left the forest tracks behind!  The keening and moaning of the wind in the low cloud provided an eerie soundtrack to the first stage of our trudge up to the unseen summit of Skelf Hill. But once on the summit, the banchees were shrieking, as in in protest at our visit

Towards the forest

The wind begins to moan

The banshee is shrieking

Molly doesn't like the wind

Not a favourite

Nottingham isn’t my favourite city.  I’ve visited the city twice now and although I’ve enjoyed my geocaching adventures, especially along the canal and castle area, I haven’t developed a “feel” for it. Despite it being a student city, it doesn’t feel as vibrant as other university towns.  This may be because the university isn’t city centre based but I also think that the city doesn’t exploit its historical past (real or fabled), sufficiently.  There are indications that the lace industry heritage is being celebrated but as a casual visitor, I feel more could be done, even in times of austerity

Sky Mirror

Street Art

Council House

Cloughie

The Canal

Time to let go!

We really must conduct another book audit.  We still have far too many and in amongst the old favourites are some that we’ll never read again.  Earlier this year I sorted out some of Nerea’s books as I’d rather they were read and enjoyed by other children than keep them on a shelf for “the future”, but it was a hard task and I kept more than I “released”. I don’t know why I find it so difficult as I’m not overly sentimental.  Maybe it’s the associated nostalgia or emotional investment with a good read, but either way, I struggle