Scavenger Hunt - October

I don't think I'm the only one who found this list harder than expected this month. I thought the Hallowe'en ones would be easy at this time of year, but I ended up really scavenging to complete the list!

Pumpkins - at Church Farm, Thurstaston. I've never seen green ones before.

Golden .... winter pansies at the local garden centre.

Crunchy leaves .... in Caldy Woods.

Something eerie ... we found this huge figure on a local war memorial really spooky, even on a sunny afternoon.

Candlelit ... a collection of sundry candles found around the house.

A river .... waterfall in Scotland.

Heritage .... a heritage museum in Glencoe.

Mist ... is it mist, or just low cloud? It's the closest I got to mist this month.

Sunset ... I caught this at the back of my house early on in the month, but then I got this....

Much more dramatic I think!

Here's where it all falls apart!!!!

A witch's hat .... well I searched and searched for this one, and just when I was giving up hope, this old crone turned up on the front of the magazine section of our newspaper ... (along with a rather nice recipe for Barabrith which I want to try soon!)

Graffiti .... nope, I couldn't find any either. So, I've cheated, and used this photo taken on holiday in France this year. The menfolk were snapped 'waiting for us to go round the shops'.

No black cats either ... so this is my daughter dressed as a cute cat for Hallowe'en. 

The photo is taken from a scrapbook layout from a few years ago.

Thanks again to everyone who joins in with this little game .... I still love looking at everyone's different interpretations. 

Are you ready for November's challenge?

a poppy

memorial

silhouette

something you have made

something purple

warmth

polka dots

a lucky charm

comfort food

a staircase

something that lights up

 and lastly ... a self portrait! Let's see who has been playing along!

Happy hunting!

Postcards from the Scottish Highlands

Well, as expected, it rained every single day for the week we spent in Scotland....

.... but we made the best of the few hours that were dry whenever we could.

Mr B. had planned to do some Munros and managed to bag three in the end ....

... I took lots of nice 'arty' 'crafty' things to keep me happy while he was out battling in the wind and the rain. (Serious mountain walking is not for me!) 

 And there was the most magnificent scenery all around us .... 

 .... these photos were taken from our Caravan Club site on the edge of Loch Linnhe

 We visited Glen Coe .... scene of the infamous massacre, remembered here at the memorial to the slaughtered MacDonald clan.

and ate good food at the Clachaig Inn, a bar full of Highland spirit, with Inca tucked happily under the table.

We saw waterfalls....

and woodlands cloaked in autumnal colours

Deep, dark lochs under brooding skies

and the stunning Glen Etive.

Another magnificent sight ... the Commando Memorial 

a huge bronze monument to those who lost their lives in WWII, standing alone on the hillside above Spean Bridge. It was made even more poignant by the addition of many tributes to young soldiers who have fallen in more recent battles.

The highlight of the whole week for me was catching sight of this amazing creature as we drove slowly down Glen Etive ....

It took me twenty seven photographs before I got this .... as he lifted his head and stared right at us. Just wonderful!!!!

Sunset over Loch Linnhe.

A Postcard from Scotland

We're spending half term in the Scottish Highlands.

 This is the view as we arrived .... it hammered down all afternoon and right through the night, but .....

... this is the view from our caravan window this morning. We're on the shores of Loch Linnhe just south of Fort William.
The forecast does seem to have a lot of rain featured, so we're getting out for a walk this morning while we can.
See you next week!

Salve from Dewa!

Today we took our Year 4s to the Dewa Roman Experience in Chester, where we went on foot patrol with a real live Roman Soldier!!!

No children were harmed during the course of this post ... honest!!!

On our way back to the museum we all marched through the streets of Chester chanting as loud as we could, to the amusement of shoppers and tourists alike.

Great fun!

We had a fantastic day! It's well worth a visit if your little ones are 'doing the Romans".

One more day till half term ... yippee!!!!

A Postcard from Caldy

Today was a perfect day for a lovely autumnal walk here on the Paradise Peninsula, with warm sunshine and blue skies. We decided to stay local .... this starts about ten minutes away from our house.

We walked up through Caldy Woods, crunching our way on the leaves underfoot.

Caldy village was mentioned in the Domesday book.  The cross is a monument to R.W Barton who bought the village in 1832. It is thanks to him that it survived intact. The inscription says simply "from Mary, who loved him". So poignant! Now Caldy's a rather exclusive conservation area, with beautiful sandstone houses.

We followed the bridleway back into the woods climbing up towards a ridge.

From here we could see Hilbre Island, which you can walk to when the tide is out. We haven't done it for a while, so it's on our list to do.

The headland in the far distance is the Great Orme at Llandudno.

Standing on the ridge is The Column which was erected in 1841 by the Trustees of Liverpool Docks as a beacon for river traffic. Continuing along the ridge we reached Grange Hill where we found this amazing war memorial. We've lived in this area for over 25 years, and didn't know this existed!!!

From here we looked down onto the Victorian seaside town of West Kirby....

... the old building in the background is West Kirby Grammar School for girls, where my daughter spent seven years .... lucky girl! It's in such a beautiful location!

Dropping down into West Kirby, we stopped for drinks in Aubergine, a lovely little cafe tucked away in a side street.

Suitably refreshed we headed back along the Wirral Way which follows the shore line of the River Dee.

Stunning views across to Wales as we head back to the car.

In the days before the economic downturn we would have headed off to the Lake District for a walk on a day like today, but with a tank of diesel costing about £70 now, we've been staying much closer to home. It still amazes us that we keep finding little gems nearby!