My car had to go in to the garage today for some work, a recall on the brakes. The garage provided me with a courtesy car a 308. I was a little surprised to find it was running on fumes and I had to put some fuel in as I had to go to a meeting in Belper, but I suppose that's standard practice. Once I got used to it I really enjoyed driving it it was a lot more powerful than my car. I went down the quick way but cut back across the Peak, I'm afraid it was a bit muddy when I returned it. I didn't want to give it back!
Monday, 28 April 2008
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Better luck at Beauchief Abbey
We did find the cache here at Beauchief Abbey it was almost too easy this one. But the nice thing about geocaching is that it encourages you to go to places you've never been before.
Mushroom Lane
Colett and I went geocaching again today, the coordinates seemed to indicate the cache was on Mushroom Lane, we wandered up and down getting annoyed as the distance to the cache kept counting down and then back up again. Never getting close enough to really start looking. Eventually we gave up and went to the cafe in Weston Park Museum. When I thought about it I twigged that the cache must be on the other side of the high wall we had spent so long staring at. So it must be somewhere in Weston Park.
Saturday, 26 April 2008
See you Humph..
The wonderful Humphrey Lyttelton has died what a sad loss to the world a man who appeared to live life to the full, never lost his sense of humor, he had wonderful timing and a wonderfully smutty mind without ever loosing his dignity. I have laughed so many times with him and his compatriots on "Sorry I haven't a clue".
Chicken fillets
I got the giggles in the cab home from a night out with Colett tonight, she thought I was pissed! what was making me laugh was that i had noticed two ovals of gel on the floor of the cab, I thought some poor lass had lost her "chicken fillets " on the way home from a night out. I was speculating in my head how she had come to have "lost" them both. It turned out that they were in fact the gel insets you can put in your shoes to cushion your feet!
Best geocache so far.
This was a mutipart cache in Sheffield's General Cemetery with a series of clues to find to work out the coordinates for the actual cache, despite the GPS not always working too well because of the tree cover we eventually found it. More because of the application of brain and a little local knowledge. This sort of cache is much more interesting than the standard kind.
Thursday, 24 April 2008
childhood memories
This wonderful shop has been there for a long time, I was quite surprised to find it was still there and even more delighted to find it hasn't changed a bit since I was little. My Dad used to go in here when he was a kid, he took me and my brothers there regularly, it was great to take Ben in there again, he had been in once when he was little. It is packed to the gills with every kind of toy imaginable; all the things you remember from your child hood, things that you had forgotten about.
Teachers strike
Teachers, College Lecturers, and Department of Work and Pensions staff on strike against pay offers lower than inflation, i.e. pay cuts
Originally uploaded by Roger Blackwell
Out of interest at present a newly qualified staff nurse gets about £20,000, a newly qualified teacher about the same.
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Just what is all that about?
I brought some mince this weekend it was labeled as per the picture just what does suitable for use in recipe dishes mean!? So If I don't have a recipe is that OK ?
Saturday, 19 April 2008
A find at last!
Ben and I went geocaching today in Graves Park, we had much more success than my first attempt. The rules of geocaching are that you arn't allowed to give away the location of the caches in case someone steals them or trashes them so this is a close up picture of our find, it was hidden under some stones and leaves and stuff. It was very cold today though so there weren't to many people about to worry about them seeing us people not in on geocaching are known as Muggles the term presumably stolen from the Harry Potter books.
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Monday, 14 April 2008
Female hysteria
I was watching Casualty 1907 last night for a while, I don't usually watch this as I can't shout at the TV telling the team what they should or shouldn't be doing as I have no idea about the disorders and illnesses they had to cope with in those days Thank Goodness! But I did learn about one condition and it's treatment. Female hysteria It's not a recognised diagnosis these days but in Victorian times it was thought that this condition caused many ills. Last nights show had a woman presenting at the hospital with various problems her doctor told her that he knew what was wrong with her and what the treatment was a massage he then produced a rather crude looking device the scene discreetly changed some while later the woman emerged from the consulting room with a smile on her face! I was it fits of giggles by this time! I must be very naive or I missed out on my education somewhere but I had never heard of this cure. As you will see from the links the supposedly repressed Victorians invented some very "interesting" devices .
Sunday, 13 April 2008
no cache just dog crap
Well I figured out how to use my GPS; well sort of! So off I went geocaching along the canal near Mums. We didn't find any of the three caches we were looking for but we did find lots of these little plastic bags of dog crap!. Why on earth don't people take them home or move the dog crap into the undergrowth where it can rot away naturally it's going to take a long time for these bags to decay they were festooned all over the trees and brambles !
Saturday, 12 April 2008
This is What a Headache Looks Like
Well my GPS thingy arrived in the post this morning, I was excited, couldn't wait to get started! I eventually got it out of it's packaging made a cuppa and sat down to try to work out how to use it; I'm never very good with technology I hate reading the instruction book but I tried, read it and per usual I was none the wiser, I played with all the buttons. Eventually I got a satellite fix by putting it on the window sill. But I still can't work out exactly how to set it to find a geocache !
Now I have a headache!!!
Now I have a headache!!!
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Geocaching
I have just brought a garmin on ebay for geocaching, for those of you who don't know geocaching is a tecchie forn of a treasure hunt. I'm hoping that I might have found a hobby that both me and my 13 year old son can enjoy!
Friday, 4 April 2008
Gardening
In an attempt to live up to the daffodil garden post i have spent most of today trying to tidy up my garden. My back and shoulders ache but I feel good because my garden looks better than it did yesterday. I found my bleeding heart plant. I've tried to cut the lawn, trimmed the climbing hydrangea from around my kitchen window despite hating climbing the ladder David lent me!
Thursday, 3 April 2008
Why mess with nature?
In an effort to live up to the previous post I visited B&Q today to buy some plants and seeds for my garden. Needless to say I didn't buy these!
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
The Daffodil Principle
Sarah has just sent me a link to this inspirational story.
The Daffodil Principle
Several times my daughter, Julie, had telephoned to say, "Mom, you must come see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from my place by the beach to her lakeside mountain home.
"I will come next Tuesday," I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call. The next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I got in the car and began the long, tedious drive.
When I finally walked into Julie's house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, "Forget the daffodils, Julie! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and the children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!"
My daughter smiled calmly, "We drive in this all the time, Mom."
"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears and then I'm heading straight for home!" I said, rather emphatically.
"Gee, Mom, I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car," Julie said with a forlorn look in her eyes.
"How far will we have to drive?"
Smiling she answered, "Just a few blocks, I'll drive ... I'm used to this."
After several minutes on the cold, foggy road, I had to ask "Where are we going? This isn't the way to the garage!"
"We're going to the garage the long way," Julie smiled, "by way of the daffodils."
"Julie," I said sternly, "please turn around."
"It's all right, Mom, I promise, you will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."
After about twenty minutes we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church I saw a hand-lettered sign ...
Daffodil Garden
We got out of the car and each took a child's hand, and I followed Julie down the path. As we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped.
Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.
Five acres of the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen!
"Who planted all these?" I asked Julie.
"It's just one woman," Julie answered, "She lives on the property. That's her home," and she pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory.
We walked up to the house and on the little patio we saw a poster ...
Answers to the Questions
I Know You Are Asking
50,000 bulbs
one at a time
by one woman
2 hands, 2 feet
and very little brain
Began in 1958
There it was ... "The Daffodil Principle"
For me that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than thirty-five years before, had begun - one bulb at a time - to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top.
Still, This unknown, old woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of magnificent beauty, and inspiration.
The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration:
* learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time,
(often just one baby-step at a time)
* learning to love the doing,
* learning to use the accumulation of time
When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.
"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Julie, "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her direct way, "Start tomorrow, Mom," she said, "It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of our yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson a celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask ... "
"How can I put this to use today?"
Author - Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards
The Daffodil Principle
Several times my daughter, Julie, had telephoned to say, "Mom, you must come see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from my place by the beach to her lakeside mountain home.
"I will come next Tuesday," I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call. The next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I got in the car and began the long, tedious drive.
When I finally walked into Julie's house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, "Forget the daffodils, Julie! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and the children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!"
My daughter smiled calmly, "We drive in this all the time, Mom."
"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears and then I'm heading straight for home!" I said, rather emphatically.
"Gee, Mom, I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car," Julie said with a forlorn look in her eyes.
"How far will we have to drive?"
Smiling she answered, "Just a few blocks, I'll drive ... I'm used to this."
After several minutes on the cold, foggy road, I had to ask "Where are we going? This isn't the way to the garage!"
"We're going to the garage the long way," Julie smiled, "by way of the daffodils."
"Julie," I said sternly, "please turn around."
"It's all right, Mom, I promise, you will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."
After about twenty minutes we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church I saw a hand-lettered sign ...
Daffodil Garden
We got out of the car and each took a child's hand, and I followed Julie down the path. As we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped.
Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.
Five acres of the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen!
"Who planted all these?" I asked Julie.
"It's just one woman," Julie answered, "She lives on the property. That's her home," and she pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory.
We walked up to the house and on the little patio we saw a poster ...
Answers to the Questions
I Know You Are Asking
50,000 bulbs
one at a time
by one woman
2 hands, 2 feet
and very little brain
Began in 1958
There it was ... "The Daffodil Principle"
For me that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than thirty-five years before, had begun - one bulb at a time - to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top.
Still, This unknown, old woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of magnificent beauty, and inspiration.
The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration:
* learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time,
(often just one baby-step at a time)
* learning to love the doing,
* learning to use the accumulation of time
When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.
"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Julie, "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her direct way, "Start tomorrow, Mom," she said, "It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of our yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson a celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask ... "
"How can I put this to use today?"
Author - Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards
My dragon photo used for educational project
I don't mind too much when people use my photos as long as they don't use them for commercial purposes. I particularly liked this use of my photograph of a dragon on Sheffield station
Celebrating Linda Smith
Last night I went to a show celebrating the great and very funny Linda Smith at The Studio at the Crucible here in Sheffield which was where she went to university met her boyfriend Warren and lived for many years. She was once voted the wittiest person on radio.
She was a lovely warm friendly and intelligent person, it's so sad she died so young. The show last night was both funny and moving, you wanted Linda to be there delivering her material in hew own inimitable style. Which you can see here.
She was a lovely warm friendly and intelligent person, it's so sad she died so young. The show last night was both funny and moving, you wanted Linda to be there delivering her material in hew own inimitable style. Which you can see here.
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