Secret Santa.. I know it’s almost March!
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Life, Photography | No Comments
I have only just got round to posting this which is terrible really as it deserves so much more attention. Bad me!
For the past few years I have taken part in the Secret Santa organised by a member of an internet forum I frequent. This year I got the most amazing and thoughtful gift I could have wished for. Firstly because the gift was in two parts one part for me and one part for the little one and secondly because my gorgeous Secret Santa had remembered something I had once said and put a lot of effort into creating the gift.
The Secret Santas
SS for the little one
When My gift arrived I had a very good Idea who it was from… and unluckily for them they had me last year as well!
I opened my gift and absolutely delighted with what I saw….
Mickey for the little one and Ducks for Me!
On opening the gift my confidence in who had sent me the SS slightly wavered… due to the fact that I had commented on some very similar duck pictures by the photographer Dee Gregory and Dee was in the SS. However, I was correct in my initial assumption and it was indeed the wonderful Tracy from Chic Geek that painstakingly put this gift together for me. Last year Tracy was also my SS and sent me a lovely hottie rabbit (amoung other lovely things) one with a wheat sack in it that you microwave and snuggle to keep warm. This was quickly hijacked by the little one, so it was lovely of Tracy to remember that as well and get the little one a Micky mouse!
In all it’s glory hanging on the bathroom wall.
Bathroom Duckies
Bathroom Duckies
Beginners luck…maybe maybe not
Sunday, February 7th, 2010 | Geocaching | No Comments
This is one of the very reasons Geocaching is in my opinion great. Today I decided to do a cache called “Beginers Luck”. This was a traditional cache based in the New Forest and for a change you didn’t need a GPS unit to find it as the informaton given was very very good.
If you are new to Geocaching and want to try a cache without using a GPS unit, just follow the directions and decrypt the ‘Additional Hints’to find the hidden location of the cache. Obviously it is also suitable for Geocachers with a GPSr but the direct route to the cache is nothing like as much fun as larking about in and around the river.This is a great walk for children up to the age of about 80, to splash about, make rope swings (please remove after), walk across trees over the river and generally have a great day clowning about!
This is a favourite walk for Hythe Monkey Boys (Sam & Ollie) and we hope you enjoy it too!
It is not suitable for pushchairs and wellies are recommended!Climb the stile and then turn left and walk to the river. At the river bank, follow the water downstream for about 1/3 of a mile, until you get to the wooden bridge then decrypt the clue on this page to locate the cache!
Look out for ‘The Hollow Tree with 3 Doors’(as The Monkey Boys call it!) near the beginning of the walk downstream on the right hand side.
What a beautiful location, and one that I am 100% sure I would never have come across if it weren’t for Geocaching.
A beautiful tree with 3 Magical Doorways
We had lots of fun paddling in the river and hiding in the trees.
Part of the river
More river
Interesting trees
And the final hiding place.. behind all those innocent sticks is the hidden cache … who’d have known!
The hiding place of the cache
I picked up the Happy Hippie Travel bug from this cache, which I will place in another cache soon to continue on it’s journey.
Happy Hippie Travel Bug
Current GOAL: To travel the country stopping at beautiful views along the way.Please take photos along the way and post them to see where Happy Hippie has been
About this item:
Happy Hippie started its journey to commemorate the 60th birthdays of our Mum and Dad. They too like to travel the country in their camper van.
Weekend caching
Saturday, February 6th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Some more Geocaching. This time in the New Forest, and 3 in the one day.
The first one was a traditional cache and easy find. It is part of the Side Tracked series. A series of caches located near to train stations. From this cache it wasn’t far to the next one, another traditional cache, and although an easy find it wasn’t an easy walk as it was very wet and boggy… Welly boots were almost lost on several occasions! Having walked part of this area of the New Forest it was lovely to go slightly off the track and discover a new area.
This Second cache of the day also provided a beautiful geocoin originally from Bayern, Germany but started it’s journey In the UK
Signal Geocoin - 5 years of caching
Current GOAL: Find the way to Munich
The third and final cache of the day was a multi. A 4 stage cache where you were required to go from location to location discovering numbers to help you find the final co ords and the cache. It was another lovely walk in an area of the New Forest I haven’t been for a long time! The stages were easy and the ground was pretty good under foot compared to the previous cache. However, the find was not so easy! It was only after a fair bit of searching that I realised my GPS was zoomed out way to far.. making it look as if I were in the right location when really I was 500+ft off. A quick zoom in and the cache was located.
I was confident this cache wouldn’t be discovered by accident so I decided it was a good place to leave the previously collected Koetje boe1 (cow) travel bug.
Cache and dash running
Monday, February 1st, 2010 | Geocaching, Running | No Comments
Yes I’m still running.. only 1K but it going good. I’m doing it between 3 and 4 times a week and really enjoying it once I get out and get started.. that’s the hardest part!
Seeing as I’m doing a fair bit of geocaching at the moment I decided to combine this mornings run with a couple of very local caches. So off I went to the first one had a good look about but couldn’t spot anything, there were a few people about (muggles in geocache terms) walking dogs so I was very aware of looking a bit shifty. Having given up the search I carried on to the next cache, at which point the GPS decided to play up. So I carried on running, I got to the end of the greenway and turned round to head back, half way back the GPS started playing again and I headed to wards the co ords. Actually not to far from the entrance to the greenway. I spotted the cache from the path straight away as it was slightly exposed however there were quite a few muggles around preventing me from retrieving the cache. Trying not to look suspicious I was finally alone and was able to retrieve the small box.
The log book was quite damp, but that’s to be expected I guess as it was placed right near the stream. I signed the log book and had a look to see what was in the cache.. Found a garfield travel bug (TB), but as I still have yesterdays Cow TB I left it for someone else. I didn’t take anything to place in the cache as I was running so didn’t take anything out of either, not that there was anything I might have wanted in this particular cache.
With the second one being such a quick find I headed back to the first for another look.. Still no luck, the GPS was all over the place because of the tree/ivy coverage so I’m not even 100% sure I was looking in the right place… It must still be there though as someone logged finding it the day before! Will have another try soon.
Two quick local Cache and dashes
Monday, February 1st, 2010 | Geocaching | No Comments
Another two successful caches today, this time traditional caches with no clues to follow, you just head to the co ords and hunt for it!
The first one after a little walk about was spotted exactly where it should have been, and the little one took our very first travel bug, Koetje boe1- it was a cow.. I’ll post a picture later. The little one left some normal coins and we will hopefully do a cache next weekend that is a bit further away to help it on it’s travels.
Koetje boe1 (Cow) Travel Bug
The second one was also fairly easy but well hidden and required some stealth as it was located on a very large anchor monument by a very busy road intersection, so lots of people about in cars! The cache was very small due to the nature of the hiding place so no trades took place.
We had hoped to get a third cache which was nearby but it was getting very cold and dark so we decided to go home and warm up a bit.
Multi cache find in one go!
Sunday, January 31st, 2010 | Geocaching | No Comments
Well yesterday was the first multi cache find in one go… It was a lovely clear but cold day so a cache on the coast was the perfect choice. I decided to pick an easy terrain one as the ground would still be very wet under foot and with the little one it makes life easier! A picnic was packed and we set off to Bournemouth. The cache was located in an area we hadn’t really been to before so instantly there was the reward of some stunning views of the Isle of Wight Needles to the east all the way to Old Harry rocks in the west.
It nice to explore areas that might not otherwise see. GeoCaching is a wonderful way to do this as you are not just aimlessly wandering around but you have a purpose and reason to go to a specific place.
This particular multi cache was on level ground so a nice pleasant walk, the clues were clear and the information was easily found giving the co ordinates to the final cache hiding place. Another reason for choosing this cache was that it was a toy swap cache which I thought would be fun for the little one. So on finding the cache the little one was delighted to find a box containing, among other things toy soldiers, key rings and marbles. It was decided the marbles would be a good thing to take and we replaced them with a small pot of bubbles.
If you have never tried geocaching give it a go.. visiting geocache.com and go to the hide and seek section.. pop in your post code and see what’s near you! There is an enormous sense of achievement in finding a cache and even more if you do a multi and have clues to solve.
I was so excited about yesterdays find that I dreamt all night about geocaching and this morning I’m shattered!
Christmas Muffins… anytime of the year!
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 | Cooking | No Comments
I came across these when searching for home made things to put in a Christmas hamper for my Mum and Dad and my brother and his wife. It was on the BBC good food website that I found these and they really looked the part and seemed easy to make up and also more importantly easy to bake. Though I will admit I didn’t actually give these a taste test before giving them as a gift.
Christmas Muffin Mix
The recipe is very simple, but the gift is all in the presentation. I used the 89p 1 litre slom jars from Ikea and then layered the following ingredients in the jar (flour at the bottom).
- 300g self-raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground mixed spice
- 100g pecans or walnuts (if your not a nut lover leave these out and put in more fruit)
- 140g tropical dried fruits medley
- 100g light muscovado sugar
The nuts and dried fruits in this recipe can be what ever you like.. in fact the batch I made today had dried fruit and seeds as I didn’t have any nuts. I’ve also done this without the mixed spice and just using and extra bit of Cinnamon or Nutmeg instead.
I tied a wooden spoon to the jar with some rafia style paper from the pound store, and printed off a tag with the cooking instructions:
Tip the contents of the jar into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add 2 beaten eggs, 300ml/½pt milk and 100g/4oz melted butter. Mix quickly and lightly to a soft batter. Divide between 12 muffin cases. Bake at 190C/fan 170C/gas 5 for 18-20 mins. Use within 4 weeks.
ommmmm
As mentioned above I did actually make these after reports that they were really very nice! So for your viewing pleasure here’s the finished article.
nommmmm
GeoCaching – first multi-cache find
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 | Geocaching | No Comments
For a while now I’ve had it in my mind about doing geocaching, as a way of getting out and about, seeing things or places you may not have seen before and of course exercise. But lack of a decent GPS unit with the ability to put in co ordinates held me back. But since Garmin has been released will full touch screen ability for the nokia 5800 it’s now much easier to have some fun!
There are several different types of cache, but the most common tend to be the traditional cache, where by the co ordinates given are the location of the the cache and the you basically just have to hunt around and find it. Or the multi-cache (offset cache) which I prefer as you move around to get to your final location cache. Either by working out clues to get the co ordinate for the cache or by finding smaller caches which gives you clues to the next cache and so on.
Having had one successful traditional cache find some time ago, I then went on to do a multi cache. This was still at a time when I didn’t have a decent means of putting co ordinates in to the Nokia 5800 and was unfortunately a failed find. Although a lovely walk and clue finding fun not finding the cache left me disheartened and I decided to leave it for a while. I’ve had Garmin fully functional on the 5800 for some time now but only on Sunday I decided to give it another go. I looked up and interesting multi cache on www.geocaching.com that was an easy walk along the Southampton City walls, the final co ordinates were deciphered from a set of 8 questions.. the answers of which could be found on information boards giving details of the walls along the walk. Unfortunately there was some restoration work going on in one particular area that prevented me from finding the answers to two of the questions and thus getting the final co ordinates. I had an idea where the cache might be but being in a relatively busy area I didn’t want to hunt around for it.
Returning home having failed again I set to finding the answers to the questoions on the internet. Once found they confirmed I was indeed thinking in the right area on Sunday so today I returned and found the cache fairly quickly. Depending on the size of the cache depends what you might find, some caches are very small 35mm film canisters, other can be 1ltr boxes. Today’s cache was a 0.33ltr box which contained the log book and a few things, most notably an Egyptian Cartouche like the one on the right in the picture below.
Egyptian Cartouche
The message with the cartouche was that it wanted to travel to Egypt and then back to it’s home and owner in the Isle of Man. I wasn’t sure if the cartouche was on it’s way to Egypt or on it’s way back.
The general rule of thumb with geocache finds is “if you an item from the cache, leave an item” However with travel bugs as they are called such as the Egyptian cartouche the object is to move it on as quick as you can. Not knowing when I would do another cache and being unable to move it very far I decided not to remove the Egyptian cartouche. Each travel bug has it’s own page that you can log or watch it’s movements, so when I got home I looked it up and it hasn’t made it to Egypt yet… Hopefully someone will find it that can take it further on it’s journey. I have decided to watch the cartouche and follow it’s travels.
Fingers crossed there will be many more successful finds!
Freecycle and the yoghurt maker I’ve always wanted
Sunday, January 24th, 2010 | Cooking, Money Saving | No Comments
Ever since I was about 13/14 and my neighbour got BEL yoghurt making machine I’ve always wanted one. It’s strange really as I don’t have any recollection of the yoghurt being especially nice. I do remember putting lots of sugar in it, so that must have meant it wasn’t all that great but hey it didn’t stop me wanting one!
The BEL
Over the past year or so I found myself hankering after one more and more.. It didn’t have to be a BEL but the whole thing of simplifying and making things from scratch – knowing what goes into the food you eat made me think about it all the more. So I looked about and the first one really that stood out purely because it was everywhere was the easiyo sold by places like Lakeland ltd, QVC, Julian Graves etc… on the plus side they don’t require electricity but the problem…. well you have to buy these special yoghurt culture packs. I didn’t like that idea.. I want to be able to male my yoghurt as and when without having to go to a special shop to get the special packs. So I looked some more.. and found various other electric yoghurt makers from around £20 upwards.
Thing is, honestly, I couldn’t justify the cost to buy one new.. I mean for years I’ve wanted one, but it could just be all too much effort for not a great result. I don’t recall that much about the taste it might make me heave.. then I’d be really sick at spending the money! So I decided to bide my time, keep an eye on ebay, the for sale section of the various forums and… of course freecycle!
Then a belated Christmas present came my way in the form of a freecycle post offering no less that the original BEL yoghurt maker! I was quick with my response and kept my fingers crossed. To be totally honest on the one hand I really, really wanted to get this but on the other hand it was a fair distance to travel and kinda against ‘MY’ ethos of freecycle. But… Luck came my way and it was offered to me, I waited a few days to collect to try and justify the journey.. maybe find something to get/do on the way, but in the end it was a dedicated journey just for the yoghurt maker.
The long awaited BEL yoghurt maker…
Nice individual pots
So far since picking it up I’ve made two batches of yoghurt, the first batch I made with Semi-Skimmed UHT milk and a couple of teaspoons of some natural yoghurt I had in the fridge. Unfortunately I left it on too long, it was supposed to be on for 6 hours and I swear I turned it off before I went to bed but when I came down in the morning it was still on. The yoghurt was still edible in fact it was absolutely fine just more of a fromage frais style set yoghurt.
The first batch of yoghurt
The second batch I made with Evaporated milk diluted one to one with water and a couple of teaspoons of yoghurt from the previous batch as a starter. This made an extremely creamy yoghurt which was very nice.. but with 9% fat in the evaporated milk I don’t think I’ll be making it this way again. I Shall try again with the semi-skimmed UHT milk but make sure I switch it off after 6 hours. I also have some soya milk so will give that a try as well.
Obviously It uses electricity, but with evaporated milk costing 50p a can and UHT costing a little less, it’s a pretty cheap way of getting your yoghurt fill!
I did it again
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 | Running | No Comments
Yes I went out again and I jogged this time without stopping… the same route as yesterday but no stopping this time woo hooo
Categories
- Allotment
- Bikes
- Birthday Cakes
- Card Making
- Computers
- Consoles
- Cooking
- Craft
- Cupcakes
- Desktops
- Eating out
- Elf Adfventures 2009
- Environment
- Films
- Filofax
- Gardening
- Geek Stuff
- Geocaching
- Gigs
- Health & Fitness
- Holidays
- Kickboxing
- Laptop Lunches
- Life
- Meal plan
- Money Saving
- Music
- Photography
- Random Stuff
- Running
- Uncategorized
- Vegetarian
- Weight Loss