The sun has got his hat on .....

The kids have been off for half term this week and the weather has been glorious so we have been out and about making the most of it.

On Bank Holiday Monday we went to Osterley Park in Middlesex making use of our National Trust membership.

Noah enjoyed dressing up 19th Century style!

The girls posing in the Great Meadow

Tuesday was a washout and the kids rediscovered all of Noah's Thomas tracks and had great fun setting them up and making a video with Eden's camera!

Wednesday was glorious and we headed over to Virginia Waters to finish off the rest of the geocache series. We decided to do the full circuit of the lake for the first time ever - 4.5 miles and the kids didn't even moan once even Erin who got several blisters.

Proof it was 4.5 miles!

The Cascade

Part of The Ruins



Erin at one of the cache sites

A couple of cabbages ... with Eden and Noah!

Another family portrait!

The Lake

On Thursday we had stuff to do in town and the dentist but as it was such a lovely evening we went for a dinner picnic at Marsh Meadow in Cookham. We hid our 2nd mag. nano cache too!

View from the cache

Friday was another gorgeous day and we decided to go to Mudeford. It didn't start too well - it took a bit longer than planned as we went wrong twice (!) and there was alot of traffic. However, the kids had a great time crabbing once we got a good spot and spent several hours reeling them in. We forgot to bring any bait so used some prawns from the lunch salad!

Erin did well with this bigger basket but Eden soon caught up when we were given some squid by some departing crabbers. The crabs loved it!

One of over 50! We had to keep letting the crabs go because we only had small buckets.

With the last of the days catch.

It's great fun but you have to feel sorry for those poor crabs being

constantly dragged out of the water.

Mudeford Quay from Avon Beach

Thats all for now. I've been gardening today, a bit late I know, so no pics - well until everything starts growing that is.

Feel Good Photography Workshop

I have taken several of Cheryl Johnson's fantastic online photography courses over the last couple of years and recently have been getting withdrawal symptons. Thankfully she will be running another in a couple of weeks time. I have learnt so much on these courses and they make you get your camera out and try something new each time. Why not visit her website and take a look.

Bluebells

Went to photograph the bluebell woods at Cliveden today. They were spectacular but very difficult to capture because of the sunshine and shade.

56 and counting ...

The title refers to our current geocache count. This new hobby is becoming addictive!

While Eden was at Longridge last night with the Brownies we did a few caches in Marlow. One took us to Marlow lock a place I have never been to before despite hundreds of visits and actually working in Marlow for 7 years many moons ago.

These bluebells are in a wood in Ruscombe 1o mins in the car and again a new place to explore.

We headed up to London on Bank Holiday Monday to see the Royal Ballet's Cinderella. It was another fantastic performance and the scenery changes are just amazing.

I knew we would be limited for time so I picked a couple of of caches within walking distance of Covent Garden. The nearest was the London Freemasons Hall or more importanly the home of BBCs Spooks - an all time fav of mine so I decided this would be our 50th cache. This meant we had to up our find count so off we went to find the 16 needed. We did it! Four on the Saturday and our new record of 12 finds in one day on the Sunday.

Back on the grid!

The Royal Opera House


Back on the Tube!



The first of 12 that day and our first Letterbox cache


Our first Magnetic Nano - tricky little b*****s!


This was our only DNF of the day but what a tree to find in the middle of a residential estate!

Well, we finally found it after a DNF the day before!

Our first find on the Saturday - quite a way off from the cache.

We made long work of this one for some reason but it was a nice walk.

Given the colour of their clothes we had to go the long way round for this one at

Woolley Firs because of a field of black bulls.

Now for something completely...similar!

The start of the Easter holidays saw us looking after the school chickens for the last time before they headed off for pastures new. They turned into attack chickens when corn was on offer!

Chicken carers spoils :)

They were boiled, fried and scrambled and make fantastic cakes - well had to use them up somehow.

The gorgeous spring weather encouraged us to get out geocaching again. We're definately fairweather cachers. As of end of April we now have 33 caches under our belt. Great fun especially when you find your first ammo. Had to retrieve the "Zena" TB from this cache so named after a dog!!

Eden missed our first ammo so out we went the next night to find another.

We headed off down the Thames path for a few caches, a walk we have never done before but will definately do again. It certainly gets you out and about the caching lark. A fab afternoon followed by tea and cake at Martin's with Lauren and Grace.

A long overdue visit to Virginia Water meant our cache count went up again - this time a whole family outing. Our most finds in one day record - eight I think. It was SO busy and the kids loved being covert in retrieving and rehiding the caches - lots of pretending to find minibeasts for Noah's homework, not to mention the arguing over who gets to choose the swop.

Some fantastic magnolia trees near to one of the cache sites.

Back to where we found our first cache at the end of the afternoon.

Some of the scenery. We only did half the series here so will be back later in the summer to finish it off.

We also now have our own cache to hide - just got to decide where to put it!

This post has taken ages so I'm giving up now. See you soon!

If at first....

A second attempt at this post. Making use of our National Trust membership - an Easter trip to Basildon Park. Spot the main reason for going and who couldn't wait :)

Can't upload anything else at the minute so will have to do several small posts. *blows raspberry*

Jump for Joy!

Its about time I posted again and the challenge at I Heart Faces is Jump for Joy! and this is one of my first attempts at an "action" shot.

Check out the other entries over at I Heart Faces