WOW!!!!

I am truly overwhelmed at the amount of interest in Scavenger Hunt Project. I can't believe how many people have joined in .... we've got photos from the U.S.A to New Zealand... and of course, all over the UK too.

I would like to say a great big thank you to you all ... and I've appreciated your comments so much!

... I've just loved looking at all the different interpretations of the themes. Some have made me laugh out loud .... check out the cat in the sink .... and some are simply stunning.

I just went out and snapped away, but some photographs are so beautiful I think I need to go on a photography course to learn new skills!!!!

It's not too late to add your photos to the linky on the page at the top of my blog ... it's open for a week. You can also have all the photos on your own blog if you click on the blog hop thingy and follow the instructions!

If you have a flickr account you can add your photos the group ... click on the link in my side bar. You are welcome to put this on your own page.

Watch this space .... I'll post February's list tomorrow!

Love Kathy xxx

Photo Scavenger Hunt ~ January

My collection of photographs for the January Scavenger Hunt .... I found some of these quite a challenge.

An abandoned building

An old builders yard destroyed by fire many years ago

Stained Glass

Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral

Goldfish

At Waterworld Pet Store on the Chester High Road

Yarn

in John Lewis

Playground Equipment

The nursery playground at school... on a foggy day.

Library

The new state of the art public library in Newcastle

A tombstone over 100 years old

Dated 1883, in St Peter's Churchyard, Heswall

My Front Door

That step needs a coat of paint!

A reflective surface (not a mirror)

a large pot at Gordale Garden Centre

Something out of place

Hideous 21st Century signage outside Liverpool's Victorian museum

Nature

Even after the harshest of winters, nature still finds a way ....

Bubbles

At Waterworld Pet Store

Project 365 ~ Week 4

What have I been up to this week?

Nothing exciting really .... hence some very boring photos!

22/365

A walk along The Leete at Loggerheads, Clwyd

23/365

A long last my son decides to sort out his room ... 

all traces of his childhood have gone to the tip!

24/365

Last week's hyacinth is disappointing ... 

too pale, too floppy and no perfume

25/365

8.00 a.m. at the Mersey Tunnel toll booths on a rainy Tuesday

26/365

St John's gardens and the rear view of St George's Hall, Liverpool city centre.

27/365

Mr B. and Inca coming across the field after their evening 'walkies'.

28/365

I discovered this pebble on my walk this afternoon. Intrigued, I went to the website and found it was in memory of a young boy who had died from a brain tumour. So sad ... but what a lovely idea, apparently his family leave pebbles like this everywhere they go.

Thank you!

This award has been going around Blogland  recently and I'd like to say a big thank you to Bad Penny and Jo for passing it on to me.
I'm always surprised that there are real people out there who take time to read my ramblings!

Now I have to tell you seven things about myself ... I don't really know what I haven't told you so far ... I seem to have poured my heart out in the past year .... but I've had  a little think,  so here goes:

I always listen to music while I'm blogging ... I will be tuned in to Radcliffe and Maconi on Radio 2, or my own selection of tunes on i-tunes, or Spotify.  I always listen to music in the car too. Mr. B prefers silence!!!!

I hate, hate, hate snakes ... I can't even look at a photograph of one, and if one comes on TV I have to close my eyes.

Linked to the above ... a snake once crawled up my leg when I was sunbathing in France .... admittedly it was only small but I nearly died of shock and couldn't sleep for days because I kept reliving the horror every time I closed my eyes!

I hate winter ... I hate dark, dreary, dismal, drizzly, dull days and long for spring, summer or even autumn!

I love to walk along the edge of the sea .... where the waves lap onto the sand ... but I don't like beach holidays.

I am rather obsessed with pretty stationery and notebooks .... at present I'm using 4 different diaries ... I have a large one in work, one in my handbag and two on my desk at home ... and I actually use them all.  I am also a sucker for notebooks and unusual pens.

Lastly, I can touch my nose with my tongue. Ugh!!!

Now I'm supposed to pass this onto to 15 other people ... but I honestly think most of you have had it by now ... so I'll leave it open for anyone to take if they want to. You're very welcome!

I've noticed that I've got some new followers recently ... so I'd like to say a big hello and welcome to the Paradise Peninsula! I've got a lot of reading and catching up to do!

January Scavenger Hunt

I can't believe the level of interest that has been shown in this little venture. 

I just started it up to give me a bit of focus for taking photographs during the winter, and I thought one or two other bloggers might like to join in. Nearly one month after that first post people are still asking if they can do it too.

The answer is YES of course you can!!!!

If you click on the link on my side bar it should take you to a Flickr group where you can post your photos for January. I've just put mine on, only eleven at the moment 'cos I'm stuck on one!

There's also a page at the top of my blog which has a 'linky' ... where you can add your photos for one week starting from January 30th. You should be able to put this 'linky' on your own blog so you'll have everyone's photos too.

If you don't want to do either of these, just do a post and show your photos there .... plenty of people will see them whichever way you choose!

Now, this is the first time I've ever attempted to do something like this, and it all sounds a bit technical to me, so I've got my fingers crossed

(and everything else crossed too!)

If it all works, I'll post the list for February very soon!

A Walk to Devil's Gorge

Out for a brisk walk on a miserable Saturday morning with the sun refusing to shine, we ended up at Loggerheads just outside Mold. 

We've haven't been here for ages, but do we know it very well, because we have both taken countless school parties for walks along here when we've stayed at Colomendy Field Study Centre just over the road. 

If you went to school in Liverpool you've probably been Colomendy at some stage in your life. 

I first went when I was 10, then 14 and then so many times as a teacher. (I can honestly say, the accommodation and food for teachers was no better than it was for the children!) Recently the centre closed down for a few years, but has just been taken over by a new company, refurbished and re-opened. Our Year Fives and Sixes are going along there in a few weeks time.... it'll be interesting to see how it's changed.

This popular path runs alongside the River Alyn, and is known as the Leete. The path follows a long man made channel which was built in 1823 to provide running water for the lead mines. They needed water to run the watermills and water pumps. The river, although looking full today, is prone to vanish in dry times down swallow holes in the limestone bedrock,  and couldn't be relied on.

There are a series of old lead mines along the way, now all boarded up for 'health and safety' .... I've been into all of these mines and so have lots of children (our own included) ... always exciting to go a little way into a dark places and listen for echoes.

The biggest of the mines is called Devil's Gorge ... it's a very steep limestone gorge which has been blown out of the hillside by dynamite in the search for lead. Today the miners have long gone and it's popular with climbers instead.

Inca was a bit nervous on the bridge ... and was glad to get off it ... strange dog!

You can scramble down a steep path near here and walk a little way into the mine ... but not today, it was too slippery.

We found the old tunnel that goes under the path, all the children have scrambled through here too ... I don't suppose you would be allowed to do it these days!!!

There's a very nice tea gardens at the end of the walk, and a little visitor centre too. 

Not today, though, it was so cold and damp we scurried back to the car for a warm!

Project 365~ Week 3

Well, three weeks into the project and I'm still here ... 

but still finding it hard somedays to remember to take a photograph!

15/365

The King's Speech and a glass of wine .... how very civilised!

16/365

Shadows in the cloisters at Durham Cathedral

17/365

Hyacinths on my desk ~ a promise of spring


18/365

It's Winnie the Pooh Day ~ to celebrate A.A. Milne's birthday


19/365

4.45 pm a glorious sky over our road. It is beginning to stay lighter.


20/365

Apologies if you are easily offended!
No, it's not bird poo ~ Mr. B. sat in some birthday cake in school and had to spend the rest of the afternoon in this state!


21/365

Inca, guarding her pack from innocent passers-by. She gives a good growl and a loud bark, and then curls up again on the sofa and goes back to sleep!

Durham

There are phases of your life when you do something over and over again ....

and then just as suddenly you stop doing that thing ....

That's how it is with me and Durham ....  for three years I drove up and down motorways and across country, ferrying my lovely girl to and from the uni. 

Sometimes I just went up to visit .... a three and a half hour drive ... lunch ... and then a three and a half hour drive home again!

I haven't been back since she graduated in 2008 ... until this weekend.

It was lovely visiting the wonderful cathedral again ... and this time taking photographs of some of its nooks and crannies.

As always, we finished up in Saddler's for lunch .... an old favourite ...

... and succumbed to a plate of the curliest fries to eat with our paninis ... we really shouldn't have!