Another weekend, another walk.

This was our longest yet, it started from Hope in Derbyshire and then across fields up a hill then walk along the ridge from Lose hill onto Back Tor, then Hollins Cross then up to the summit of Mam Tor and down into Castleton and finally back to Hope. The walk was about 9 miles.
I have been to Castleton many times when I was younger, the last time I went there was when me and Matthew first started dating almost 11 years ago, it's a beautiful little village, there is a castle, Peveril Castle, which sits nestled on the side of the hill in the middle of the town, there is a picturesque little stream that runs through the town, plenty of pubs and very lovely shops and cafes, there are also about 5 different caves/mines that you can go on tours around. I have always loved it there but despite the stunning scenery I have never ever thought of going for a walk around there and up onto the hills but I am so glad we did it was amazing and so nice to see another part of this area I never knew existed.
The weather was beautiful but we thought we had better layer up because it would be much colder and windier at the top of the hill, by the time we got up to the first hill, lose hill I had taken my coat and fleece off I was boiling, the sun felt so nice on my face but I had my thermal leggings on under my trousers because they were only thin, I felt quite hot! At the top we recovered from the strenuous walk uphill and had our picnic, what a lovely place it was to eat, you could see for miles. Sitting still had meant that I cooled quite quickly so I put my coat back on. From here you could see the walk along the ridge to Mam Tor and we excitedly carried on our walk, next it was a slight descent then up to Back Tor, this is amazing when you get to the top, there is a sheer drop but you don't appreciate it until you start to go back down then look back, the walk along from Back Tor to Hollins cross and up to Mam Tor is along a very uneven path with steps and despite the warm weather there was still quite deep snow in some areas so we had to be careful. The trek up to Mam Tor was hard work the sun was shining in our eyes and it was quite slippery but it was worth it for the view. We made this our second stop, having the rest of the coffee in the flask and a homemade Nutella cookie, you could see people hang gliding over us from another hill. We then walked down to Castleton and had a drink outside 'the George' pub beneath Peveril castle before walking around back to the car park at Hope.
It was a perfect day out especially for a day in February, it really felt like spring was on its way.
We hope to come back to the Peak District soon for more walks and maybe camping in the summer!

Half term :)

What a busy week off I have had, almost as busy as a working week.

On Monday I looked after my nephew, Joshua for a while we made some valentines cupcakes, took Max for a walk and watched 'Ratatouille' then I had a lovely catch up with my sister and his mum Susanna.

On Tuesday It was pancake day so I had my mum around for tea I made a lovely minced beef pie then for afters we did pancakes, some with lemon and sugar and some with Nutella. I always enjoy pancakes and wonder why we don't have them all the time! Afterwards it was art class and this week we had instructions to draw out a picture ready to paint. We had to paint it using the 3 primary colours and mixing and blending the colours. It didn't turn at all like what I thought it would but I learned a lot about shades. I'm pleased with it technically but I'm not sure I like it, I don't know it something about the colours it's very dark and I'm not really a dark colours kind of girl but see what you think?

On Wednesday it's Matthews half day so we had planned to go out to the cinema and watch 'Les miserable' ( i still haven't watched it!) and out for a meal but it had been snowing since 6am and it was getting deep by the time Matthew got home from work, so we decided not to go out and we got a chippy tea instead and when we took Max out for his walk we went sledging again.

On Thursday I went for a walk with Max around Entwistle reservoir with Sandra and Kimberley from work and Kimberley's dog Finbar. It was dry and cold but because of all the snow melting on the hills the reservoir was very high and in some places it had flooded and we had to wade through luckily we all had our wellies on. We went up to have a drink and something to eat at 'the strawberry duck' last time we went there Max barked so much we had to sit outside to eat, but this time he was much better. We had a lovely time. It was also mine and Matthew's 11th valentines day together, I made Matthew a card and made him some heart shaped Nutella biscuits (his favourite) and he got me a card and some Guylian chocolates (my favourites)

On Friday I went with mum to Cafe create, a cafe that is set up in the hall of Claremont church in Bolton town centre it is open every Friday for people to get together and learn new crafts, meet new people and eat cake and drink tea! They have a gallery where they sell crafts that people have made. We sat crocheting hearts and teaching some of mums friends to crochet it was great I really enjoyed it. I took some of the felt keyrings that I had made to show them and they said they would like to sell some I just need to think of a name and put some business cards with them. I had such a good time I wish they did it on a weeknight or weekend because I'll only get to go at holidays otherwise.

More walks and adventures!

I've lived in Bolton for 31 years and it still amazes me that there are walks and beautiful areas near me that I didn't know about. Every time I drive to my mums I pass a road sign that says 'Smithill's country park' when I was young we went to the restaurant there called Smithill's coaching house, there is also a very old building there called Smithills hall that is meant to be haunted but I didn't remember there being a country park there.
Last Sunday we decided to go and check it out and take max for a walk there.
It was lovely if a little bit muddy, Max loved it chasing sticks and jumping over ditches, unfortunately he fell in one and got very muddy!

This Saturday we took Max on a walk to Moses Gate Country park I have been there many times but mostly just around the lodges, there are loads of geese and swans there, but this time we went on a walk away from the lodges along the river croal and irwell we carried on walking not really knowing we're we were going but letting max lead us he took us up this steep path which levelled off and there was a canal which looked quite old we walked along it for a bit, with the view of old mills in the distance, you could imagine the horses on the paths pulling the boats down the canal in the olden days. When we got home Matthew researched it and apparently it is a section of the old Bolton to Bury canal which was built to link Bury and Bolton to Manchester. Just before we turned on to the canal and just after we turned off it ended, apparently there are conservation groups trying to restore the canal once more.

This weekend, we were going to go away overnight somewhere but instead we decided on going on a day trip, the weather forecast wasn't great but we decided to go anyway.
We chose to go to Ingleton waterfalls after I found out about it from an app I have got called dog friendly Britain it has days out were dogs are welcome as well as other things like dog friendly pubs and hotels.
It is on the edge of the Yorkshire dales about 1hr 30 away from us, we arrived there at 12 and it was £5 each to get in. It is a 4 and a half mile circular walk which takes you past 8 waterfalls, the terrain is very rough at times and there are also lots of steps. The waterfalls are magnificent and the route takes you through glens, valleys and farmland, at the beginning of the route there is a money tree which people have pushed 2 pence pieces in for good luck. The forecast for Ingleton had been dry and starting to snow later in the day, this was completely wrong, it was either light rain or snow for near enough the whole time but it didn't dampen our spirits we even found a sheltered spot beside the stream which had an overhanging tree were we had our picnic whilst it was snowing. It was great.
The trail takes you through the village of Ingleton to which looked pretty and quaint. We will definitely go back sometime soon but we would like it to be sunny next time!

My week

Last week has been busy, on Tuesday I started an art class at the parish centre of the church were my mum goes. She has been going for years to it and its something that I have been interested in. They use lots of different art mediums and this week we were using acrylics to do a colour wheel by mixing the 3 primary colours, it helped me to understand more about mixing colours and different shades and tones. I really enjoyed it and I'll be going again tomorrow.
On Wednesday I had a go at mixing colours, so I drew out the picture of Max I had done again and tried mixing the exact colours needed for it. I had a go but I think I'm a bit better at drawing than painting, but I don't think it's too bad for a first go.

On Friday at work we had some people from 'Wild wings - birds of prey' who came to school to do a talk about owls and show us some, I just as excited as the children! When they asked whether any of the staff wanted to hold one I nearly jumped off my seat to do it! I held a Barn owl called Ella. She was beautiful, when you stroked her feathers on her chest she nibbles your finger with her beak, she sort of nuzzled into your finger. They also got her to fly from one side of the room to the other she was so graceful. They also had a tawny owl, an European eagle owl, a spectacled owl and a scops owl.

On Friday after work my mum came around for tea and ended up getting stranded here because of the snow we hadn't realised how much it was sticking by the time we went out it was about 6 inches high, we tried to drive her back but the car was sliding around so we had a sleep over!
By Saturday it had stopped and we were able to take mum home and go sledging!

And today I started a yoga class...who knew yoga was so hard!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

It's been snowing this week so what better time to go for long walk up Pendle Hill in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire.
We found a circular walk starting from the picturesque village of Barley on www.trekkingbritain.com, it is a five mile walk with an ascent of 330 metres.
The weather was light snowfall and there was quite a lot of snow on the paths too so we bought some cheap ice grips that you put over your shoes these helped a little bit but not that much, Matthew lost one of them completely and all the studs off the other one, he also slipped twice. I on the other hand didn't fall but did slip a bit.
We walked firstly along the side of lower and higher Ogden reservoirs then up towards the top of the hill. Then we slowly and gradually climbed the hill to the top. We saw some people who were on there way down who advised us to wrap up because the wind was bitter up there! They weren't wrong we stopped just after to have a quick drink of coffee from the flask and a piece of homemade chocolate brownie it tasted so good. We put or heads down and carried on walking up the hill. We couldn't see the top so we just kept assuming that it was just over the next brow, we felt a bit nervous not really knowing how far we had to go the snow was getting deeper and the wind was stronger. The only thing that was stopping us from turning around and going back was that we could see other people ahead of us.
As we reached the top and we spotted the triangulation point on the summit the wind was knocking me sideways and the right side of my face was numb and the snow was stinging my eyes but we made it! Unfortunately there was not a great view from the top but it was a great sense of achievement.
As we set down the hill along some very steep and slippery steps the wind eased a bit and we could see the view of white fields and the reservoirs we had walked past. It was beautiful. The walk then led us back into the village were we went to the Pendle Inn pub in Barley for our tea. Despite the cold we really enjoyed the walk, we want to go back when we can go actually see where we are going!

January blues

Last Monday I was back at work and looking forward to it, the good thing about working in a school is your never too far off your next holiday and the holidays you get are good enough that when its time to come back I am ready for it, unfortunately all over Christmas I have been fighting off a bad cold and come the end of my day on Tuesday I felt so ill with flu like symptoms, headache, aching and high temperature, so I had to be off work because I felt so bad on Wednesday and Thursday I went back Friday because I felt loads better but I still have the cold! It's horrible I can't seem to get rid of it.
It's not just being ill that gets me down this time of the year it's everything, the weather is cold and miserable, the days are still relatively short, when I take max out in the morning it's so dark it's like the middle of the night and my thoughts turn to spring and summer and holidays and that's stressful, because I have in my head all these things I want to do but trying to plan and to make them into a reality is hard.
On Sunday we woke late which put me in a bad mood straight away because I felt like we wasted the weekend but we took Max out for a walk just around longsight park near us and it really did do me good to get out I felt loads better and it started to snow, it didn't last very long but it made everything look pretty for a while.
I need to keep reminding myself of my resolution to make the most of every day and to try new things and this is what I've managed so far:
1. Read 'One Day' by David Nicholls (which I've been meaning to do for months!)
2. Watched 'The Hobbit' at the Cinema (which we were supposed to see over Christmas)
3. Did some drawings of Max

but I don't think January will ever be my favourite month of the year... Oh well roll on summer!

2012 and My New Years resolution for 2013

Last January I was feeling depressed that our first go at IVF had failed I didn't feel like anything in my life was moving forward. I don't know what happened but sometime in February we started to do more things, plan activities for the weekends it probably came from trying to take our minds off things, but we started to feel better and soon after this we made the decision to have one more try at IVF even tho this time it would cost us £3500, luckily and very kindly Matt's parents paid for it, this time we decided that we would wait and do it in the summer holidays this meant I didn't have to take any time off from work and it was less stressful.
In the meantime we continued having fun doing walks, visiting new places and camping. In August we had IVF and it failed again, it was upsetting but we had to make a decision we could carry on trying but have no kind of life scrimping and saving and it might still never work or we could make the most of what we've got and actually it had been pretty good just the two of us.
Then shortly afterwards we said we'd look after my sisters dog, Max who we ended up keeping and I cannot tell you how much he's changed our lives he gets us out, he's waiting when we get home and its lovely to have something to care for.
2012 has been the best year for a lot of reasons most of all realising that what we have isn't all that bad after all. In the words of one of my favourite films 'It's a wonderful life!'
As well as all that its been the best year to be British with the diamond jubilee, the Olympics and the Paralympics it's been amazing, 2013 has a lot to live upto!

I want to make sure that in 2013 I make the most of every opportunity. I want to make sure that every weekend I do something note worthy that I can put in my blog. It doesn't have to be out somewhere, it could be a craft that I wanted to do, a book that I have read, a recipe that I have tried but most of all I want to do new things.
Here are some of the things I'd like to do:
Travel
Camping
Knitting
Walks
Hiking
Climbing
Swimming
Cycling
Body boarding
Cross stitch
Crocheting
Crafting
Baking new things
Cooking new things