Sparrow Lorelei and Robin Artemis photo gallery

Grandma and Trevor come to visit, July 2011
Geocaches, Diggers and other adventures

We went looking for a night geocache down at Newport Lakes Park. That was fun. The first part of the adventure was getting working torches for everyone (and getting them out of their packets after buying new ones). But once ready it was fun to go out. I don't do many night adventures anymore because of early bedtimes. Sparrow had fun being out in the dark, even though she's not totally keen on it.

We didn't finish looking for the cache. We got this far. There's a toy animal hidden somewhere near this seat that would tell us which path to take next. I knew which path it would be because there was only one that fit the next clue, but we stopped here as this was quite close to where we started and both children were starting to say they'd had enough. And it had been a nice walk, out over the stepping stones on the lake and around through the forest.

A misty moisty mountain morning. We've driven up to Blackwood, just Mum, me and the two kids. We're looking for a geocache or two, which have clues scattered around the area. One of the clues is somewhere here.

In fact, right here. But the cache that the clue is for is at the Garden of St Erth. The cache that's in this approximate location has other clues pointing to it.

The cache must be here somewhere!

At the Garden of St Erth, taking a damp walk with an umbrella.

Espaliered fruit trees in big piles of dirt.

I'm over here! A minute later she went into the flower bed - and then couldn't get out because it was slippery so every time she tried to step back up she'd skid down to where she started again. Poor girl got so frustrated and upset! I had to come lift her out of the flower bed.

The boy doesn't mind this too much. Gardens and rain are OK when you're cuddled.

In the cafe. They had mouthwatering dishes on the menu - but they don't make them on Thursdays! Oh well. We got to take over the couch and get the kids changed and dry and de-mudded.

The food we had was good too. Sparrow ate a surprising amount of her toasted sandwiches. Surprising because she's just started having A Thing About Not Eating Crusts, and these were foccacias so they're kind of entirely crusty. But she got through them over time.