At NIGHT.

On Friday night, I wasn't putting on mascara and lipstick ready for a night on the town.... not that I do that much anyway. Instead I was wrapping up in lots of layers and donning my walking boots to investigate a night time geocache that I'd discovered with Ryan last Sunday. For those of you who don't already know what geocaching is...

"Geocaching is the real-world treasure hunt that's happening right now, all around you. There are 2,300,706 active geocaches and over 6 million geocachers worldwide." 

  You can find more information such as videos and app downloads on the Geocaching website here.


So last Sunday, we went on a mini-adventure to the Harrogate Pine Woods because I'd finished my work a little earlier than expected. It was small but nice for a quick hours walk. While we were there we thought we'd geek it up a bit more and start looking for geocaches. We found a couple but were intrigued by the idea of a night time cache that hasn't been found since October! It was useless trying to follow the trail during the day so a pact was made, we would return Friday night.

The reason you can't find it during the day is because you follow a trail of 'fire tacks' and 'ice tacks'. These are nails with a reflecting bit on the end that you can see when you shine a torch on it. Pretty much hidden to the naked eye during the day time.

We spent a whole hour searching in the dark using Ryan's headtorch to try and find these tiny tacks. The app says that you can see the next one in a straight line from the one that you are at. Errrrm, no! You have to wander around and really hope for the best. We managed to find a couple more before giving up for the evening. The last one we found was on a wooden sign near the path so we have a good starting point for the next time we venture out. We are determined to get the end now! The cache has a trackable item that I REALLY, REALLY want to get. It's a word diabetes day commemorative geocoin, which would be a good find especially with Ryan :)

You can see the ice tack glowing on the side of the signpost in this picture. So tricky to find!! But I am determined to get to the end of it eventually :) For anyone in North Yorkshire who fancies trying out geocaching, there is an event at Fountains Abbey over half term offering geocaching taster sessions.

I'm now off to Yarm to spend the evening with my Northern, farmer buddy :) have a lovely week guys!

Snippets

This week I couldn't chose one particular theme to focus on for my Sunday post. Nothing has really stood out as a post-worthy event or idea and it's been one of those weeks where I've jumped from one thing to another and some days have been a little topsy turvy.

Last Sunday I went on a little adventure to the Peak District with Ryan. It was FREEZING. It was actually minus 1! The walk was lovely and the views were amazing. It had even warmed up a few degrees by the time we got there. Ryan did some climbing and I did my first ever belay. My fingers got so cold and I started to worry that I might let go of the rope so I cried. Yes, I cried in the cold next to some rock. Sooooo cool.

 Recently I have picked up what might be considered a little bit of an old lady hobby. I was getting bored of coming home from work, eating dinner and wasting away my evenings in front of the TV so I decided to get creative. I ordered this campervan cross stitch for just £2.70 from Amazon to see if I had the patience for it. Addictive doesn't even cover it! I didn't want to put it down even when my fingers started to ache. I have now ordered a crochet for beginners kit to try. Such a granny in my youth!

In school we are really getting into our Reach for the Sky topic. The children are so motivated to find out more and more about space and are genuinely excited for our topic lessons. We have a planetarium coming in this week that even I am excited about!!

I am slowly getting back into yoga, not as much as I was doing before but some at least! I did an hour long intermediate session this week and I have to admit that it challenged me. I've discovered some new poses that I really like and I've re-discovered my motivation for yoga. Apologies to my instagram followers in  advance!!

There was also time this week for a lunch date with Sofia. She is only in York so really we should meet up more often! I took her to Wildes in York, a cute wine bar that I was taken to in 3rd year at uni. The food was delicious and it was great to catch up and talk about things that weren't work related. 

 In between everything else I've been up to, I also threw together a Banana loaf with some leftover bananas. The recipe was from BBC GoodFood and it is more of a sponge cake than a loaf. It is delicious if I don't say so myself!

If anyone has any interesting crafty hobbies that they think I'll enjoy, please pass ideas this way!!

Enjoy the week ahead :)

Life in a list

Back in May, while I was in that weird limbo stage between Uni and being an actual grown-up, I wrote a Bucket List for my blog. Some of the things on there I won't be able to do for years. Others are a working progress. However, in a short eight months, I have managed to tick a few off!

Get my blog to over 10,000 views

At the time of writing this, I currently have 13,473 views! I may have to set myself a new goal if this keeps up. I am nowhere near the big league bloggers but I am pretty impressed with my total :)

GRADUATE UNIVERSITY

 I already did a whole blog post about my Graduation here so I won't go on about it too much. Last year I graduated at York Minster with a 2:1 in Primary Education, just saying ;)

While we are on the topic of Graduation, this one might also be appropriate to tick off...

Not fall over on the stage at my Graduation

Actually have afternoon tea at Betty's

At the end of our Uni days, a few of us went on a big tourist day of York. We were a little hungover from our Primary Ed Ball so it wasn't long until we needed a coffee boost. Not quite an afternoon tea but I'm counting it!

Learn more awesome yoga stuff

Since starting work I haven't been doing much yoga at all. I loved my few months of freedom where I had the chance to spend hours doing yoga everyday. I learnt a lot and I hope I will make time for more yoga in the future.

Love my Career

2013 was the year I got my first teaching job. I'm now one whole term down and I still love being in the classroom every day. It is definitely a difficult and time consuming job but I can't imagine doing anything else.

Climb a mountain, even if it's tiny

Back in October, I went to Ingleton with Ryan for the day. He convinced me that walking up Inglebrough would be a good idea! After lots of moaning (on my part) we finally reached the top. It wasn't till now that I realised I'd actually climbed a mountain, although it was a little one.

Visit the major European cities

After a free trip to Paris with Uni friends and a city break to Barcelona with Ryan, I can say this one has definitely been started! I am eyeing up places in Germany next :)

Never stop trying new things

Pick up new hobbies 

Hopefully this one will never ever stop. To name a few, I've learnt about gardening, climbing and even geo-caching. Fingers crossed that in another eight months I will remember to look back again and see if I've met any more of my goals or learnt something else that I didn't expect!

The story of a broken waffle.

Hello 2014! Oh and it's Sunday ;) back into the usual routine at last now that I've calmed down from the holiday madness. I was meaning to blog a little earlier than this, however there was no internet at Ryan's Mum's house (which is where I have been all week). I had a lovely time spending New Year in Essex. We visited London but chickened out of staying for the fireworks because the last train home would have been a massive rush.... I'd much rather be snuggled up in my pyjamas on New Years too! New years day was spent orienteering in a LOT of mud :) as well as watching Harry Potter, my favourite!!

While at Ryan's, we watched Jamie Oliver's festive feast program. I was practically drooling everywhere at everything he made, especially his waffle with maple syrup and home-made hot chocolate. Back in Harrogate a few days later, and the recipe was on his website. So I thought I'd give it a go :)

This is how yummy they are supposed to look...

Jamie's griddle pan waffles

à la Jenny

It all started off very promising. I gently heated some milk while I made the hot chocolate mix; I even enjoyed getting mucky fingers while grating the mountain of chocolate. While that was simmering nicely, I got to work on the waffle mix which was really quite simple! 

With the griddle pan heated and butter melted, it was ready to go. The mixture poured in and spread out delightfully and it all looked very promising. You have to wait ten minutes to cook one side which is rubbish for someone as impatient as me. I was clearly messing with it, caught on camera...

I am also wearing my Sitka cardigan that I ordered from the Surfdome sale.

Ten minutes down the line, it was starting to smell cooked underneath but it was still as gooey as ever on the top. It was definitely a 'to flip, or not to flip?' moment. I opted for flipping and my waffle went quickly from this...

...to this!

Not the best start to my culinary year! After trying to salvage the waffle with some maple syrup, poor Ryan suffered through a few stodgy mouthfuls. At least the hot chocolate was yummy. After going back on Jamie's recipe I realised there are a LOT of comments at the bottom from other people who have tried. I wasn't the only one who ended up in this predicament and it seems the baking powder is to blame! Maybe there is hope for my baking skills yet :)