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!

Graduation Weekend

I have finally Graduated!!!

After spending the Summer months watching old school friends don their cap and gown and stand smiling outside their respective Universities, I was starting to think my Graduation was never going to happen. We have had to wait until November so that we could graduate at the picturesque York Minster. It was beautiful setting, inside and out, especially on a bright and sunny Autumn day.

(Primary Education Group 4 on the steps of the Minster)

My family came up from Wolverhampton and decided to take the whole weekend as holiday so that they could explore around Harrogate too. Lucky for some, I was back at work on Friday in my onsie for Children in Need and practicing songs for the Christmas play. Ryan made an appearance too after work and let us borrow his fancy camera to get some pictures.

We obviously had to take a million and one photos of the day. Who knew graduation was such a big deal?! There were some funny pictures thrown into the mix, including a few of me failing to throw my mortarboard in the air!

I also re-created the first ever picture I had taken outside York St John University. Three and a half years ago on my interview day, with my blonde hair, on the right and then my graduation picture on the left. Not much has changed, other than being brunette and a little smarter I suppose!!

Fountains Abbey

Yesterday I met up with my family again (who had been staying in a local bed and breakfast) and we went to Fountains Abbey and the deer park. It was really enjoyable to take a relaxing walk around the ruins, kicking up some leaves as we went.

Obviously we couldn't help ourselves being big kids as per usual so there were plenty of silly photo opportunities. We dressed up as monks in one of the information rooms, however we got the habits on backwards, doh! Ryan even managed to capture our leaf throwing fun.

I hope you are all enjoying your weekends, whether you are graduating or not!