If you go into the woods today......

you might find people looking for Tupperware!

Well that's what J and I were doing today.

He had an INSET day from school and with it being nice and warm we decided the best place to walk the dog would be some woods. As usual our next step was to look on www.geocaching.com to find a wood with unfound caches in. We settled on this series, packed our caching bag and off we went.

The woods are obviously very popular with dog walkers and so a few times J loudly announced he needed to tie his laces or was off to find a tree to climb in order to let people pass us so we could search for the caches. Here he is inspecting a tree whilst someone went by.

It was lovely and cool in the woods and so we spent 2 hours wandering around and following our GPS arrow to various hides.

 

D dog managed to find water too and looked in heaven as she cooled her paws off. She moved before the camera caught her though.

 

 

We found all the caches in the series and they lead us to the bonus cache. J was thrilled to find it as it was huge and full of stuff. Not exciting stuff to a grown up but to an 8 year old a tub this big filled with plastic stuff is heaven.

 

 

It's been a tough weekend here as I heard one of my dearest friends finally lost her fight with cancer and passed away on Saturday. She taught me lots of things and one of the most important lessons was to grab life and live it. So that's why today I enjoyed my son, the weather, the woods and life. 

Today's trip was an important one and it reminded me how blessed I am.



 

Bluebells and blossom

After a weekend away I am always amazed to see the difference in my garden. The weather had been warmer and so things had started to grow again. 

These bluebells are what I dug out of my Nan and Gramp's garden when he passed away.  All of the grandchildren had a clump of these and the snowdrops that we all remember fondly from their garden.  My love of the garden comes from my Gramp. I can remember him showing me how to sow seeds, how to prune roses and how to shout at someone (ahem) who pulls up your carrots!  When we cleared the house I didn't want anything apart from the bluebells and his watering can. It leaks a little from the bottom and is metal so is stupidly heavy when full but everytime I pick it up I know he is with me.  My mum also gave me his trowel and his fork. Both if these need new handles but I haven't yet brought myself to get them done. The cracked and broken off handle is so smooth in my hand and I like it.

My Nan's contribution to the garden was to sit in her sun chair and prepare whatever veg he had picked that day. I dont think I ever saw her sow a seed.

The apple blossom has also opened fully in the sunshine. I shall now be on bee watch to see if the flowers get pollinated. Fingers crossed they have a safe trip to our little tree.

A trip for two

It is very rare that D and I go away, just the two of us. Mostly because D's time at home is so precious that we like to spend it as the three of us. However, this weekend we were invited to the wedding of a colleague of D's, and the invite didn't include J.

We dropped J at my mum's for a bit of spoiling and we set off to Andover. We were staying in the Premier Inn there and it was as clean as we have come to expect from the chain.. A quick change and off to the church.

After a beautiful service we walked up to the bride's parents' house where the reception was being held. It was very much a relaxed garden party affair and I have to admit to a bit of bunting and veg garden jealousy!

 

 

We drank fizz, ate the most amazing food and chatted to people from all walks of life. The bride looked stunning and the groom and all the merchant sailors looked very smart in their uniforms. 

 

It was a very relaxed day and I hope it was everything Julia and Alex wanted it to be.

 

 

The morning after dawned with even better weather and it was too good an opportunity to miss for a spot of geocaching in a new county. We had an hour to spare before heading back to collect J so a quick check on the iphone had us heading for Danebury Hill Fort.

 

 

 

The views from up here were astounding and you can certainly see why a fort was built up here. You would be able to see your invaders before they had even decided to invade!



So a short trip for two this weekend. As is so often the case J and I headed for home and D headed for work. Only a 4 day week though this week so I'd better get planning the next trip.

Soul time

I find great peace and pleasure in pottering in my garden. I am no expert and mostly self taught. We don't have a very big garden and lots of my plans will have to wait until J is over playing football and needing a  square patch of grass to play on.  In the meantime I have 2 borders, plenty of pots and a gravel front garden that is for growing veggies (more about that another time).

It was dry after we had eaten tea tonight so I decided to see the cares of the day away with an hours pottering time. J did his first grass cut on his own, whilst I fed him the cable and kept it out of the way. It wasn't a great cut but I tidied it up when he went off to play and he was pleased with himself.

Once it was quiet I spent some time finding out what had been growing since I was last out there for any length of time, rather than dodging showers.

The apple tree we moved from a pot to the border seems to be doing well. Lots of blossom just waiting to pop.



This is a Katy apple tree on dwarf root stock. The apples aren't the best tasting but it has the same name as my sister and J chose it.

Every year my alliums come up and then something eats through the flower stem and we don't see the flower. This year is looking a bit more promising. This is the closest we have come to a flower for 4 years! Fingers crossed.



My tiny greenhouse/cold frame is fit to bursting with plants just waiting to be put out.



The weather isn't quite being kind enough to us yet though. Maybe next week.......

After the rain

I only work half a day on Wednesdays and as luck would have it yesterday the rain finally stopped just as the lunch bell rang at school signalling my time to head home. It had been raining for 16 hours solid.

I came home, picked the D dog up and set off in my wellies for a nice peaceful walk. The one thing I find hard about being in school is the constant noise.  Even when the children are being quiet there is still a back ground hum and after years of being home alone in the the daytime I really notice it.

We set off to a track we haven't been to since the middle of winter. It was muddy but everything was so green. A vivid, glowing green.  It actually stopped me in my tracks and as I stood there looking at it I felt as if it was enveloping and calming me.  The picture really doesn't do it justice.



The bluebells are out in force at the moment and the contrast between them and the green reminded me of a picture I once painted at school.  The teacher told me it was terrible and crude because the 2 colours didn't go together.  I wish I could take her to this wood!



D dog had a lovely explore too. Lots of fresh smells after the rain and lots of mud to get covered in too. See, she was so happy!



Before we knew it it was time to head for home and pick up J from school.
Another successful trip.

Follow the arrow

One of the things we like to do as a family is geocache For those who don't know about it then it is basically a treasure hunt where you find co ordinates online and then using a GPS or smartphone you go and find the container.  Sometimes they are tiny (thumbnail size) and if you get lucky they are huge (ammo can size). The larger containers usually have swaps in them which J loves. Things like keyrings, cracker puzzles, mini pens are usually found and left in them.

The bank holiday weekend was glorious for weather so we set off for another one of our adventures. Wortley was our destination and a series of caches based on the components for an action movie. The first one had us park up by the church and off we went.



The first few caches posed no problem for Team Noom and we were making good time and enjoying some superb views.



However, on every geocaching trip we go on there is always one cache that causes us a problem and means we get lost. This trip was no exception. The arrow on the GPS unit pointed one way and the path went another. We decided to take the path but the distance to the cache was going up. Hmmmmm "It's in the valley" D said. So off we went down the hill, across the road, through some brambles.........The distance was going down slowly but we had hit a problem. Namely a huge drop down to the river!

I suggested we follow the main road for a bit to get our bearings and luckily the GPS sorted itself out taking us down a little path between some houses. And boy am I glad it did because we found the best bit of woodland with a river and real stepping stones!



It was warm now and the only thing to do to cool off was to paddle of course.  All of us, including the D dog enjoyed the freezing river water.

I knew though that having walked all the way down to the river and the valley bottom that the only way back to the car was up. So off we went again following the arrow for the remaining caches in the series. All up hill. It was warm and a hard slog but worth it for more views like this.



We got back to the car 3 hours after we set off with a tired child and a nicely worn out D dog. A perfect trip out.

Introducing the Nooms

Hi there.

I guess I should start by introducing us. Obviously our surname isn't Noom but it is what we have come to abbreviate the family name to when messing about.

We are me, A. I am at the moment working as a teaching assistant in my son's school until the end of term when my contract finishes. I am also chair of the school's PTA. I have no idea what I ever did to deserve that!

I am married to D who is in the merchant navy. He is shore based for another 3 months, away in the week and home at weekends. After the summer he will be heading back to sea. This is partially the reason I have named the blog One trip at a time. It's how we work. We can never plan ahead because experienece tells us that his homecoming date will never stay as planned. We plan everything one trip at a time, anything more is far too stressful!

Then there is J. At the moment he is 8 going on 13! He is a good boy and copes amazingly well when his dad is away. He has his moments though.

Finally is D dog. A 3 year old border collie who howls on a Sunday night when D packs his bag but then is my best friend until he returns Friday tea time. When I am dispensed with. I know my place.

So that's us. We make the most of the time together and like to get out and about and explore the beautiful country we live in. One trip at a time.