A Touch of Heartbeat Magic!!

We've arrived in the North Yorkshire Moors for a bit of a break ... journey up was pretty good as we detoured a serious accident at East Ilsley by taking the country route. Traffic was queuing back up to the M4 so we would have been stuck for ages had we joined it.

We arrived at Nab End Farm in the middle of nowhere near Glaisdale about 5pm. It's a cottage on a farm Jon's ancestors farmed way back in 1841! It's very remote, very quiet, down very narrow lanes with steep inclines/descents to negotiate!

Had a leisurely day today. Went to Goathland ... where Heartbeat is filmed and the station there was also used as the Station for Hogwarts in the first Harry Potter film. Saw the steam trains arrive and Callum enjoyed the comings and goings although wasn't to keen on the noise as they started to pull away. Trains were very busy as there was a special event on, but hopefully we'll get to take him on a steam train later in the week.

Afterwards, we headed into Whitby to walk along the Cleveland Way to Saltwick Bay. A book in the cottage had a photo of a stunning wreck on the beach however the book was published back in the 1990's and most of the wreck has since disappeared. Lovely walk though ... and the views of Whitby Abbey were stunning.

Had tea in the Arncliffe Arms (the only pub in Glaisdale) ... Callum was brilliantly behaved as we had to wait 45 minutes before the kitchen started cooking. It's amazing how you can keep a two year old amused with a book and two toy cars - more luck than anything else me thinks!! Food was really good though and worth the wait. Jon had scampi - really light with the best variation on tartare sauce we'd tasted - had bits of seafood in it and Callum loved it more than ketchup!

Oh, Jon had a pint of Black Sheep Bitter and remembered the brewery was fairly close by at Masham. Guess I'll know where we'll be going later this week!

The Delights of Cold Callers - NOT

Horrible experience today - cold caller (a tree surgeon) decided to call around today and I ended up being verbally abused on my own driveway (and in front of my son too). He called and said he topped out conifers down a couple of years back and wanted to know if we wanted them cutting down again. He had never set foot on out property before - I told him very politely that he hadn't, to which he responded with a tirade of verbal abusive calling me a liar and all the names under the sun (in front of DS too). After he finished, he strangely assumed I would want him to cut back our trees and offered me a leaflet (brain addled or what).

I said I would take it but only to take the details and to tell everyone I knew NOT to use his company - so no, I didn't get the leaflet.

Still not sure whether to report this incident (to who not sure - he probably owns the company so no good would come of contacting them), as I would hate another person to be on the other end of this abuse. Apparently he did some work for one of the houses behind us, so may find out the name of the company.

Really shook me up - NEVER expected to be abused like this on my own driveway.

Anyway, the tree surgeon we used last time was a chap called Roger Molley and he did a fantastic job and would whole-heartedly recommend him to anyone out there.

Party Time!!

We had a little party for Callum and some of his friends on Saturday. Once again the weather was kind and the rain stayed away!! It meant that the kids had the full run of the garden ... and Callum got to play on the bouncy castle he got for his birthday. Great fun.

Callum was as thick as thieves with the little boy who lives across the close. It's amazing just how pally these two have become so quickly. Everything Callum did, Ryan followed and vice versa. It should be said that all the kids got on brilliantly together - no tears during the whole afternoon!

Yesterday (Monday), Beverley, Kate and myself ran the risk of going to Legoland. It had rained all night and first thing that morning so the weather didn't appear to be in our favour. However for most of the day, we enjoyed bright blue skies. One downpour in the afternoon is all we had.

Great day out - the kids all enjoyed the roller-coaster rides as all the two year olds were over 90 cms and Beverley and I enjoyed some of the bigger rides as there were no queues at all. Next year they should be there or there about the 1 metre mark so will be able to go on the bigger/faster rides.

Changing Call Sign: Life With A Two Year Old

As of today, this blog is officially changing call sign. Callum is TWO today. Happy Birthday!!

He woke up about 7am this morning and we sat in bed with a pile of presents. He managed to open two - two in an hour! He was very sweet as when he opened a present, he just HAD to play with it. And when he opened the box set of cars, no further presents were opened. Each car had to be careful taken out the box, stroked, smiled at, wowed at, brummed a little then put back in the box! 20 cars later ....

May be by the weekend, he'll have opened all his pressies. But then again ...

We just about made it out the house by 9am. Even though Jon was away, I still wanted to take Callum out for the day. One of my friends and her son offered to keep us company and we all had a fab day.

We went to Marwell Zoo - I had been there five years ago and wasn't overally impressed, but so much had changed. The viewing points at most of the enclosures had been hugely improved so kiddies in buggies could see in. There were even some walk through enclosures which were great fun.

In the Australian Walk-About section they had wallabies jumping about and also Kookaburras flying about. These were people-birds! Anyone that walked in got stalked by the Kookaburras ... they even tried to have Callum's toes for lunch!!

There's so much to see you really need the full day there. One our way out we passed the snow leopard enclosure. All three were out playing (and the viewing areas had huge glass panels so there was no wires to distract). They were stunning and gorgeous and we just had to take one home with us. Callum is now the proud owner of a Snowy!

We got back to a pile of parcels left on the doorstep, 5 answer phone calls of birthday messages, numerous text messages and a visit from one of Callum's godfathers (sorry Jim, Callum had zonked about about 20 mins before you arrived).

I've just downloaded about 500 photos on to the computer from the last two days (over half have been deleted) and I'm now trying to figure out if any are suitable for this module of the Painting With Light Course.

Legoland - It's a Hoot, Hoot!

On Tuesday Bev, I and the kids decided to squeeze in one last visit to Legoland before it closes for winter. We set off bright and early, and made good time to Windsor. All too good to be true as when we arrived, the barriers were down; the park was closed for two days!! Grrrr

Not to be defeated, we headed down to Paultons Park, nr Southampton. It was completely the opposite direction but what the heck; an hour or so later, we arrived in time for lunch!

Neither of us had been to PP before, but friends had recommended it as being great for young kids. We did have a lovely day in the end, especially as both Callum and Hannah could go on rides as they are now both over 90 cms tall!!!! Callum had his first ride on a roller coaster. He cried before we got on and when we got off, but not during the ride. Either he was too scared to utter a cry or liked it, I'm not quite sure!

Probably the thing Callum loved most was being able to run around. The park was really quiet (like in places there was no-one else around!) so it was very easy to keep an eye on the kids.

They seem to be adding more rides suitable for the older kids, so plenty to keep the whole family amused!

We had a great time though - thanks Bev!

Jon's currently out in India with work for a couple of days. We're going to miss him as he's away for Callum's birthday tomorrow - he turns TWO!! Just where have the last two years gone????

Here's my efforts for Week Three of the Painting With Light Photo Course. Quite chuffed this week as one of my photos made the Photographers Top Ten favourite shots of the week! I was getting a little despondent with this weeks module as we need to get in close. We don't have a macro lens for the Digi SLR so had to revert to the IXUS.

Here's the photo that made the top ten. As featured on a gravestone in St Mary's Churchyard.


Here are the others that captured the spirit of this weeks module (was getting desperate - even our BBQ tea made an appearance!

Nic's Getting Married!!

The news that we've been expecting for ages has finally arrived!!

Nic's getting married!! Nic met Aly on holiday in Egypt 18 months or so ago and ever since have been dating long-distance between England and Sardinia (where Aly lives). She went over for a long weekend last weekend. He proposed and she said "Yes".

All very exciting ... the wedding plans are well under way as the plan is to get married in Venice later this year!!

Back to the Usual Routine!

The schools have gone back this week so all the usual activities have restarted. We've had to move our Tumbletot session to a Friday morning as the new Wednesday timings meant it was slap-bang in the middle of playtime with some friends. However, Fridays are now crazy ... Tumbletots then swimming in the afternoon, then I try and go to Badminton in the evenings. I'm shattered before I even start the badminton. I doubt we'll be carrying on Tumbletots after half term as it's just too much for Callum in one day (and me!).

It was a much nicer swimming lesson today too. We've a new instructor who seems very nice who is now working alongside the nice swimming teacher from the previous terms. The "old" one, whilst I'm sure very well qualified, never smiled, never interacted with the kids and never got in the water. She didn't seem to enjoy teaching the children so we were not surprised when we had a new teacher. The lesson was much more fun - doing lots of different things in the water, rather than just been sent out to swim after ducks for most of the session.

We were back at Beale Park yesterday and it was lovely and quiet. Not many people there at all.


We wandered around after lunch and Callum got very excited as there were lots of fast planes flying overhead. Perfect timing - the Red Arrows were putting on a display. Tried to take some photos, but not that many came out well.

I've also completed another module this week and am much happier with the photos I've taken - weather was much kinder. Took loads of photos but most are ending up in the trash canThank goodness for digital photography ... if we were working with traditional film technology it would be costing me (or rather Jon!) a fortune!.

Here's the best of this weeks photos.

Birthday Season!

It's that fun time off year once more when all of Callum's friends have their birthdays. Cannot believe that they are all turning two!! So far we've been to seven parties plus a join birthday BBQ with one of the groups of mum's I meet up with ... we've another 3 to go plus Callum's birthday party.

Jon's parents and sister came over for the Bank Hols weekend. The weather was glorious although a little too hot on Sunday. Callum had lots of fun playing out in the garden with his Gran and Granda.









We've also completed the first module on the photography course. With having visitors over the Bank Hols, I couldn't get out to take too many photos. I did learn a lot - it's just a shame this wasn't reflected in my photos. It is something I know I will use again and again, especially when the sun is right!

I met up MJ and her son at Greenham Common on Thursday to try and take some more photos but the sun decided to do a disappearing act. We did however take some gorgeous photos of the wild ponies on the common. Oh, and Callum was introduced to blackberries and loved them.

We had a very relaxing weekend though. On Saturday we popped into town and called to see my parents on the way home. I finally completed the digi scrapbook album as a thank-you for taking us all on hols. They were both really chuffed although Dad did make a comment that he was only on one photo in the whole album!! He's worse than me for staying behind the camera.

On Sunday we went to Combe Gibbet (nr Inkpen) and to Wilton Windmill - I hadn't been to either place before and thought they might be some good photo opportunities.

Not too bad, but my better photos were non-module related!!

We're heading out with MJ on Tuesday to try and find a good location for photos ... fingers crossed the sun makes an appearance.