Friday 29 January 2010

Monday 25 January 2010

Mess by the Oak Tree

This weekend despite not feeling well I went along to crew at LRP event at Shining Cliff Wood and found the much of the west end devastated by woodland maintenance. The signs says they a clearing the softwoods to allow a hardwood forest to re-establish itself, this may be great in the long term but they have stripped vast areas of trees totally and thinned the other area so much they are hard to describe as woodland anymore.

From a entry gate at Higgs Lane to the Shinning Cliff hostel car park run 2 paths, the upper path is still a nice place to walk, the lower path is not, stripped of trees, and then the path bulldozed through the debris leaving loose boulders its a place to avoid and will take many years to grow back into nice walk. The end which did have a nice leafy clearing with a oak tree in middle as been halved in sized, given a nice new footbridge, but the hillside behind has been fully cleared of all tree and was full of the noise of chains saws cutting down more, a large logging company seems to have established a base on the road up alongside the wood.

Once past the east end of the wood into the hostels area things are still untouched and protected by owners so will remain that way.

The bottom path, it looks like this from the area we park in all the way to the Hostel car park.


The old oak tree clearing which was full of atmosphere as been reduced to this.


The back drop has been cleared of trees.


The event itself went well, it was 3 or 4 degrees C which did not feel that cold and dry on Saturday, Sunday it did drizzle then rain at the end of the day, so my costumes got very damp and muddy. The players got into things even if the event was designed to keep them moving, fighting and thus warm, its not the time of year for long outdoor negotiations, although their seemed plenty of things to discuss.

AndyL who wrote the plot had now way of knowing what the players would do Sunday with many optional paths so we had to have many contingency plans and quick costume changes at the ready.

Two mountain bikers nearly came off as they rounded a bend and spotted 2 Gaisha in the wood trying to seduce a chaos mage.


Sam forgot her hair brush, I thought she would make a good Ronald McDonald.



I finished the weekend feeling much fitter than I started with the running around clearing up my listlessness, but the downside was the my cough got worse as the mucus settled on my chest and I think as set itself up for a long stay.

Saturday 23 January 2010

Sunday 17 January 2010

2010 Photo 3 of 52

Having not taken any photographs this week apart a rubbish photo of my cat checking I had washed behind my ears.



The only thing I could do was spice the photograph up a bit to make it more interesting.

Saturday 9 January 2010

2010 Photo 2 of 52

Snow days for vegetation




Saturday 2 January 2010

2010 Photo 1 of 52

It was snow day today.

This is my cat looking from the warm inside of my house.


This is my cat 5 seconds after going out wanting back in.

Friday 1 January 2010

Diary of my Christmas

I expected a busy Christmas period, but it didn't turn out that way.

Spent Christmas Day at my Mothers since she was not on Holiday this year, my sister and one brother, partner and two nephews also where there and we opened presents together, before tucking into turkey and trimming.

My other brother Stephen was off on short of holiday seeing his new girlfriends parents somewhere in the far South East of the country for few days.

I got my nephews money as is their want, but made them earn it by putting it inside puzzle boxes which they had to open to get to. My main present to my mother was a digital photo frame pre-loaded with loads of family pictures, my sister got a large chocolate pizza from firebox. Me and my mum also ended up buying each other identical books, both spotting a pre-Christmas bargain no doubt.

Brother and Nephew


Nephew, Mum and me.


For Boxing day I went AndyT and Linda's, Christopher did his usual and disappeared all day playing computer games, Katie was working at McDonalds having just finished 6th form, not wanting to go to University and having no idea on what she wants to do.

I received a excellent jumper and shirt from them, they seem to have a good sense of clothing I like and never fail to get me something good.

After opening each others gifts we then went to see Derby County play football, well they were terrible not that I'm a expert, but it seemed to be unanimous verdict after the game.

By the time we got back, Katie was home and opened her gift, a gorilla pod which may encourage her taking up photography something she has wanted to do. Linda and AndyT then made us a light tea which could have fed fifty people, so I found myself eating to much for 2nd day in a row.

Derby playing Blackpool and loosing 0:2


Just after the game wrapped up warm, although the day was not that cold.


Sunday I travelled to see Julie and Dave in Coventry to play a couple of board games, and just catch up, I saw Julie's present from Dave and we exchanged gifts, Julie said she was not knitting anything this year, but still managed to start something for me which she knows makes me very happy. They also got me a magnifying glass I had been eyeing up at TORM it had gone when I went back to buy and was kinda hoping it was them that bought it, plus a mini chess set as well as some pretty boxes.

Julie between winning games (she was lucky) managed to cook a giant cottage pie, while Missy and Charlie avoided me like I was a cat killer.

Monday/Tuesday was supposed to be walking days, but illness and a overloaded Christmas made my friends cancel until they have a quieter weekend in January. So I went sale shopping purchased nothing, not because there was nothing to buy, but because I would not join the massive queues to the tills. Called in to see Jock and Bridgette who bought me a large pendulum thing that draw patterns in the sand and also popped into Chimera and saw Heather.

Spent the rest of the two days playing Fallout3 on my PC, seems ages since I've played a computer game, it was probably the previous Christmas when I bought Warhammer Online which was a big disappointment.

Wednesday played wargames with Jock and AndyH at DaveA's house in Nottingham where his basement is a dedicated war games room. We played a great game which took ages in fact until 8.30pm when we realised we needed food before the pub stopped serving. The pub was doing a quiz night, which somehow the four of us won despite our poor knowledge of TV soaps and current pop music. The only downside was part of the prize was free drinks tokens, which AndyH was determined to consume before we went home.

New Years Eve did not go to plan, although I did find chance to nab some sale bargains and spend a Gift voucher. It didn't go to plan due AndyL and Heather having to cancel last minute with a sickness bug taking a big hold of one their girls. I did get text from Sam inviting me over to her party once she discovered my predicament but it was just a bit late in the evening and bit far so in the end I decided to have a extremely quiet New Year on my own.

I still have one night out left a Steve's for a Birthday meal, but really that's it so a couple of days of rest before going back to work.

That's my Christmas, was good one, thanks mainly to my great friends and family.