Stone circles and manmade caves

A little while ago, we took a short break south, down to the lakes, mostly due to the wife having a conference she had to attend. While we were there we went for a little walk near Penrith with the kids to go and see Long Meg and her Daughters. 

The stone circles

The day was spent while the bairns were at the grandparents up the road, so it was just me and the wife, a rare experience. The stone circle was beautify, sitting up on top of the hill, although the fact that it was dissected by a road and also in the middle of a cow field did make it an experience. Dodging cows and cars while trying to take pictures does make tings more interesting! Ok, so the cars were crawling along, but still!

While we were out and about we also took a trip down to Lacy's Caves and walked along the railway line. 

View along the river

View out one of the "door"

The caves were also fun and the history is mental! some bloke decides to dig some caves to entertain friends, oh and just to top it off, why not employ a hermit to live there? For the engineer in me, looking at the tool marks in the walls was fascinating. Now, the rock isn't the hardest to mine, being sandstone, but it must still have taken quite a while to dig it all out by hand. For the added bonus, the walk along the old railway/tram line is well worth it. There are numerous old structures that are good to explore, and plenty of railway paraphernalia dotted around, from old sleepers to sidings and what looked like a coaling station. For the railway enthusiast in me, it made the day even better. 

If your ever in the area, I'd recommend taking a trip to both.

oh and I will leave you with this;

A little bit of graffiti at the caves, Banksy wanna be?

New Car show

A few weeks ago the local new car show took over the local leisure centre. Now, I am a car man and I enjoyed looking around but there were very few things on show that really did anything for me. Below are a few shots of some of the cars and other vehicles that were on show and that the little man insisted I take pictures off.

 

Big truck, not interested

Ford Focus RS, nice cars and I probably would have one, but there still a little to Max Power (if anybody still uses that term) for me

Kids quad, I would have loved one of these when I was younger and would love to get one for the bairns, but do they really need one? no, not at all.

GT86? Now, this is one of the few cars that actually did appeal, but I still wouldn't get one. not practical when you've 2 kids.

More cool toys, the young lady loved the little red car, and what a car it was! Lights, sounds, the full works, and I think it cost it too!

The new Scubby. A much better looking version than the last one that's for sure and going back to the old skool shape. Again, there is just something about the image that puts me off

The little mans favourite vehicle of the day. I have no idea why, its basic, has no radio and doesn't go very fast, although it can go pretty much anywhere. I'm not sure that we have much need for it though.

So all in all, a fun little trip, but nothing I saw even slightly tempted me away from my MG, although there were none of the new ones there. I really must get myself a test drive of some of the new ones soon.

Velux window no.2

So, with the summer fast drawing to a close, it was time to get a few of those little jobs outside done. One of the jobs that needed to be done was to get the Velux window fitted in to the bathroom. After having done the one in the young ladies room, it was a fairly simple affair to get the next one it, as I had learnt a lot of lessons. Firstly, cutting the hole in to roof went quite well, as I got the hole the right size, compared to the first attempt, when the hole was a little squiffy. The second job was getting the tiles off the roof, a job that took a long time for the first window. It didn't take as much time, but it was still a pain. I broke less tiles, and it took less time, however my plans to get the tiles off didn't work at all. I bought a slate ripper to get the tiles off, by ripping out the nails. It didn't quite work that way, but I managed it in the end. 

window in

Once the window was in, it was just a case of reinforcing the roof struts, what was done before plaster boarding, filling and painting.

Now, the pictures look quite dark, but the difference the window makes to the bathroom is massive. Previously, no matter how light it was outside you still need the light on in the bathroom, now you can be in there until quite late until you need it on. The window is frosted but it makes no difference to the amount of light that comes through. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with my second effort at putting in a window. Next up in the window fitting will be the end windows, in our bedroom and the spare room. These should be easier as they are just standard windows.

Mother nature revisited

One of the first posts that I put on this site, over a year ago now, I put on this site was about Mother Nature. Years ago I walked along the the track, from the in-laws in to town, not long after a storm , I cant remember which one, had ripped through the lakes and had devastated much of the area. As a result a number of bridges and a tunnel or two were damaged or destroyed. Well its been a while, well over a year, since it all happened and I was walking back down the track and there have been a few changes, not any real progress but changes none the less.

The scenes as it was (above and below)

The scene as it is now (above and below)

Fences have been rebuilt and paths re-laid, however, the bridges have been removed. No doubt cut up for scrap, which is a real shame, as many of them were the original Victorian bridges and added some real character to the walk. They will probably be replaced with modern, environmentally friendly things, that will be bland and boring, or by some architect envisioned monstrosities. Its nice to see progress, but I wonder when they will get around to replacingy the bridges themselves.

Its a cats life

There are times in life when I look around and wish that things were simpler. Sometimes I watch the kids and think it would be nice to be a toddler again, where the worst thing in the world was not getting to chew on the car keys or some other such thing or maybe a cat, specifically a domestic cat. Now there is no doubt that these guys lead a charmed life, getting fed and watered and then just doing whatever you fancy, which generally seems to be sleeping, something I could happy do all day!

Yes, its a cat, a very comfy cat at that.

Looking grumpy after being disturbed, all because the silly human wants a picture.

Of coure, its not always time to sleep, occasionally its bath time

The Wooden toy incident

There is something about wooden toys that I like. They are crafted from something, not just poured from a mould or cut out in a machine, although I grant you that there probably are many wooden toys that are just that, cut out using a machine. These toys though are a little bit different, they are far more hand crafted, still made with machines than with hand tools, but there not made by computer controlled devices, but by hand controlled ones. 

One thing I do not like about wooden toys however, is there price. This one cost far more than the equivalent metal or plastic toy, and also came with a broken wheel. Granted, we broke the wheel, which was why we had to buy it but that's beside the point, its was still extortionate.  

The offending item

This all occurred when we went out for lunch together, as the wife was off work for the day, using up some left over holiday entitlement, and we chose a nice little café down the road. The café in question also has a craft area, where local crafts men and women can see off there items to the local visitors and café patrons. Unfortunately, these sort of things also have a habit of attracting little hands, as was the case here. The car fell off the stand and the rear axel cracked in two, not a major problem and one that was easily fixed by some wood glue and if that doesn't hold, I can easily replace the whole axel, it being made of wood and all.

Being fixed

Now, personally, we have gotten away with a few little incidents in the past, broken china, damages boxes, smashed bottles of wine, that sort of thing, the things that tend to happen when little hands and delicate items come in to contact with each other. Every time these things have happened , I have always been honest about it and as I said we have gotten away with quite a bit but not this time. Now I honestly don't mind paying for it, after all, we did break it, and the café is actually pretty good and very reasonably priced, but it does put a bit of a dampener on things when you've just popped out for a nice, cheap lunch together to come home with something extra. 

Anyway, its all fixed now and in regular service with the kids, I just wonder how long before its going to be back on the work bench for more running repairs!

potty training

Well, it that time of life again and the potty is back. Well, when I say back, I don't actually mean back as its a completely different potty. The little man had a red Disney cars one, we still have the little stool thing but the potty is gone, possibly to Grandma's?  The young lady had a white winnie the pooh one, featuring eeyore, which is cool, cos hes my favourite. Unfortunately this potty, beloved as it was by the young lady, was left in a child's play park over night and went missing. Even more unfortunate, we were south at the time and leaving a friends house to head to the hotel when we discovered the fact that we had lost the potty! Being south gave us the option of a 24 hour supermarket, a rare and special treat. As you would expect, we couldn't get a replacement, so a similar one was acquired, plain white with blue rubber feet, needless to say it didn't go down well.

The original

So, it was a bit of a rocky start to the potty training, but we've pretty much got it cracked. The young lady has got use to the new potty and even had a little dalliance with a Peppa Pig potty and the little mans only Disney cars potty (yes, it had gone to Grandma's).

Now, the little man got off to a slow start with the potty. At first he was quite happy to just stand and watch, usually as he wee'd up the side of the sofa, but once he got it sorted, he went from nothing to everything literally within a week. It was about two or three days in to the potty training, he decided he didn't want a nappy on over night and went dry the first night. It didn't last, but he was dry more often than not. The young lady on the other hand, took to the day time potty training like a duck to water, there were a few accidents, as there always is, but she was pretty good. The night times however are not quite so good. We've tried a few nights without a nappy and they haven't gone to well, and she still likes to have her nappy one (her "night night nappies"). She'll get there, of that I have no worries, she's dry during the day and she's still some way off nursery.

One thing that has struck me again, going through the process again with the little lady, is that some of the ideas that people have about potty training. Ideas that vary from it being a lot of trouble, to it being very dirty. There are also some funky potties out there.

Now, I really don't get this. Why do you need to have a potty like this? The young lady is already progressing on to the toilet and so the potty is starting to become redundant after just a few weeks. And would you want to the toilet to start playing classic Disney tunes when your trying to pee? Also, why does it need to flush? Lets just sort one thing at once shall we.

Also, I'm not surprised that people think that carrying around a potty is a pain, if we had a potty that was anything like those above, I'd find it a pain as well! Plus, neither the mother in-law, nor my mum would be able to carry it around in a plastic carrier bag, which they both insist on doing for some reason, not entirely sure why though.

Potty training is just one of those phases in life that you just have to get on with, it takes some courage to start things off, but things always work out, after all how many of us are walking around wearing nappies?