Longer wander than usual !!

Well yesterday my daughter and I went off to take the dog for a walk, as we do every day. After he was sorted, we went off on what we thought would be a short wander. Three hours later, we were totally lost, which never happens lol, in fact we got that lost we ended up having to turn on the sat nav to find the way home !!! But it was great fun and we found some villages we'd never heard of before, and also saw a huge lake, which I'd never seen before. We also saw the first lambs of the year, no matter how many times I see these, they always look cute lol. I'll also put some other photo's on my other blog.

Awwwwwww




Not so cute, but equally as worthy of a photo.

Photo's after all

Despite yesterday being a grey and wet day, I was suffering from withdrawals from not taking any photo's. So off down a little lane we went, where we found the next 3 photo's and also some new ones for my other blog ...Angleseyphotofanatics the link is above this post, if you fancy having a wander over there.

We couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for this horse, it was so wet and soggy, but we also had to laugh at his funny head wear lol.



This delicate little tree decorated with wispy bits of sheep's fleece, was only about 3ft high and caught the eye of my daughter.



Lastly, this dried rhododendron head with glistening rain on it, seemed worthy of a photo too.

Just a short blog

Just a short post on my blog to let my regular readers know I haven't fell off the side of the earth, it's just my life is pretty quiet at the moment. I seem to have lost the motivation with my mosaic work, and the arthritis in my hands has hampered my photography a little too. Also the dull grey weather, isn't very inspiring for taking photo's, so my other blog has also suffered a little. But there are a few signs that spring, is just around the corner. Although I don't think winter has finished with us yet !!

I took 4 photo's of snowdrops peeping out the ground yesterday and each one was a little out of focus. I think this was partly due to pain in my hands and partly due to the fact we shouldn't have been on the little road we were on in the first place, so I wanted to get photo's taken and get away as soon as we could lol.

It seems that some parts of the UK are due snow again today, but as usual it's going to miss us :o( At 5 am this morning when I got up, the temperature was a balmy 6 degree's way too warm for snow.

When we went to take our dog out for his usual walk on Monday, we got into conversation with a lovely old guy, who was also taking his dogs out. As soon as he got out of his van I said to my daughter, I bet he's had an interesting life, and I wasn't far wrong either. We sat listening to tales of his life for a good two hours, it was fasinating. Some of his stories confirmed what I'd already guessed about the depth of corruption, going on in this world.

Two close shaves

On our way back from Llandudno yesterday, I thought it might be interesting to go a route different than the A55. It took us through a bit of countryside that we hadn't been through before. As it happens it lead to a road that my daughter recognised we'd been down before...that was a miracle on it's own, as my daughters memory is not the best lol. As we were driving along we both caught sight of an interesting piece of tree root on a bank at the side of the road. we screeched to a halt at the nearest pull in, and my daughter leaped out of the car camera in hand. What a beautiful piece of wood it was too, a root we think, the tree long gone. But it had the most amazing knots and gnarls in it which made it look really mystical, and we saw faces and alsorts in it. It must have been quite an impressive tree in it's time as the root was about 4ft wide and 6ft high. How I wish it wasn't attached to the earth, as it would have looked amazing in my hallway lol.

As we trundled on, we ended up going through Betws Co-ed, and I said to my daughter we could go and have a look at a forest park I like on the outskirts. We turned into the road that leads up to it and were faced with solid snow. Throwing caution to the wind, my daughter gamely tried to get her little car up the road we got about 10ft up it, before the car started slipping and sliding all over the place lol. Defeated, she went into reverse to get us out of there, the car started sliding from side to side on the ice under the snow, it was quite scary as she had little control over where it went, and there were small gulley's on both sides of the road, that would have been a nightmare to get out of. Luck was with us and we managed to get back on the main road again, both of us laughing with relief.

Once back on Anglesey, we headed for the beach near Plas Coch, to let our dog have his run. On our way back up the road, we spotted a lane we always said we'd go and explore, so off we went. The first part of the little lane was fine, but much longer than we thought it was. We came to a fork, one way looked like it led to a couple of isolated houses so we went the other way. That was a BIG mistake !! The lane ...well maybe calling it a lane is a bit of an exaggeration, dirt track might be a better description.

Anyway this track was getting very muddy and the ridge in the middle of the road where tractors had obviously gone, was scraping the bottom of my daughters car. We had no choice but to carry on as the track was so narrow. We reached a bend, where we could just about turn around. My daughter said shall we turn round or go on, foolishly we decided to go on .... a few feet further on and there was a loud noise of metal hitting rock, fearing the worst my daughter jumped out to see if her exhaust was still attached ( not for the first time recently !! ) it was, but worried about causing some actual damage as we reversed,I offered to get out in hopes that the car wouldn't be quite so low to the ground. Once I opened the car door and saw the sea of deep mud I regretted my offer, but with a bit of help from my daughter I managed to find somewhere to stand while she reversed off whatever we'd hit and turn the car round. Once out of that little scrape, we gingerly renegotiated the track back to firmer ground, laughingly saying we were going to be a bit more select at these little lanes we keep going down in hopes of finding something really interesting to photograph !!!

Photo's of the wood can be found on my photo blog.

Bitterly cold mountains

As my oldest daughter and her family were here for the weekend from the Midlands, a trip to the mountains was on the cards. None of us had any idea how bitterly cold it was going to be. I'm pretty good for not feeling the cold, but my hands were frozen to the bone within a couple of mins of getting out the car !! This made taking photo's quite difficult to say the least lol. But of course we persevered, and for our trouble we got some shots of the biggest icicles I've seen in my life time. They were at least 7ft tall and very thick. Amazing how quickly these icicles have formed as there was nothing like them, last week when we went past the same spot.

By the time we reached one of our favourite spots for sledging, I'd decided I wasn't going to get out the car again, as the cold was making my arthritis really play up in my hands. Two runs on the sledge, and everyone else was heading back to the car anyway lol.

On our way back home, I was keeping my eyes open for wild mountain goats that live on the mountains, and as we drove past a spot I've seen them before, I caught sight of some out of the corner of my eye. Of course we had to turn the car round and try and get some photo's of them....which we did. Sadly the quality of photo wasn't as good as some we've taken, but we think that was because the car engine wasn't turned off and also as there were 4 of us in the car it wasn't as still as it is usually. But I've still put one on my photofantaics blogs.

In the meantime, here's 3 photo's of the icicles for you.

Good little adventure

My daughter and I had a good little adventure yesterday. We decided to go off down a little lane, hoping to get some good close ups of snowy plants. We didn't really get any of those, but I got what I think is my best photo yet of a buzzard sat on a wall just in front of us. There was no time to make sure everything was in focus etc, so I just clicked and hoped for the best. I was very lucky and it looked good even on the little lcd screen.

After that we were on the hunt for more buzzards, as my daughter also wanted to get the chance to photograph one. Sure enough we spotted another one, but it saw us before we saw him and flew away. So we inched our way along the snowy iced up lane, scanning every tree and hedgerow in sight. But no luck, word must have gone out there was a couple of nutters on the look out lol.

We'd inched out way about 1/2 mile or so when my daughter got a phone call off a mate, so she pulled up, I had the window wide open looking for things to photograph, when I realised all the exhaust fumes were coming through the window !! I told my daughter to turn the engine off, when she did smoke or steam continued to come up from around the car...that was a bit scary I can tell you. I know from my own experience that Peugeot's tend to overheat when driven slowly for any length of time, so I thought that might be it. There was also a weird noise that neither of could recognise, fearing the worst we decided we better get off this lonely little track and head for somewhere a bit more populated just incase.

The next obstacle in our way was a steepish incline, by this time the snow and ice was deeper and it was catching on the cars exhaust, which also made quite a ominous noise too, so my daughter jumped out to make sure it was still attached to the car !! It was lol, so we made our way up the slope slowly and got the top with no more mishaps. Then it was off as quick as we dare go to the nearest village. Once we'd got a bit of speed up and had the heater going full blast all the odd noises stopped ...phew lol !!!

Even though I've posted this photo on my photo blog I'm going to put it on here too because I'm so proud of it :o) lol

Snow at last

Snow at last hit most of Anglesey, including our little village that seemed to keep just missing it, up till now. I know it's caused a lot of disruption in most of the UK, and a lot of people must be cursing the white stuff, but I love to see places transformed into a winter wonderland.

Other countries must laugh at us though, as the whole country seems to grind to halt because of it. On the news already this morning, there's been nothing but warnings about closed roads, airports, no trains etc etc. This bad weather has been on the cards for quite a while now, so why is this country so unprepared ?

The snow certainly didn't stop us from taking our dog out for his daily run though. We'd been told by his previous owners that he doesn't like snow, but he seems to love it when we take him out. I did notice last night, he was a walking a bit stiffly though, so I'll give him some of his painkillers for arthritus today I think. He forgets he's rather an elderly dog at times, and behaves more like a playful puppy, than the 14/15 yr old OAP he is lol. We couldn't resist taking loads of photo's of course, of this magical snowy weather and I'll put 3 on here but save the best for my new photo blog, and I'll put some more photo's on there later on today. So if you fancy a wander over there just click on the link above this post.

New Year New Blog

Between Christmas and the New Year, I set up another blog, this one will be just for the photo's my daughter and myself take when we're out on our wanderings. The link is at the top of the page, and I hope you enjoy our journey into the world of DLSR photography. We're at the very beginning of this journey, and are learning as we go, how to use this camera that has so many settings.

The New Year crept quietly in for me, unlike most people I wasn't seeing in the new year the traditional way, I spent it sat outside taking photo's of the moon lol. As it struck midnight I could hear cheers going up followed by loads of fireworks echoing off the mountains, for a split second I almost wished I was out there enjoying it with everyone. Then I remembered I'm not the party animal I used to be, that went out with mates to the pub 3 or 4 times a week, so I quickly decided I preferred doing exactly what I was doing, and not waking up with a hangover !!

We've had a few trips out since Christmas, exploring the countryside in and around Anglesey, on the hunt for snow, which seems to be very elusive in our little village this year. In fact as we were taking the dog for a walk one day, we spotted loads of cars coming towards us, with inches of snow on them !! How could that be as we were only half a mile from home and not a snow flake in sight. So us being us, we decided as the snow wouldn't come to us, we'd go to the snow lol. We decided to stop when we got as far as Newborough as we were low on petrol, and as it was New Years Day there probably wasn't going to be many garages open. As we parked up in Newborough forest, the snow started coming down thick and fast, it was brilliant. Once we'd had out fill of snow we headed off home, hoping that we might have some snow in our little village now .... no chance lol.

We also took a drive deep into the mountains another day, and on our way home we got caught in a really good snow storm. We parked up and my daughter jumped out of the car to enjoy it properly, as I had slippy soled shoes on, I decided it was safer to stay in the car, not wanting to end the day in A&E. The snow was coming down really heavily, and as we weren't sure what the weather was going to be like further on, we reluctantly decided we had to go, as the roads were very quickly getting smothered in snow. As we got further on the snow slowly stopped and the roads were clear, we were gutted, we could have stayed in the storm for longer ....never mind.

Yesterday when I got up it was -3 the coldest day yet here, and I fancied trying to capture frost on leaves etc. So off we went trying to find some frost even though it was 2 in the afternoon, surprisingly it was still pretty easy to find even though the sun had been out most of the day. Using the macro setting on my camera, I started snapping away, what I didn't account for was how badly my hands would shake with the weight of the camera, due to the arthritis in my hands at the moment. Added to that the arthritis in my back made standing longer than a minute or two very painful too. So I was on to a bit of a loser before I even started. I really will have to start carrying my tripod around with me. However my daughter came to the rescue and took some photo's of things I asked her too, including a really brilliant one of a little robin.