Come for a walk with me?

Our countryside never tires me - step through the tree tunnel and who knows what will be the other side?



We were geocaching, this new little family had their work cut out just trying to keep up with mum!



See the naughty two at the back? (You can enlarge the pic by clicking on it)



They weren't looking too sure now. "You want us to go through there? But there are nettles!"

The bystanders held their breath and counted the babies in, counted the babies out. Mum looked very nonchalent, but I wouldn't want to have to keep track of 11 babies!




The stretch of water is the moat around Bodiam Castle.



Stunning, isn't it?



The ducklings stayed on the far side of the moat, away from the drawbridge which surprised us at first as there were several people throwing bread in to the adult ducks. Then we saw who else lives there...



I suspect these carp are big enough to take a duckling if they have a chance!

We walked on up the hill, stopping to take a final snap of what must be one of the most photographed views in the area.

GeoCaching...part 4!

www.geocaching.com

Yes I know, I'm sounding like a newly-quit exsmoker or a televangelist, aren't I? But it's SUCH FUN!

Today we found a biggie - a travelbug.

"What is a Groundspeak Travel Bug?
Simply put, a Groundspeak Travel Bug is a trackable tag that you attach to an item. This allows you to track your item on Geocaching.com. The item becomes a hitchhiker that is carried from cache to cache (or person to person) in the real world and you can follow its progress online."



The particular bug we found was in the form of a china goose with the tracking tag attached. When I looked up its "mission" online, apparently it wants to travel around Saudi Arabia. I'm not entirely sure how I'm supposed to help it with its mission, as I'm in the UK and don't even have a passport, let alone plans of exotic travel!

The item sitting next to the goose is a geocoin, another trackable item. We left that behind though, as there was a note in the log to say its owner wants to retrieve it.

Quite restores your faith in human nature, doesn't it?

Here's your chance to play "spot the meerkat"...he's in the middle of a woodfull of wood anemones.



We met a very friendly goat en route!

Human nature?

Just a few days ago I recall writing in my blog that something "quite restored my faith in human nature"...silly of me!

We went to the New Forest at the weekend. It was Mothers Day in the UK, and our daughter lives down that way. The main carpark was closed still, being so early in the year, so everyone was trying to fit into the tiny offseason space.

A chap ahead of us had just taken the last space - well, in my opinion, he'd just taken the last two spaces! - so I got out of our tiny car and asked if he'd mind moving to one side or the other, to allow us to park legally.



"No" he replied.

I couldn't quite believe my ears, so I repeated my question, indicating our very small car. He proceeded to walk around his car, checking for the complete lack of space, and repeated that it was quite impossible.



He then added that he'd be about half an hour...presumably thinking we might like to wait!

MrNifty invented a not-quite-legal space and we went off walking, shaking our heads and wishing our new friend a Good Day.

Here we see my daughter and husband modelling their contrasting styles of walking shoes...



and of course the meerkat attempted to ride an unbroken New Forest pony or two...



*good grief I need to go to the hairdresser*






When we returned to the car park we discovered our new friend had indeed gone - and in his place were two other cars.