A Week of Weirdness

My life is always pretty weird but this week in particular has been extra strange, or extra interesting depending on the point of view. Spring has sprung and we have been having some lovely walks in the countryside in the sunshine. Most things are looking green now or starting to come into bud. The sun even has a little warmth in it now. That's not to say that the British weather is behaving itself though, oh no. Just when you think it's heading towards shorts and tshirt weather BAM. Snow....

Seriously this happened. Middle of April and I wake up to snow. The day before had been lovely and sunny. It wasn't just a little powder that melted before the sun rose either, it was a couple of inches that hung around until mid morning. I thought it was great of course, I don't see snow very often so I like to take pictures of it at any opportunity. I made sure to put some extra seed on the bird tables too since the local birds looked as confused as I was.

 

 This was also a week for projects, the main one being that I had a go at making my own shampoo. Not because I'm a health freak mind you, or one of those people that won't use anything unless it's organic, but simply because I can't find a supermarket shampoo that doesn't make my scalp bleed. 
That's a bit dramatic actually but the point is most supermarket shampoos don't seem to react well with my skin and I end up scratching until I bleed. I have tried the medicated shampoos, organic shampoos, sensitive skin, dandruff, healthy healing etc etc but no luck so far.
So, in desperation really, I decided to have a go at my own version using all natural products. I'd love to say that it's the most fantastic thing I've ever used etc but so far it's a bit of a nightmare really. My hair is pretty disgusting atm, greasy but somehow dry, stiff and generally not pleasant. I have been led to believe that it may take a couple of weeks for my hair to adjust though and since I've only been using the stuff for three days I'll give it a bit longer before I discount it. After all, the main reason I want a natural shampoo is to ease the itches and the last few days have been the best I've had for awhile so I'll have to take the good with the bad I guess and hope for the best.
   

 

My second project was to get feathers for this bottle that my sister got for me (from an undisclosed location as she may have borrowed it long term XD)

I was set on wanting pheasant feathers, don't ask me why, I don't have reasons for how my mind works. So the only way I could think of getting feathers from a pheasant, without shooting one or chasing one aimlessly around a paddock for a few weeks, was to find one that was already dead. Road kill to be precise. The less smooshed the better.

Sooo, it took awhile, to be honest I have been scoping out the local roadkill (and some not so local) for a couple of months now. You don't realise how inaccessible most road kill is until you want to start a collection of dead animal parts. I mean you can't just stop in the middle of motorway to go and poke at a dead fox without possibly killing yourself too or at least getting some stern words from a policeman. Eventually though we had success in the form of a recently dead pheasant that was in an area where it was possible to stop and I was able to scrape it off the tarmack and pluck it's tail without getting hit by a car myself.

 So was it all worth it? I'll let you decide what you think but personally I really like it but I'm just set that way.

Just to finish up this post I thought this photo was pretty good. If you don't follow me on instagram you wouldn't be aware that I carry a soft toy rabbit called Chester around with me everywhere I go and take photos of him. He has his own account actually @travellingchester if you're interested. 

Here he is with my sister's dog (who also has his own instagram account @one_dollar_please) when we went for a walk two nights ago. 

I think Dollar's expression speaks volumes in this picture. You know you're a true weirdo when a dog looks thinks you're odd. Poor boy. He does get subjected to many photos being taken of him and he is usually a good sport about it. Something about having to pose with gorse and a stuffed rabbit though seemed perhaps a bit much even for him. Although thinking about it I can't really blame him XD

I have no idea whats going on with the photo size and orientation in this post by the way. Or why the text it centered. I'm too lazy to change it so I'm just going to say that it's intentionally weird to round out a weird post about weird things on a blog called Today Was Weird! Did you have any weird moments this week. I'd love to know what kind of odd things you get up to so let me know in the comments.

Until next time, Stay Weird.

 

 

 

A Busy Day of Sightseeing

 This morning when we got up the sun looked so inviting that we decided we just had to go somewhere, anywhere really so long as it wasn't too far away and there was something to see. So we picked Ludlow, totally randomly, just cos it has a castle.

We are of course far too stingy to pay to go into the castle and even too stingy to pay for parking. We parked at the bottom of the hill and walked over the bridge and up the hill to get into the town. There are great views of the castle from the bottom of the hill though so we might be cheapskates but we know where to get a good view for free!

As it turned out it was market day in Ludlow which made for a good mooch. There are lots of nice stalls there and although I was tempted by quite a few things (fresh herbs and books mostly) I didn't actually buy anything. Dad didn't spend up large either but did buy a rubber cap for the base of his walking stick that he uses sometimes. He lost his previous one by testing the depth of a mud hole, he found out how deep it was but sacrificed the rubber base to the suction of the mud XD 

We bought lunch at the local shops and went up an awesome (and free) viewpoint on the edge of town to eat and enjoy the view. The sun was gorgeous when it was out and it would have been tshirt weather if not for the clouds scudding past. We weren't complaining too much though, the view was good and the food was excellent. I managed  to eat the entire cob loaf pretty much by myself, which perhaps wasn't wise but I don't care haha It was bloody good. 

After our meagre lunch ;p we moved on to Stokesay Castle which we did go into and even paid for the parking! We are members of New Zealand Heritage so we got into the castle for free and the parking was only a quid for the rest of the day so figured we could suffer it. Stokesay is a beautiful place and although we have been there many times before I still really enjoy it. I always feel like a character in a period drama when I'm there as it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how the rooms were used. 

The great hall gets me everytime. I can just see the great long tables loaded down with plates of bread and cheese and a whole hog in the middle of the centre table, beer flowing, straw on the floor and dogs squabbling over the scraps while the lady of the house watches from the balcony before making a regal entry down the ancient stairs in her flowing gown. I should write books not blogs haha 
Stokesay just screams history and I could probably blah on at you all day about lord so and so and mistress whats her name but I didn't bother with the audio tour because I like to make up my own version most of the time. I like to know the general history of a place, how it was used and how things worked but when it comes to names and lineage and politics my interest tends to fade off.

After Stokesay we figured we might as well overload on old ruined buildings so stopped off at Wenlock Priory for a whistle stop tour. Again we skipped the audio tour so if you want the dates times and peoples names I'm afraid I will have to urge to ask google. As for my interest, as ever, I want to climb things!  wanted to get to those second storey corridors that I could see but alas, with other people around and a dash of better judgement, I kept my feet on the ground.

 With the sun still up and a tempting road sign promising places called Homer and Wig Wig, we took a little detour and found this old church. It was sat on top of a hill in a little village with this perculiar black and white gallery attached to it that caught our attention. We had a look around and had a bit of a mooch inside. It was nice as churches go. Small and empty XD Strangely enough we didn't find Wig Wig or Homer. An aim for another day perhaps. 
So that was our busy day, with multiple tourist attractions loaded into one day. I'll leave you with one last image for you to think about, something that gave us pause in the church grounds.

See you next time! 
 

Attingham Park

Since I've been to Attingham Park three times in the last week I thought I better write about it!
As with all National Trust properties it's a beautiful place and has a mixed history. Attingham as a property has seen a lot. The man who commisioned to have it built died before it was completed so it was passed to his son when it was finished. The son however changed the design of the house and had more work done. He furnished it extravagantly and lived beyond his means until he was forced to flee to Italy to evade his creditors. 
Furniture and fittings were sold and the building left largely abandoned for many years until, in the 1920s, Lord and Lady Berwick moved in and tried to restore some dignity to the place. The trust took over the building around the 1980s and have been restoring the building and adding to the collections since. 

The trust is also restoring the gardens and greenhouses. The gardens are always my favourite part of any property tat we visit and at this time of year I like to see the volunteers planting out the new seedling and also seeing the early flowers coming into bloom.

 
  At the moment in the gardens they have a focus on what it would have been like during the war. They have a pen of chickens on one of the vege plots and this cute sign to show you that, during war years, chickens were enlisted too! These chooks were super friendly too and wandered over to the mesh to eyeball us and see if we were going to feed them. 

 Every large garden should have a cat to keep the rats and mice down. This curious fella followed me and Dad through the green houses and out to the gate. I think perhaps he too was hoping we might give him some breakfast.

While I'm on the subject of animals I should mention one of my favourite reasons for visiting Attingham is the deer herd. They have so many that it's really quite a sight the first time you see them. I'm not sure on the trusts breeding policy but since it's spring I'm hoping I might see some fawns soon at the feet of the does. 

 
 For now though I am content just to see the hinds and the stags with their large antlers. They really are a beautiful creature.

Attingham is also a farm and has a few different herds of cows and sheep that graze the outer pastures. Today we saw this gorgeous little bull calf out the back of the property with his mother. I have a thing for cows, espeicially speckled ones .

 Not content with pets and farm animals, Attingham is also a haven for wildlife. Squirrels, rabbits and pheasants all call the fields and woods their home as well as wood peckers, crows and hares. There is even a pair of swans nesting in the reeds this year.

I really enjoy going to Attingham as there is always something new to see in the garden and there are so many animals to watch. If you are ever in the Shropshire area you should really give it a visit.
 

Er, So I Moved Country...

Hi guys! How's it going? Long time no see right... Yeah I kinda slipped off the face of the earth for awhile there, quite literally really since now that I've landed I'm on the other side of the world in England! No more NZ for awhile, I'm back in the mother land! Although I should call it the father land since this is where my father was born and my mother comes from NZ... Anyway

It's spring over here and today was a beauty day. Me and Dad spent the afternoon in Bridgnorth which is a lovey two tier town. No matter how many times I go there I always find something interesting to look at. Today it was steam trains at the severn valley railway station.

We spent some time sitting on the platform watching the comings and goings and enjoying the sun. It was warm enough to actually take our jumpers off which is quite a feat for England in early april. So we made the most of it and lounged until the clouds came over.

After the station we went for a walk up the hill and saw a gorgeous retriever who was very intent on something that it could see but well behaved enough to just stand and stare. It took me a minute to twig what it was so keen on but when I worked it out I cracked up.

 

Cheeky cat knew it was out of reach! We carried on towards the shops where we saw a great sign in a window, good humour on the shopkeepers part and pretty true too.

We were very lucky with the weather today as for most of the time that we were walking around it was sunny or at least patchy sun but on the horizon we could see dark storm clouds gathering. I was very glad to be where we were rather than under those threatening clouds.

Bridgnorth is such a historic town, and such a touristy town, that it's hard not to learn something new while you're there. Today I learnt that the steps leading to high town are so shallow as they were designed for donkeys! Apparently there was only one road wide enough to allow passage to wheeled vehicles so most goods had to be brought up the hill on the backs of donkeys. So they made a set of shallow steps that wouldn't trip them up.

So there you have it. A day trip in Bridgnorth sort of, more like a lazy afternoon but that still counts. Here's hoping I can get back into the blog a bit more in the next few months and keep you updated on my adventures around jolly old England. As a parting pic, have another steam train.

 

 

Mother's Day

Mother's day this year was a bit different for me mostly because my Dad was here too. Usually I take Mum out for a meal, cook something or I buy her a bunch of little gifts so that it's like a mini christmas. This year though I decided that we should go away for the weekend, Dad included, to Taupo which is known for it's thermal waters.

Taupo is only about 2-3 hours away from where we live, depending on fast you drive and how many stops you make so we set aside the whole day to get there knowing that we could do the tourist things along the way. Our first stop was actually on the side of the road where there was some driftwood art in the shape of a kiwi which I thought was not only amazing in it's own right but also well placed because along the way there were road signs warning about kiwis. We passed the main mountains of the north island on the way and although Ruapehu didn't have a lot of snow it still looked lovely. For those of you who don't know, Mount Ruapehu is actually used as the filming location for Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings. 

 

Our first main stop though was a little thermal town half way to Taupo where we stopped to have a bathe in a thermal pool. We also had a look around their thermal forest (which was free) where there are natural hot pools and bubbling mud areas. Me and Dad couldn't resist hopping the fence for a better look even though there are danger signs. We will get caught out one day but until then we will keep bending the rules. The water was so hot there that the local people use it for cooking, they put baskets of food into the water to boil or build wooden platforms over the vents to steam. I would have loved to give it a try but we didn't have any food with us that could be cooked!  

 

On the way past Lake Taupo, which is the largest lake in New Zealand, I managed to get stuck behind some slow traffic so I pulled into on of the rest areas and it just happened to have a family of black swans and an awesome crop of mushrooms.

The main highlight of the trip was the Wai-O-Tapu thermal area which we stumbled across while looking for another thermal swimming pool which we knew was somewhere on the outskirts of Taupo. Along the Wai-O-Tapu road was the most amazing boiling mud lake I've seen and I took so many pics and videos of it that I have more than I know what to do with. Unfortunately out of the 200nodd pics I took only about 4 are decent and even then they aren't anywhere near as impressive as the actual thing. Mostly I think the noise is the most fascinating and with out that it really is just mud!

Further along the road we saw a sign for a geyser but when we got to the end of the road it turned out that you had to pay to go in to see and being the cheap skates that we are we didn't want to pay, especially because we had been told they put chemicals into the geyser to make it perform at certain times of day which didn't seem right to us. There's no point going to see a natural wonder if it's not natural after all. Feeling a bit disappointed we carried on down the road until we saw some more steam and pulled over to have a look. Turns out we had found a thermal stream where the temperature was low enough to bathe. It was a balmy 38c we reckon which was lovely and hot but not burning. After a hasty road side change into our bathing suits we got into the water and really enjoyed the atmosphere and the fact that once again we had found something so amazing for free! The pools that we had been aiming for would have cost us $15 each and are usually quite busy. Bathing in the stream was not only nicer on our pockets it felt far more special knowing that the water was pure thermal, no temperature control or ph checks, no infrastructure, just the trees and the bird song. It was truly magical. 

 

After our bathe and slightly awkward change back into clothes between the doors of the car we decided to go and have another look at the geyser area. This time when we got there the gates were open so we wandered down and had a look at what all the fuss was about. It was actually amazing in it's natural state and although it wasn't consistent it was still rather impressive which made us wonder if they really needed to put chemicals in to impress the tourists. Again we took far too many photos and even played the camera settings to get a group shot of us. We had the place to ourselves as the sign had been removed from the end of the road which made us feel dodgy about the company that runs the area, almost like they didn't want people to know it was there unless you were going to the paid show. They had a whole area fenced further down the road that you could pay to go into but it cost $32 a person and from the look of the brochure had nothing more amazing that what we had already seen for free, so needless to say we didn't go into the complex.

It was an amazing weekend in so many ways and the fact that we managed to do so much without destroying our wallets really made it all the better!

Taranaki Touring. Part 1

I apologise if it seems like I wandered off for awhile because, well, I did...
The interesting thing about being a house sitter is that you never really know when the jobs will come in. Sometimes I seem to get multiple requests just when it's highly inconvenient  and other times the requests arrive just when I'm waiting a break and are really quite welcome. They can be a blessing or a burden depending on the circumstances. The last job I did was a real blessing, my cousin wanted me to look after her farm while her and her family went away. She lives in a rural area about 2 hours drive from where I live and about 1 hour away from New Plymouth which is a town that I was planning to explore with Dad.
The entire area around where she lives is very scenic so it was really a gift for me and Dad to be able to stay there and have not only free accommodation but get paid to stay. We did of course have to look after her animals which included a house dog (an elderly terrier), 3 chickens, 2 pigs, a cat and 8 farm dogs which may sound a lot but only took an hour or so to care for morning and night.

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though. On the Thursday we traveled up in a very leisurely manner. We were taking the coast road so we stopped at all the beaches along the way and found things of interest at every one. At the first beach we stopped at there is a bit of a camp ground and some of the people who were staying there had apparently had a party on the beach the night before. They had set up a wind break and benches out of drift wood and had themselves a large bonfire. When we arrived the ashes were still warm so being the pyromaniacs that we are we wanted to see if we could get it going again. I found some beach tumble weeds ( I have no idea of the proper name, they are some sort of seed from the sea grasses I think and when its windy they roll along the beach like mini tumbleweeds. Turns out they make good tinder) and Dad got some small sticks which we stacked onto the warm ashes and then we wandered off along the beach. On our way back we saw someone else adding sticks to the fire before scuttling off down the beach so we reclaimed our space and built up the flames until we had some big logs on there. The people we had seen adding sticks then came back to join us and had a chat with us while they enjoyed the heat from our fire. It was all very impromptu but that always makes the best memories.
 

The next stop along the way was a beach which I knew sometimes had seals and I was really hoping there would be one there. I was in luck! I always forget how much they smell though, like some sort of mix between old wet dog and stinky fish and ocean. The one we saw was alone and somewhat nervous so although we got close enough to take pictures it wasn't too keen on us being around and headed down the cliff and out to sea not long after we had moved away.

 Up next was a beach that had a super cool old sea wall that we just had to walk along even if the tide was coming in and making it look a little dodgy. It was perfectly fine of course and we didn't even get splashed by the waves. There was also a ship wreck washed up on the beach that we had a mooch around and through. A few years ago when my sister visited we went to the same ship wreck and as she stood in front of it for me to take a photo a huge wave came over and splashed her! It was hilarious at the time and so we couldn't resist going over to it to take photos again but we did make sure the waves were breaking further out first.

The final beach on our tour had lots of rocks which made a great rock hopping course. Even at 71 Dad is still a keen rock hopper and he even made it to the ocean edge before me. Although I did get a little distracted looking in the rock pools for awhile. I didn't see much life except a few little quick darting fish but I did find a rubber end to a milking machine which will make a good dog toy.

Well that's pretty much it for our first day of traveling. From the last beach we headed straight on to my cousins farm, arriving about 5pm and the family at about 6pm after showing me around and telling what needed doing while they were away. We settled our selves in and since it had been a long day we turned in early to prepare for the next day of adventure.
Look out for part two which I'll be posting soon.

Ducks and Dads

As ever my week has been unusual. For a start my Dad flew in to visit us for 2 months which means the guest room is in use! I picked him up from the airport yesterday lunchtime and he was pretty tired. He lives in England but segmented his flights by staying over in Bali and Australia so although his flight to New Zealand was only 5 hours or so he was on a night flight so missed out on sleep.

I took him shopping for some groceries and then he came back to work with me. I mowed lawns while he read a book (from my library) and dozed in the car. I don't really have anything too exciting to report at the moment apart from the fact that I hope I will have something exciting to report in the near future! I have signed up for another house stay over the long Easter weekend, this time for my cousin who lives about 2 hours away from me on a farm so that should be interesting but I shall divulge more when it happens. Make sure to stay tuned for more weirdness to come.

On a cute note we had lunch at the lake the other day and as ever we got surrounded by ducks. One cheeky chappy actually hid under the bench we were sitting on and would pop his head up every now and then to see if we had a tit bit for him. Of course it was so cute and funny that we couldn't help but feed him.

Hello, um, Human? Do you have anything to eat?

 Ooh! Whats this human? Is it tasty? Can I have it?

 *sniffs* Ooh corn snack! Yes please!