This and That
I see that over the last year I managed to make a total of six posts, of which about half were just pictures! Maybe this year I will be able to do better? Hmm, let's see what happens.
I'm currently up on my own with Toby, who decided that half five was the right time to get up this morning. However H is not with us - he is in fact at his first ever sleepover (with best friend Harry so only just over the cricket pitch but still!) so I only have one baby to deal with and it feels ridiculously easy so I am going to take advantage of this unexpected free time to post. Edited to add - I started that about a week ago. I am up with Toby again but it is the much more respectable hour of half seven and H is still in bed - living up to his status as our threenager.
What's happened in the last year? Toby was born and then life got very busy. Around December Toby started teething and then life got very, very busy and also very, very tiring as he went through a stage of waking up and howling every hour/half hour/ forty five minutes. Now he is sleeping more at night (once or twice he has managed to only wake up once in the course of a night) and is also mostly bottle feeding and life has calmed down somewhat, in fact it is no longer a Very Big Deal if only one of us is around for bath and bedtime. Of course H has grown too and every day becomes more little boy and less toddler. He is prone to storms (hence threenager) but also more and more able to deal with sophisticated concepts - things like delayed gratification, word games, counting and imaginary play. Compared to Toby going out and about with just H is a dream - not only do you not have to take half the house with you but you can also engage in some form of conversation while you are out, even if it is a form of the endless "Why?" game (which I actually quite enjoy - makes you realise how little you know).
So as a reward for coming here's a cute picture of them both, and then we'll get down to business - a climbing report!
Busy Boys!
One of my many and fabulous birthday presents was a pass for the AMC's Cornwall trip over the Easter Bank Holiday. Now I can honestly say when I asked for the pass I didn't realise that the trip would start on the Thursday and finish on Easter Monday, honestly. You believe me don't you?
Thursday and I staggered to the train station laden with climbing gear and camping gear for four nights and as is normal BR let me down. I had to get two trains, both ten minute journeys and of course both were delayed by 20 - 25 minutes. I love the trains. Still I caught my lift in the end and a few hours later we were right down in the tip of Cornwall at a campsite outside of St Buryan. Here I discovered the first of my camping fails - my old sleeping bag came with a nice big stuff sack that when stuffed with clothes transformed into a serviceable pillow, my new sleeping bag (new to me a cast off from someone else) had no such bag. It was only the next night that I mastered the art of stuffing all my clothes into a long sleeved top and tying up the holes - top tip campers!
The first day saw us at the delightful Tregiffian Bay, the sun shone and the sea was a beautiful turqouise. The rock was unpolished sun kissed granite and once the guide book had been deciphered we spent a happy day climbing up it in various different ways, it's a pity that the walk in involved a hundred metres through nettles and brambles but hey that just made it all the more satisfying.
Tregiffian Bay:
The second night produced my second camping fail. Ever since T and I spent lots of time on campsites in Oz it has been our habit to read whilst brushing our teeth - on this night I happily got tooth brush out, squirted toothpaste on it, put my book up and BLEARGH! I'd put shampoo on my toothbrush not toothpaste. Haha.
The second day of climbing and the venue was Bosigran - the scene of the fateful 5.00 a.m. assault of Commando Ridge with Patrick, the day after T had told me she was pregnant with Henry. Wow, three years later and I have two children now. My partner for the trip, Dave (not Legend of the mountains but a different Dave) and I left the Ridge to our lift-share who had not done it while we took in some of the easier lines on the main face of Bosi. As on my last visit I found the place unnerving, the crag starts a couple of hundred feet up a steep hill side and feels, to me, big and scary but we managed to get a few good routes done. I was struck by quite how many people were there climbing, and by how many novices were about. Lots of people humming and harring on VDiffs. It was very nice to really enjoy doing some easier routes, no stress or pressure just good climbing.
Less nice was to pack up at 4.45 p.m. - I'd been keeping an eye on our liftshare using my binoculars and was 95% certain they were going slowly and were at about the 4th belay of a 7 pitch climb. They'd been on it since 11 that morning or something. Had I been 100% certain we could just have climbed on but as we were only 95% certain we had to go and wait at the car, just in case they did make it back on time, and wait, and wait...even an excursion to the local tea room (conveniently within walking distance) only wasted so much time! Still they did at last arrive at about 7, battered and bruised having enjoyed one of the UK's classic easy adventure climbs and we did have time to get home get changed, showered, fed and down the pub for a couple of pints.
Day three and grumpy weather threatened - we managed a few single pitch diffs at the delightful Halldrine Cove before the rain arrived. I did spend a few very nice minutes whilst belayed a couple of metres above the sea watching a Little Auk diving and swimming under water - very entertaining little fellow.
It was then back to our favourite tea room, this time I eschewed economy and had a full blown tea and scones. Delicious! The place was someone's house (and a very nice one at that) where they turn their spacious kitchen/diner into a tea room for summer, cooking scones on their aga. The clientele was half dirtbag climbers and half international tourists! The trip home took in Sennen where I managed to secure a souvenir for H - a matchbox RNLI Landrover, complete with trailer and RIB and we went on a wet walk on the admittedly beautiful beach. Back to the tent for mid afternoon and I enjoyed the luxury of reading a book in the middle of the afternoon for an hour before sloping off to Dave (Legend of the Mountains) tent with the bottle of wine I'd packed to pass an hour or two. Dinner then pub for a couple of pints.
The last day dawned grumpy and we dallied just too long to make up our mind to head straight home rather than get some climbing in. We hit the road at about 10.00 a.m. and the 3 and a bit hour journey back to Brizzle took six hours, the road was one long concertina of bank holiday traffic. Just when you thought you had got through one jam and had made it to a respectable speed you hit the back of the next jam....Ugh.
A Little Auk - not my photo!
Right I now have two small boys pawing at me for breakfast - till next time Dear Readers!
I'm currently up on my own with Toby, who decided that half five was the right time to get up this morning. However H is not with us - he is in fact at his first ever sleepover (with best friend Harry so only just over the cricket pitch but still!) so I only have one baby to deal with and it feels ridiculously easy so I am going to take advantage of this unexpected free time to post. Edited to add - I started that about a week ago. I am up with Toby again but it is the much more respectable hour of half seven and H is still in bed - living up to his status as our threenager.
What's happened in the last year? Toby was born and then life got very busy. Around December Toby started teething and then life got very, very busy and also very, very tiring as he went through a stage of waking up and howling every hour/half hour/ forty five minutes. Now he is sleeping more at night (once or twice he has managed to only wake up once in the course of a night) and is also mostly bottle feeding and life has calmed down somewhat, in fact it is no longer a Very Big Deal if only one of us is around for bath and bedtime. Of course H has grown too and every day becomes more little boy and less toddler. He is prone to storms (hence threenager) but also more and more able to deal with sophisticated concepts - things like delayed gratification, word games, counting and imaginary play. Compared to Toby going out and about with just H is a dream - not only do you not have to take half the house with you but you can also engage in some form of conversation while you are out, even if it is a form of the endless "Why?" game (which I actually quite enjoy - makes you realise how little you know).
So as a reward for coming here's a cute picture of them both, and then we'll get down to business - a climbing report!
Busy Boys!
One of my many and fabulous birthday presents was a pass for the AMC's Cornwall trip over the Easter Bank Holiday. Now I can honestly say when I asked for the pass I didn't realise that the trip would start on the Thursday and finish on Easter Monday, honestly. You believe me don't you?
Thursday and I staggered to the train station laden with climbing gear and camping gear for four nights and as is normal BR let me down. I had to get two trains, both ten minute journeys and of course both were delayed by 20 - 25 minutes. I love the trains. Still I caught my lift in the end and a few hours later we were right down in the tip of Cornwall at a campsite outside of St Buryan. Here I discovered the first of my camping fails - my old sleeping bag came with a nice big stuff sack that when stuffed with clothes transformed into a serviceable pillow, my new sleeping bag (new to me a cast off from someone else) had no such bag. It was only the next night that I mastered the art of stuffing all my clothes into a long sleeved top and tying up the holes - top tip campers!
The first day saw us at the delightful Tregiffian Bay, the sun shone and the sea was a beautiful turqouise. The rock was unpolished sun kissed granite and once the guide book had been deciphered we spent a happy day climbing up it in various different ways, it's a pity that the walk in involved a hundred metres through nettles and brambles but hey that just made it all the more satisfying.
Tregiffian Bay:
The second night produced my second camping fail. Ever since T and I spent lots of time on campsites in Oz it has been our habit to read whilst brushing our teeth - on this night I happily got tooth brush out, squirted toothpaste on it, put my book up and BLEARGH! I'd put shampoo on my toothbrush not toothpaste. Haha.
The second day of climbing and the venue was Bosigran - the scene of the fateful 5.00 a.m. assault of Commando Ridge with Patrick, the day after T had told me she was pregnant with Henry. Wow, three years later and I have two children now. My partner for the trip, Dave (not Legend of the mountains but a different Dave) and I left the Ridge to our lift-share who had not done it while we took in some of the easier lines on the main face of Bosi. As on my last visit I found the place unnerving, the crag starts a couple of hundred feet up a steep hill side and feels, to me, big and scary but we managed to get a few good routes done. I was struck by quite how many people were there climbing, and by how many novices were about. Lots of people humming and harring on VDiffs. It was very nice to really enjoy doing some easier routes, no stress or pressure just good climbing.
Less nice was to pack up at 4.45 p.m. - I'd been keeping an eye on our liftshare using my binoculars and was 95% certain they were going slowly and were at about the 4th belay of a 7 pitch climb. They'd been on it since 11 that morning or something. Had I been 100% certain we could just have climbed on but as we were only 95% certain we had to go and wait at the car, just in case they did make it back on time, and wait, and wait...even an excursion to the local tea room (conveniently within walking distance) only wasted so much time! Still they did at last arrive at about 7, battered and bruised having enjoyed one of the UK's classic easy adventure climbs and we did have time to get home get changed, showered, fed and down the pub for a couple of pints.
Day three and grumpy weather threatened - we managed a few single pitch diffs at the delightful Halldrine Cove before the rain arrived. I did spend a few very nice minutes whilst belayed a couple of metres above the sea watching a Little Auk diving and swimming under water - very entertaining little fellow.
It was then back to our favourite tea room, this time I eschewed economy and had a full blown tea and scones. Delicious! The place was someone's house (and a very nice one at that) where they turn their spacious kitchen/diner into a tea room for summer, cooking scones on their aga. The clientele was half dirtbag climbers and half international tourists! The trip home took in Sennen where I managed to secure a souvenir for H - a matchbox RNLI Landrover, complete with trailer and RIB and we went on a wet walk on the admittedly beautiful beach. Back to the tent for mid afternoon and I enjoyed the luxury of reading a book in the middle of the afternoon for an hour before sloping off to Dave (Legend of the Mountains) tent with the bottle of wine I'd packed to pass an hour or two. Dinner then pub for a couple of pints.
The last day dawned grumpy and we dallied just too long to make up our mind to head straight home rather than get some climbing in. We hit the road at about 10.00 a.m. and the 3 and a bit hour journey back to Brizzle took six hours, the road was one long concertina of bank holiday traffic. Just when you thought you had got through one jam and had made it to a respectable speed you hit the back of the next jam....Ugh.
A Little Auk - not my photo!
Right I now have two small boys pawing at me for breakfast - till next time Dear Readers!