I've had a pretty hectic time this last month, and I'm almost falling asleep writing this! But despite that, it's been a great few weeks where I've managed to crack on with uni work but more importantly, I visited my home in the Lake District for a couple of weeks and even managed to fit in my weekend away to the Wirral! This next month will also be hectic, as it is the final few weeks of my masters degree!
During April I managed to visit a lot of new places, majority of which were located near my familiar haunts so they were great walks to see different views of these beautiful places. These places included Brigsteer Woods, near Sizergh Castle, and Helsington Barrows, near Scout Scar. Both these places were really tranquil and we ended up visiting them several times in the short period I was home.
I explored new places that I'd never visited before with my mum like Brigsteer Woods and Heslington Barrows. We really got to know these new places by visiting them a couple of times and finding different paths each time. There were beautiful bluebells in Brigsteer woods which are my Grandma's favourite flower so I made sure I took plenty of snaps to show her! Both places were really peaceful and quiet regardless of the time of day, you could tell they weren't used very often so majority of the nature was undisturbed, and both places had some fantastic shaped trees growing there!
Over the time I was at home we managed to do around 40 geocaches, with our total now being 70! Our goal was to get 50 geocaches by the time I had to go back to uni, so we did pretty well! There were quite a few on the new places we explored like the Storth trail, Brigsteer Woods, Helsington and on our weekend away to the Wirral. We found some where the container was carved into wood and rocks, and even had to climb a tree or two! Typically I got sent up the biggest one and managed to get to the cache even with Dr. Martens and glued up glasses! Being in new places made sure you really thought about the clue when it came to finding the caches as sometimes you can assume where something will be in an area you know well, however there is one with a riddle that we know the location of the cache, but can't work out the clue to find it properly! It's probably annoyed us more than it should have!
We also joined the National Trust so we can explore more places which we wouldn't normally consider due to time restrictions with entry and parking, but having the membership means in the summer we will be exploring lots of ruins, gardens and woodlands which I'm insanely excited about! We did intend to visit Sizergh castle, however we ended up walking the trail from there to Brigsteer woods and then at the castle found the 'Wild Trail' which was really cute and really fun! There was a rope swing in the middle which you would find if you followed the clues and climbed along the obstacles like stepping logs, 'abseiling' or beams to tiptoe along! By each clue there was wood carvings of animals and signs with cute rhymes written on them to help you along! The rope swing was really fun at the end, but unfortunately someone else was using the trail so we had to get off!
Before I went back to Wales for uni, me, my mum and Grandad went for a weekend away to the Wirral with my Grandad's cycling group. Whilst they were cycling, me and mum had an explore around the area! We stayed at New Brighton for one night where there was a lighthouse right by the hotel, a pirate ship on the shore and a woodland area filled with fairies and other magical creatures! I even saw a unicorn! That night I had a little play around with some nighttime photography, and managed to get a photo of the lighthouse, stars and Liverpool docks! The other nights we stayed at Heswall, and me and mum went to the beach at Thurstaston where we managed to find around 11 geocaches and explored cute woodland along the coast overlooking North Wales! We are hoping to go back to the Wirral some point in the summer and I'm really excited to explore more of the area!
I haven't had time yet after the weekend to look through all my photos but I promise they will be up soon! I'm just currently catching up with uni work and in all honesty haven't edited many of the photos I've taken over the last few weeks! It will be nice however when I do to reminisce about the fantastic few weeks I had at home! It was nice to take some time to just enjoy my surroundings which wasn't through my lens. I think I needed a break away from uni work and everything; but as soon as there last few assignments are over I'm going to be glued to my camera!
Hope you are all enjoying the start of spring, make sure you go out and explore!
