I often end up working long or strange hours as a teacher of Outdoor Education, but today was a particularly long one. I’d spent the night (well, a few hours at least), asleep in the back of the van before the alarm rang at 03:30am. Having assembled my team of bleary eyed students, we set off into… Read more

It happens every day, but sometimes you’ve just got to be in the right place at the right time – and be bothered to look – to really appreciate it.  Em & Matt had invited us down to the lake for a catch up as we’d not see each other in ages. We sat, ate and… Read more

One of the best things about living in North Wales is the proximity to the mountains. When the weather’s like this, it really is an incredible place to live. I’ve never known a period of weather like it. To be honest, I’d have loved to have spent the day high up on one of the… Read more

Arriving home from Ireland at 03:30am there was already light on the horizon as I drove the last stretch down the hill. I just about made it into bed before falling asleep. A leisurely day was going to be needed and thankfully, The Cottage is the perfect place to hang out and recover quietly. The heatwave wasn’t… Read more

This week, I’ve been in Ireland, supervising some Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award groups along the Wicklow Way long distance footpath. After several warnings about bottomless peat bogs and constant drizzle from several of my Irish friends, we arrived in the midst of a heatwave. The heat has been extraordinarily incredible; the ground is tinder… Read more

The heatwave continues. And while we’d both have loved to have been out climbing all day, there was computer based work that couldn’t wait. Still, I didn’t mind so much as The Cottage is a nice place to be, especially when the garden is full of sunlight and warmth. By late afternoon, we had to… Read more