A Simple Life of Luxury

Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means

Category: Hobbies & Pastimes

Cerne Abbas 0

Cycling / Family / Geocaching / Travel

Holiday to Dorset – The Journey South

After a weekend at my parents house for Easter we spent most of Easter Monday heading south towards Dorset. Cerne Abbas Giant We took quite a random route to get there and stopped off at Cerne Abbas to take a look at the giant there which Morgan found quite amusing. We had a nice picnic...

Family Photo 3

Family / Geocaching / Lifestyle

Holiday to Dorset – En Route to Portland

It may only be April, but it was time for our family holiday to Portland in Dorset. Why Portland in Dorset? Well, I was planning on competing in what looked like a nice sprint distance triathlon there on Sunday 12th, and it was the area that I studied for for PhD. looking at the palaeoecology...

Aloe Vera Flower 0

Gardening

Aloe Vera Flower

What started as a tiny little Aloe Vera plant about 18 months ago has turned into a monster. It’s huge, looking healthy and has now produced a pretty impressive looking flower spike. It’s been living in the conservatory, but I think I might have to propagate some baby plants from it soon and try some...

Grassy Slope 4

Aquarium

Aquascaping Update

Just another quick aquascaping update I could be imagining it, but I’m sure there are some new shoots of Eleocharis popping up here and there.

Water Feature 1

Gardening

Springtime Chainsaw Massacre

This weekend saw the first proper Springtime assault on the garden.   Gorgeous March weather with plenty of sunshine and very little wind saw the temperatures creep up close to double figures. Anna was working all day Saturday and I spent the day trying to get the garden under control. I had planned on sorting...

Out Apiary Woes 3

Beekeeping

Out Apiary Woes

Unfortunately the news from the out apiary isn’t quite so good… The larger of the two colonies seems OK. I didn’t check them properly but there were definitely bees in there so I gave them a good feed and left them to it. The smaller hive that we had to move here over the winter didn’t look promising though...

Hive Inspection 1

Beekeeping / Gardening

First Look at the Bees

At last, the temperature made it into double figures this morning although it has dropped again now to 9.7ºC. I have loads to do in the garden and just about managed to squeeze in some time out there today. The first job was to dig out the compost bins and bag up the compost ready for...

Echinodorus tenellus 0

Aquarium

Aquarium Planting Progress

Just a quick update on the plants in my new aquarium seeing as it’s been 3 weeks since they were planted. They have been growing emersed as part of the Dry Start Method (DSM) since then and seem to be doing OK. The Staurogyne repens is settling in well and appears to be well rooted now,...

Pi-Day Souvenir 0

Family / Geocaching / Lifestyle

Pi Day Souvenir

Happy Pi Day everyone… We celebrated 3.14.15 (otherwise known as Pi Day) with a trip to Welshpool and the finding of a mystery geocache. It was actually one I’d worked out months ago, but seeing as we were going to Welshpool for a day out anyway and there was a Pi Day souvenir up for...

Geocache Logs from Wild Wales 1

Geocaching / Wales

Geocache Logs from Wild Wales

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s always nice to get people visiting geocaches that you’ve hidden, and even better when they write nice things in the logs.[pullquote-right]”Definitely getting a favourite point. Thanks for a smashing cache.”[/pullquote-right]The best are those caches that are rarely visited, but that you know are something special. This means that when people do get around to making...

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