Memories of Cheddar Gorge.

Had a fairly nondescript Saturday, went into town, went to all the places I intended to but didn't achieve a lot. I had a final look around at clothes but I think my brain is wired so that I can only look at goods that have been reduced (apart from Primark) and the January sales are finally petering out. I may have sounded as if I'm really into clothes but it's mainly for work that I buy clothes. I'm one of those people who would be happy wearing the same outfit every day, in fact during the summer holidays I tend to wear 3 versions of the same outfit, shorts and sleeveless t-shirt - a pyjama version for sleeping, running shorts and usually a black t-shirt for the beach,walking or when people come to the house and a very tattered set for gardening when I am often lugging rocks around, working on my knees or sitting on the ground.

I spent most of the afternoon doing planning for next week as this is a week when I can't just lift the planning from last year's files. I left the cooking to Linas as he and Gemma are home for the week-end. Romas had to be picked up from the bus station in the evening and I had to wait for 45mins as his bus was diverted to do the Instow run as well. And that was my Saturday.

So now I thought I'd post some photos from my files. After the sea my next big landscape love is seeing rocks pushing through the earth. As Cheddar is mid-way between home and our friends' we've met up there several times for walks in the gorge and the surrounding countryside.

Just a few miles from the gorge is the village of Priddy with a real old fashioned pub which for some reason we call The Slaughtered Lamb, it always has several open wood fires and we meet up there for some real ale before we go off for a walk and a picnic. Last time we went to a place called Ubley Warren and discovered a beautiful area of mini-gorges, about 10ft deep. Some people were using these as practice climbs and there were several shaft entrances leading to the vast cave system that is under the whole area.

My mate Kate.

We always end the day by driving back down through the Gorge itself. The village of Ceddar is incredibly touristy and that end of the Gorge is always full of tourists but the far end is not so bad. One year in the autumn it was almost deserted and as we drove with music from LOTR playing loudly the atmosphere was incredible.