Archery For The Win

Sara and I have been wanting to try Archery for years and never had the time to do a beginners course, so we kept putting it off.  This year was a little different.  We found that we were able to take time to spend the time!

We both wanted a challenge that would benefit our health and something we could do on our own as well as a couple.  I was always used to team games and sports where people would work together, but we decided we wanted something for ourselves to achieve and do this off our own backs without help from others.

So we decided to sign up and do the beginners course in June, which lasted for 3 weeks.  We thought  at the time that we would be rubbish at it, as the targets seemed such a long way away, but were just at 20 yards at this stage.  We meet with everyone and were shown the ropes and had great help from our tutor Ray, along with all the others at the club.  With a few laughs thrown in along the way, we felt so at home and maybe for the first time in a long time we were happy.

At the end of the course we had a small shoot out competition, where I got first place out of the men.  I was so happy to have won this, as it was the first thing I have ever won on my own for myself.  Sara said we should carry on with archery and we decided to join the club.  We were able to use the clubs equipment for a while which was nice, but then we decided to get our own bows and equipment and now we are kitted out.  Yay!

 

We have gone on to achieve white, green and black badges within the club competitions,  and we hope to have just achieved our national 3rd class ranking.  All this in just a few months.  People at the club say we are doing great and they encourage us every time we go, which boosts our confidence.
 

 I would recommend Archery to any one out there it is great fun and you may think it looks boring, but there is so much to learn and achieve if you just try.

Take care and have fun.

Jase

Our First Day Geocaching...

28 August 2011

Yesterday Sara and I went Geocaching for the first time.  We have been thinking about starting a hobby that would give us a bit of adventure, and get us out in the great out doors, and with the added bonus of leaving a gift for someone else to enjoy and signing a log, we thought we would give it a go.

We set off early in the morning, around 7:30am, and loaded our co-ordinates into our car satnav to see if we could use it to find the cache we wanted to find, and hoped that we could use it for future Geocaching.

So armed with the satnav and a few clues to help us, we set off.  We took a bag with some coffee and munchies, and some items to put in the cache and we began to walk across a large field heading for a hill towards a castle.  We knew the area roughly, as we live nearby and know how to get to the castle, so when the satnav failed to help us at all, we carried on up the hill regardless.  I was quite cheesed off at the fact it was no help to us, and thought our chances were slim at finding our first cache.

We got to the top of the hill and were met by a little dog jumping up at us and covering Sara in mud.  We waited for the dog and owner to leave before we began to look, as we did not want to give the hide position away to a Muggle (someone who is not a geocacher).  We found the cache easily after using the clue.

I did not think I would get excited about it, but it was a great feeling to find it and felt great to open it and see all the things other people had left.  Although it was just a small container, it had a log book and notes and cards from people, and a few gifts which are used to exchange (you leave an item and take an item of the same value), but we decided to take nothing and leave two items.  We left an alien and a small magnifying glass and signed the log book, and sealed up the container and put it back where we had found it.

I was sold on the idea of doing more geocaching in the future, and as we sat and drank some coffee I felt relaxed and took a few photos and thought about how great it was to share this with Sara, and share the moment and views too.

We got home and logged our find and decided to buy a proper handheld GPS as this would be great to help us in the future.  We are looking forward to doing more geocaching in the future, and can’t believe how many caches there are to find.  We are going to be very busy  :O)

Jason


29 August 2011

Jason and I went on our second geocaching trip today.  We knew we couldn’t rely totally on the car satnav, and are still waiting for the new GPS to arrive, so I had a good look at the clues on the Geocaching.com website, so I knew the approximate area in which we would find the cache, and wrote down the clue.  I didn’t tell Jase where we were heading, as I thought it would be a nice surprise for him when we actually found the place.  I have lived all my life nearby to the park where the cache was hidden, but I didn’t even know this particular place existed, so I guessed Jase didn’t either.

We set off, following the satnav in the car until we were nearer to the cache site.  Then we parked up and began our lovely walk on a path through the woods.  It was a beautiful clear morning, and we met lots of very friendly dogs and their equally friendly owners.

When Jason spotted the main area of the cache site, he was surprised.  He hadn’t been there before either.

We had to wait until the coast was clear and there were no muggles around before beginning our search.  After searching around for a while near the house, we still hadn’t found anything.  The satnav by now, was pretty useless, so we couldn’t get a lock on the exact spot.  I had looked at the photos on the cache’s page and had seen people poking around on a wall behind the house.  We looked everywhere, but couldn’t find anything.  Jase was searching high and low, while I stood on the path ‘spotting muggles’.  Eventually we gave up and decided to come back and look again once we had the proper GPS to help us.

As we started walking back to the car, I suddenly remembered the clue I had written down.  I stopped and pointed out a big tree to Jason.  We checked the coast was clear and Jase searched around for a little bit before he found it.  He nodded excitedly to me when he spotted the cache.  He grabbed it, and we took it to a nearby bench to examine it.

There were lots of little bits and pieces inside.  We signed the log book and took some badges, leaving some small toys.  Jase rehid the cache, and with big grins on our faces, we headed back to the car.

Sara

Why ‘Barking At Rainbows’

The Barking At Rainbows name is really a tribute to our wonderful dog, Sam.  Sam is 15 years old, and we have had him since he was six weeks old.  He is not just a dog to us, like many people who own a dog, he is very much part of the family.

Sam likes to bark at things.  Hey, he’s a dog, it’s his job right.  It’s just that Sam likes to bark at odd times.  He woke up in the middle of the night once and started barking at his pillow!  On a walk besides the Ystradfellte waterfalls in Wales, he stopped to bark manically at a rock in the middle of the river for a good five minutes.  Nothing would move him.

Sam once barked at a rainbow!  It’s just the way he is.

We love Sam to bits, and he is the best dog in the world.  He will come over to you and put a paw on your knee.  That means he wants something.  You get up to follow him and he will take you to the front door if he wants to go for a walk.  He takes you to the back door if he just wants a pee.  He will lead you to the fridge if he fancies a drink of milk, or the cupboard if he wants a biscuit (his own) or a chew.  He even lets you know when he is tired and wants to go to bed, but he expects you to follow him.  He says please, and licks your hand to say thank you.  He nips you very gently on the nose to give you a kiss.

Sam is 15, so he’s getting on a bit now.  That’s 105 in dog years, and we treat him with the respect that any old fellow deserves.  He is partially blind and deaf, so when he does hear something and starts to bark, I get excited, just to know that he heard something that excited him.  He is very clever.  He knows that Jason is due home from work at 3pm, and he goes to the window to watch for him.  Sam gets so excited when he sees him coming up the path.

Sam sleeps a lot now.  At this moment he is sleeping on his pillow at my feet, snoring away.  His legs are jumping.  I think he’s dreaming about running across fields.  Or perhaps he is chasing that rainbow.

Sara