Ghost Hunting in Moseley Bog!

Warning: Only read this when it's daylight.

Hallowe'en!! Scary stuff right?

Well, not scary enough for me so I invited my friend Ben to go ghost hunting with me on Thursday night. That sounds like I was going to go ghost hunting anyway. I can assure you I was not! I'm not that daft.

Pre-ghost hunting preparations involved getting my kit ready and looking out of the window at the weather. It was bucketing down! Would that stop determined paranormal investigators? Not at all!

I joked with Ben that we would need pumpkin lanterns to light our way in the woods. He didn't have a pumpkin, but look at this apple carving! Very cute.

My 'kit' comprised of my compact camera, iPhone with the M2 Ghost Hunting app (stop sniggering at the back!), divining rods, and flip camera and 2 torches to light our way. I wore my flowery wellington boots. Oh, and I had painted my nails; tips blood dipped.

This was my first attempt at gradient nails. Not perfect, but I got away with imperfections due to the Halloween nature of them. Let's see how attempt no.2 goes!

Wrapped up against the elements, we walked the 5 minutes to Moseley Bog which is particularly known as a place that inspired JRR Tolkien whilst he was writing Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit.

We stepped off the main road and through a muddy path that led the way into a field. We walked through and found another pathway which led to another field and then the tree lined paths narrowed and became a little more windy. Torches on, we tried to make a note of how many turns we had taken - imagine getting lost in the woods all night so close to home!

The rain was relentless and with the trees losing their leaves for winter, there was very little shelter about. We walked along the path with sheets of rain thundering all around us and found a tree that offered very little shelter really, but it was the best we were going to get!

I wrapped up my iPhone in a little bag and booted up the ghost app.

'Ring', it said. Ring! Lord of the Rings!! Tell me that's not a coincidence!

The radar that detects spirits was lighting up all around us.

Here's Ben. He holds the torch. His was better than mine.

These are Ben's misty pics. We figured out that the mist is just our breath in the cold air. What a disappointment! 

My divining rods. Nice nails!

No sense! Standing in the woods in the rain checking my ghost app for spirits! 

But check this out!! Lots of orbs which are raindrops caught in the cameras flash, but if you check the top left hand corner and tell me what you see!!

Do you see it?! Or rather, do you see....them?!

I must admit when I first saw them when I was checking the back of the camera, I was freaked out.

I enjoyed the haunted woods and didn't get too scared and I only screamed once when I thought Ben was walking behind me and I saw a black man-sized figure in front of me.

We popped to the local pub afterwards to come back to the land of the living and I enjoyed a 'spirit' and Ben had a 'whine'. Sorry. Don't blame me. That's Ben's joke.

Back to reality in the pub

Thank you Ben for being a great ghost hunter! I'll now make you an official member of the B13 Ghost Hunting Gang which I've just made up. Get in touch if you are made of tough stuff and would like to be part of the gang! ;)

Say Hello on twitter @karenstrunks

A weekend in York with my mum!

Wow, November has been a bit hectic. All good, but pretty non-stop. I'll try and catch up with events of this month, but to kick things off, here's the story of a weekend in York with my mum from the beginning of the month.

For my birthday present (which was in October) my mum arrange a weekend away for us. We hadn't been away since our trip to Palma, and it's always so much fun hanging out with my mum.

She had it all organised and booked us into a little B&B about 10 minutes walk from the city centre. She also bought a 2 day Yorkshire Pass. You use it to get into all the attractions and it works out great value for money. We did a quick calculation and reckon we saved about £80 between us by using the pass rather than paying to go into each attraction individually.

I was SO impressed with York! I hadn't a clue what to expect really. Normally I try and do a bit of research before I visit a new place, but hadn't got the chance this time. But that made everything even more of a surprise when I got there!

So what did we get up to?!

LOTS!

York Dungeons

Get your scares here! A fab hour long terrifying experience with chilling tales of York and you'll meet plenty of interesting characters along the way.

 The Viking Museum

York was the Viking capital of the world once. I think. History isn't my strong point, but viking definitely lived in York at some point and this museum can prove it! There's lots of old viking relics here (pots and jewellry and swords etc) but the bit I enjoyed the most was travelling back in time and journeying through a viking village and seeing how they used to live. They even re-created the smell of the vikings!

Betty's Tea Room

Step back to the 1930's at Betty's Tea Room. It's divine there! And very, very busy. We went late on a Sunday afternoon and just managed to get a table. When we walked passed it at other times, people were queuing around the block to get in. I'm not sure if you can book ahead, but I would definitely recommend doing so. It's well worth the visit.

My mum took the opportunity to read her own tea leaves.  (I'm sure she made half of it up!)



York Minster

I'm not really into old churches (or even new ones), but this is impressive just by it's stature alone. It was built between 1220 and 1470, in fact there's building work going on there now. There's actually a lot to see and do when you are inside including a guided tour, plus some vaults downstairs too. And my mum told me that this is where my step Dad proposed to her! So on that fact alone, it make the Minster special to me :)

Haunted House

I love a good ghost story and couldn't wait to visit the Haunted House on Stonegate. You go into it through a magic shop. We went early in the day and had the place to ourselves. The building is 700 years old and an audio story guides you from room to room (9 altogether), and up and down crooked wooden stair cases whilst telling you the stories of the house's past and it's sad tales of it's former residents. It's very atmospheric which is heightened when you are plunged into darkness at times too!

Clifford's Tower

We marched right up to the top of the hill. Then marched back down again. It was closed. It's only open for 2 days a week (weekends I think). Built by William the Conqueror in 1068, it's got quite the horrible history.

York Castle Museum

We visited the museum over two days! There's so much to see. I really liked the recreated Victorian Street and the prison. They also had a street dedicated to the 60's. My mum loved it and she told me lots of stories about her memories of that era. A great place to spend an afternoon.

I was quite taken with this little coin operated machine.




Grand Opera House

We had an even free so booked some last minute tickets to see a show here. We were quite in luck I think, as Fascinating Adia were performing! I remember them from years ago, but didn't know they were still on the go. They've been on the go for 27 years in fact. It was a great night and their song wickedly funny. Here's one of my favs from the evening...




I'm sure I've left something out.

Oh yes! A ghost walk. There's quite a few to chose from in the city. There's the ghost walk, the ghost trail, the original ghost walk, the ghost hunt... take your pick!

And I managed to fit in a hair cut...

And FINALLY I got some new boots! I've been searching high and low for new boots since last winter.

I must have tried on nearly 100 pairs in the last year. There are so many essentials needed for the right boot.

They must be leather, they must be knee high, they must have a little (but not too little) heel, they must have good souls (for gripping on icy streets), they must fit snugly on my calves, they must fit snugly around my ankle, they must be black....

I found them. And I loved them. And then after all that, I nearly didn't buy them as the sales girl was so moody! :D

If you would like the condensed version of the York trip, you I've also handily Storify'd it for you!


A big THANK YOU to my Mum for the best weekend away! Love you lots. You are the best!

Say hello on twitter! @karenstrunks