Lovely weekend. Walking around Durham Woods yesterday was great thats after Fiona had been cleared though xray at casualty that her leg wasn't injured from assaulting a poor stream bed in the Howgill 13 days ago! Wish she'd leave those stream beds alone ! Poor things. Anyway alls well and poor old leg just needs some miles putting into it and it enjoyed the woods and ways of Durham . The leaves were golden, glorious and the family in high humorous spirits. Way Aye Man!

Today after the lads cruised RKade Skatepark in Redcar and a poor teeny broke his wrist right in front of my lads my Mum cancelled our weekly visit so I went out on my own to the autumnul,browney, leafey Richmond . It was magic and I said a prayer in Easby Church after I looked at the medieval wall art. Magic. Christian Church + Bahai praying = nice experience. Stopped at the Old Station for refuel and the coffee and company were great. At the yearly craft fete they have there I bought the lovely Fiona a lavender bag which when I presented to her at home got lots of hugs and kisses. Women are strange. Brill weekend.

Last Wednesday with the family I had a good walk out into the Howgills. The boys as is usual went on ahead on a particular route they had chosen which would take them around the highest part of the Howgills. They walked up the watershed between Bowderdale and Langdale Valley and getting eventually to Hazel Gill Brow and then going on to the Calf. They then descended down to the Bowderdale Pass and then up to Yarlside. Down to a place called Kensgrife and then up to Randy Gill Top and then back down Bowderdale and to the car. Fiona and I slowly walked up Bowderdale having a good look at the drift geology erosion features which were really good. There were many alluvial fans big piles of small rocks which had been eroded out of the gullies which extended from the bottom of the valley right up to the top. At right angles to the valley I might add. Fiona seemed better at spotting them than I did and she also saw a wandering heron before I did. Damm, that lady is getting quicker thinking than I am as we get older. The erosion features were interesting because I thought it would be a case of straight erosion of gullies right since the end of the last ice age say 13,000 years ago but that may not be the case because after the ice age the whole of the Howgills within a hundred years so had become populated with trees and shrubs. With the retreat of the ice came the advance of man who promptly cut down all the trees and I think that that is when the erosion really started. I'll have to look up about when man got to the Howgills.You can never avoid history! God bless Tom Owen a friend of mine from the 1980s for telling me this. We eventually arrived at the foot of Yarlside and had our lunch there and I must admit I was getting a bit fed up with the similarity of the territory and because there was no chance of me finding some black shale which is where I may find a graptolite, 440 million-year-old plankton. So instead of going up Randy Gill Top we decided to charge up the gully behind us and that was really good fun because I got very close to all of the rocks and scree on the way up and there was some lovely patterns of soil creep as well.Soil creep is when water moves through the soil and causes the soil and grass to look like waves descending down the hill. You find it absolutely everywhere and I am fascinated by it As we approached the top of the side of the Bowderdale Valley I could hear the wind swishing through the grass something I have never known anywhere else except in the Howgills. Arriving at the top there was an amazing and magnificent view of the highest point of the Howgills, the Calf, and also great views down into the Langdale Valley a place we walked down one sub zero very cold Christmas Day five years ago. It looked beautiful not least because the first time I walked in the valley the visibility was down to about 200 m. Looking back on the watershed between the Bowderdale and Langdale Valley we saw some really large furry caterpillars creeping about in the grass which was nice. I did two really good slipovers because it was very wet and I have concluded the reason I am falling over a bit more than usual is because my walking shoes have finally given up their grip. They are now in the bin and a pair of new walking boots will be bought pretty soon. We got back to the car 15 minutes before the time set for the lads but they were half an hour late after having a really good ramble around the heights of the Howgills. Miles looked as fresh as ever because he is extremely fit and Clifford looked only a little bit tired so I was very pleased with them both. They were a tiny bit grumpy because they had a mild falling out over which path to be on coming down about the Bowderdale Valley and I told them off because they should have resolved the issue before they saw us and we would only be looking at 2 radiantly happy lads as we normally do rather than 2 grumpy ones. I resolved the issue very quickly as I usually do that is quite forcefully making sure which one should have done what, Miles had overall responsibility after all, and emphasising the point that we are Baha'is and whilst nobody can avoid a problem we can resolve them gracefully. They are good lads and nobody is perfect. A very beautiful day out but next year we all agreed we would like to go and look at the autumn woods around Lake Derwent in the Lake District. Both Fiona and I are as fit as whippets at the moment and I was amazed how fresh and quickly we belted up the gully which was a vertical climb of at least 500 feet. Good fun!

Well, with the family yesterday I went over to visit Veronica, Fiona's mum and on the way we had a walk up through Carlingill up to Black Force through the slippy and treacherous but very beautiful gorge. On the subject of which as we came to a first stream crossing Fiona got cold feet about doing the great leap on to a rock in the middle of the stream and then on to the bank so she just ploughed into it but she did not pick her spot to well and it was quite deep where she stuck her foot in and she fell over and got very wet. It was the best stream fall in I have seen her do in years and we were in hoots of laughter. She is so game to have a go and I really love her for that. Onwards and upwards we were clambering about the sides of Carlingill which was quite treacherous because it had been raining and the Silurian rocks are very slippery when wet. Anyway, instead of doing my usual jump down from a metre height off a rock I thought it was a bit too slippy where I was about to land so I just did the old bum slide over it but the trouble was where my feet did land it was very slippery and I went careering over about 6 feet down to the edge of the stream, rolled, to save my back and then promptly nutted a very large rock inadvertently. I am sure the rock never felt a thing but I did! The boys were in hoots of laughter about this because Daddy is usually very surefooted. I must admit that when I picked myself up I felt very invigorated. And all of this before we even got to the very tricky and treacherous gorge. Well, when we got there it was very slippy and the path was about 20 cm wide sort of stomped into a 50° slope. Because so few people walk through Black Force it is very unstable and I was amazed to think that I took my family through there when the lads were quite young a few years ago. But on that day it was very dry and I specifically chose a dry day because clambering around gorges when it is wet can be just downright dangerous, in this particular gorge a few weeks ago someone died falling into it. So, everyone was holding on to the thick heather and grass as we traversed up and that was fine and quite safe but when we got to the arete to the right with a good view of the Black Force waterfall the way forward through the gorge was just too treacherous to take my family through. And so it was the great turn back. Downer, but it got interesting for me walking back because I have no grip in my gammy hand and could not hold on to the heather and grass and in several places where I put my feet I had some trepidation about whether they would stay in place or not and it was a long slide down to the gorge at the bottom. Oh boy! Still we managed and it was fun with a bit of heart thumping! As Fiona got changed out of her wet clothes in the car she had a huge swelling just below the knee where she bashed it in the river stumbling in. Go for it Fiona!

When we got to the South Lakes Veronica was in good fettle and talking with her was moving, magnificent and very merry and she enjoyed Fiona and I doing a demonstration of ceilidh dancing which we did for the boys to show them what is involved.They now want to go to a ceilidh! It is a real privilege to visit her and Fiona had taken a photo album of pictures of her when she was a baby and child and Veronica really enjoyed that. Looking at photos seems to captivate her and she literally looks 20 years younger. Brilliant! I look forward to seeing her next month. Well, after a crashing and banging walk around the slippy part of the Howgills and a gorgeous visit with my mother-in-law under our belts we headed off on our 100 mile trip back to the other side of the country and the Teeside Delta. A good day.

Life is interesting. I was really wondering what to do now my househusbanding bit has come to an end and thought because of my physical disability I would have a job getting into teacher training to be a mathematics teacher but this is not the case. Also, for at least the last year because the Subject Knowledge Enhancement Courses have changed the entry requirements I have actually got enough mathematics modules from open University to apply, get my mathematics enhanced, sounds interesting, and then go on to a Teacher Training course. I haven't actually been ready to do this until now because of my househusband duties but now I can am putting in my application form for three Teacher Training providers as well as applying to do observation of mathematics lessons in three Darlington secondary schools because the Teacher Training providers want this to happen before they will consider anybody for interview. One of them specifically told me that I have to find out for myself whether I will be able to do the job in terms of the computer usage and if I can there is no barrier whatsoever to applying but it still remains the case that secondary schools may not employ a mathematics teacher no matter how badly they need one if they feel he or she cannot use the computerised planning system because of physical handicap. I really do not think there will be a problem with this because a lot of planning is done on Microsoft Word and not only that the voice recognition program Naturally Speaking is much better at working in Internet programs and programs that are on a network whereas in the past it was very unreliable. It is looking good folks, I always like to address my aspirations in that way and my tail is up and there is a chance I may be able to start this January but it depends on whether I can get CRB clearance in the next few weeks as well as doing my lesson observations. There is a chance that I could apply and say that I will be doing this in the near future and I may go down this route but I will see. It feels strange that I am looking outwards into the community and society in terms of working in them both rather than being preoccupied with a home life and family. Good stuff!

Last Saturday with the family I had a golden gorgeous walk in hazy sunlight through the Durham Woods. The leaves are finally turning and many were floating in the River Wear which had an undecided look about it because there has not been much rain but just enough to keep up a good flow. Again I took the family on a mystery walk which was so mysterious even I did not know where we were going. I handed over the reins of direction to Miles but took them back again quickly when he led us into blind alleys whilst navigating through one of the Durham University campuses. Mystery yes, blind alleys no! The centre of Durham was full of bright and beaming people and there was an atmosphere of good cheer which is always nice. The reorganisation of the marketplace in my view has been very successful enabling lots of people to hang out there if they wish, as well as buskers getting their bit in as well. Fiona had quite a strong cold unfortunately which always affects her sinuses but her legs and lungs were as strong as ever. Again, as with Miles, I often wonder how much of a greater effect on them their colds would be if they did not get out doing strenuous walking and staying fit and healthy. Walking is a good way to go folks!

Well, Miles has finished doing his exams for this year. It started last Tuesday when he had a three-hour paper to do in the Thistle Hotel in Middlesbrough. He was very excited not least because he has thoroughly prepared as usual but come 5:30 p.m. when he finished he was so excited that he kept on gibbering away about all of the questions reciting bits of the paper to me and his answers as well has his possible answers as I drove him to the skate park in Redcar. That got my head buzzing and I was way too excited when we got there! It took a bacon butty and a Pot Noodle to calm me down. He did his second three hour paper yesterday and was much more level about the whole process. He expressed a lot of enjoyment just about the hotel and the design of the building which reflects his interest in urban environments motivated by his continuing development of his Lego skills. Whilst I think it is good to retain the child within he did something yesterday I was pleased with when he simply abandoned me to my book before the exam started and went and introduced himself to the other budding mathematicians most of which reacted in horror when he started bubbling away about the questions which he thought were going to come up and and how easy or hard they may be. One of the guys took a real shine to him and they had a good discussion. Must tell him that it is good to not hide his light under a bushel but also don't burn too brightly because people may feel scorched.Mmm. It was great to see all of these people most of which were over 50 improving their lives with education. I got talking to a lady who was doing an exam in Environmental Science as part of her job. At the end of the exam I spoke to her husband who told me that she had done another exam two weeks earlier. The firm she worked for in Teeside takes the education and training of their employees very seriously which is most excellent. Well, his academic year is over and it is interesting that he only has seven more exams to do and then he will have graduated completely. There was not much pressure on him really because he has averaged over 90% in both of his courses this year and in order to get a 2.1 he just has to get 70% or over in the exams and those scores will enable him to progress to where he thinks he wants to go which is Masters and then PhD or maybe even straight into PhD. I call that the "poor route" because he will be a student until he is around 25. If he went straight into secondary teaching he would make it a lot more money. I suspect in the near future it will be any female in his life that puts him on the track towards fulfilling his potential completely as a human being which isn't just about career fame and fortune.