This afternoon we had a nice 4 mile walk along Sandsend beach on the North Yorkshire Coast and then on into Whitby . The beach had been raised by about a metre since we were last there and there was a stream cutting through the beach meandering the 100m or so to the sea. We saw an excellent deposition feature of lots of stones and shingle being washed through the beach carried in the river water towards the sea . There is always something interesting ! A very chilled out walk because other than looking at the continuing erosion in the glacial till cliffs it was just very mellow. There were very few people in Whitby and we finished our walk munching super duper fish n chips at Hadleys and then walked the mile back to the car in the dark , home and Star Trek. Nice .

After the birdwatching session yesterday morning / afternoon, with the whole family I went to Leeds so Miles could skate the great Works Skatepark. He had an amazing session and his health has fully returned . Fit as a fiddle! Good doggy! Fo, Clifford and I had a very nice 5 night-time walk out through Leeds City Center and those back streets are quite mysterious and ghostly at night . The 18th century buildings in Leeds are amazing and it is surprising how much good history you can get just reading the information printed on some of the buildings . Umm, can't think what you call those oval information plates pinned to historic buildings but there you go. The new modern buildings look great at night as well. A nice evening time out and great end to a marvellous day particularly the bird watching .

As I have said to many people over the years as a family we don't do holidays as such just days out : lots of them . It can work out more expensive than a holiday and we mostly take our own grub! Around Darlington and within a 50 mile radius we have the North Yorkshire Moors , Yorkshire Dales and Lake District National Parks the first two being only 15 miles away , loads of countryside around us and lots to do. Anyone and everyone : get out walking around the towns, countryside or cities . Good for the mind and the body!

Just got back from amazing time out on my own bird watching at Harlepool Docks and Saltholme RSPB site in Teeside . Saw the Red Breasted Mergansers again at Hartlepool but with the binoculars this time . Amazing . There was a Great Crested Grebe with them as well minus the great crest because its winter . I also saw Dunlin just one at first but they are so well camouflaged that I didn't see the other 3 for a while. Without binoculars even close up they are very difficult to see .

Oh boy , Salthome . What can I say . First thing seen was loads of Goldfinches feeding in the bird feeder area , always nice, then I padded around a bit and there was nothing but a huge heron in the first hide because the lake was still frozen . Walked to the other side of the site and saw two Water Rails which are really common apparently but very elusive and the only reason that we were looking at them was the lake and reeds were frozen so it was forced to the edges of the lake where there was a bit of open water conveniently situated by the hide ! So, I was having a good look at these birds and I looked around and said " Er, whats that big brown thing flying over there?!" There was a stampede behind me as about 12 people descended on my viewing window to see a Bittern . A very rare sight. I saw another one flying about 10 minutes later and I thought that would be that but I saw one crouched in the reeds about a mile away and it was almost impossible to see because it was so well camouflaged! Just before this I had spent 20 minutes looking at a Long Eared Owl and having a good chat about it with one of the Wardens who seems to have taken quite a shine to me . Most just have a look at the owl and go but I was quite captivated by it and he said sometimes they get 6 of them in this large 500m square thicket . Saw a lot of other wildfowl but I've yet to look them up . Mega exciting morning /afternoon out .

This afternoon Fo and I went to Hartlepool on the Coast so she could assess the local museum for a school visit soon to happen . I went off for a nice three mile walk over the hour and saw , joy of joys , several male and female Red Breasted Mergansers which are similar to Goosanders because they both have saw bills , bills with serrated teeth in them to keep a grip on the fish. I also saw 2 Oyster Catchers and a Curlew which was nice because we often see them inland on the moors during the summer . After Fo's visit I took her to see the Mergansers but only two were still there so we walked to another part of the dock and 100m away saw a a group of about 10 of them and then they all simultaneously dived to fish. Mega good stuff only ruined by the fact that I had forgot my binoculars . Bad, bad doggy!

This afternoon Fo, Clifford and I had a gorgeous 4 mile walk around Richmond in Swaledale. In the car on the way over we could see a low 100m or so thick mist in the Vale of Mowbray and deepening down into the Vale of York and the North Yorkshire Moors were prominently sticking out on the opposite side of the valley 20 miles away . That put the route on the walk which was to start at Quakers Lane in Richmond and then walk up to the race course on a very slippy back path which fortunately had plenty to hold onto because it was quite steep.I jogged the first section but it got to steep and slippy. At the racecourse we had a magnificent 60 mile view down the Vale of York and right over to Redcar on the NE coast. We also saw an unidentified flock of birds which I thought were Ouzels but according to the RSPB bird identifier can't be because they aren't here in the winter but we cut down to Gallowfield Road , named for obvious reasons, and saw what I thought was a thrush with a deep reddy brown streak but have just identified as a Redwing. Mega exciting because I've never seen them before and after going back down another very slippy back path with a very convenient handrail (life saver!) and down to St. Mary's Churchyard we saw the same birds again. Very exciting the best bit being anticipating getting home and identifying the little beasties.

Because Fo enjoyed the kebab in York yesterday but not the venue , a bit grotty , but I like that sort of thing , I made sure that we walked past Richmond Old Station where there is a super cafe , reasonably priced and it was large cappuccinos and curd tart all around . She glowed! If you're ever in Richmond visit the Station Cafe and Business area all within the Old Station . You get to see local foods and crafts , they even have a Cinema there ( must take Fo sometime! are we to old for necking : nope because she wrings mine several times a year !) it just goes from the erotic to the garrotic a necessary behavior from any self respecting middle aged female with a marriage partner of 22 years but unfortunately who still thinks he is 22 years old. I've been brought to heel boys but I like it ! "Choke chains' my middle name !" Been listening to to much Bob Dylan recently ! We then went to Richmond Falls, well frozen over, around the Castle Walk which was treacherous and back to Quaker Lane and home . Star Trek finale to the day and a grand winters afternoon out .

Yesterday with the whole family we had a nice 8 mile walk around York. It was similar to the one I did last year on my own except there were a lot more people around yesterday. We started at Clifton Green then The District Hospital, Gillygate and then arrived at Foss Islands Road via the Foss River path because its one of the places ie flats I'd like to live in if or when? we move back to York but there is no chance because the Green Fingered Goddess I'm married to wants a garden! There was a convenient bench at the Walmgate Bar end of Foss Islands road notable because whilst we sat all chatty and chirpy munching our favorite cookies people were staring at us as they drove by. Probably thought we were a homeless family . It was a pretty cosy bench and right next to where I munched fish n chips parked up in the car over 15 years ago at two in the afternoon after Fo had given birth to our second doggy . Sacred spot as far as I am concerned!

The sun was just setting blood red as we went past York Uni library and there were a few students about all foreign students of course and its nice to know that British Universities preoccupation with their profit margins continues on . The world education system is so rational that eventually all UK students will study in China! Barely a duck in sight on the Uni lake so the "food aid " handed out by the groundsmen doesn't seem to have the desired effect! But seriously I hope they are not all dead but quite sensibly and in line with their genetic programming they've all flown off . You see they know its "on yer bike time" if you've got a problem in the UK economy so it stands to reason that they've got " take to a wing" or even better a pair of them to earn their crust in the New UK order of Tory land . Possibly they have realized that if they fly away abroad and come back the Uni will see them as foreign ducks, charge them in the only way you can charge a duck which to call for volunteers for the Vice Chancellors dinner plate and be allowed to charm the two legged students and visitors like me with there heads down in the water study methods . I never realized that caddis fly larvae and pond weed were so interesting but then again idiot I may be , plenty of evidence for that, but bird brain I am not !

We headed off for Rowntrees Park via the Millennium foot bridge which was all lit up with multi colored lights giving me a flash back experience to the early 80's when I saw exactly the same bridge and all lit up even though it didn't exist . Strong ale in York! Surprisingly Miles started to get cold which was the first time in his life that has ever happened to him on a walk and is proof that he has still got a bug or is suffering from the after effects of one . The kebab shop cheered him up and we got back to the car and back home in just over an hour to settle into double Star Trek. Family Trek - Star Trek : we are so consistent ! A nice afternoon out.

Yesterday Fo was better so we got out for a walk around Durham but not with Miles because he didn't feel well. The ice on the River Wear was melting and the weekly compliment of 5 Goosanders and 4 Little Grebes were seen. Fo wasn't in the best fettle but getting going is often the best remedy for getting better . After a nice 4 mile walk and coffee and cake , Fo is with us after all upgrading the walk with a bit of middle class input , we trucked off back to Darlington to find Miles feeling a lot better and wanting to have a meal out to lift his spirits . Well , we are not the sort of parents to turn a hungry man down so we went back to Durham and woofed our way through sizable portions of Chinese food at the Inshanghai Restaurant . The lads wanted a walk afterwards and so did I so we had a walk around the town up to the cathedral , popped in and got an impromptu recital of Bach organ music . Magic . Even the lads were impressed . Good fun was had walking in the nighttime woods and I tried to scare our lads on the other side of the river with a loud growling sound but it didn't work . They just laughed . We listened to the new U2 CD in the car on the way up and down and it was brilliant . Nice day and early evening but best of all the family is nearly fully fit so we can get out for longer walks.

I took the lads sledging in Durham this afternoon. Fo was still zonked out but getting better. Into her grub anyway! The snow was quite thick but wet so the sledging was a bit slower than expected not that I noticed because I had a nice three mile walk around the river Wear and into the City. A few snowstorms blew over which made it really cosy and I had a good look with dripping binoculars at the two very mature Goosanders I saw yesterday . True to form as soon as I stood still to observe them they moved off but didn't fly off . Not many open patches of water at the moment so the risk/reward ratio was in favor of staying put. When I got back to the lads for biscuit break the they were having a good time so I went off for another just half hour trek this time through a downpour of snow . Great ! When I next got back to the lads Miles had just about ripped his trouser leg off because ( as far as the little pratts were telling me ) they zoomed down the slope held together by this stick which broke , stuck in the ground and then ripped up Miles leg taking out the trouser part leaving a nice deep scratch that was going in the direction of his wedding tackle . As I have frequently said in the past " Always protect your nuts" but I chewed him over anyway because if the stick had stuck more firmly in the ground it could have impaled his leg or worse . I had a bit of a job keeping a straight face when I did this but he still believes me even when I was in Oscar winning performance mode . Good! Cracking afternoon out made even better by being greeted by a warm cuddly wife who is feeling a lot better !

Fo was still zonked with the bug today , Miles was zapped out from an excess of skateboarding last night at RKade in Redcar in a -7c temperature and he is still getting over a series of bad colds so he was wasted this morning , Clifford was quite happy to stay in , wimpy doggy, so I went out on my ownsome lonesome again for a four mile walk around Durham. Usual Shincliffe and back route but since a few days ago the River Wear had completely frozen in places and mostly frozen in the rest . I saw five , yes five , Goosanders today the usual three who've been there a while but two much bigger ones had turned up just downstream from Elvet bridge . These were not shy and were quite happy to be observed from 10 metres away although I walked slowly and didn't stop because I knew that could spook them . Why so many Goosanders? The obvious answer is that most of the lakes and ponds in Durham County are frozen over , big Rivers like the Wear are freezing over so fish eating divers like Goosanders are being concentrated in the clear water areas. Cormorants weren't there at all except for one because they can shove off to the coast where there is no ice but lots of fish. Way to go : brains working today!

On the River wear where it was completely frozen there were 45 degree angled lines in the ice highlighted by the snow on them and how they got there I've yet to conjecture. The river got frozen over by a two processes ; freezing from the edges ; and bits off ice that had broken off from river ice upstream getting stuck around those edges and then hey presto the whole river is blocked . Further downstream I heard a weird cracking sound I'd never heard before and that was the sound of metre square patches of ice floating down channels of fast water then crashing into frozen parts of the river . Very exciting.

As I walked into town a snowstorm came over and happily for me there was a Starbucks nearby so I sought refuge in there . I missed the family today because this was the second time this week they couldn't make it and there were many exciting and interesting things to see which I know they would like . Still , Fo is on the mend and the lads want to sledge in Durham so hopefully we will get a family afernoon out soon. Nice afternoon out in a somber snowy Durham.

Today the plans to have a family afternoon walking in York were scuppered by Fo feeling grotty with flu like symptoms this morning . The lads didn't want to go without Mum so I went on my own. Miles was still a bit wasted from skateboarding and walking yesterday and he felt grotty last night . Family is a bit of a worry sometimes . So, I went out on my own and had a nice 8 mile walk around York. When I got into the City Centre I'd just finished munching a sausage roll when I saw my friend Sybil Wood. She looked not very well and said she had come back from work because early because she was feeling grotty. I only spoke with her for a few minutes ! I got chatting to the young Irish lady who served me coffee later and she said that nearly every customer who'd been in the cafe over the last week had been ill , recovering or just going down with the lurgey . I haven't had anything at all. I'm beginning to feel left out !

York City was lovely in the low afternoon winter light and when I walked around the Foss River area there were what looked like long brush marks in the middle of the frozen river which were the landing marks from the feet of ducks and geese gliding down to feed . The university lake was all frozen and I noticed university groundsmen feeding the ducks. I suppose if they didn't do that a lot of them could die . Isn't that what is supposed to happen? Good for the fox population! What next feeding fish in the river! Coming out of the Uni grounds I ran into my friend Harry who I have known for over 25 years and I played music with him in the Irish sessions and I lived just 'round the corner from him for 2 years . He is a very nice man straight , constant and very intelligent . He has been doing research and lectures in the Environmental Unit in York Uni. I last ran into him about two years ago and I'm going to the Sunday night session soon so I can see him again and have a good night out . I managed to get to the City walls between 3 and 3.45 because I wanted to see the sun going down and that was really nice . Got home in time for Star Trek and tea with the family . It was a great afternoon out particularly running into Sybil and Harry but it would have been nicer with the rest of the family gang!

Fiona and I had an excellent night at the Butterknowle Acoustic Club Xmas do. The roads on the way up there were more slippery than a bankers tongue and it was even worse on the way back because it was -7C and I just knew going slowly and carefully was the only way to go . And home of course! Anyway , Butterknowle Village hall is a welcoming place mostly because of the very nice people who go there but I noticed that it was slightly cooler than expected . When I saw Brian Whiley one of the organizers he told Fo and I that the heating had gone off because the fuel had run out quite likely because the thermostat kicks the heating in when it is really cold to protect the pipes! Well, no problem in a very capable village community and I saw a lot of this in Reeth and Muker communities in the 70s when I played in the brass bands in the Dales. Because Butterknowle has many adjoining farms someone knew one of the farmers and many gallons of heating oil were whipped over to the village hall. Bet that could be trickier to do in an urban community .

The music got going and there was much laughter as well particularly when one of the folk singers got going on a John Denver song " Today when the blossoms still spring from the vine , "cough, cough" " and so on . He eventually stopped, blaming the peanuts he had munched beforehand , something I of course as a harmonica player would never do! , but everyone including the singer thought it was hilarious . Got the night off to a good start . Julie McGrath the folk/country singer was excellent taking me to inner places I didn't expect to go on a cold night in County Durham. The Exiles from Eden folk Band were also great. I had a good play with the Button Hole Jam and they are a really good band and I had to make sure that I didn't over play and kept my self out of the way when it was right to that . It is important in a band that all voices are heard and everyone gets to musically say their bit . Button Hole Jam pull that one off really well.

Which brings me into a point to be considered by musicians : anyone out there : get music clubs going like Butterknowle Acoustic Club or if you are a band trying to get ahead , good thing to do , play small venues and give the audience a really good time not by just playing well for a short period with music superbly produced for your demo but takes so long to write and rehearse that you can't put together enough music to be able to entertain everyone for at least two hours , you know you are , my favorite band at the moment, but play well for a long period : at least 2 hours . Win the audience in other words. Then, musicians will be supported as they are every month in Butterknowle. Point Proved ? Butterknowle Acoustic Club produced over two and a half hours of music last night all of good quality and yes one will wince occasionally at the gaffs as much as I groan at my own talent level and many gaffs I made last night such as doing a very nice little musical run in one of the songs but " Hey folks it was in the wrong key and at the wrong time " . Groan. I don't know how I get away with it sometimes but maybe I do : everyone in Butterknowle Village Hall wants to have a good time so they hear the general impression which was pretty good from all of the musicians . What face doesn't have some spots on it? I like my own, spots and all , but not as much as I like my wife's!

A really cracking night out and I would like to thank the Butterknowle Acoustic Club organizers and particularly Brian and Klara Whiley : excellent musicians and comperes who got everyone going and made us all feel really welcome comfortable . Thank you.

I took Miles skateboarding this morning at RKade in Redcar and was surprised to find about 10cm of snow in the Tees Estuary. There had been none in Darlington . Miles had a great session and his friend Luke Bourner pulled off a really difficult trick . Good lad . After this we went to see my Mum in Richmond and had a walk around Easby Abbey in the low winter light and it was cloudless and beautiful. We saw a small flock of birds we couldn't identify but I think they may be Golden Plovers and I saw two woodpeckers ripping across a field . Got some speed those birds . Richmond is nice at any time of the year but in the winter light it is wonderful . My Mum was in good fettle and we had a very humorous time . We all seem to get very excited when we see her . Star Trek and egg and chips coming up and I'm playing at the Butterknowle Acoustic Club Xmas do tonight , with who I'm not quite sure but the Button Hole Jam said they'd put up with me for a few numbers and Fiona said she'd be my personal groupie . Wow!

Today has been a beautiful day . Darlington Borough Council gave permission for us Darlington Bahais to do a street stall to let the Darlington people know about our religion and I did this , this morning in High Northgate . A lot of people had a good look at the stall and one young lad took a booklet. Standing in the cold got my toes colder than they had been in years but the rest of me was fine . I felt really good doing the stall and I'm a passionate believer in all groups and religions from Muslims to Gay Rights people getting their voice heard on the street. Sort of adds a religious , political and moral dimension to the body politic .

After the morning on the stall I went out with the family to Durham and did a 5 mile walk . From Darlington to Durham is about 20 miles but the temperature dropped considerably and on River Wear there was a high browny smudge to the water but it was really low . This quite likely reflects the recent floods. 10 minutes into the walk we saw the Goosanders and my they are touchy . This bird just glimpsed us and then flew off. For some reason the low afternoon light made it difficult to see with our binoculars but there is also an effect from the low quality of the binos that we use because last year at Saltholme RSPB reserve at Teeside I had a go of the wardens very expensive binoculars and said to him that I didn't see a huge difference between them but he said you really see the difference in low light conditions and after today's experience in exactly those conditions I could see he was precisely right . The cloudless walk into Durham City was magical and joy of joys we saw the Little Grebes again by Framwellgate Bridge really close up , 5 metres away and the male, small as he was, looked so capable and cocky. Bet he's looking forward to Spring the female Little Grebes will be queuing up for his genes and even Fiona took a shine to him!

We went to the Cathedral but couldn't walk around it much because they were about to do a Carol Service but it was all dark and mysterious in there as Durham Cathedral always is . Because it is mostly made out of Dark sand stone unlike York which is made out of very bright Limestone , it has a heavy moody feel about it which I find absolutely enchanting . On the way back into town Fiona noticed a fake fur hat which she thought would grace her good looks whilst I said it gave the strong impression of wearing roadkill on her head! The lads just laughed their heads off. But after a little while walking the streets I did say she looked very cute in it and she said she was as warm as toast . So, she has a new town walking hat although I said that it would be best not to wear it up in the hills just in case some bird of prey mistook her head for something edible . Anyway , I'm expecting the buzzards to be circling when we are up in the Howgills next week! I expect her to be carried because no doubt they will find her as tasty as I do!

A great day and an afternoon where Fiona and I were way to excited, so much so that Miles said we were "boisterous" . About right and I hope we have two weeks of it!

From midday we went over the Pennine watershed, now the snow had gone , and down to Southern Lakeland to visit Fiona's Mum. On the way over we listened to the Time Out of Mind CD by Bob Dylan although there were grumbles from our lads. Well , children, sometimes Mummy and Daddy want to look at the great countryside much of which we have walked over think about those nice times and TOTALLY FREAKOUT to some cool music . Hey you both did admit you liked the band our Bobby was playing with . It was Leonard Cohen on the way back and the two grumblos in the back like him. Teenagers who like Leonard Cohen . What's wrong with them?!

Anyway , Fo's Mum Veronica was in good cheer but very frail, she is in her 80's and I am always raised up by that good cheer and how good her mind is, still very sharp, sharp enough to appreciate my wayward humor, in spite of the vascular dementia she is suffering from. It just goes to show you cannot keep a good woman down! The boys were really and I mean really good with her and she enjoyed all the photos of them sledging which we had on the netbook.

On the way over we had an hours walk around Ulverston where Veronica used to live and Miles led the walk and took us around a very interesting route with much to look at and talk about . He will be a good Dad one day . Good doggy. There are many architectural history points in the town such as a meeting room of some sort built in the 18th century with another storey added in the 19th century the only reason we knew that was because they had put the dates on both buildings.

Well , after a very dark drive back we were going to watch The Beebs Shakespeare offering with Patrick Stewart, Macbeth, but we decided to watch Star Trek instead. Sorry Mr Ian Fletcher of Taiwan my infallible guide on all things literary, but I often say that Star Trek is the new Shakespeare and now you know that I am dumb enough to believe that . Is there hope for me ? I hope not !

This afternoon with the family I had a nice four mile walk in the low winter ight around Durham. The river was in flood due to the thaw setting in in the uplands but it was not as big a torrent as it could have been because the snow cover on the hills was not that deep in spite of the cold and snowfall. There had been a fairly big landslide near Prebends bridge and the onward erosion of the UK continues on ! Near Framwellgate Bridge we saw a Little Grebe again and it was hunting for larvae and insects close to the bank because the river Wear was roaring along . We were 5 meters from it . A really lovely grebe and we saw another further down river and this was much smaller so I assume it was the female . Can't wait to see them in their summer coats. In town we grabbed some spare chairs to use for out biscuit break and it was very cosy sat at the bottom of the market. For about half of the walk we were walking on melting ice which was more slippery than a bankers reasons to sell you something you don't want! Very slippery. A few days ago I said to my friend Sybil Wood that walking around a town in snow and ice is worse than clambering around the hills in the stuff and today was very tricky . A nice afternoon out with the family and a Trekky evening is coming up and that's great. Star Trek is the new Shakespeare.

After the lads had a good morning session with the maths and Clifford was in school for an hour and did some maths as well we decided to to sledging in Durham for the afternoon. Miles has fully recovered from whatever cold bug he had so he was raring to get out and thrash the slopes with sledges for 90 minutes which is just what they did. Because of everyone sledging over the weekend and a hard frost last night the slopes were almost dangerously slippy and when Miles first whizzed down he was amazed at how fast he went . After watching them for five minutes I went for a nice 3 mile walk around the town and woods really enjoying the low winter afternoon light glancing across the building and the trees. Hardly any bird life to be seen on the River Wear but I did notice that between Prebends and Framwellgate Bridge it was icing over . Gosh it was cold this morning . When I drove Fo into work it was -11 and on the way back just before our house it descended to -12.5. The only time ever in the UK I have known temperatures like that we have been high up in the Howgills or Teesdale and there has been wind chill as well. Today just outside my house -12.5 and no wind whatsoever . Man that's cold . Before we went out today I did a careful gear check with the lads and they had their body warmers on and Clifford was in double gloves . Mind you when they hit the slopes they were that excited with the speed they were getting I don't think they noticed the cold.

After the afternoons exertions when we got back Miles got straight down to an hour of maths and he is really enjoying the last module of his pure maths course which doesn't start 29/1/11. He is well ahead and the other course he is doing he doesn't need to prepare up at all for that . Clever doggy! But he has also done a lot of work over the last three months. Nice afternoon out and to put myself in Fiona's goody extra goody books I have knocked up a chicken casserole for tea and I'm looking forward to hearing the "Ooooooooooooooooooo" from her when I tell her what we are having for tea. Cold weather walks, chicken, nice man what more does a woman want!

This afternoon with the family I had a nice 5 mile walk around Durham starting from Shincliffe village . The river was gunmetal grey with all the snow around and joy of joys the Goosanders were back. Three of them like last time so I'm assuming it is the same three. That was good but 500m downstream it got even better because I noticed a very small diving bird and I knew it wasn't one of the usual suspects so as I was loudly wondering a lovely lady from Ilkley said it was a Little Grebe and having just verified that : she was right . A Little Grebe in its winter plumage and we saw 5 of them at the Shincliffe end of the river one on its own at Framwellgate Bridge. Total bliss.

In town we went to see the Victorian Market up at the Cathedral and it was a very good show with lots of food and craft stalls. One of the stalls had several birds of prey from a local BOP centre and we noticed a few empty stalls which irritated me a bit because the lady from Durham Markets said yesterday that they had no stalls available for us to have a Bahai stall but I suppose some of the stallholders may not have turned up . Still she did say to book July 2011 for the next Victorian Xmas Market and we will take her up on that. Fo and I love doing Bahai stalls and it is great when people ask about our religion and interesting when they just want to disagree with it! We have met allsorts doing Bahai stalls!

On the way back to Shincliffe we saw a Goosander again and it just flew offf as soon as it saw us . They are a very wild bird with only 2600 breeding pairs in the UK although a lot more over winter which is why we mainly see them in winter. In the past they were heavily killed of by fishermen and landowners because it was (incorrectly) believed they dented fish stocks . Gosh , everything has it's story doesn't it! A gorgeous afternoon out ending up with Fo and I crashing out in bed and listing to Tenebrae her slaying monsters on the DS , me doing this and surfing the net . Cosy!

An interesting week. Clifford was off school all week because the school was closed due to the snow and he got loads of maths done . His future looks very promising and Miles is impressed with his work although I will have to make sure his exam technique matches his developing maths brain. It's no good learning all this maths and physics if you can't do it in the exams. On Thursday afternoon I took the lads sledging in Durham when there were huge snow showers blowing across the city. I had a walk around the very cold town and the clear colour of the River Wear was amazing because of all the snow melt water in it . In spite of all of the Pennine passes being closed including the one at Wearhead snow has been melting into the streams due to the sheer weight of the snow which raises the temperature at the bottom of the pile and so it comes pouring out . A sort of mini glacier effect! Anyway it looked very pretty. Going around the Cathedral was magical and there were only 4 people in the place and no one at the East End so I tried out my countertenor singing and was amazed how much it just filled the space and I could hear it echoing back from the West End. Cathedrals truly are places to sing in !

When I got back to the lads after 90 minutes they were having a great time and didn't get as wet as last time . After a slippy ride home Miles being Miles after tea wanted to skateboard at RKade in Redcar 25 miles over to the coast. He had a good time there but only did 90 minutes because he ( for once ) got quite chilled. I don't think he is quite over the cold bugs yet . A nice constructive week delighted up by the presence of Fo working at the kitchen table getting her planning and preparation done . Teachers : I love 'em! But I particularly love one of them!

This afternoon we went to see my mother in Richmond. The boys did 45 minutes of sledging at a place called Westfields at the western end of Richmond naturally! There was a bit less snow in Richmond and the cloud cover was much higher but looking very mellow and wintry. Fiona and I had a walk around Round Howe and we saw some deer footprints. The snow was a lot deeper on the opposite side of the valley from where the boys were sledging because it gets no sun at all. It is amazing how out of the way it feels even though it is only about a kilometre from the road. We saw a lot of fresh molehills the moles seem to get very active when the weather gets really cold. That's one I don't think I will look up! When we got back to the lads they were all excited and glowy which was really nice. Mum was well but her foot was still quite swollen from the operation she had a few days ago to straighten her toes out. Thinking I was helping her because she mentioned about toilet rolls a few days back I took a huge pack of 24 but it turned out she didn't need toilet rolls. Oh well, what are sons for but for forgiving! A nice day.

In all the snow me and the lads had a nice afternoon out in Durham. They sledged and I had a beautiful walk around the town . The lovely Fo was still not well so she stayed near home and had couple of miles walk around the local park just to get better quicker. The snow was quite deep in Durham and coming in on the Shincliffe road it was a bit hairy but passable. There were a lot of students and kids sledging and it was great to see my lads dashing up the slope to get going . I was stood next to a tree the branches bending with the snow and I thought it had started snowing again but it was just blowing off the tree. After watching the lads for 5 minutes I headed off into town over Prebends Bridge keeping an eye out for the Goosanders on the river but they were nowhere to be seen. The clouds were low giving a cosy feeling which could also be due to fact that I had wrapped up well warm. Soon regretted this because 10 minutes later I was very sweaty. At what age do you slow down? Eventually I went into Durham Cathedral because I just love cathedrals and churches in the low winter afternoon light. I have had many a spiritual moment? in these places and oftentimes I say a prayer in them or even sing one . Couldn't find the prayer chapel today so the secular feelings option of coffee , sausage roll and a custard tart made up for it in the cathedral cafe which was half empty and very relaxed. Missed my deadline to get back to the boys so they could have there biscuit break so I just sauntered along the river enjoying a fine English winter soaking in those Medieval vibes and getting that great sense of history and nature which I often feel when going around Durham. I'm falling in love with the place!

When I got back to the lads they were wet , muddy and Clifford was pretty cold because he only had thin socks on . Bad dog. I didn't do my standard gear check before we went out . Bad Dad Doggy. They were still going strong up those slopes and it is about 50 meters in vertical height so they did at least 20 runs so that makes roughly a kilometre of climbing or 3000 feet in old money. Sledging is great exercise no doubt about it . Of course Miles wasn't cold at all and was raring to go for some more but Clifford had had enough so home it was and as a lot of snow had started I'm glad we got going when we did because it was really sticking on the A1 but because we are used to going up to Upper Teesdale in the same weather it was no problem : "Don't touch the brake "! Someone did earlier on and the car was being cabled up a bank it had slid down by a tow truck. It's not just Miles who needs to learn to drive! No one was hurt. Back at home Fo was all cuddled in up bed with her DS trying to destroy a monster when we got back and had the lads in there to help her out . After shooing them out we listened to a Radio 3 concert of Cuban and Mali muscians which was brill. A nice , mellow, but with the snow, exciting afertnoon. I love my family .

This morning I took Miles driving again and he is really getting it. This is a big load of my mind as well as his! This afternoon because the lads felt unwell Fiona and I went out on our own for a walk around Durham. The weather was very cloudy very low cloud in fact but when walking with my lovely wife it feels like the sun is always shining. As soon as we started walking into the centre we had the surprise of our life when we saw three Goosanders cruising around the River and one of them hunting for fish. It has been nearly a year since we last saw them on the River Wear and they are a welcome addition to the diversity and interest of the area. They are a joy to see not least because there are only 2600 breeding pairs in the UK and around the 16,000 pairs overwintering. A rare treat. It is interesting that we mostly see them over the winter period. I have also seen them last year right in the centre of Leeds which was totally amazing. These birds are pretty wild and that was the case today because when we first saw them going into the city centre and they were on the opposite side of the river they had no problem with our presence but when we saw them roughly in the same spot going back to the car we were on the same side of the river as them and they saw us and flew off. They certainly like to keep their distance. They are also known as saw bills because of the serrated nature of their beak which enables them to keep the fish firmly gripped before swallowing. Today we also saw a couple of herons and it is quite startling how well camouflaged a heron is against water. One of them was right beneath the weir and was quite hard to spot so much so that Fiona couldn't see it for a few minutes. It made me think in a speculative way that about the only predator of a heron is a fox and it can only approach a heron from land but when the bird is in the river I do wonder if it is quite hard to see with its grey and off white feathers. Who knows but I will look this up. We had a great cup of coffee at Starbucks and that old romantic feeling kicks in. Of course it does not last long because we are joking too much to get really heavy man. When we got back home we came in all giggly and considering the boys were very subdued with whatever bug they have got we both just pointed out that the show goes on. A nice afternoon. Oh, I also met a good old friend of mine Alan Riley who I have not seen for a few years and he is a drummer who plays with various bands in the Dales and tomorrow there is a blues jam night at the Town Hall pub in Richmond and I am going to play their with my harmonica. It will be a bit of a blast from the past because I used to play in a band with him when I was 16 right through to when I was 18. I reckon I'll see quite a few old faces from my past as well and that will be nice because some of them I will not have seen since the 70s. Something to look forward to!

Yesterday was a good day. In the morning I did a lot of countertenor singing practice and my voice is finally getting stronger particularly in the lower notes. It is nearly fit for public consumption. I am sounding like a rougher version of Jimmy Somerville of the Communards. I cannot sing as straight as he does because I am primarily a jazz player but that's good as it is nice to develop originality. Because over the next month I will be going out playing with various people on my harmonica I did quite a bit of harmonica practice for once. Although, because of a lot of neglect I have become a bit out of practice all my former glories are returning! I improvise a lot better these days on the rock and pop songs because I keep it simple. I still overplay when I do jazz but I am trying to learn that less is more.

At three o'clock in the afternoon with my family we went for a walk in Durham in the evening light. Miles drove us there and that was really good because he is getting the driving at last. We started walking from Shincliffe just outside Durham and the river was fairly high because of the previous rain and as we walked into the centre along the river in the gathering light we saw two herons and a salmon attempting to jump up the weir. I am still struck by seeing salmon in the River Wear in Durham but there you go! We were going to be Inshanghai restaurant but it was a bit early so we decided to walk around the town up to the cathedral. At the moment, I am running up every slope little or large that I come across because I want to get my legs in training for running up a Lakeland mountain as soon as possible. So every time I see a hill I dash off yelling "hill training" and quite often my family comes running up behind me. It sounds crazy but a man has to do what he needs to do and I really need to do a mountain : running! By the time we got to the cathedral we realised we could not go down the back path because it was closed so we had to walk back through the town again. The food at the restaurant was great as usual.

After getting stuck into two large platefuls of food and the boys did even better than that we went up to St Oswald's Hall to Baha'i event: the Celebration of the Birthday of Baha'u'llah. It was a really good do and I saw many Baha'i friends that had not seen for a while because we do so much in our own community directly being involved with the public as well as doing the family thing with our children and relatives. We tell people about the Baha'i Faith wherever we go but only if it is relevant to a conversation. The last thing that anybody wants these days is to be "told" about our beliefs. Sure, if somebody brings up why they think things are going wrong in our society on any issue as a family of individuals we give our view about that which is a mixture of Baha'i beliefs and what we personally think needs to be done. What I liked about the event last night is that a lot of the people were just talking about ordinary subjects although I had a good discussion with a very nice man from Iran who was a Muslim although he also said that he was an atheist. An atheist Muslim I think that makes sense but I do understand what he was getting at. He said that there were a lot of problems in Iran and he was particularly against religion : any religion. I asked him why he came to a religious event and he said he was just interested so I made the joke that coming from a country where it is popularly perceived in the West that it is full of religious fanatics that we at this Baha'i event were making him feel at home because he thought all religious people were fanatics ! He is a good man and I gave him my card and hope to see him in the near future. I think I will. He is studying sociology at Durham University and back in Iran he was studying engineering. I told him he should go back to engineering! Our lads also managed to woof even more food down at this event after the restaurant and I seriously wondered where they put it!

We left the Baha'i event at about nine o'clock and we walked back to the car taking a shortcut which seemed like a good idea at the time but when we went down this path it was completely black. It was a hoot and we should do that again. When we left the Inshanghai restaurant our lads wanted to walk around the river when it was all dark and I said quite firmly "No". It is all right doing that sort of thing on your own but when there are four of you there is a high chance somebody (my wife!?) will indeed go straight into the river. Next year though we will take torches and go by the river as it will be good fun. Miles drove us back and again he is picking up the driving quite well now and on a scale from one to 10 he has been at one for about 15 hours worth of driving just not being able to get first gear basically. But yesterday he rose up to five and I am sure that he will be able to take his test early next year.

Last night I had a really good conversation with a friend of mine Darren Howell a Durham Baha'i who is now married and for quite a long time I always teased him about getting married. Well now he has finally done it and he has a lovely nice baby as well. His wife is a delightful woman and from what Darren was saying about boys needing fathers, really good stuff, I know that he is a good dad as well as husband and will continue doing that. It is funny but some people you just know are going to do it all right which is good for everybody. It was quite funny because he was sat with his baby in front of him in a car seat baby carrier and when the lad woke up he looked at his dad and then started just gazing at me for about 10 minutes I think. I do not know what it is sometimes , children just seem to lock onto me. One time when I took the boys skateboarding a couple of years back in Richmond there was a five-year-old playing in the skate park and I just sat there reading my maths textbook minding my own business. Within a few minutes as the boys were doing their thing on the ramps she came over and started asking me questions about what I was doing so I asked her what she was doing on her own so she told me all about her mum and dad working and that she had a woman looking after her at the other end of the park but as she was doing this she started to get cosy and snuggled herself into my side which I was not best pleased about because I really did want to just get on reading but we continued on with the dialogue. I asked Fiona about this while some children home in on me sometimes and she says it is because I smile at them and notice them with my eyes. Apparently this is something that primary teachers do all the time to get the children's attention. Oh well that is something I must try and stop but have not succeeded yet but it has also been the case, maybe because the boys have got a lot bigger now that small children do not approach me in skate parks these days! Mind you, there are plenty of teenagers who talk to me in Rkade skate park in Redcar.

Today, Sunday, I took the lads down to the skate park or should I say Miles drove us down there and he is really getting into it. The lads had a good session and I had a good laugh with two of my friends down there two of the mums who take their lads on a Sunday. Scooters have been really good for the skate park and it is nice to see lots of young people really going for it and getting a lot of exercise. It will put years on their life although there may be a few broken wrists on the way. It's worth it! In the afternoon we went to visit my mum and she was very well but after she heard of the woes of Miles learning to drive she said she would light a candle for him in the Catholic Church that she goes to. I said that was okay so long as there was an "L" on it! I think just the thought of the prayer was working even before she went to the church because Miles took us home and had an excellent session doing pretty much everything right. Good dog and for all the worry he has given me this week with his driving : bad dog! Still that's kids they drive you crazy and worry you but they do get there if you give them intelligence and a good push along. Direction and motivation are all that most children ever need. A good weekend.

Yesterday was a good day. In the morning I took Miles out for a driving lesson and he is now starting to get it. In the afternoon with the family I had a really good walk around Durham. We did a different walk because I wanted to look at a driving route for Miles to take us to Durham avoiding the motorway. So we parked up near the Durham crematorium and walked through the woods and on to our usual route. In the woods, because it had been raining very hard the night before there were large amounts of leaf debris and sand strewn across the path carried by the rainwater. The woods were really good because the leaves falling off the trees had become quite deep. When we got down to the weirs in Durham we saw salmon attempting to get over the weir right between a pair of cormorants who were looking hopefully no doubt to try and get a meal. The trouble was the salmon are bigger than the cormorants so they had no chance. It was remarkable to see salmon because about 20 years ago the River Wear from just above Durham was quite dead and polluted and now it is alive and vibrant with life. No matter how bad it looks for the ecology on our planet there are some positive moves happening. It is the same on Teeside where the River Tees also has salmon running up it because several years ago we saw them attempting to leap over the Tees barrage. Our usual perches in the centre were all taken up so we had to have biscuit break up by the St Oswald's Hall Park .

We had a good evening set up because Fiona and I went to see Digital Earth at Kennedy's Bar in York. This was the first night out just Fiona and me for as long as I can remember at least 10 years I think. It was a great drive down because we played Bob Dylan and when we got to York we walked in from a Clifton past York District Hospital and as we were going past I noticed that we could see into the corridor of the maternity unit and off the corridor where the birth rooms for women to have babies were. This is where Fiona gave birth to our 2 fine boys. I had mixed memories about this because the birth of Miles was quite difficult but Clifford's birth was very easy. That's if you can say that giving birth to a child is easy. I may regret saying this! When we got to Kennedy's Bar Digital Earth were having a run through and the band sounded pretty good . I really enjoyed talking with Sybil's husband Jon Wood and then I went to talk with Nicky Young the wife of the keyboard player David Young. It was really nice sitting there and noticing all these club, party type people going by because the last time I ever was in a pub was when I went to the Irish sessions in York and they were mostly folk people there who were very different! Digital Earth started playing at 11 o'clock and they were really good. I really enjoyed getting swayed away by the brilliant rhythm and keyboard section and then listening to Jon Woods excellent flugelhorn playing and the vocals of the lovely girl singer and a man who was a MC doing rap like speaking alongside the singing. I thought he was excellent and the rhythms reminded me of bebop rhythms which is quite interesting. Very syncopated and catchy and I actually wonder if anybody else has noticed how bebopish rap rhythms are. It has inspired me to think of my own songwriting having some sort of rap talking going on as well or before and after the words I write. An interesting idea. I also found it really funny that these big bouncers were walking through the club to make sure everything was all right which made me feel quite reassured. These characters I always find quite interesting because whilst they are very big and strong which is quite good for grabbing somebody quickly and subduing them to propel them out of the club they absolutely cannot run! It was lovely seeing Sybil again the last time being at the Peace Festival in York. Fiona and I also talked for a bit with Jon Woods mother June, Sybil's mother-in-law who is a really nice lady and she told us to get in touch with her to go and see her when we have another night out in York. We left the Bar at about 12:30 a.m. and walking through York was interesting because there were so many people around. The last time I walked around York at that time of night in the late 1980s there was hardly anybody around. York certainly has a more late night cosmopolitan feel about it than it did in the late 1980s and this is really good. On the way back going through the Vale of York we went through a huge rainstorm but given that Fiona was asleep after 10 minutes in the car she left me on my own to fight my way through it and listen to Leonard Cohen as well. She didn't actually wake up until I parked the car on our drive at around 1:45 a.m..

A lovely day and a really good night out. Thank you very much Sybil, Digital Earth and my lovely wife for wearing a nice short skirt which really showed off her hiking legs. I have never seen my wife wearing such a skirt out and about and I noticed myself staring at it several times during the evening particularly when she was dancing through the Digital Earth set. She and Sybil danced through the whole thing. Two fine wives, mothers, and ladies!

Today, myself and the whole family went over to visit Fiona's mum at Dalton in the Southern Lake District. We stopped off at Whitbarrow Hill a huge chunk of limestone about 700 feet at its highest point and about 3 miles square in area. It stands up from the coastal plain and from the top you can pretty much see most of the peaks of the Lake District. We walked up by the disused quarry where there is a lot of limestone to be seen and because Fiona and I are trying to get even fitter we jogged up some of the slopes to the top. There was a breeze and the leaves were fluttering brown and golden as we went to the woods to come out of them at the top and on to the fairly desolate landscape. There is a lot of limestone pavement and we overturned a few rocks to see some fossils which we saw but they were only fragments. Alongside one of the limestone pavements we saw where the glacier had gouged out a notch from the pavement and the remains of the rocks were splayed out in a drift pattern downstream so to speak. I find these landscapes are very exciting. Just before we got to the top I noticed some sort of owl pellet but in this case it was full of the hard outer shells of orange and yellow berries and there was a beetle mixed in with it as well. We know it wasn't an owl pellet because there were no bones so we are surmising at the moment that it was a crossbill dropping. I'll have to further investigate it may not be either of these but it was fascinating to see such a wet and sticky and well formed orange pellet a bit like a fat sausage perfectly formed on the path. I saw another one on the way back but it had been trodden over by hikers. The views from the top were magnificent and we could easily see the Langdale's and up to the Sca Fell Pike's. Looking north-east we could see right over the Howgills. It was a good walk and right at the start of it we saw a buzzard which is always very exciting. I also saw what I thought was a peregrine falcon but when I finally located the bird it was actually a kestrel about 200 feet up in the cliffs and very hard to find. One day I hope to see one of the peregrines that nest on the cliffs. Coming back down from the top Fiona and I did some more mini jogging up the slopes and when we got to the moderately steep descent going back to the car I jogged down the path which was great fun because it was a bit slippy and I sort of slipped down some of it.

When we got to Fiona's mother's rest home Veronica was really well and pleased to see us. The time we spent there was a mixture of good conversation, quiet moments of thoughtfulness, reading the Sunday Times whilst Fiona and Veronica looked at photos on the net book and some laughter. Miles and Clifford have got very good talking with her which is a bit difficult because she has vascular dementia which means her attention span is quite limited but her capacity to think is as good as ever. I was proud of the lads today because it is an indication of how they will be with Fiona and I and any other older citizens when we all get really old. The clocks were put back today and it was a very dark ride back over the tops of the Pennines which as always I find a bit disconcerting at first but the next time we do the journey it will be as easy as pie. It was also chucking it down with rain which didn't help but I always take pride in getting everybody back quickly and safely. I am hoping the next time we go over to see Veronica that Miles will be able to drive some of the journey. An excellent day and a great end to the holiday. Everybody is fully primed for the coming half term's work!

This afternoon with the family I had a nice 4 mile walk around Richmond starting off from Quakers Lane and then going down to a place called Round Howe which is a round hill carved out from the surrounding bank when the river was diverted during the last ice age. It is known as an oxbow river because the river used to go around the small hill and now it just goes straight on. The caravan site nearby for static caravans looked gorgeous set against Billy Banks wood the leaves nicely browning off the National trust wood on the other side of the river and Fiona and I often comment about how nice it would be to live in one of the static caravans right next to the River Swale. We walked up to the top of the bank so we were walking in the trees and Fiona and I jogged up the steep bits because we want to get our legs stronger for hillwalking. I really enjoyed that style of jogging but I noticed that we were only going as fast as the boys were walking! There were also huge piles of leaves because it had been windy for the last two days and we were kicking through them like little children! From the top of the bank we descended down to the Green Bridge through a forest of very large sycamores and elms. At the football pitch opposite the castle we had a good chat with one of the football organisers who was telling us that dog owners want the football pitch reassigning by the council to be a village green so they can continue to walk their dogs actually on the pitch which of course leaves doggy poo all over the place. These sports league people want the pitch staying as it is so they can keep dog owners off the playing field and I must point out that there is a huge area for dog owners to walk dogs in Richmond all over the place! So this really is from the dog owners point of view a very nitpicky bit of political action which I hope they lose. There is full access to the actual field because the Coast to Coast walk runs alongside the river and there is also a 10 metre stretch up to a new fence that has been put in to stop the football players ball from rolling into the river! It is nice to see politics in action and it will be interesting to see what happens. We signed his petition. The dog owners will win because they have more influence on the council and whilst there has always been a lot of sport in Richmond there has never really been a lot of support for it. Richmond is not a good place for young people to be which is why so many of them do really well academically because getting into college and trades is the only way out of a traditionally quite repressive town for young people unless you have a job and happen to fit in with the country style activities that go on there for example lots of walking, shooting, folk clubs and riding horses. If you are into any of those Richmond is a great place! Saying that a lot of the nicest people I have ever known live in Richmond it's just everyone is very set in their ways is the most diplomatic way I can put it.

We went to the old railway station because the boys wanted a "good ice cream", sniffy children, and then went back into town where I saw an old friend of mine Dave Price and I was amazed to see a friend from York called Jackie come strolling along. Jackie who I do not know her surname because even though I have known her for nearly 30 years I have never asked her what her surname is. The last time I saw her she had moved from Gunnerside right at the top of Swaledale to Healaugh near Reeth in the middle of Swaledale, and then back into York which is where I saw her last. Today she told me she had moved back up to Reeth after a spell in Brighton and was living above the ice cream parlour. No matter where I go in Swaledale or York over each year period of the last 30 years I have always run into Jackie. She knew a former partner of mine Toni Bunnell and she always asks me how Toni is and I have not seen Toni for quite a while although we are in contact via e-mail because she is a really great woman. Jackie looked very well trim and fit as usual and she is about 10 years older than me. Our lads are sometimes mystified at the simple fact that we always run into Jackie! Well, Jackie is always nice to run into! I also got the good news that a long-standing friend of mine James Player who I have known for around 40 years has actually settled down with the lady who he had an on off relationship with and now it is permanently on and they are living in York together. This totally amazed me and Fiona because we were just saying that James would never settle down. Well, we were both wrong because James has settled down. Go James! A really nice afternoon out.

This morning I kickbiked 8 miles around the outskirts of Durham and then through the centre back to Shincliffe. I could not find the right path to go on even when I had asked a local the way so I went out over this field and a local guy waved me over to the path! And I always tell the boys to take an OS map! The journey was a mixture of kickbicking and walking and I enjoyed the off-road sections. It is still the case that when you kickbike you do not see as much nature but it is really brilliant swooping around. On one section of road going through the various Durham University Halls of residence I was doing at least 30 miles an hour! Kickbicking is very sociable because it is easy to step off the bike when walkers are around in fact it is very comfortable to do that because it is more strenuous than cycling and because it has a more limited range of movement I find I get a bit stiff so the getting off parts are more than welcome. As usual riding a kickbike is quite a head turner because it is really a giant scooter and when I stopped for a coffee in the centre the young man who worked at Starbucks asked me loads of questions about it. I am always quite surprised how timid some people are because I offered the man a ride on the bike around the square but he declined. A couple of years ago in Newcastle when I got waylaid by a group of old age pensioners because they were so interested in my kickbike several of these fine old ladies actually had a go on it! A nice morning and I have finally got rid of the stiffness out of my legs from going up Skiddaw last Monday!

Yesterday afternoon with the family we had a 5 mile walk around Whitby. From the clifftop we headed down to the beach to walk up to Sandsend walking alongside the well eroded cliffs. The beach had changed since we were last there because the waves had formed a very shallow mini gorge parallel to the cliffs removing the sand in the process and exposing a load of rocks and gravel. Amongst all of these were rocks from the Lake District and from the Yorkshire Dales. We saw Permian pebbles all red because the UK was a desert at the time, little vegetation hence a high iron oxide content because plants take it out of the soil which is why we know there was a desert at the time and red rocks now, and limestone rocks which were full of fossils and which we usually see when we are up in the Dales. Those rocks had done a bit of travelling! The whole of the beach had changed from a high sand content to a high gravel content. A few days ago there had been quite a storm on the north-east coast and we saw lots of uprooted seaweed, loads of starfish and some crabs which unusually were completely whole and had not been picked apart by the seagulls. We only walked a mile up the beach and then back down again but it was super interesting. For once our attention was not taken up completely by the erosion features in the glacial till cliffs.

We then walked through the town which was not that busy and worked our way over to Whitby steps which take you up to the abbey. Fiona's legs had got a bit better but she went up pretty slowly and I was feeling fairly bullish so I lightly jogged two thirds of the way and then I had to walk the rest! The path was closed at the top so we had to go through the Youth hostel premises to pick up the path again on the other side and that was a very nice diversion. Back in the town Fiona bought some Lapsong souchon tea and the lads wanted some kippers so we got four pairs of those. Very nice! It always amazes me how the Whitby area changes slightly every time we go there mostly because we notice the changes on the cliffs and beaches but the light and the mood of the place is never the same. Decidedly sleepy yesterday! We had tea at Hadleys as usual and then an episode of Star Trek when we got home. A good afternoon out.

To day we went up to Keswick in the northern Lake District to walk the mountain Skiddaw. The weather was bright and sunny with a very deep frost which got deeper as we got towards the Lake District. We pulled up at Mill Beck with lovely views over Derwent water to the west and a 2984 very steep ascent eastwards around 6 miles there and back. It was steep at the beginning, steep at the end and steep in between! There was only one bit that actually went down for a tiny time at Carl Side and then there was another 600 feet up a well trodden scree field which was very slippy because it was still frozen or mostly frozen. The Tarn we had just passed, really just a pond, had inch thick ice right across it. We set off at 10.30 and we had done 2300 feet height by quarter to 12 which was pretty good going and Fiona and I were only a couple of minutes behind the boys. The lads did include a couple of scrambles over some small rock faces just to keep it interesting. We had lunch just above the tarn and there was a really good view of an edge called Longside Edge. When we got to the summit the temperature had dropped considerably and the wind had increased and there were great views over the Solway Firth towards southern Scotland and we could clearly see the Isle of Man.

Going down the scree field had got even more treacherous because in the half an hour or so we were around the summit the sun had melted some of the ice and the scree had got quite soggy and very slippy. Good fun so long as you are going careful! When we got down to the Tarn at Carl Side we had arranged for the boys to go down Longside Edge on their own because I am giving Miles more responsibility for himself as well as his brother and it is a bit of a tricky walk with some nasty edges so he was in charge and responsible for everything. We went on down the way we came up and told the lads we would meet them at the Raven Stone Hotel. Off they went and so did we and the descent down the very steep path was quite slow and very slippy in spite of it being very dry. The Silurian Slate is very slippy even when the moisture added is just off your own boots. It was the most punishing descent I have ever done! About 400 m from getting to the car which was right by the hillside Fiona's legs just gave up because of the punishing push of the hill down onto her legs for the last 90 minutes! It was a total hoot to see her just plop down very quickly and complain about her legs giving up! I must admit my legs were also a bit shaky but I think all those years of rushing up and down hills have left them in a better state than Fiona's. Still, she is a real lioness and we made it down to the car and drove round to the Hotel and picked the lads up and they both told us a good story about descending down Longside Edge.

We drove into Keswick a couple of miles away and the boys rowed us around Derwent water which was really nice because the clouds had come over a bit leaving gaps for rays of sunshine to tickle the water and the surrounding trees. After this we had a very nice meal in the Loose Box and then drove home which only takes 90 minutes to watch an episode of Star Trek. An absolutely wonderful day with a lot of physical struggle, plenty of sore legs which is always good and an awful lot of laughs with my totally gorgeous family. I not only love my wife very dearly but I totally respect her sheer physical toughness, will and good heart, to just keep going when today her legs really did give out! Good stuff Fiona.

Today, I took Miles out for a driving lesson in the morning followed by a really good session in the skate park. He was doing really well so he got a bacon butty reward. And so did I! In the afternoon we had a 3 mile walk around the Easby Woods in Richmond and the autumn was really getting going because there with lots of leaves on the ground and the beach and sycamore trees were shining golden brown. It was a very quiet afternoon with very little wind and all the people we walked by seemed very laid-back and sleepy. Richmond seems to go like that sometimes and it was very quiet in town as well. Last week I lost my hat in Edinburgh Woollen Mill and when I returned today the very nice ladies had found my hat and I got it back. The trouble is, yesterday when I was at Millets in Darlington, I lost my other walking hat whilst getting a waterproof for Clifford! When Fiona went back to that shop today they had not seen the hat but I remember putting it on one of the racks and the lady said that she had swept up the shop yesterday and I am assuming that she did not look on the racks because she would have no reason to do so. Hopefully, I will get my other hat back next week. I have been doing walking and hillwalking for over 40 years and I have never lost anything ever. In the space of one week I have managed to lose two hats. Unbelievable! My mother was very well and we had a very humourous time which I think is the best way to approach visiting grannies because at least they get a laugh! The holiday is progressing very well.

This afternoon with the family I had a very nice walk around the woods in Durham. The leaves are slipping golden and brown even more quickly and the ground is getting fairly covered as well. Some Durham University students were having a race around the woods and it was nice to see such a large amount of very fit young people. They were only going 6 km and I pointed out to one of the organizers they should be doing double that which he thought was quite funny. We found a new perch for our biscuit break at the bottom of Durham market with a good view up the market facing west. It turned out to be a bit of an expensive afternoon because the boys needed two new skate decks and Clifford needed a waterproof for fell walking. I was amazed at how flimsy a lot off the very expensive waterproofs were so I was not too impressed with that and after we had gone back to Darlington I got him a much cheaper one but much more substantial from Millets. I know that the theory is that the better the material the more they are "breathable" but I have never found a so-called breathable coat that doesn't gets me super sweaty and super sweaty in any breathable waterproof , wax cotton jacket , or the non-breathable waterproofs that we use still feels very wet. 2 episodes of Star Trek, and mushy peas, sausages, chips and garlic bread will be started in about half an hour . A nice afternoon a good start to the holiday .

Today I took Miles skateboarding at RKade in Redcar and he had a wild time . Just before the skateboard session, on the way, we pulled off at the Middlesborough football stadium and he did some more driving and it went very well. He still goes through first and second gear a bit rough but he can pull up at junctions and then safely proceed. So, after the skateboard session we all went out to visit my Mum in Richmond but Miles drove part of the way. Very relaxing. Mum was fine and we had a good laugh and Miles drove part of the way home and took us through Gilling West village and safely negotiated a wobbly cyclist. He takes care and that bodes well. Didn't do much of a walk in Richmond , sometimes even we don't feel like it . I lost my hat rummaging through some sweat shirts in Edinburgh Woolen Mill because I was holding it in my right hand which has little feeling in it and the rummaging must have knocked it out of my hand. I have worn that hat over thousands of Miles of fell, mountain , moorland, wood and town and never waylaid it ! Still, the nice Edinburgh Wooly ladies will keep an eye out for it and hopefully it will be there waiting for me next week. A nice weekend . Fo is better now and will be teaching those kiddies tomorrow.

Yesterday in the morning I took Miles out for his second driving lesson. He is now getting the gears right and keeping the car straight. His first lesson, last Friday , went all over the place as he struggled with getting the gears right. He intellectually understands the procedure perfectly but of course when driving the car you don't actually think about gear changing that much so he was surprised that he couldn't do it straight away given that he understood it quickly. Tears of frustration soon followed ,followed swiftly by his strong determination to master the problem. I always admire the lads ability to recover and pick himself up. Seen it a few times with his maths. Good doggy.

In the afternoon Clifford was still wasted with his cold and Miles really didn't feel like a walk, could be something to do with his new computer so the lovely Fo and I went off to Durham and did a 4 mile walk there. Fo was still woozy from her bug so we took it easy. The leaves on the trees were colouring gold to brown and there were even bigger columns of dead leaves floating down the Wear. We had a coffee and cake at Durham Cathedral Cafe and afterwards listened to the Cathedral Choir doing evensong. A very beautiful experience. It is an all male choir and the alto parts normally done by women were being performed by countertenors , men with alto sounding voices. I love men with high voices! It gives a very distinctive tone to the sound and even top choirs like Tenebrae have countertenors in the alto line : half and half in fact.

Finished off the day with two episodes of Star Trek and Leonards Cohen's " Ten New Songs". Good day .

On Sunday,in the morning I took the lads skateboarding and Miles was doing in-line skating as well as his skateboarding. He is getting on very well with this much better than last time when he resembled a newly born calf on roller skates! After this, the lads were a bit wasted, so in the afternoon Fiona and I had a nice 2 mile walk around Easby Abbey and there were many leaves floating down on top of us shaken off by the wind. We visited my mother and she was all right. After this I took Fiona home I went out on my own for a 7 mile walk around York in the sun set, evening light and then in the dark. The sunset was lovely over the city walls and I was surprised how quickly it went to dark because of the low cloud. York is quite a mysterious place in the dark and it is a more dark city than for example Leeds which is very well illuminated. I quite like this. Around York University Lake all of the ducks were tucked up in bed and fast asleep. That gave me the feeling I should get home ! A nice little ramble and on the late Sunday afternoon and early evenings I always feel quite restless and want to get out for a walk. The rest of my week goes better when I do this.

Last Saturday, we did a 4 mile walk around a very autumnal Durham. More dead leaves were floating on the river forming columns flowing downstream. The Himalaya balsam seeds are slowly getting to the point where they start to eject their seeds and make a popping sound when you walk by them. The first time I heard this I wondered what it was. In the city center we had a very funny incident with a large group of young lads. Our two lads had got a bit ahead of us and we wanted to have a look at some stone tiles that had been used for resurfacing the market square in Durham so both Fiona and I boomed out simultaneously "Boys!" which to them means they should come back to us. The trouble is this group of lads was alongside us at the time and they all stopped walking and looked at us for about 10 seconds wondering what we were going to say next. I find it heartwarming that the training of our children seems to work with anonymous groups of them as well! They were good boys.

This afternoon with the family I had a nice 4 mile walk around Ripon in North Yorkshire. On the outskirts of the town the leaves were creeping red and brown and we went up to Ripon Cathedral to have a look at the outside of it as well as the inside. I am still amazed at the wonderful fossils which are on the flagstones on the floor of the high altar. After this we went up to the Spa Hotel where Fiona and I 22 years ago had our wedding reception on the sixth of August 1988. Walking through to the gardens at the back of the hotel brought back to my mind the happy faces of the many people who came to our reception but especially my good friends from the 1980s who graciously accepted to come to the reception even though a lot of them didn't actually believe in marriage!

We then went up to Ripon Cemetery and said prayers around Fiona's fathers grave. We said a prayer each and then stood in a line in front of his grave holding hands and said the Healing Prayer together. It was quite a moving moment and it has been a long time since we have been up to his grave. Humor came back very quickly when we had our biscuit break on a very long bench near the grave and the atmosphere was very peaceful with mellow grey skies and autumn. Lovely. On the way back to the car we went to see where Fiona lived as a child and young adult in a house called "Riga" the name of the capital of Latvia because Fiona's father was half Latvian and half German. A very nice mellow afternoon, followed by a tasty spinach curry that I had cooked before we went out early on because I did not want to cook when I got back and we also set up the rice to slowly cook when we were out. I seem to be going through a period of falling in love with my lovely wife again and again. Very strange but nice!

Today we went over to the other side of the country, the Lake District, to visit Fiona's mother something we do every month. It is a two hour trip over the back of the Pennines past the Howgills and then into the South Lakes area which is at the Southern end of the Lake District. The scenery is amazing and I get to see some little bits of geology by the roadside which I never tire of looking at such as huge arches of rock set in the cliffside called anticlines. Well it keeps me interested and stops me from falling asleep at the wheel! When we got to Ulverston we walked up a 500 foot high small hill with Hoads Monument on top which has amazing views of the whole of the lake District, part of the Pennines and of course the Howgills. There is also the big expanse of Morecambe Bay to look at as well. What amazes me, is that on the information board which gave the names of all of the peaks that you could see you can see right through the middle of the Lake District up to the northern end of it to Keswick and a peak called Blencathra. It must be at least 30 miles if not more. Whilst the Lake District feels big when you can see so much of it in one eyeful so to speak it is in fact quite a small area.

Veronica, Fiona's Mum was well and cheerful as usual and very pleased to see her grandchildren and Fiona and me. She looked at a lots of photos on the netbook and found that very enjoyable. It is really good that modern technology can bring so much pleasure to an older person's life. We will see her again next month and I'm really looking forward to it. Whilst visiting relatives is a mixture of duty and pleasure once I get into it I realize it is a pleasure and a pleasure. Family unity, understanding and truthfulness to each other is something which gives me an extraordinary amount of joy and always makes me feel that I have done something right. I know, because I've asked them, that our children feel the same way about this but to a much lesser degree after all they are very young people with a different perspective on life.

The only disappointing thing about today was not seeing any buzzards and we have not seen many of them for the last few months. They really do migrate over big areas. Once going past a local village we saw six or more buzzards in a group which was obviously a family or maybe even two families but that was three years ago and we have never seen such a big concentration of buzzards again. Whilst I really enjoy the predictability of nature especially geology I also love the randomness and chance which just stuns you with its interest and beauty. A good day.

Today has been a very good one. I got some mathematics done in the morning and solved some of our clothes drying problems in our house at last. With the family I then went for a 4 mile walk around Durham and the boys were in much better health. Nice and fit as usual. The river was still very brown which indicates a high peat content in it which is unusual because we have not had a lot of rain. A sign of things eroding way up in the hills? Maybe next time I go up to upper Weardale it will all be gone! Anyway, we did our usual walk except that the trees were catching the autumn. A heron was again on the weir and I can remember a time when we would have seen one every few weeks and now there is one there every week. Could be the time of the year who knows. The center of Durham was fairly quiet but there were a lot more students about which was nice because their faces looked keen and optimistic which is just what we need in these times. Well, back home and two episodes of Star Trek followed by a great music session with Fiona listening to a compilation CD called Supercharged which has some pretty good music from McFly and bands like that. I have just finished watching I Robot with the boys and that was good particularly some of their charged comments about what was plausible and what was not. A good day. Family life goes from bliss to, well, more bliss!

Well, today I did not feel like doing any maths work so I decided to go to York to get a wax cotton jacket because believe it or not there are not that many of them in this area. So I popped out the car at Rawcliffe and walked into the center via Burton Stone Lane and then Gillygate but when I got to Marks & Spencer's they did not have the particular type off wax cotton jacket that I liked. I had a look in a couple of other shops but they didn't either. So, I hoofed it up to the University and had a good walk around seeing a heron at Derwent College Lake perched on the wire fence in the middle of the lake that surrounds the water lilies desperately attempting to get a frog and then further down I saw a Ruddy shelduck and further down from that the great crested grebes were still there which I think is marvelous because I have seen them from when they were chicks.

What surprised me today was that I am usually quite fit but since we have got the elliptical which is specifically useful for putting more power into your legs I am even fitter and I shot around at a speed and a manner which I don't remember doing since I was about 40. All this from just 10 days worth of training on the elliptical so after a couple of months I should be able to do the hills even easier than I do now.. All of the family have found this effect. I was watching a documentary a while back about Royal Marines training and I noticed that they used ellipticals which quite surprised me because it is a bit of a namby-pamby piece of gym equipment but they were using them so I thought there must be something in it so now we have got one. Good stuff.

York was busy because there was a Yorkshire food fête in the center and I sampled one of the porkpie's which was probably the best porkpie I've ever tasted in my life. Was tempted by another but I resisted and instead deferred gratification and got Fiona some York chocolate fudge which pretty much puts me in her good books for about the next 10 days. York chocolate fudge or any chocolate fudge for that matter is usually worth about 10 days of her good graces. We have a very simple relationship: I please her and she puts up with me! I will not be going down to York for a while because I've spotted that they have cleaned up the White Horse on the North Yorkshire moors and all of the Oolitic limestone is shining white and brilliant and I have just got to see it so we will be going there this weekend and having a nice walk.

With the family this afternoon I have had a gorgeous 4 mile walk around Durham. On the first part of the walk just outside Durham because there was no wind the river was completely flat and brown due to the peat which had been washed down from Weardale. We stopped for biscuit break a bit early because Clifford was still feeling grotty from the bug he had last week but he continued on, good lad, and we went down to the weir and were quite surprised how hard it was to see the birds when we were walking into the West and the sunlight was reflecting off the water into our eyes. It is quite strange that when you do a walk in the opposite direction it looks and feels like a completely different walk! We have decided to do this a bit more often because it makes the familiar strange . Works in a marriage as well to be quite honest! I'm not sure what I'm on about that by the way! Back home and tea with the usual two episodes of Star Trek followed by an evening with Bob Dylan.

"Can you cook and sew make flowers grow, do you understand my pain, are you willing to risk it all or is your love in vain," I love my wife for two reasons the main one is she is a great woman and good at walking hills, a real hiking lady, but the other reason is she got me into Bob Dylan God bless her.

With the family I had a gorgeous 7 mile walk today around Ripon in North Yorkshire. We went through the town to have a look at the Cathedral and there was an orchestra rehearsing the Beethoven Violin Concerto for the nights performance and the sounds ringing around the place were amazing. At the high altar end the floor had limestone flags which were unweathered , naturally being inside , and full of fossils . So we spent a bit of time on our hands and knees looking at them which invited the comment from me "We'd better not do this for to long or else they will think we are Muslims!" We are Bahai's so we thought that was quite funny . When no one is around I often sing a Bahai prayer in various churches I come across particularly in York. The acoustics are great and so is the spiritual ambience. Nice . Christianity is brilliant you can even trace the start of the Industrial Revolution to the Christian Medieval period and that has had a massive if not defining effect on democracy and the way we live today.

Anyway, then it was off downstream following the River Skell by some amazing medieval houses and we were looking for the Ripon Canal because whilst I have been to Ripon hundreds of times , Fiona spent most of her childhood there , and we did some of our courting there, we got married there, I wanted to see the new canal development . Well, it was amazing . The canal has been restored right up to close to the cathedral, two Marinas have been built and there were around 150 barges and boats , yes 150 between each of them. Best of all a wetland has been created between the canal and the horse racing course and we saw a pair of Great Crested Grebes and there was a few weeks old chick as well which we saw climb up onto the parents back and nestle in amongst the feathers. It is very late forany bird to still have a chick. Urban walks around Ripon are on the our agenda particularly during the autumn with all the leaves changing colour. I locked into the Ripon Canal in 1983 with 4 mentally handicapped men from Juniper Communities in York and we had a great week on the water and quite a party at the canal because two of my mates , Joe James and Peter Dodds cam up from York and we had an all night party on the boat . Good times!

Double Star Trek when we got back home folowed by a sombre but very informative documentary about the September 11th attack which had the boys very engrossed. The accounts of personal heroism were inspiring and the lack of american preparedness and the uncoordinated response were and are worrying. For a country that is politically united and technologically advanced , it has an amazing amount of disunity. The civil and military air traffic people have two different systems for coordinates i.e. telling someone where a plane is !

The lads had a ripping session at RKade skate park in Redcar last night. Clifford seems to have got over his tiredness problems which had the Doctor not concerned at all! As I said to Fo several times "You cannot run up hills like he does and have anything wrong with you ". I find the hill test to indicate the state of a child's health very reassuring.

Anyway, last night whilst talking with a well educated and professionally qualified parent I heard the best bit of sexist humour I had come across in years. Me and this guy were talking about technology and I joked that "I will be glad when robots do everything because we can all sit around and do maths every day" " Aye " he replied " but the problems will come when they get self awareness, after all, look what happened when women got it !" Wonderful, even though I don't agree with him. This is nearly as good as the best bit of sexist humour I ever heard which came from a Bahai lady Audrey Mellard in a discussion about equality between the sexes. She said " I don't want to be equal to a man because I don't want to lower myself!" Absolutely right because as we are slowly getting this equality we have to make sure it gravitates upwards to all good and fine things rather than the lowest common denominator. And on that note I'd better get on with some maths!

Today, which hasn't been a brilliant one for me I dug out some of the CDs I still had from recordings I did with Melvyn Lewis guitar, Mick Ryan drums and Tony on bass. At the time, around 4 years ago I thought I might dip my toe back into the world of trying to work as a musician because I was still getting over meningitis and I sincerely thought I could not do anything else due to my brain being damaged , so the psychologist said, and I was having problems with RSI specifically giving me a ton of aches and pains which is odd in a man as fit as I am. Happily I have got over most of those physical problems and after hearing Digital Earth and Half Hand Hoodoo at the York Peace Festival my interest in music has been fired up . Probably a temporary state! A point of all this is whilst I can obviously play the harmonica and even possibly sing I have found it very hard to get playing with people in the North East of England. I just don't seem to fit in with any of the groups and bands and there is the added problem of doing all of my house husbanding duties getting the lads out and about. To be quite honest I have been moaning on for a while to the family that Sunday is a very quiet night and I would love to get out and play , preferably at the same spot every week and develop some interest in the jazz and blues that I can play and even lay some of the songs I have written on people to see what they think. Maybe I will just have to wait until the lads don't need me around so much. Miles is starting driving lessons this week and that will lead to more independence for us both. Well saying all of this has cheered me up!

Today with the family I went to the Peace Festival in York. It was a most beautiful experience. I had let a friend of mine from the 80's, Sybil Wood, know that I was coming to see her and her husbands band Digital Earth sometime over the summer but we couldn't do this so when I realised last week the York Peace Festival was a good place to meet I was very pleased. When we got to Rowntrees Park I saw Sybil and her husband almost immediately but there were a lot of people with them and they were getting stuck into scones and cream , I found out later , so rather than impulsively barging in I decided to wait for a bit of space. So, we went to the main part of the park where a lot of organisations and causes tents were and we ran into Margie Vernon a very lovely lady I had seen around York since about 1982 but didn't meet until 1990 when I was married and living at Stamford Bridge which is 5 miles from Pocklington where Margie lived . Around 1990 we got to know Margie and John her husband , a chemistry lecturer at York Uni. really well and saw them several times over a 4 year period where we visited each others homes and had many great discussions. Margie is a passionate supporter and exponent of many good causes and her husband is a fascinatingly warm , sharp and intelligent man to talk to. I really admired him. It was great to see her and she was as trim, fit and mentally sharp as ever, she is in her 70's and still riding her bike and after some very warm discussion she was talking about what she was currently interested in as if we had seen her for the last 14 years and not the other way 'round. The people I love the best are those that you just see again after a long period of time and it doesn't matter it is as if you had seen them yesterday and the relationship is as fresh and warm . Well after talking with Margie we headed into York centre for a walk , came back to the main stage area and ran straight into Sybil and it was the same experience as it was with Margie. That was an amazing experience for me because I had not spoke to her since around 84' 85' I think, although I did see her pushing a pram around the town sometime in the 90's. Sybil was one of a few people in York at the time who I paid attention to in terms of pulling my life together because of her wise words, but best of all her kind, well intentioned manner which basically said to me that not only I could do better but I would do better. I was having a pretty wild life at the time but I knew I wanted to change and would indeed have to change . I did. 2 years later I was in York Uni. got into the Bahai Faith and had got married to a fine Bahai lady the lovely Fiona. I had straightened every tiny bit of my life out. Good for me good for the world. With me kindness and intelligent straightforwardness pay off and I was privileged to get this from several people in York in the 1980's Sybil being one of them.

It was lovely seeing Sybil talk to my wife and children , she is just so good at immediately relating to people, something I can now at last do this myself and I had had a great and thoughtful chat with her friend the wife of one of Digital Earths keyboard players. A very nice lady who gave our lads some free CDs which I insisted on paying for but she said no, but I am going to buy them off Itunes anyway because I believe that a band that is good as Digital earth should be supported financially because they are really that good . Buy there stuff folks it is really good and I think they are going to get even better in the near future. Another of Sybils friends , a very kind lady , offered us some cream and scones and we really enjoyed those.

We had a nice walk into the town as usual prior to seeing Sybil and Miles and Clifford climbed their favourite tree in the Minster Gardens and we had a nice cup of coffee at Costas or Costa-a-lot of money as I call it !

Back at Rowntrees Park Digital Earth were a very good band who sounded excellent live. My lads loved it and will be doing their maths to the two CDs tomorrow no doubt. I used to play the trumpet and went to music college in 1974 and taught the trumpet as well as working semi-professionally and Jon Wood , Digital Earths flugal horn player and Sybils husband was most excellent. He plays really well and I loved the way he integrated his fine horn sound into the rappy, souly , rocky music. I was a little bit jealous I must admit it ! He is very good. As we were heading off for home we spoke with John for a few minutes and he is a really nice man who I hope I will see sooner than later. I love big bluff blokes who know what they mean and say it. And he is a fine horn man as well.

After a great afternoon we headed back home and watched Star Trek. One of the best days of the year for me and God bless, Sybil, Jon and their family, Digital Earth and the York Peace Festival. We will be going again next year and we will be doing a Bahai stall as well!