With the family I have just got back from a gorgeous 6 mile walk around Durham city. The leaves on the trees are fully out now and sagging a bit with the warm weather but there was not much birdlife to be seen. We did our usual outskirts of the city route from Shincliff village and saw a nice heron when we got to the weirs in the city centre. At the biscuit break the boys went up Durham Cathedral tower and Fiona and I had a nice romantic walk around the cathedral and the quadrangle. I used my loupe to have a look at some of the stone in the cathedral but the light was so low that I could not see a thing! This evening we are going to watch the last Lord of the rings the Return of the King. A very nice day which started off with maths and countertenor singing practice. Nice!

Yesterday myself and my family had a good day out at Flamingo Land in North Yorkshire. The boys enjoyed the ride's but were not as enthralled with them as they have been over the previous decade. Next year they want to do something different and that is good. Part of a multiple of slight changes in the air over how we do family outings. Fiona and I had a couple of walks around the grounds but spent most of the day reading and doing puzzles which we thoroughly enjoyed. She is great company no doubt about it. My beautiful friend. There weere many Muslim and Hindu families in the Park and it was good to see such a diversity of British people all in one place. I have no idea why people get so upset about the veil. If a woman wishes to dress that way that is her business. Yes, I know about the feminist issues around the veil and they are valid but there must be many Islamic women who do believe that wearing a veil is one way to express their God-given Faith. A good day out but I am looking forward to all the hill and Coast walks we are about to embark on.

Yesterday we had a good day out at Grizedale Forest in the South Lakes. The boys went to GoApe to scoot and clamber around the aerial runways whilst Fo and I had a good 7 mile walk through the forest and up to the fells above Coniston water. It was a nice view through the fluffy benches of clouds over towards the Old Man of Coniston and Goats water. For once in this forest we saw quite a lot of birdlife. There were several bullfinches and we saw a seed eater which we think may be a juvenile crossbill but could be a siskin. I was keeping an eye out for rocks from the Silurian period and saw some but never managed to find a crag which has some lovely laid out crinkly Silurian sediment. There is a photograph of this crag in one of my geology books and I would really like to see it. There was quite a bit of fungi next to the path and we found an owl pellet and some deer droppings as well. We did the identical walk from a couple of years back with the boys and even munched our sandwiches on the same bank overlooking the track. We really are that predictable! Afterwards we took Fiona's mother out for a meal at Pizza Hut in Barrow in Furness and she had a really good time. The boys are very good with their Granmum who is quite old. Finished the day off with an episode of Star Trek. Most excellent!

With the family, I have had a gorgeous walk over Carlton Bank and Scugdale on the northwestern edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. We did not see much birdlife, must be the time of the year, but the rocks were very interesting as usual not least because some of the path reclamation work was from imported rocks not local to the area. Once we got off the moor we were on to the terminal road running up Scugdale and then we just climb back up to the moor and then headed up for the trig point and back down to the car. The views across the Vale of York and the Vale of Mowbray are quite amazing although it was a bit hazy today. A nice tea and a nice foreign language film "the idiot" is coming up soon and maybe even an episode of Star Trek if we have time. This has been a good start to the holiday for Fiona because she felt pretty tired this morning but strangely enough after walking 7 miles around the North Yorkshire moors she looks a lot fresher and she says she feels a lot more relaxed. Plenty of walking to be done this summer vacation!

A couple of days ago I finished the Lords of the Rings book. It was a truly amazing and beautiful experience. I had not realised how much I have missed reading fiction. The closest I get to it is when I read history books particularly about the Holocaust and the birth and growth of the American nation. But due to the inspiration of my good friend Ian Fletcher who now lives in Taiwan I am going to make sure I include some fiction as well. I have always enjoyed plugging into my friends intellectual and literary experiences because I feel it always does me some good as well.

Fo is better today which is nice and she is cracking on with the school reports. I took the lads skateboarding at RKade this morning and they really ripped as usual. As my Mum is in hospital still getting her feet sorted out we didn't visit her today so I had an afternoon free . Whoopee. I went down to York and had a 8-10 mile bash on my kickbike. There were mystery plays on so a lot of people were around which was nice and quite a lot of people commented on my kickbike. Where have they been? The Uni was nice as usual but I didn't get to see many of the birds because the kickbike is to quick to allow noticing. Was nice to be back with the family a few hours later and as usual I thought a lot about them when I was on my own. A member of one of the audiences at the mystery plays seemed to know me but I hadn't a clue who she was . Oh well faux pas time again, nothing new I just get good at rescuing the situation. I this case I just rode off into the crowd. Heck I wasn't going to clamber over the seats just to stay " Who are you" and for once that thought hadn't occurred to me! A good day .

This afternoon with the lads I had a good 5 mile walk around Crimond Dene aka Castle Dene in County Durham on the Teeside/ Durham border. Fo couldn't make it because she was ill. This was to collect data for Cliffords GCSE couese work which is to sample various points of the river . The river rises about 4 miles inland from several springs. Mega problem as soon as we got there : no river or at least a river but with no water in it . I thought this morning, " We have had a months long drought so I bet a river that rises a few miles inland will have no water in it" Yep. But it turned out really interesting because we could walk for about 1.5 miles in a dry river bed and had a good look at the erosion and the exposed geology . There was was a pebbly formation that I will figure out tonight. We picked up a beautiful Yellow Sandstone Formation rock and another specimen. Nice afternoon and Fo is better. It's the sausages : she always gets better when food's cooking!

The lads had a good night in the skatepark last night . Both of them were ripping as usual and really going for it . One of the young scooter kids broke his ankle in a very safe part of the skatepark which I found very unusual. Ever since RKade has allowed scooters in there have been a well above usual rate of accidents with the younger participants on scooters. The reason for this is probably there age but I can't help noticing that when they are dropped off by their parents they are never given a warning to protect themselves particularly the ankles. The older guys and the occasional women on blades always go for it but take care as they do it . Even then things can go wrong. Clifford got two nasty bruises last night and his accident rate is higher than Miles because he gets his tail up , gets excited , then the caution drops and over you go. Nothing serious because both of my lads are in full pads. Isn't part of the fun of extreme sports the buzz of pulling off your manoeuvre but also enjoying the safety side as well ? I know that when I was on blades and when I was the skateboard it was fun but so was staying on my feet . The scooter children are certainly learning the hard way. It's serious from the point of view that scootering is a great activity for a kid to do , good exercise , and it will be a shame if this activity gets dropped all because parents don't have a dialogue with there kids about safety. Extreme sports are safe providing the participants enjoy pulling off the trick and living to tell the tale !

Yesterday with the family I had a great 6 mile walk around Durham. We walked up one of the wooded banks which was quite steep because we are training ourselves up to walk in the Lake District in a couple of weeks time when Fiona is on summer vacation. As we came back into the city centre I smelt the strong scent of wild mint and there was a patch of it near the road. I have not seen while mint in a number of years so that was very nice. On the one of the weirs in the city centre we saw 2 Terns and when I got back home I identified them as either a Common, Arctic or Roseate Tern. They are usually found on the coast where they dive into the sea for fish. These terms were doing this behaviour but on a freshwater river weir which was only the few inches deep. We watched them for about five minutes and one of them got a fish and headed off down the river away from the weir. We concluded that it was quite likely it was taking the fish to a nest. A very nice day.

Good day at the end of a very good week. Had a good kicbike session with Miles and when we got back Fo took Clifford out on the kickbikes but was back after 10 minutes: she crashed. Trying to adjust your hat , whilst braking with only one hand on the handlebar is not a good thing to do . Still she won't do that again. Not as bad as last time a few years ago. Fo and I were on 2 kids scooters whilst the lads were skateboarding in a supermarket car park. This car park had drain grooves a few centimeters wide and not the place you want to put your scooter wheels in particularly at speed. Guess what : Fo was speeding around and then crunch : she went straight over the handlebars and knocked herself out . Like good responsible adults neither of us were wearing helmets! Anyway a group of Clifford's friends were very impressed with this as they stood around her as I was holding her head off the tarmac and when she came round about 30 seconds later she thought she was somewhere nice. Well Morrisions car park usually is nice for scooting around. She was alright, drove herself to hospital to have a quick check , chipped a tooth and had a few facial cuts. That's what I like about my lovely wife : she really goes for it . Lucky today though : she was going a lot faster and it could have been nasty. Well the good news is I got to kiss her little finger better because there was the tiniest of cuts on it although I did protest that an injury so minuscule is not worthy of my healing lips. This evening I'm going out for a ten miler with my youngest because he has not had a run out yet today . Hope I live!