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!