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.