Fo and I have had a nice 4 mile walk around Durham this afternoon. The lads didn't feel like it after their exertions yesterday, shame on them. At the City Centre weirs we saw a young grey heron actually on the weir standing in the water and its tail feathers getting soaked at the back because of the steep angle of the weir . Didn't seem bothered at all. Had a coffee and then when we got back, crashed out and listened to Beethoven Sonatas whilst propping up the portable in bed and had a good look at the Skiddaw walk we did yesterday as well as the Coniston walk we will do sometime next week. All from the geology angle. Gosh, isn't the Internet amazing. I could have an OS map open to locate everything and several other pages of information to really get a an understanding of what we are walking on. Matrix part 3 this evening . A nice day. Family life is good!

Yesterday with the family we walked up Skiddaw in the Lake District. This hill is 3056 feet high and we were up and down it in three and half hours. The lads shot up the first bit which was the longest steep slope I have ever walked up but neither Fo and I stopped either and the lads parted ways a bit further up so they could go up Little Man and we took a more sedate path which had the better views of the range of hills behind Skiddaw. For about half the way up we had glorious Lakeland views over Derwent Water and the Scafell Range. On the way down the lads shot up Little Man again and because we took our time meeting up with them they played a Lord Of the Rings game and ran back up Little Man pretending they were Aragon and Legolas. We saw them running down Little Man and they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. We then took a boat out on Derwent Water and it was absolutely lovely that the lads did the rowing and an absolute hoot as they try to coordinate it. They got there eventually and I was quite impressed with their teamwork.Nice romantic time for Fo and me. Good doggies. We had a meal at the Loose Box and then finished off the day at home with two episodes of Star Trek. Mega nice. We will be back up there again sometime next week depending on the weather.