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 !