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.