Good day yesterday. Took Miles to RKade skate park in the morning and he had a ripping session. In the afternoon, Miles didn't want to do more exercise, Fo still felt woozy and Clifford didn't want to walk so I went out on my own after I had put up the two bird boxes for Fo. Well we did it together and she was very excited about this. Oh I wish all aspects of our marriage were as simple as this! I went to Richmond and had a 90 minute walk around Easby Woods under slate grey skies next to the River Swale which was so clear it mirrored the sky. I wasn't sure which way up I was at times. Look down at the river see the sky , look up see the sky . Beautiful. For once I didn't see anyone I knew from the past and it was great to see lots of families out walking as well as kids on bikes on the Bridleway . The country side is there to be enjoyed : enjoy it that's what I say. Cooked some square spaghetti for the family when I got back and they really enjoyed that . Topped off the weekend with playing at the Butterknowle Open Mike night with the Button Hole Jam. They had learned new songs and were a bit tentative at first but I reckon leaps over the cliff occur after the first step so just burn the inhibitions down and jump! That's what I do. They sounded really good and I managed to not over play . The guitarist Owen was shining last night and that was good to hear. Exiles from Eden were on cracking form as was Julie McGrath and a young lady did a couple of her own compositions which were pretty good. No inhibitions there she just belted it out : good lady! Nice folk in Butterknowle Village Hall and a pleasant end to a good weekend.

Fo was ill today with another bad bug, bad buggy, so me and the lads had a nice 2 hour walk around the Durham Woods and then on into the City Centre. From the start of the walk in the glowing winter sunshine I could hear a lot of birds but hardly saw any! Down on the river Wear in the shadow of the Cathedral there were four Goosanders a mature pair and two juveniles and it looks like Mummy and Daddy were shooing them away. They will want to mate again to get more little Goosebabies for this year so last years young have got to get on with it on their own. With all that shooing going on I know how they feel : lads : got to get your own little brood going over the next few years : listen to the Goosanders they'll tell you what to do! Anyway the lads tried out a new path only to find it led to a garden so I met up with them further downriver . We had the biscuit break at Starbucks and Cappuccino and Blueberry Skinnies for Clifford and me were matched by Coke and a Smarty Cookie for Miles. "He's such a toddler " is what Fo said about Miles' choice when we got back home! Walking back to Shincliffe along the River Wear we saw a pair of Little Grebes and the male was looking more showy because it was moving into its summer colours and had definitely paired off with a female . On the subject of which the young female oars ladies were given my lads a good look over again. Must be their rucksacks! A great afternoon out only dimmed by not having the lovely Fo with us , but she is feeling better. As she said " At least I'm not off my food " so lots of treats for the great lady! Ham , chips , mushy peas and garlic bread coming up and two episodes of Star Trek : perfection!

I got my orders this morning from Queen Fo to "get a bird box please" and this has come about because last year in the spring a wren, the most common breeding bird, built a nest and had young in the Ivy on a large wall in our garden. I first noticed this because as I looked up from my maths occasionally I saw something brown and small go darting up from the ground into the Ivy a metre up the wall. All well and good except that a big bad crow landed in the garden one day and was hanging around the Ivy obviously listening for something that being a meal made up of young wrens. A few days later the nest had been pulled out of the Ivy and the wrens had been gobbled up . So today, I went off to Saltholme RSPB reserve in Teeside , I don't need much excuse , and got a cute little nesting box for the Green Fingered Goddess of FoFo Land and also spent an hour on the Reserve . Totally brilliant . Walking down to Paddies Hide I saw a Little Egret just quietly stomping around and then it flew off and landed and at the hide I saw a Pintail Duck, another Little Egret and a huge flock ( one of many ) of Golden Plovers and Lapwings . Magic! Pity I'm going to do maths for the rest of the week but one needs fun and profit! All of the Plovers and Lapwings we will be seeing again up on the moors and hills as they steadily move to the uplands to breed.

Just had a nice weekend. On Saturday at sunrise I went to Rainton Meadows in County Durham the Durham Wildlife Trust reservation to look at Redpolls, lovely birds with a red patch on their heads. I saw quite a few of them in the company of an excellent birdwatcher I met there who was like a talking book. We just missed an Artic Redpoll and this chap was prepared to stand out on this hill all day until he saw one . He'd done this last week and still hadn't seen one ! I love a fanatic! Standing there with him made me realise I like looking at birds but mostly when I'm moving around. I got back at lunchtime and immediately went out with the family for a great two hour walk around the River Wear and the Centre of Durham City. Along the river there was not many birds because there were lots of female rowers training which was great . I noticed several of them having a good look at my two lads! Must be the spring! On Sunday in the morning I took Miles skate boarding and in the afternoon we went to see my Mum at Richmond in Swaledale. I helped Fo choose a jumper at the Edinburgh Woollen Mill which was a hoot because I've being doing this with her ever since we first met . In fact when we first did this in 1987 in York she said that was the first time she thought I was " nice " and a possible mate . Umm , and I though it was my zany humour coupled with her pity for my crippled hand. But seriously lads (and possibly lasses) good sense , a healthy sexual interest ,humour and a strong desire to work as a team ( most important) pretty much is love . Well it works for us !

Interesting week. On Monday I couldn't get skateboard bearings for the boys in the Tees Valley so I got them from the excellent skate shop in Goodramgate York. On the way back to the car I ran into Dominic a guy I knew in the mid 1980s at Juniper Communities home for learning disabled folk in York. He was a resident there and I once took Dominic and three of the other guys on a weeks boat trip up the Vale of York going up the River Ure and then the River Swale and locking into the Ripon Canal. Dominic remembered this really well as well as him trying to steer the boat and sending it straight into the bank. He has balance problems and if I hadn't turned the wheel quickly we would have rammed the boat into the bank. Peter Beale another one of the guys fell into Ripon lock earlier on when I wasn't to awake because of the huge party we had had the night before when two of my friends Joe James and Peter Dodds suddenly surprised us in the boat the night before . Health and safety : what health and safety. They came with a lot of drink so it had to go . The drink had to go! When we got back I told the Juniper management committee members about our adventures and they thought it was great . Different times: we are to safety conscious now although I must admit if I did the same again I would have two coworkers and two residents. Dominic was well and it was good to see him again. I have many great memories of stuff I did with the guys at Juniper , camping , life skills training Youth Hosteling, cycle trips, pubbing it . If they'd given me a job there I would have stayed for good . Perfect job for me . They offered me money but I couldn't take it from a charity! They fed me a lot though! Oh well the life skills training I got from the Juniper guys certainly prepared me up for raising two boys and I have to say I have done and continue to do more or less the activities I did with the Juniper guys! But with no drink. A good week and Miles was awesome at the skate park this week he even had the BMXers and Roller Bladers clapping him on with his new trick a foot plant. Doesn't mean much to me either but when you see it it is so cool. Good week.

Just got back from a nice two hour afternoon walk with the family at Whitley Bay , North Tyneside. We should have had a friend with us meeting us there but she didn't turn up. Naughty friend : but I hope she is alright. We saw a flock of juvenile Curlews as well as one of Ringed Plovers and the journey up there was worth it just to see those birds . One of the Curlews was halfway in the water and given that it was separate from the flock we think it may be a Green Shank because the bill was curved differnrtly to the other lot . Identifying juvenile birds can be difficult. I got a new bird identification book this week, one of the best , as well as a massive flower guide for Fo and me . How to please my lady ? Get her the latest and one of the best guides to flowering plants! I reckon my marriage will survive another week! Phew!

When the lads were younger we went Fast Eddies a soft play area in Spanish City in Whitely Bay an Edwardian mock Hindu temple sort of building , but because all the children were belting around so much we renamed the place "sweaty Eddies". Our boys had many nice times there . We also saw a flock of what we thought were Sandpipers today as well but the jury is still out on that one . A nice afternoon out but I would have liked our friend with us as well . Maybe next time.

I took Miles skateboarding this morning and he was a running wild. So were quite a few of the other men, teenagers and some scooter kids who barely seemed to out of nappies! Good for them ! In the afternoon we went to see my Mum which we hadn't done for the last two weeks because she was very ill with the various flu bugs , bad flu bugs , may the researchers annihilate all of you , so didn't feel like being visited . We walked around Easby Abbey first and as we started saw what we thought was a Buzzard but with the new binoculars we could see enough detail to see it wasn't so we are going down the Goshawk or Rough Legged Buzzard line . Most of the path around Easby hadn't caught any sun so it was thick ice and impossible to walk on so we went around the edges . The Castle Walk in Richmond was completely out of bounds for the same reason . Sort of milky mellow quality to the late afternoon light today . Totally gorgeous !

A good day yesterday. I did a Baha'i stall in the center of Durham and the 17 mile drive in was lovely looking over to Weardale and the high Pennines with low mist filling the valleys and gills . Magical. The stall was good but very cold .

In the afternoon went back up to Durham with the family and had a nice 4 mile walk through the low afternoon sunlight from Shincliffe to Durham city Center and saw 13 Goosanders. Don't ask me why there are so many and they were separate sightings because we saw them in different parts of the river. Could be its coming up to breeding time . The new binoculars work well and Fiona was very excited . They are also handy for looking at rocks and landslips as well. Very exciting but mellow walk. Sometimes I think I suffer from Seasonal Over The Top Disorder. Its been to exciting a weekend what with tooting and hooting my way through the gig at Heighington with the appropriately named trio "High Risk Strategy! It went well but they had a singalong bit for the last set and my harmonica doesn't do singalong so I left. Bebop to Blues but no singalong. A nice night out and I will be playing with them again but without the singalong I hope!

Fiona had school planning work to do today , Miles wanted to do his maths degree work and Clifford was still in bed so I went out to Saltholme RSPB site on Teesside for the morning and early afternoon. The birds were thin on the ground at Saltholme and I just missed a flock of Waxwings but I did have a good ramble around in the winter light . I bought some new binoculars at Saltholme and they were great so in the early afternoon I went to Durham and did the usual Durham walk and saw seven Goosanders, yes seven , this sighting blows a hole in my idea that Goosanders were congregating around the open water in the River Wear because the ponds and lakes are frozen but on the other hand most of the ponds and lakes at Saltholme which is 5 miles from the coast are still frozen and its colder inland . Still that's a lot of Goosanders! Driving back to Darlington with the sun setting orange golden it was a great end to a nice holiday.

My Mum was ill with one of the lurgies going around at the moment , bad lurgies, so she was not up to a visit and the lads wanted to stay in so Fo and I went off to do a couple of hours of twitching at Saltholme RSPB site in the heart of Teeside(or hell depending on how you feel about heavy industry : I like it : heaven) . We went straight over to where its likely to see Long Eared Owls about a kilometer from the entrance and saw two of them and because it was a couple of hours from sunset and darkening a little bit they were getting a bit restless which was nice . They usually don't do anything at all for hours. The warden had the huge Optricon lenses set up and they were really helpful with information as well as jokes because just behind where we all standing there was a very muddy bog and they kept on saying to newcomers to the group "to not step back or we may never see you again!". After this we strolled over to a newly opened section up a 50m hill and just as we got to the top the warden there said " You must be the luckiest man alive ", " Could be right" I thought, "because we have spent the last two hours tracking down this Bittern and here it is " . It was amazing because we were looking down onto it from about 100m away and it was in full view , apparently very rare even on the 4 square miles of RSPB site they were on . Fiona was delighted and excited especially after the Long Eared Owls! Great gal: charm her with a bird sanctuary on a cold day , see very rare and I mean very rarely seen birds and she just swoons and falls into your arms or possibly a ditch if there's one nearby! Its happened ! In spite of the cold wind my binoculars did steam up a bit but that was also because of the excitement of seeing the Bittern moving around amongst the reeds and that is even more rare than rare. We then went over to another hide and saw the Water Rails and Fo was utterly enchanted by them . They're rarely seen either although they exist in pretty much most large reed beds you will come across in the North. A very nice afternoon out and the view over to the Transporter Bridge from the Haverton Hill Hide was magnificent in a Lowry sort of way with the gaunt Cleveland Hills of the Tontine in the background . I fall just a little bit more in love with the Tees valley when I see views like that .

Yesterday was Fiona's birthday so we went over to celebrate at her Mums in South Lakeland stopping over for a walk in the Howgills . They were lovely all clean and washed by the recent snow and ice . We solved a mystery about the scree slopes thinking for quite a while they were formed by eroded rock from above but in this case we were completely wrong because they are formed by the erosion of the soil cover which in the Howgills is very thin and made up of well over 70% small stone laid down as glacial till at the end of the last ice age . We were lead astray because the scree is nearly always near rock outcrops but the give away was that looking closer at the outcrops the scree is greatest where the outcrop forms a funnel to channel water therefore faster water more erosion . Drift geology : love it . There is even an alluvial fan effect seen on every river as the water spreads out as it comes out of the channel. You see it in a sink every day!

Barely a bird to be seen yesterday although we saw three Field fares. Fo was still very drained from her recent cold/flu so we split from the lads and they went up to the Calf the highest point in the Howgills and Fo and I pottered over to Cautley Spout and had a good look around with the binoculars . Fo's Mum was in good fettle and Fo's sister was there as well as the lads cousin India. A very nice day out and a lovely celebration of Fiona's Birthday with the food (and cake : must mention the cake : its middle class to mention the cake : Fo will be mad if I don't mention the cake although she doesn't read my blog much : if I did a cake blog maybe she would : then again I could mention the cake in every walking blog because we could have a "cake break! instead of the biscuit break on the walks) Anyway ; I've mentioned the cake !