On Saturday with the family on a very wet and blustery day I went to Duncombe Park in Helmsley North Yorkshire. As usual for our weekend walk we go anywhere within an hours drive of our house but the particular reason for going to this part of Yorkshire was that a lovely Facebook friend Julie Shackson and her partner Toby Philpott and the Stoical Dandy Doggins were having a weekend there at the reputable Black Swan Hotel. We had also wanted to visit Duncombe Park for years and given that there are so many places to go to in our area and we go back to the same places again and again because they are so great we had driven past Duncombe Park loads of times on the way somewhere else but on Saturday we stopped! Unbelievably for me I forgot to take my coat which considering I always check that the family have got thiers was very annoying . Still it was warm and once I had got thoroughly soaked through to the skin , after half an hour, I was comfortable. There are managed mini forests of Ash , Lime , Oak and Elm predominantly which with all the rain soaking through the carpet of mostly rotted leaves brought out the sweetest and most interesting smells I had whiffed in years! It was sensual and pungent and if we hadn't gone out on such a wet day we would have missed it all. I'd wanted to look at some birds but with all the rain there was very little around . We go very close to a flock of swallows moving ahead of us on a fence and saw a large hare in the distance . There were some gorgeous views of the small and winding Ryedale Valley going up to Rievaulx Abbey and just further up from there is the small and twee Hawnby Hill where Fiona and I had our first date walking when we were courting and I realized that she was a very nice lady , good to talk with and physically very pretty not least because she had good walking legs and just plodded on very much as I did . That was the foundation for a marriage that had lasted nearly 23 years! We were supposed to meet Julie and Toby at the tearoom but it was closed in fact I've never been to such a laid back country house and grounds because there was no one there at all! They just had an honesty rox at the house and of course Miles just had to know if it was secured to the table or not , but Fiona prodded it first out of criminal curiosity as I subsequently teased and then claimed she wasn't testing its security at all . I'd never realised until then what dark interests my wife and eldest son had! Soaking wet we met Julie and Toby back in Helmlsley and had a really nice chat .They are great people who I sincerely hope I meet again . I've now got a good reason to go to Wales and of course they have mountains, superb geology and great fauna and flora . So watch out Wales the Saunders-Priem family is coming . A great weekend and it was a sheer pleasure to tell my lads to stop complaining about the rain although we let them mutter on about having "Crazy parents" because that is so true!