With low cumulus clouds drifting west to east and thousands of feet above them the combed hair of cirrus clouds straggling the sky Clifford, Fiona and I went for our weekly trek around the Durham Woods and Durham City. It was quite warm but with a pleasant autumnal wind cooling everything down, reminding the leaves that not only are they changing but the weather is telling them to do that as well.

There were many people around, which is always nice and loads of parents with 18-year-olds on the teacher training and college courses which start at this time of the year. Seeing all these people under the leafy woods with tinged streaks of orangey brown in the high canopy was quite magical.

We stopped for biscuit break at Durham market and had a really good chat with a young man running his own mobile cafe business and making nice coffee as well. He was a Durham student who had deferred his third year in Engineering because he wanted to run his own business. He had got into University with just three Bs and had only put Durham University on his application form and this was after he had had a year out. He also won a regional engineering competition but preferred running a business to getting his head stuck into engineering mathematics and design. He owns his own house, has three lodgers and is also helping his brother to run part of his business as a supply manager. An incredibly talented and enterprising 21 year old young man and Clifford was very interested in his story  all told in 4 minutes flat whilst he was making  our coffee. Great coffee as well particularly with our biscuit.

 I could say that the   inheritance he got from his grandfather which enabled him to get on the housing market was a big leg up as well as the useful contact of his brother being in business but this lad is making the best of his opportunities and that is what I liked about him as well as being completely open about how he has got to where he is. Refreshing. We also exchanged address  cards because he is interested in anything that is going on around him.

I always love to talk to folk when I'm out and about but we also saw some great rock today looking at some granite which has been used as foundation blocks for a new Durham University building. It is interesting that the same granite is also on the steps in Durham market place.

On the way back the high cirrus clouds had descended and formed  layers of Stratus clouds and because of this we saw a huge star of iridescence,  which occurs when sunlight shines through thin cloud in this case very high cirrus cloud no doubt made up of ice crystals and maybe some water droplets lower down because this rainbow like star in the sky was absolutely huge. One of the best things I have done recently is get into reading about the atmosphere and clouds because  it is yet another interest point when I go out.

When we got back Miles was still working at his mathematics, Goodlad, and he is very busy what with three finals coming up, the start of his next courses at the same time as well as two weeks of mathematics problems he has to solve as part of his application process to do a Masters or Ph.D. at Durham University. He has always got his head down as a matter of course, but he's really doing well at the moment. Total respect.

His lazy fun loving parents just  stuck "Infidels" by Bob Dylan on the CD player in our bedroom and   had a good one hour cuddle listening to The Man singing his stuff. Quite often I am struck by the magic of my family life which   I never take for granted because it all feels so special due to the efforts we as a Baha'i family make  for each other and ourselves due to our beliefs and not just because of our human feelings towards each other. I think that is right but I can only account for my own individual motivation which is firmly based on my religious beliefs. Serious stuff, and I must get back to my meatballs, fresh pasta, tomato sauce and garlic bread which may be singeing so I'm off to make sure the family gets fed  Thats serious stuff as well!.  A smashing day!

From a comment thread about work ;

"When doing volunteer work at Juniper Communities York in the '80s, working with learning disabled men , they were called mentally handicapped then , I got paid in kind with meals and some beer money thrown in . They offered straight cash sometimes but I couldn't take money from a charity. Went busking instead for readyolas. Two old friends from the Dales working at the unemployment office used to sign me on. In Richmond 70s to 80s some people working when signing on was sort of accepted because people got jobs done cheaply and well. I saw my work at Juniper , when signed on as "work" and so did they. I told the dole office exactly what I was doing. Good times. I miss the learning disabled men sometimes and they taught me how to love and were a big influence for raising my lads in an organised way . Maximising human potential and having a good time as well . Thats what its all about !"

" The above got me thinking at the time " Why doesn't society pay me directly for doing what was a full time job" . I got lots of pats on the head from the Juniper Management Committee folk and was given big responsibilities for the men like taking them out on a river cruise boat for a week, just me and three of the guys up the River Ouse , locking into the Ripon Canal and back. No supervision , no risk assessment but a lot of fun . I still disagree with volunteering . Everyone should be paid because that is proper work. It will come ."