Because Fiona couldn't make it last week due to being ill we did a lovely Whitby walk today. We inspected the glacial till cliffs spending some time looking at the very interesting rocks. What I thought was a Shap granite last week is not. It is also a lot bigger than I thought it was and we will have to wait until the sea washes all the mud away from it. It certainly isn't going anywhere although it may get buried by the 100 foot high mud cliffs and bank above it.

The weather was sunny with a low haze in the air and plenty of cumulus clouds because it was warm. Then again when we got out of the car the north-east breeze felt very cold. We had a delightful cake and coffee apiece at a wonderful cafe, sat in two chairs just watching the people go by and commenting on the buildings. Nice, an oldies thing I think.

Because the tide was out and I thought it was continuing to go out although Fiona knew it was coming in we went along the East Beach of Whitby town to Saltwick Nab. Very interesting and I saw a 240 million-year-old riverbed complete with ripple marks in the fossilised sands. Several of these huge oblong shaped rocks had these. Really good. I kicked myself that I did not take the Whitby cliffs guide to the Jurassic because I could have understood the sequence of rocks a lot better. I will have this next time.

So, it was pretty obvious that Fiona was right and that the tide was coming in so I turned around to go back and saw that the small headland had about 10 feet of sand still uncovered and I knew it would be underwater within 15 min. I was not sure whether the bay beyond it was completely flooded so we jogged the 500 m to it just in case. What a hoot and I was genuinely worried because we wouldn't have got cut off but we would have definitely got our feet wet right up to the thighs as well. If I had hung around gawping at the  rocks another 15 min longer we may have got more than wet thighs. If any guy out there ever reads this: sometimes it is good to listen to your wife!

After that adventure Fiona was asleep within 20 min of being in the car and the lads were pleased to see us when we got back in that lovely puppy dog sort of way they do even though they are pretty big dogs these days. Woof woof! A magical trip out with a magical woman called Fiona Saunders-Priem.

Last Saturday under a grey wintry sky me and the lads had a nice walk around the Durham Woods. The only bird of note that I saw was a fine Jay perched on a power cable squawking for all it was worth. Whether it was squawking for a mate or about a mate or to get rid of competitors I do not know but it was a total delight to see it. Fiona was not with us being zapped out with sinusitis.

Today Fiona and I trucked off to Newcastle to pick up some skateboard wheels for Miles, very big ones which are better for riding the absolutely excellent bowl that is at RKade skate park in Redcar. Not only that the wheels have been designed by Steve Alba aka Salba who is one of Miles skateboard heroes.

Since we were last in Newcastle a whole load of new buildings have popped up, a science city, student accommodation, hotel and a business unit. It is really good to see the Northeast forging ahead in its economic development. Whilst we were circumnavigating this whole complex just to look at all the materials used, stone as well as ceramic, we saw across the road, foundations  being laid for the rest of the science city. The North-East is forging ahead and nothing can put it down.

Fiona was in good fettle and the boppy walk around the city centre and down to the Baltic Arts Building and the Sage were really good. I have  got to like this area. A major sore point was we never took our binoculars or loupes for looking at rocks which was a big mistake. The tide was out when he got there so some mudflats were exposed, always a good place to look for birds but worse than that many of the buildings in Newcastle have some excellent sandstones and granites from around the North which are well worth a look through a geological loupe.

It was nice to see Fiona walking 4 to 5 miles comfortably although when she got back home she crashed out and was fast asleep within about 20 min. A very nice day and my eldest lad is getting on well with his mathematics he got 97% for his last assignment spending a lot of time on some of the very tricky bits. He's not simply going for scores he really wants to prove to himself that he has the mettle to get involved with mathematical research as well as the understanding. Both are needed: a hairy chest and a big brain!

Yesterday with the lads but not Fiona because she was ill with sinusitis, I had a nice afternoon and evening out at Whitby and then RKade skatepark at Redcar.

It was  overcast grey and bitterly cold at Whitby and we looked at the ongoing landslides on the glacial till cliffs on Sandsend beach. As usual I had a good inspect of the rock fragments embedded in the mud and joy of joys I found a Shap Granite boulder about 40 cm square with deep scratch marks on it (glacial striations). This indicates that it either had something rubbing over it, it rubbed over something else or a mixture of both! Amazing to think that this rock had been plucked out from a cliff or the ground over 100 miles away on the outer Western edge of the Lake District in or around a place called Shap and then  carried over to the East Coast by the glaciers. Very exciting. If I could have dragged it home I would but it weighed at least 10 stone. I found another small granite which I have seen in  my geology books but I have not identified it yet . Frustrating, because I know where it has come from and the route but I cannot identify it  . Something to do today!

Trundling on to Whitby harbour after this, as we crossed the swing bridge munching our ice creams we saw an Eider Duck  a few metres down from the bridge. It was hunting for small crustaceans and shellfish. We had a laugh when suddenly there was a white explosive stream from the back of it in the water as it had a poo!

After the Whitby walk we wolfed bacon butty and chips at Arcade skate park in Redcar and Miles had a two-hour skate session which left him quite tired! Goodlad. A very nice day out but it would have been better to have had Mum and wife Fiona with us!

Under high clouds of Cirrus Intortus twisting their ice crystals away thousands of feet up we headed for our weekly outing to the Durham Woods. There was plenty of blue sky to illuminate our way and birds were singing like mad but we could see few of them.

Halfway through the woods Clifford suddenly stopped and whispered "Dad, there is a Deer  over there" and indeed his sharp eyes had spotted a Roe Deer with its back to us . Really exciting! I was  sure there would be another one nearby because they are often in groups  and indeed there was just behind it. Magic. Because quite a few people walk and run through the Durham Woods the wildlife is familiar with human beings.

It got even better 100 m further on. I heard a Nuthatch whistling but could not see it and just to the left there was a familiar thwack of something hard banging against a branch which could only be a woodpecker. The Greater Spotted had made its appearance! It had its back to us and unusually was  stationary indicating a lot of insects and grubs in the tree. More magic!

Last week in the woods quite close to Durham Cathedral we saw a fork in a tree had become split and I said  it was about to fall and then proceeded to walk underneath it and stand there because it was a good spot to look at the birds. This had the lads laughing their heads off. I am contradictory ! Anyway, today about a ton and a half of tree had fallen sometime in the past few days and I was  glad I was not standing there when it did. Going out into the English countryside these days feels slightly edgy what with all the landslides and trees falling down. Good fun.

Fiona was a bit wasted with her sinusitis but game enough to do a 4 mile walk which is what I love about her. She has pluck! However, riding back in the car she was asleep within 5 min.

When we got back Miles was still beavering away at his mathematics, goodlad, and Fiona and I had a crash and a cuddle listening to "Old Ideas" by Leonard Cohen. At the back end of this very mellow day I am about to get the food going to feed the hungry hordes. God bless family life and God bless my friends.

Another blog catch up. Last Saturday 9th of  February, the whole family went for a walk around the Durham Woods. Joviality was the spirit under the light puffy cloudy cumuli and open blue skies of the beautiful North East of England. We stopped for Fiona to take a photo next to the River Wear on the hairpin bend section where Durham Cathedral stands nicely fortified. I gathered the lads in for the photo. Fiona took it amongst some laughter and giggling over I don't know what, but as we were about to move off and I still had my arms around the lads Clifford stated rather solemnly, "Dad, I don't feel comfortable with your hand on my ass". Well, we all fell over laughing because I did not know I had my hand on his ass! The trouble was I had my skateboard wrist protector on my right wrist reinforced with a thin bar of Teesside steel and a glove on  so I could not feel a thing!

The rest of the walk was just as joyous and deteriorated accordingly. I put this down to having Miles with us. He comes out on the Saturday walks  only once a month now. He prefers to work Saturday and Sunday afternoons  to get more into his mathematics and to train himself up for weekend work when he goes either into Secondary School teaching or teaching at a University. Right from  our children being born we have trained them to achieve what they want to do, as well as meet the needs of society. Ooooo goodness that sounds very responsible and mature for this ageing doggy but that's what I did and continue to do so. Even with   17 and 21-year-old sons I am still surprised at the  bits of guidance I give them based on the training ideas I got from the the Psychology Degree I did at York University in the 1980s and the Baha'i Faith . First and foremost of course I train myself!

Wow, behind on my personal blog. Friday the eighth over a week ago Fiona and I had a great trip down to York to see Sarah Horn and James Cudworth play at the Basement in York. There were three other bands on as well and  the Buffalo Skinners were  excellent.

We had our usual romantic time in the Cross Keys and I was struck by the thought that it was almost 30 years ago that I first went there and if somebody had said to me then that 30 years on I would have spent 24 of those years raising children and being a husband to a beautiful and smart wife I would have just said "No chance!". I like  being wrong particularly about my own limited views.

For a Friday night in York it was fairly quiet but I was stunned by how many people were around compared to 20 years ago. Things change and York has become a bit more like Newcastle in its nightlife. No bad thing. I had a quick 20 min walk around to stretch my legs and the River Ouse was milky and almost still in the frosty night with a faint mist which could not be seen in York but I knew it was there because we could see it forming as we travelled down in the twilight through the Vale of York.

It was great seeing my friend Joanne Horn and husband Geoff who love going to folk events as well as seeing their great musician daughter Sarah play. A very nice evening.

 To a certain extent I was that kid who came from an information poor home whose parents were not into education at all ,not least because they had one disabled child, me, and another with learning difficulties due to epilepsy. In the 1970s the library in Richmond in Yorkshire was very useful to me. In my early 20s the library in York was absolutely brilliant and I read an awful lot of history, religion, economics, psychology and so on. I can honestly say that without York library and the encouragement of friends at the time like Joe James, Tom Owen and Ian Fletcher I would not have gone to York University. Every time I walk past the Central library in York I have great feelings of affection for it.

But today things are different. If the Internet existed in 1976 when I started to depend on books I would have barely used the library. Not only that: I was working over that period and if there had been an Amazon around I would have bought books instead of getting them from the library. As much as I have a high regard for any place which supplies information to people I do not think people on low incomes in particular are best served by others telling them to get their information from the library.  Internet access to the home for all has to be the way as well as enough money to purchase books if they haven't been digitised . Because if you think about it a public library would never be able to meet the amount of demand I hope to see coming from all people young and old : only the Internet and fine companies like Amazon which are conduits for all those great authors and publishing houses to get information out to us. As I said before more political imagination is needed in this.

I can honestly see libraries being redefined in the future as community spaces for people to do e.g. Open University degrees in a decentralised education system. I see libraries now possibly developing into community spaces where people can get together to talk and study. Once all books are digitised library's as we know it will vanish but there will be places of learning where the only physical repository of learning will be the computers and people. Sorry folks but is the way I see it: that is my community outlook and the one that I hope for which will be best for all people not just the few. There will be plenty of jobs for everybody as community enablers in this. After all, I have just got a job as a community enabler for Learning Disabled people.

Last night, Fiona and I had a really good time at the Basement in York. There were four bands on and I enjoyed them all but we had particularly gone to listen to Sarah Horn and James Cudworth and they were really good. I loved how raw and fresh it sounded  a real sitting on the edge of your seat feeling which are the is the best musical  experience of all for me. Great stuff!

 A nice surprise were the Buffalo Skinners a country pop band I think, but with excellent vocal harmonies, a stunningly on time and on it drummer some really good instrumental performances as well. If they start to do their own material and are as good as writing songs as they are playing them they will go a long way.

Before the Basement we had a nice romantic time in the Cross Keys pub just enjoying the ambience. York is a lot busier at night than it used to be and when I walked around for 20 min to stretch my legs I was amazed how many  scantily clad young men and women were walking from from club to club. It's different from what I expected but they seemed happy and were enjoying themselves which was nice. A good night out.

Just got back from a great walk in the Durham Woods and we have worked out the territory of a couple of Jays and now see them often. Understanding : wow : powerful!  Want to see a Nuthatch more often next . Lovely clouds on the way up:  cirrus uncinus , upside down hook like clouds full of falling ice cystals . Strictly speaking they were cirrus uncinus duplicatus because the same cloud was lower down but some were perpendicular to the first and others at different angles. Indicates the  wind directions at different heights . Good stuff knowledge : best buzz of all !

We've thought about getting a hide to,  errr,  hide out in the woods and you can get them quite cheap and they are light so can be backpacked . What I thought it would be fun to do is walk around the Durham Woods still in our hide , our little legs sticking out .  Umm hiding out in the woods with Fiona. " Paul , go and stick your head in that bucket of water" . "Woof woof!".

I did my first days training for my new job today and I was very inspired by the Training Leader because he had been working with Learning Disabled people since 1984 and some of his experiences from the 1980s were similar to mine. A lot of the information I already knew and some of the challenging behaviour principles , based on behaviourist research, I knew already but really enjoyed six hours of being told how they all apply to Learning Disabled people.He has provided some excellent course material as well. Can't wait for tomorrow where I get to find out about what the current strategies are for dealing with challenging behaviour. Nice to be back in the flow.

It has been quite a week. I got a job when I never expected to get a job ever again and Miles passed his driving test which I expected him to do! So, going out today was against a backdrop of feeling pretty good about getting out into the wider world and doing something for society other than raising children. Which I think I have done fairly well but it is time to move on. I can also stop trying to find a musician to play with which is good because I was not finding one!

Miles stayed in to do his mathematics this afternoon whilst Fiona, Clifford and I had a nice trek around the Durham Woods and into the city centre. It was a quiet afternoon and we only saw a Nuthatch on one of the feeders in the wood but that was pretty good because I had never seen one before. When we had muffin break in the Cloisters in Durham Cathedral there were many people around and the milder weather had brought them out.

I just feel mellowed out at the moment and yesterday I got a call from my manager telling me about the training I will be doing next week for a couple of days and that felt pretty good. I have been thinking a lot about how to break down cooking a meal into little steps that can be worked together on with one of the Learning Disabled chappies I will be working with and I have enjoyed that. I was going to read up on stuff about Autism but I really cannot be bothered. It is very technical and do not think it has that much to do with the job that I will be doing which is more about helping Learning Disabled people to become independent.

After our usual Meatballs and spaghetti meal we watched "Marley and Me" a film with Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston and a Labrador dog in it. I went to see it with the lads in 2008 and it was good to watch it with Fiona. A very mellow day and even though I have told everybody I am not going to have much to do with music anymore what I really meant to say was that I was not going to try to find somebody to go out and do it as a business and make money. I will be still playing with local folk not least because I really like them first and foremost but playing music with them is supercool and good fun.

'Pupils should lead' code classes

www.bbc.co.uk

Big changes are under way in computer science lessons - but some experts think pupils

This is what Fiona and I did in all subjects , first with Miles and then with Clifford. It works and will maximise the chances of any child learning anything . So called education experts still argue for and against this which I rather bleakly think is more about their status in the academic and school world , good money and jobs there after all , than what works and is best for children. If society did this education would cost a lot less as well . Doing things in this way is progressing upwards whereas what we have at the moment is a downward fall and very boring for children having targets and tests inflicted on them.

Seems parents like the old T n Ts because when the SAT tests first came out in the 90s when we were in York loads of the middle class Mums , who really should have known better, liked them and would discuss how well their kid had done, with the not so subtle message that their kid was well ahead or as was most likely in with the "top group" . I used to laugh my head off at this because when the tests came came out, Smiths in York almost immediately had practice test papers and booklets that sold by the shed load so most of these obviously proud Mums were getting their kids to practise this stuff ad nauseum. Poor kids and " Good grief" as I thought then "if your kid needs to practice that simple stuff they have a problem!" .

Miles had one bash at practice SATs maxed it first time not because he's a mega brain he's not but because he had years of FUN and took lots of PRIDE doing maths , science and lots of essay writing with me . The tests were way to easy in other words and still are. After topping the tests, Whinfield School in Darlington thought he needed more practice , this angered Miles , first time at aged 10 I'd seen him really angry , so he went back into home education until part time schooling at Longfield Secondary School where they were way more intelligent about kids learning. Fun and pride is the key to maxing out whatever the kid has. And putting the hours in of course!

When, through Fiona administering these tests to kids , and she got great money for that by the way , thousands per year, explained to me what they were about and the almost knowledge free content of them ,I saw that they were a national exercise in mass self deception and in a perverse way hampered kids learning because not only were teachers teaching to the test but so were the parents. So the kids lost twice ; its educationally useless doing test stuff at school and because the parents want them to keep up with the Jones' next door the kid can't do something educationally fun at home . Grrrrrr! Miles was withdrawn from all of them and Clifford did the Primary set but only because I didn't know they were going on . I never paid much attention to what the school did . Bad Daddy!

Anyway after 40 years of rhetoric about "child centered" learning, fostering the illusion that children are at the center of the learning process , they never were , as I said "self deception", there is a glimmer of hope in this Beeb article that "child controlled" learning might peep out and really give the nations kids first and foremost a good rewarding time but also genuinely increase the national IQ stock which is the only way forward for any nation . We're doing our bit in this Northern Eastern wasteland which I'm coming to love dearly and, as Lord Kitchen Sink said " Your country needs you"!

Wow , I feel better after that ! Nowt like the ride 'em high chase 'em low rant.