Leaf Mould

I have never lived anywhere long enough before to actually make leaf mould. The books say things like "leave for five years then gently turn and leave until your grandchildrenvisit". Anyway this year the first Hob Moor Leaf Mould emerged and it is great - hard to believe that leafs can turn into soily stuff. Just have to wait another five years now.

Osprey

One of the highlights of the Scotland trip fpr me was seeing an Osprey fishing in the evening at Kenmore. It was a great sight to see it pluck a pretty big fish from the River Tay where it leaves the loch. The only down-side was that Danielle + Rowan were back in the hotel

Hair

The photo is of lush Perthshire. Today Rowan and Danielle went to Leeds to get Rowan's hair cut and done. I went a ride to Knaresborough: great route with a perfect apple pie at a cafe by the river.

Harry Potter

Our train back from Pitlochry [photo] went well - direct to York. It was the morning of the release of the last Harry Potter book. This lead to two features of the journey. Firstly Rowan's anxiety that the postman would not have been able to fit her copy through the letter box - he could. Secondly there were at least 200 people reading the book on the journey: a real example of modern communal experience.
Rowan finished the book on Wednesday, the tardy parents are still 200 pages off the end.

Route 7 Day 5

The weather was good once again today. The ride took us through the rich lush Perthshire lands from Kenmore to Pitlochry. Another good ride, with Pitlochry seeming like Blackpool compared to the sparsely populated land we had passed through.
The photo of Kenmore has a couple of deliberate mistakes in it - anyone spot them?

Route 7 Day 4

This was the best day of cycling. The Sustrans route up Glen Ogle [photo] was fantastic: an old railway line climbs up the pass [compared by Queen Victoria to the Khyber Pass - but with worse food no doubt - ] then drops to Killin where we went to the folklore museum that was great. We finished the day by cycling the length of Loch Tay and staying at Kenmore.

Route 7 Day 3

This day involved a pretty tough climb through the Queen Elizabeth Forest, followed by this dramatic cycle track by a loch into Callander where we went to a fantastic Toy Museum

that cheered Rowan up after a pretty hard morning. We finished up at Lochearnhead in a hotel that had a Rowan Bar, so all's well in the end.

Route 7 Day 2

Day Two of our ride took us from Balloch to Aberfoyle where we shared a B&B with a French family. The ride was great, including this old rail viaduct that has been made into a cycle path. Behind us sheep were being driven across the river by the farmer. Aberfoyle is definitely the Highlands, it felt good to be getting to the mountains. Once more the rain held off.

Route 7 Day 1

Our family holiday [part one] was a six day cycle ride in Scotland. We followed the Sustrans Route 7 from Glasgow to Pitlochry. We used our free GNER tickets to get to Glasgow with the bikes - this went fine. Then the first day took us by the Clyde to the foot of Loch Lomond at Balloch where we had a humble and great B&B. It was 20 mile ride which was fine for the afternoon. With about 1/2 mile to go it started to rain "Shall we shelter?" say I. "You're joking!" came the combined reply: I must be training them right.
The photo is of a steam boat outside the Glasgow Science Museum

Le Weekend

We had a busy last weekend. Rob Cath and Lilly [the last two on the photo] came up on the Friday, then Kelly stayed for the rest of the weekend. Great to be able to offer guests the extension, and great to see everyone. We did a lot, eating at Vanilla Black and Betty's [which went down well with all] then taking Rowan to her first competitive triathlon in pouring rain. She did really well and came 6th girl.

Alnwick

Last week Rowan and I took the train to Alnmouth station, walked on a great cross country path to Alnwick, then looked around the gardens there - it is a really impressive place. On the way back we stopped off at a very sunny Newcastle and had a look around the Millennium bridge and the Sage.

Brownie Princess

Rowan was struggling with her Brownie party where she had to go as a princess [not her natural style] until we remembered her Indian suit that she last wore at a wedding. We just about squeezed her into it and it proved fit for purpose

Barry Trotter

Last photo from le Tour - this is the start house with Nelson looking down. Rowan has had a busy social start to her holiday. Playing with friend Kiri on Tuesday, then going round to Clara's yesterday - this involved seeing the new Harry Potter film which went down well.

The Light

I spotted the light on this church on the Euston Road on Saturday. It was the first day of the holidays on Monday, so Rowan and I went to our traditional haunt - the National Railway Museum and had a great time. I had a great game of badminton with Edward, my first workout since doing my back the other week. The chiropractor has got it nicely back in place [famous last words]

Website

We have a new Friends of Hob Moor Website

http://www.friendsofhobmoor.org.uk/

which David and Peter have revamped. It has got quite a lot of interest going already.
The photo is of spectators at le Tour in London.

Tour de Bolton Percy

The photo is of Paul, Sarah and Markus at le Tour. Sunday Rowan and I cycled to the cafe at Bolton Percy, she on her racing bike: basically I struggle to keep up with her on the hills now.

Le Tour

I went down to London on Saturday for the prologue to of Tour de France. I met up with niece Sarah and Markus and friend Paul at the Commonwealth club where we had a peaceful and cool beer before braving the crowds. It was packed but we managed to get a great spot on the barriers 20 metres from the start. Paul and I stayed there whilst the others walked on to Hyde Park. It was a great day.
Last time the Tour was in the UK I went down to Brighton with Mark and Rob to watch Chris Boardman nearly win the stage. On the way back we had to keep ringing home to see if Mark's twins were on the way or not. 13 years on and Mark could not make it to watch the Tour because he was taking one of those twins to an audition for something musical. So it goes.
The photo is of Dave Zabrieski, the US champion. I was hoping he could win, so that the headlines could read "Zabriekski makes his Point" but luckily he was on a bad day.

Jamming

Friend Adrian came round for pizza, crumble and a jam session. He is a semi-pro jazz pianist, so he used our piano in the extension and I played guitar. He is a very good player, so he did me the honour of playing with me. It was great to be playing again: the polished play of a jazz player is never going to come to me but my playing made a "contrast" with Adrian's. Good stuff.

Golf

Today is Rowan's last day at school. The holidays start here. Our cycling trip to Montrose had to be re-scheduled to the Highlands once I discovered that the Open Golf championship was taking place at Carnoustie the exact time we were due to be there. The thought of no accommodation and many many 4x4s and their occupants meant a change of route was inevitable.
The photo is of the Lady of Goole.

Shark Basking

Rowan has just completed a project on the Basking Shark so we have all got into learning about them. I would love to see one cruising around Morecambe Bay some day.
Another Goolish shot - the church was built in such an imposing position so that ships would be impressed when they arrived in the dock.

Goole

Danielle is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and today we went on a trip to the Goole Maritime Museum . Goole, in South Yorkshire, is the most inland port in the UK, and still an active going concern which was a bit of a shock. It was a great trip, really interesting and a chance to meet some interesting people. Great day.
The photo is of a device used for lifting coal barges [tom puddings] up and emptying them into coal boats.

Lunch and Fairfield

On Sundays Rowan goes swimming at 9 o'clock. This week her friend Clara was there and Rowan was invited for lunch and a play. We were particularly pleased as we had all been invited for lunch at Margaret & Alistair's, this meant we could have a good lunch without worrying about Rowan being bored as the only child there. All were happy with the arrangement. Ginny and another Margaret were there as well and the food was great. Our hosts had bought a large version of my photo Fairfield and it was good to see it in its new location: it is one of those images that really benefits from being big-scale.

Orienteering

Rowan has really enjoyed doing Orienteering this year at school. She got a silver medal for coming second girl in the York district over a series of six events. I remember doing it at prep school for a while and quite liking it. I had to write home for a Silva compass, only to receive a cute little silver compass not fit for purpose: my spelling was never that bad.
The photo is from the swamplands of Yorkshire

Cycling

Sometimes thing just go right. Saturday the forecast was for rain, but I had some time for a ride [whilst Danielle and Rowan went swimming]. So I headed off anyway, through the Howardian Hills to Northallerton. It was a great ride, and the rain kept off all the way until I reached the station at Northallerton where I got the train back. The photo is of Coxwold, one of the villages on the route.