October 1

It's been a quiet week - just school and work and music and things, finished with a surprisingly empty weekend, devoid of any of the usual choir rehearsals or music lessons. So we took the opportunity to do exactly what we fancied.

For Ian this meant chasing a hockey ball around a pitch in the freezing cold.

For Nathaniel this meant acting on his inspiration from seeing his friend's newly made model railway board to create something on which to play a game that he has invented based on Red Alert (an ancient computer game) and Risk (a popular board game) involving many lego buildings and armoured vehicles (all currently rendered in rather fetching pastel bricks). It started with a piece of plywood (and a very early morning visit to B&Q) and progressed to several layers of painting.

I'll show you the finished item in action another time.

For me it meant persuading everyone up Ilkley Moor in the cold for a bracing walk. We were all wearing a lot of layers apart from Ian who was a bit chilly! But Thea declared that she liked this walk and wanted to do it again, so I guess it was a success.

There were many people at the Cow and Calf, so we took the paths less followed and tramped our own way across the moor, which gave the kids lots of opportunities to bound through the springy heather.

There was LOTS of jumping into the heather.

We surprised sheep (spot Thea) and enjoyed the sunshine;

and then headed back by via Ilkley Crags and the Rocky Valley which we climbed down the side of. The second picture is Ian pointing up to where the first picture was taken.

And I enjoyed my favourite sign. This road goes everywhere!

Thea seemed to be happy with all our ideas for this weekend, which is a good thing because the title of next weekend is "The Weekend Based around Thea's Many Interests". In the meantime, she is toothless.