First camping

We were a bit depleted in numbers for our first camp of the season. We'd never been able to get us altogether in the first place and then the cold weather and busy schedules further reduced us, but those of us who got there were very pleased we did.

We headed up to the east Moors, at the top of a hill by some woods, and we pretty much had the site to ourselves. A couple of hardy caravans appeared, but as one of them spent more time on adjusting their satellite dish than leveling their caravan, and there was never another soul playing in the field, we embraced the role as sole occupants.

And very nice it was too!

The kids had fun making complicated structures in the long grass areas using all available camping furniture (Nathaniel most often made an M6 péage), flying kites and tearing around on bikes. We ambled into the woods with saws and axes and the children carried a surprisingly large amount of wood back for the fire!

I spent a rather chilly first night debating whether 13 years was quite a long time to expect a Eurohike sleeping bag to last, but everyone else was warm enough. (NB The answer is yes - I need a new sleeping bag!) So the next morning we had our customary extended breakfast (several courses over a good many hours), and then headed down to the north beach to play. The weather wasn't entirely encouraging, but we are not easily put off, we just found a sheltered place for lunch before we started the digging.

And yes, we did get me and Ian in as well! Unfortunately, the tides were not in our favour, so we were disappointed not to be able to use our customary stream for building excavations. Instead I drew mazes;

And we started the complicated of backwards excavations - where you start at the water's edge and dig away from the incoming tide. The engineering is slightly less elegant, but it's still good fun!

The sun obligingly came out and we removed hats and scarves and gloves and basked a bit.

And then, before we knew it, there was no sand left to play on.

So we headed home, made fire, cremated meat, chatted to hens and horses and had a warmer night. And all in all, it was a most satisfactory start to the season!

Subtle hints

Thea knows where her priorities are!

Evolution of an obstacle course

It was necessary that one child was thoroughly worn out in order to insist on an early nap so that I could take well-rested toddlers to the end of term service at the church. So we built obstacle courses.

We started inside

And then moved outside.

And got more and more complicated!

Backwards and forwards

We do a lot of walking up and down Hamilton Drive at the minute. In fact, I do it 20 times week. Wow - that's a bit scary. Here are some of the things that happen:

We find cats to play with:

Nathaniel has to rescue Thea from a position face down on the floor!

We walk on walls:

We enjoy the early morning sun:

We make the most of puddles:

And we are inspired to have sunny feasts when we get home!

Goathland

Now that spring is here, the urge to get onto the moors is overcoming us!

One of our camping family friends went up this weekend to try out their new tipi with stove (we only didn't go too due to Ian's total unpreparedness for leaving for Siracusa on Monday!), so we met them today in Goathland to bimble around the Esk and Mallyan Spout.

Again, we had sun, sun, sun, and a good amount of wind. But not enough to stop us basking on rocks for snacks.

Down in the Esk Valley it was warm and sheltered and beautiful. I can spend hours watching little rivers cavort over rocks!

There was enough wind to get us properly sprayed at Mallyan Spout, and Thea wasn't too impressed.

But all was made better by plenty of time to play near the stream (far too full/cold for paddling this time).

Nathaniel and I started a cairn and then Nathaniel improved it with a copse of trees sprouting on its slopes, a garden and a little path ("A path, a path!") on two levels. If I had passed him a herring, you know what he'd have done.....

At the top of the climb out of the valley, someone has thoughtfully placed a pub, so you can guess where the day continued.

But not quite ended. The kids both slept on the way in, so unusually were alert and chatting all the way home. This prevented us from our customary dash into Helmsley where Ian sits in the car park with the engine running to fool the sleeping offspring while I dash to a fine ice cream emporium for us both. Instead we improved it - scampi and chips from what used to be the country's second best fish and chip shop (now under new ownership with inferior chips), eaten picnic style in the car!

Cicely

Families are encouraged to use the school library after school, and as I am totally unable to resist the lure of a library (a trait which I have also managed to pass on to the children), we go there frequently. I look at the books (they have a great selection of 1970s-90s puffins - much better than the town library!), Nathaniel chooses and issues his books, and then he and Thea play with the ladybirds.

They aren't very exciting ladybirds - just basic circular cushions, but there is a big pile of them, and the kids love them. Nathaniel wanted to adopt one, so we took it one step further - we made one. Sorry - he made one:

Its called Cicely. He's (don't ask.....) had lots of adventures. But none of them documented photographically yet.

Watch this space.

Bridestones

Its spring! Or at least it is trying very valiently. So we took off up to the Moors to do an actual walk that Nathaniel would have to actually...... walk!

We didn't aim too high - just a bimble around the Bridestones with Jim and Vicki and Mikey who share our values on the ratio of walk to eating!

But it was lovely! The Bridestones are brilliant anyway - suitably dramatic and unexpected (we approached from a drive through the forest), and excellent for climbing on. We didn't need kids to have this walk take us all day, allowing for time to explore all scrambling routes on each stone.

The first one made the most impression on the kids. Having walked up the steep hill through woodland, and then across a bit of moorland, we were ready for clambering and so took our time making sure that everyone got up every bit, and that every aspect of the view was savoured.

And then onwards to each stone in turn, each one having its own particular character and hence, activity. One of my favourites was the one with the hollowed out flat seat which provided a fine snack area. The final one was the piece de resistance with a tunnel and a tunnel-let. We weren't sure that Mikey was going to be able to get out of the chimney pipe entrance to the tunnel-let.

And Nathaniel had to have several tries with lots of encouragement to banish the stamping feet and yelping of "It's too difficult!" But he did it.

Thea had the advantage of being little and bendy and having tiny feet that could easily wedge into crevices to help herself up.

So she went round and round and round.

Thea exhibited her legendry enthusiasm for everthing climbable. She wanted to get up everything, and the fact that Ian almost got stuck once (he had Jim and Mikey on each leg guiding him down!), didn't put her off.

Once at the top of her stone, she'd explore every inch of the plateau and typically find some indentation on the leeward edge where she wanted to sit.

The sun was warm and the wind, though definitely there, was a south-westerly, and we were happy with no coats for the first time this year. On the walk back to the car, a meadow near a stream called, so we sat basking in the sun and ate our lunch and stuffed ourselves on Ian's birthday cake.

It was a wonderful start to spring.