Recent adventures ...

Castleton

Had a fantastic day out in Castleton. What a lovely village! A Norman castle, 4 show caves and six pubs - perfect! We started out from Broadbottom in rare but brilliant sunshine but once over Snake Pass we descended into cloud that stayed with us the rest of the day, so low that Peveril castle was invisible from the village and once in the castle, the great hills around may just as well not have existed.


We visited Peak Cavern, known locally as the Devil's Arse for the rude noises that issue when the cavern floods. Poppy was very concerned there might be bears in the cave and clung tightly to my hand, often using her other hand to check we were still attached. But she grew chatty and soon everyone in our little group knew all about her.

One thing that troubled her a bit about Castleton was that nobody knew her. In our village everyone knows Poppy and she found it strange that she could walks past so many people and recognise none, and that nobody would say "Hello Poppy" and chat to her. Can there really be so many strangers in the world? It took a while to explain that not everybody lived in Broadbottom and other people had houses in other villages. She still felt unsettled by it though, which amused me as she was actually born in an anonymous city.

Eureka! Or not.

Went to visit the Eureka Children's Museum in Halifax yesterday: what a disappointment! Some kids from the village went last week and loved it, but it did nothing for Poppy at all. Fake shops, a fake kitchen, a fake Post Office, fake trees, fake bats - and bits of it sponsored in the worst Millenium Dome fiasco way. I wouldn't swap the whole thing for 10 minutes in the Chester Zoo bat cave. It was full of things that adults thought kids would enjoy but as I looked around I couldn't really see any of the kids looking really happy and excited about any of it.

The journey in both directions was pretty fraught - snow, ice and low cloud on the moors meant you could see about 20 yards.

Mirror,mirror

Got a new Nikon D50 now - very happy with it!

Sledging - happy but overcrowded!

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Poppy and Annika

Poppy and Annika, originally uploaded by Ian_Boys.

Summer is here

Blazing sunshine and a freezing cold wind but the best we've had so far. And even a blue sky!

Happy Birthday to me!

This morning Susie removed my alarm clock and gave me the rarest of all gifts in this job - a lie-in! Then we had some lovely cake, presents and a morning out together, walking in the sunshine on Werneth Low. What a lovely day.

Stupid Sunday

Almost had a disaster this morning - first Poppy and I were delivering papers, I left Poppy in the van and came back down the stairs from the house to find the van gone. Couldn't understand it so not panicking - I knew it hadn't been stolen. Looked right, saw a white van down the street, thought "I didn't walk that far" and realised the white van wasn't ours. Looked left, saw our white van across the road up against a hedge. I hadn't set the handbrake.

I need more sleep.



Rest of the day: went to baby gym with Poppy, watched "Girl on the Bridge" with Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paradis (pretty good film) and later took the little bundle of energy out for a walk.

Looking up

Things are looking up - we've all got holidays arranged, supplier lists for the new shop, the fridge in the current shop has (finally) been replaced, summer is here (kinda) and it's all good.