Saturday night saw the grown-ups’ party at the same venue, with a meal and a brilliant ceilidh. Congratulations Griff & [...]]]> From the Lakes we drove up to Peebles for Griff & Clare’s 10th Wedding Anniversary. On the Friday Amy had her fifth birthday party at Traquair Village Hall.  More photos on Facebook.

Saturday night saw the grown-ups’ party at the same venue, with a meal and a brilliant ceilidh. Congratulations Griff & Clare!

More on Flickr.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

We had [...]]]> We’ve completed the first leg of our Grand Tour.  We left London after work last Friday night, at 8pm, and drove to a cottage in Eskdale Green in the southern Lakes.  We arrived at 2am after a ridiculous final five miles where the roads were packed with hundreds of sleeping sheep and cows.

We had a few walks locally from the cottage to various pubs, and Pip & I also managed a full day to tackle Scafell Pike – I had a score to settle.  We went via the long southern approach, across the Great Moss.

 We visited Pip’s Mum’s friend Lord Pennington at his castle, via a steam railway. I presume we have now been on all miniature railways in the UK.  We balanced rocks at St Bee’s, and crossed Hardknott Pass in the car.  Birk’s Bridge would have been a perfect spot for a dip if it hadn’t been so late.

 I dislocated Indie’s elbow one morning, so her arm hung limply by her side all day. We drove her to A & E that afternoon.  Going round the final mini roundabout to the hospital she leant against the side of her car-seat and popped it back in again.

On our last day we tried a Moss mountain climbing expedition, on Catbells by Derwent Water.  I carried Indie all the way up and down in the back-carrier’s final outing, and Laurie did the whole four-hour trip (450 vertical metres of steep climb and scrambling) under her own steam.  The family parked next to us in the car park gave Laurie a pair of walking boots which helped a lot, once she got over the disappointment of her first pair of non-pink shoes.

All the photos are on Flickr.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

Pip, Liz, the girls and I went [...]]]> We spent the last weekend of July camping in Norfolk.  We stayed in the back garden of the Duke pub in Bacton.  Nick, Nadege and Noe camped with us, and my Mum & Dad (in their motorhome) and sister (in our tent) stayed on the Saturday night.

Pip, Liz, the girls and I went to Merivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth on Saturday afternoon, which was everything I hoped for!

On the Sunday we spent the morning on Cromer beach where Indie had an early birthday party.  Then the Suffolk Mosses returned home and the rest of us searched out some prime kayaking grounds.

We ended up at Blakeney, which is a beautiful little coastal village.  Well, it’s not quite coastal – it’s separated from the sea by a mile or so of salt marsh, with a narrow channel connecting the harbour to the sea at high tide.  We were there at low tide, but as the kayaks only draw around 6″ I thought we’d be able to make it.

After an hour of wading along the mud, pulling the boats through the 3″ trickle, we gave up waiting for the promised incoming tide, turned round and waded back to the cars.  The trip was beautiful, and we met a surprising number of mud-dwelling Norfolk people in the middle of the marsh, but it wasn’t really what we expected.

Monday was spent hiding from the sun in Norwich castle, which is brilliant for kids.  Although they’re not allowed in the dungeons or battlements, which limits the enjoyment for not-kids.

All the photos are on Flickr as usual.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

We stayed in a huge old farmhouse villa outside Soller, near the hillside village of Fornalutx.

The [...]]]> We’ve just got back from a week in Majorca.  We went with the Griffiths/Prentons, the Hendriks, the Derbys, the Silkys and Dr Duncan.  That makes 11 adults and 10 kids under five.  Very relaxing!

We stayed in a huge old farmhouse villa outside Soller, near the hillside village of Fornalutx.

The villa was great – set in the mountains, it had its own vineyard (we drank a case and a bit of the fruits), two donkeys and a hammock.

Driving was a little hairy – we were in the mountainous quarter of the island so there were plenty of hairpins in every direction.  Plus some idiosyncratic automatic gates which ate Fiona’s car a few times.

Pip made team t-shirts for our Los Locos kids, in birth order, and every night was party night.  All ten kids fitted in the bath at the same time.

Most of the rest of the time, we were on various beaches.

All my Majorca photos are on Flickr.  Clare P’s are on Facebook.  The Darby’s are on Dropbox.  I guess everyone else was too busy looking after children.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

As it wasn’t snowing this time, we [...]]]> We drove over to Fi & Wim in Amsterdam for the late May Bank Holiday this year.  We went to an amazing adventure playground at a rejuvenated gas-works, Wester Gasfabriek, which was basically a swamp.  You could commandeer a raft, or build a bridge.

As it wasn’t snowing this time, we finally spent a day at their local beach.

Full set on Flickr.

My Mum and [...]]]> We went to Kent for this year’s six-day Easter.  It was gorgeous weather, the bluebells and the paddling pool were out, we even barbecued a couple of chickens.  I cooked lunch for 22, we had St George’s Day bacon and eggs at Tilmanstone Village Hall and managed a walk to the pub.

My Mum and Dad stayed for a few days en route to the continent for their annual expedition.  Mum & Lucy came with us to the new Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate, and to the slightly older Shell Grotto.  A much better Margate experience than my last one!

We came back on Wednesday afternoon in time for Laurie’s St George’s Day fair at her school – she and I had to run through the woods this morning (the alarm clocks didn’t go off!).  As she was wearing her Cinderella dress we picked up quite a few comments.

Photos here.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.