Skip to main content

Ha' Bir'da Do Dooo!

That's Theo's attempt at Happy Birthday To You, if you can't quite make it out.  He's got the tune down to a T, so we'll give him some leeway on the consonants.  He's had plenty of opportunity to sing it, as it was my birthday recently.  Breakfast in bed seems to have become the custom, so I was proudly presented with cereal, toast and a boiled egg.  I managed the cereal in bed but thought the rest might be safer eaten downstairs.  Toby also drew me two very nice birthday cards.


So, apart from having to figure out your age when people ask you (what year is it again?), how do you know you've reached your mid-thirties?  Well, one reliable indicator is that you are actually pleased - possibly even delighted - to receive a vacuum cleaner as a birthday present.  Graham has already been gently mocking me for enjoying my new toy so much, but look!  It actually picks the dirt up!  And my stairs don't have dust in the corners for the first time in two years!

Okaay, moving swiftly on... Just to prove I can still have fun, I also purchased Qwirkle and Bananagrams with some of my birthday money (thanks John!).  Toby and I had a go at Qwirkle, which is a strategy game with coloured shapes, and found it easy to get the hang of and quite absorbing.  He's probably too young for Bananagrams, which is a bit like fast-action Scrabble, despite protesting that he "knows how to spell lots of words".  So if you come to visit any time soon, expect to be coerced into playing one or the other - or if neither appeals, we can offer Guess Who?, Jenga, dominoes or plenty more!


For dinner we went to a local pub/restaurant which is enlightened enough to provide a children's play area.  It was pleasantly quiet, and we enjoyed the carvery and finished off with a massive chocolate brownie sundae.


Everyone enjoyed that!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

One hundred churches

About the middle of January, I was walking to school one afternoon when it occurred to me that I must have visited quite a few churches on my explorations. I started counting them. But I quickly ran out of fingers, so when I got home I plotted them on Google Maps. Not only was the number much higher than I was expecting, it was also tantalisingly close to one hundred. Only a few dozen to go. So of course, every walk since then has had to include at least one church! Last Monday I visited my hundredth church: St John the Baptist, Dethick. It was a beautiful little 13-century building with an unusual tower - I was glad it had claimed the 100 spot. I haven't been inside every church. Sometimes they were locked; sometimes I was in a hurry and didn't try the door. St Leonard's Church in Alton had bellringers practicing, and I almost interrupted a funeral when I stuck my head through the door of St Mary's, Marston-on-Dove. A few, such as St Oswald's, Ashbourne, and St Wys...

Derwent Valley Heritage Way: Steep drops ahead

It's been a long time since I fitted that much up and down into an eight-mile walk! 740m of steep climbs and steps. My legs were not very happy with me the next day. Between Matlock and Cromford, the Derwent River runs through a deep valley, with Matlock Bath - a landlocked town which pretends to be a seaside resort - down at the bottom. The ridge of high ground used to run all the way round to Scarthin Rock, cutting off Cromford from the rest of the valley, until somebody blasted a hole through it to build the A6. Matlock Bath: pavilion and amusement park I started in Cromford and climbed over the ridge at Harp Edge, then followed a path along through the woods, with the ground dropping sharply away to my right. There were a few small caves among the trees. At Upperwood someone had thoughtfully provided a bench. I wasn't in need of a rest just yet, though. In fact, I was feeling so bouncy that I went down an entirely unnecessary flight of steps, instead of staying on the reaso...

The Churnet Way: a wonderful walk

The loop from Oakamoor to Froghall and back was one of the most enjoyable walks I've done in a long time. It had a bit of everything: woods, ponds, rivers and railways; steep climbs and sweeping views; an unusual church, an ex-industrial wharf, and, as a final bonus, car parks with toilets. Of course, the sunny weather helped too. I parked in Oakamoor and set off along a quiet lane called Stoney Dale. This is the route of the Churnet Way, which deviates away from the river for a couple of miles. After a while I turned right and climbed up through the woods on a gravelly path, then dropped down to the B5417. a spring in Oakamoor   Crossing the road, I entered Hawksmoor Nature Reserve. It has some fine gateposts commemorating John Richard Beech Masefield, "a great naturalist". I found a photo of the opening of the gateway in 1933; unsurprisingly, the trees have grown a lot since then! A track took me down through the woods to East Wall Farm. Lovely view! Nice duck pond as ...