A glorious weekend

What a glorious weekend - unbroken sunshine and everyone well and in a good mood, what could be better?

Saturday we decided to go for a 'proper' walk, so headed out to Rodney's Pillar just across the Welsh border - it is a steep climb, but with our new found fitness from the Forest of Dean we figured we would be able to do it.

To our surprise, Tom decided he would show us that he can walk really well and walked about half way up the hill (it's a high hill) and it was all uphill, no flat areas at all - he was an absolute gem, laughing and giggling his way up - it took quite a while as he tends to stop and start - it is either stand still or run with him! We finally got to the top where we were rewarded with views across Shropshire and Powys. We had our picnic at the top and then headed down a much steeper path, I carried him down (Matt carried him up for the bits he needed a rest). My knees were completely shot by the time we got to the bottom of the steep bit, but Tom was then happy to toddle back down to the car park from there. We reckon he did a good 2 miles if not more. We found a pub just round the corner from the car park so had a quick drink before heading home. Tom was asleep almost instantly - who can blame him?

He had a good long sleep, during which time Matt tilled the vegetable patch ready to plant potatoes. Once Tom was up, we got the potatoes out and Tom helped plant them - he got the hang of it really well, almost as if he knew what he was doing. I will now try to teach him to water them and talk to them, maybe we will then get a good harvest.

As we were all tired from our walk, we decided to head to our favourite Indian for dinner. We were first in, got our usual table and then Tom got stuck in. He ate an ENORMOUS amount of food, just didn't stop shovelling it in. The staff were really chuffed that he liked it so much. Their Masala sauce was definitely a hit and he also liked the paneer, so will get that for him again next time we visit.

Got home, decided not to give him a bath, so straight to bed - we didn't hear a peep from him.

Slept in until 8am on Sunday - we were all tired. In the morning we headed down to Ironbridge for the monthly BEST walk - not quite on the scale of yesterday - just a pleasant ramble down the hill and back with good company. The pace was a little bit too fast for Tom, he managed about a third of it, but his constant stopping slowed everyone down too much, so we ended up putting him in the rucksack. We then headed into Blists Hill for a picnic and then did the walk down to the Incline Plain and back (so basically the same walk again - but this time within the museum rather than outside the museum). Tom showed signs of getting tired, so we headed home.

The afternoon was spent getting all the garden furniture out, cleaning the bbq out etc for the first bbq of the year. We sat out front with the Gouge's and enjoyed the sun. It really was quite hot - I have definitely caught the sun. Tom spent most of the afternoon playing with Becca - he really likes her - no idea why as she bosses him and drags him around, but he just follows her like a lost puppy. Is really cute to see - and wonderful to sit back and watch.

Around 6.30 Tom started getting tired again, so I put him in the bath (where he tried to swim?) and then stories and bed. He should be having happy dreams.

New words: 'down' (Me: "Tom say up"...Tom: "DOWN!" - Tom was on the see saw on Friday with Mae and I was saying up and down to him, so now thinks that you must say down in response to up) and today he started to say 'car' when he saw them in Ironbridge. He is definitely trying to say more and more, but the sounds he needs to repeat all words aren't there yet...