Red Squirrels and a Bike Ride

Posing for the camera

So we were back to the old routine this weekend, which meant Saturday morning football.  Now, we were all a bit worried about what would happen to the team this year as there were only about 4 in Tom's age group and the younger ones wouldn't be able to play with them this year.  Not a problem, Finn had decided that he wanted to join, and as he joined, Fred of course joined and then Matthew decided to give it a go too.  On top of that the coach had managed to find a couple of Kirkby Lonsdale families with children who wanted to give it a go.  Now there are about 15 players in his age group.  Some of the new children are brilliant too, Lucas doesn't look so amazing anymore as others are as good.  Tom didn't get swamped by the new people either and looked good enough, trying at least to tackle and get the ball.  It was nice to have the other parents to talk too as well.

We weren't sure what to do in the afternoon, Matt had a light bulb moment and suggested we go looking for red squirrels at Snaizeholme, near to Hawes.  Wow!  I was expecting to maybe glimpse one after looking very hard for a very long time.  Not so.  We saw loads of them, and not only that - they were as tame as anything and came up to sniff around us.  We couldn't believe our eyes, as a result red squirrels are now Tom's favourite animal!  They were very beautiful creatures darting in and out around the trees in the forest.  It was a very pleasant hour we spent watching them.

Close up

Sunday was another nice day.  We decided to go on a bike ride from Halton to Glasson Dock and back.  It wasn't a good start - we forgot that Tom's bike's seat was at its lowest height from the pump track and Matt's seat was loose and we didn't have an allen key!  Not to worry though, we were on a bike route, we found better prepared people on the route and were soon sorted - note to selves, make sure we have allen keys with us in the future!  We have done the ride before, my memory was that it was quite a long trek, but obviously both Tom and I have got a bit fitter since as it didn't seem that long at all (and that was with my brake pads rubbing on my front wheel, slowing me down!).  It was a 16 mile ride all together, a perfect tonic for Matt who was suffering from a hangover after a big night out with the cricket crowd.  We had lunch at a good greasy spoon in Glasson Dock, which was full of cyclists.  It took us no time at all to cycle back to the car.  My legs were hurting and felt as if they were made from rubber, but it was good to be out on the bikes again, it has been a while.