Rain and sun

Friday the plan was for Tom to go to Kendal Cricket Club for a day of playing under 11s cricket with Cumbria Cricket Club - but it rained the whole day and they cancelled it.  Such a shame as that was pretty much the only opportunity for Tom to play cricket this summer!  I went to pick him up from Grannie and Grandpa's as planned anyway (Grandpa was off to London for the day).  Tom was hyper!  He had obviously had a great time with G&G, he was in fully chatty mode.

Pacer - rubbish!

We got back and I actually got Tom to do some art, whilst I pottered.  Then at 11, Matt took Tom out for the day to Preston train spotting so I could get my LAST CAKE OF THE SEASON finished - yahooooooo!  Think they had a good day.

Saturday morning Tom and Matt went down to the pool for the morning session.  It was a lovely sunny day so they were expecting to bump into someone they knew down there, which is normally the case.  No!!!!  There were only about 10 people down there, we didn't know any of them and they all left before the end of the session, meaning that Tom had the pool to himself.  Luckily he is happy pottering around by himself and was more than happy diving, playing with Ali, and splashing around.  He stayed in right to the end when the lifeguard asked him to leave!  We then all headed across to Inglesport for lunch, then Matt headed across to the field for a cricket match.  Tom went to join him to watch the batting at the start whilst I did my run (haven't done one for ages due to having a cold).  It wasn't fun but I got round it OK.

Fighting for space at the pool!

I then went to join Matt and Tom watching the cricket.  Matt got out for a duck, and the whole team was out for 86.  We watched the second innings.  It didn't take long and Tom got a job helping with the scoring.  Cricket scoring is a complicated thing, to me it looks like shorthand, loads of boxes to fill in for every ball.  I think Tom would probably make a good scorer as he has a natural aptitude for numbers and loves cricket.  Mac, the Cricket Chairman has picked up on this too and asked if it is something to look into.  It is but he needs to be quite a bit older and able to concentrate better.

Anyway, he got to work the scoreboard, whilst a teenager from the other team (Penrith) did the scoring.  He was a lovely lad, and ended up giving Tom a coaching session between balls.  He didn't get to bat as they beat Ingleton losing only 2 wickets.  We got home, had tea and then headed out to the Old Post Office for a drink - they have put their business up for sale which is a shock, we wanted to find out why.  Matt and Fi weren't there, but we got the gossip which is pretty much what we expected: they want to focus on doing outdoor events which are a lot more lucrative than the bar.  Sales are down in the bar (mainly, we think, because they have stopped doing their platters).  However, they want to sell it as a going concern so it continues as a micro bar and doesn't get turned into a holiday let / Chinese takeaway etc.  Lets hope someone who understands its ethos does buy it and continue to run it in the way it was set up.

Sunday, a beautiful day, a day for being outside, even if my legs were very stiff from my run yesterday.  We got out Auntie Jude's walks for the Yorkshire Dales and chose the one in Grassington. We didn't know where it would go, but we have only been to Grassington for football, so our memories of it are of freezing on the touchline in snow, rain and wind and then heading straight to Keelham Farm Shop for hot food to try to thaw out.

We went via the Settle high road and saw loads of beautiful highland cattle glowing in the sunshine right on the road.  Thank you cows - a good start to the day.

Uncle Dougal (according to Mullan)

We got to the National Park Car Park in Grassington, parked up and got ready.  Tom was in charge again - navigating from the front and leading the walk.  We followed.  It was only 3.5 miles but 3.5 miles of splendour.  In under a mile we were on the banks of the river Wharfe at Linton Falls, it was very low - lots of rocks were high and dry, but the river itself was very accessible and had a weir, salmon jumps, Archimedes water screws and pools of water deep enough to swim in.  We figured we should return at the end of the walk for a paddle.  We carried on across roads, through stiles, over a railway bridge, under a rail bridge, up and down gently undulating hills amongst the sheep, across streams all the way following our path finder.  We went past a very isolated school - literally a typical Dales house with a couple of newish buildings but in a field with no houses at all nearby.  It was Threshfield School - an idyllic location, but seriously in the middle of no-where, we couldn't see a village near at all.  I wonder do most of the kids arrive by school, or is there a 'walking bus' for local children to get there?

Typical Linton house - serious envy

We finally came out on a road on the edge of the village of Linton.  Our stomachs were rumbling so we thought we would find out if there was a pub in the village.  There was.  OMG - what a quintessentially English pub and location.  It was an olde worlde pub, The Fountaine Inn, directly opposite the village green which was edged by a river.  How beautiful and idyllic.  We immediately knew we would have to have at least a drink and if possible lunch there.  We got an outside table, Tom went down to the river for a play and I went in hunting for food.  We were all happy, they were doing a full menu, so we decided on a fish platter between the 3 of us and settled down to enjoy ourselves.  It was a popular pub but the food was quick and delicious: battered haddock, a fish cake, poached salmon, smoked salmon and ebi with a basket of bread and some salad.  Perfect.  I had to physically go down to the river to retrieve the boys (I shouted but they were so absorbed in their activities that they didn't hear me!)  We all tucked in and were very happy.

Post-prandial paddle

We then went back down to the river and spent quite a bit of time paddling in it.  Tom met a boy Freddie who was a keen fisherman and was able to catch tiny bullhead fish in his hands.  They paddled around together, gathering what they could find.  He was very knowledgeable and very skilled (not sure Tom managed to catch any fish).  He also found quite a large crayfish - I was stunned by how big it was, however, it was dead.

After a good hour playing in the river (Tom) and dreaming about which house we will live in (me and Matt) we continued on with our walk.  It wasn't that far back to Linton Falls and before we knew it we were on its banks and Tom was in his knickers up to his neck swimming in it.  People were down there with picnics, lie-lows, swimming rings, bbqs etc making a day of it.  This is somewhere Ali (our blow up Alligator) would love to explore, we should certainly come back with him and swimming cosies and some more kids.  It would be an easy and fun day out.  People were sliding down on the salmon runs too which looked fun.

Wild swimming in the Wharfe

Once Tom had had his fill (his first proper wild river swimming) we headed back to the car park and then found ourselves an ice cream each.  Then back to the car and back home.  Today was one of those perfect days: perfect weather, perfect scenery, perfect wildlife, perfect food, perfect rivers, perfect son and perfect hubby.  What more can a girl need?