The “mountain “

Thomas loves a good walk but James is less keen. His legs get “bored” on the forestry track

They fell asleep by 9.15 last night and though they got up at 6.30 they left us alone till 7.30 which was a good result. James ate a good break of 2 bowls of muesli and yogurt so we had hopes of this not being the “worst day of his life”.

I sorted out some snackage and water and Mr C packed raincoats which were not needed. We parked at the woods for the walk up Simonside. It was thundery and the flies were pretty bad on the directvpath through the woods. Thomas and I got cracking while Mr C listened to James’s constant chatter. Apparently he’d once been helping his mum chop a lemon and the juice got in his eye. He thought it felt like a swarm of bees stinging it. He is expressive and learned a new word - exaggerate.

When we got to the red forestry road he decided his legs were definitely bored - Thomas and I waited at the convenient bench looking over the valley to Cheviot. When they joined us the boys had snackage then we headed up the steep side. They were in their element from there and ran on, while I hauled my arthritic knees up with the aid of my walking poles.

At the top they put some stones on the cairn then took off. If you look closely you can see 2 tiny specks. Eventually they waited as we were so far behind. We had a discussion about waiting at every path turning off. We headed down, having done 5.5 miles.

I made some lunch then Mr C printed off pictures of the Bakugan James wants for his birthday. (It’s in October and he was pretty sure we’d forget by then). I’ve heard about this wretched toy all weekend. Mr C took Thomas to the woods to
Inspect some new cycle tracks that have appeared - they were so steep they had to pull themselves up by trees.

When they got back we chilled out by watching Danny McAskill doing the Cuillin Ridge on his bike.

The parents brought the van back safely from their weekend near Bristol. Their friend had to pull them out of his field with his tractor as it had been so wet in the gateway. I’d made drop scones which went down well with a cup of tea before they went home. Thomas smuggled his collection of bones in a bag into the car. James couldn’t find his special stick. Eventually they got away.

I’m going have a scented bath and Mr C will watch the Grand Prix before we head off for supper at Ailie’s.

Oh well done Southgate’s team. We watched England beat Ukraine 4-0 last night.