We and our shadows

Saturday was a glorious day, like we'd been ambushed by spring. As I stood in the kitchen making coffee, I had a sudden urge to open the windows and take in the fresh air, and when it was time to head into Kirkby Lonsdale, I was actually glad that I'd left the bike at the house and that I'd have to walk in.

On the way in, I took quite a few photos: one or two for Instagram and some as candidates for the day's Blipfoto. None of the photos are extraordinary but you can see them all here, a little travelogue.

Later on, though, Dan and I walked down into Kirkby Lonsdale together and I took this shot of the two of us standing together in the sunshine.

You know, when I told people that my second wife was pregnant, some would say "Hoping for a boy, this time, then?" (as I already had four daughters). But I really wasn't; I was hoping for another daughter.

But I'm so glad Dan was a boy. I does make for a different relationship and, in some ways, a slightly more pressured one. He looks to me as a role model and sometimes I am acutely, almost painfully aware of that, like the time, aged eight, that he set himself up a Twitter account. That made me pull up my socks!

I love him so much that it hurts sometimes, when I can see how looks up to me, when I see him just enjoying being with me and I can remember feeling that with my dad when I was small.

As we walked along, we talked about super-heroes, always careful to differentiate between Marvel and DC, about Iron Man and then Neil Gaiman's 'Sandman' and how he's different from Spider-man's enemy of the same name and, you know, I simply couldn't have been happier.

In the evening we watched 'The Pursuit Of Happyness' together, and I don't think I took my arm from around his should once. Well, apart from the ice cream and cookie runs, of course :-)