The New Term - 2

Well, we made it to Coniston on Tuesday where I introduced Tara and Rueben to the Black Bull rather than the Old Man. It seemed to me that a walk to the summit of The Old Man of Coniston in non-stop rain wouldn't endear my grandchildren to The Lake District.

Lunch at The Black Bull, Coniston

We meet the locals

Tara prepares desert while Rueben relaxes

Teenagers' bedroom Day 1

On Thursday morning we walked around Ulverston including Hoad Monument

Ulverston

Not quite the walking holiday that we had hoped for but we were agreed that it was an enjoyable way to spend half-term.

Disagreements with teenagers regarding what to wear in wet weather and what time to get up in the morning were easily settled. Compromise and truce do not work. The grandfather must accept unconditional surrender.

The New Term - 1

According to the BBC this morning, it will be sunny in Coniston on Tuesday 26th October. I hope that the forecasters are proved right about that; I'm taking two of my grandchildren, Tara and Rueben, to The Lake District and Tuesday is pencilled in for a climb up The Old Man of Coniston - T&R's first mountain. I don't anticipate problems if it rains whilst we are out walking but getting the beds off their back if it's pouring outside won't be pleasant. And it is a holiday. Not my normal walking holiday though.

Monday we drive up there, Tuesday walking, Wednesday partying, Thursday shopping, Friday home. Plan B, a wet weather programme, is that activities on Tuesday and Thursday can be transposed. A compromise (an unbelievably hard one for me to bear) is that T&R can sleep in on Wednesday and Thursday.

For the children it will be a half-term holiday.

For me it's an end-of-term holiday.

I joined the ranks of the retired this month and can now look forward to a new term where there is more time to do the things that I would like to do rather than must do.