Sunday funday

When I was a kid, almost every Sunday would be dedicated to being squeezed into the back of the micra and driving around for hours on end in the countryside. I never enjoyed it much as a restless kid, being sandwiched in the back seat between my mam and Nana, but overall I have some ace memories and really it was a brilliant way to spend my childhood.

Nowadays we don't do that much any more but my mam and auntie and me went out for a Sunday mooch last week and I really enjoyed it. It was a nice day, and the first time my legs had been out in weeks. We stopped off at Barnard castle to get ice creams and have a look around (theres a proper class second hand book shop there that I LOVE).

They said that when I was a kid, whenever we used to go there they would take me to splash about in my little swimming costume in the paddling pool. Its still there today, but its empty and dirty and all the kids that were there that day were preoccupied by the play park.

We sat there though, to eat the ice creams and got nostalgic.

I guess some teenagers had also been keeping a bit of nostalgic tradition alive here too, can't beat a crudely graffitied penis can you?

Anyway after that we hopped into the car and drove to what I thought was a town but was actually a picnic area called, I think, Bowlees. My mam had been going on about it for ages because my Nana and grandad used to take my mam and auntie there when they were kids, and then they all took me when I was a kid. We reckoned though that the last time we were there, I would have been about 4.

It was just one of those beautiful typical English countryside places, with a little stream and a waterfall. It really was a gorgeous place though. We stopped and had a damn fine picnic, my mam attempted to do some bird spotting and then we all walked up stream.









Where we came to the first of two waterfalls,


There is a photo floating around somewhere, of me and my grandad in front of this waterfall, in this exact spot. I guess it was a little sad, having the reenactment alone, but it was a cool opportunity to re-do it 20 years later!



I was laughing in this one because as my auntie was taking the photo, a family came around the corner and caught us mid-photoshoot haha.

We walked a little further after that, up some steps and to another bigger waterfall. We couldn't get any further than that, so we turned on our heels and went back.




So there it is, my lovely Sunday.

I hope that next time we go coast-wards instead. I do love the countryside but my heart is always at the beach. Better get putting in my requests!