Austwick Village

Day three of our visit to North Yorkshire involved a trip to a local village, Austwick, which has a nice playground and a beck (small river) with a swimming/fishing hole. Karol-Ann and I sent Geoff on ahead with all the kids (except the baby, who was due for a nap) to have a walk there and play for a while, while we stayed and did some sewing.   Once the baby woke up and had lunch, we drove down to join them. 

 Here's Harriet, not entirely sure she likes the springy thing at the playground....

but much happier about the swing,

and quite keen on the grass. It was such fun visiting someone with a baby - I was reminder both how much I really enjoy some things about babies (cuddles, giggles, the joy with which they greet things they like) and at the same time, how glad I am to not have to cope with some things (teething, nappy changing, having to take half your house with you when you go out). It has the nice effect of making the things I dislike about teenagers not seem quite so bad as I thought they were...

Anyway, here's a lovely dry-stone wall - they are all over the place up there. 

Alex kept jumping up and down, trying to get into this photo...

A disused barn, with a great door

and a blocked-up doorway on the same barn. 

The path to the beck. 

Here's Alex on the bridge across the beck - there's a ford as well, just to the left, but it was a bit deep to walk across at the moment. The path is a bridleway as well, I think. 

Here you can see where they've dammed the beck a little to provide a swimming and fishing area - there are a couple of swings on the side. The kids didn't go swimming on this visit, but they did use the swings and try their hand at netting some small fish (didn't get any) - and managed to get fairly wet and muddy!

This is the same barn as in the door photos above. 

Here's Olivia enjoying having a baby around. I think she'd quite like me to provide her with one, but sorry - it's not happening!