Sunday climbing

The weather has been so amazing this weekend that today we wanted to take the children somewhere special. Dress for climbing, I told Zebra-girl, who doesn't really do trousers, and so instead put on her shortest dress in a nod to practicality. I remember the day that this dress arrived in the post (wrapped in lovely Mr Boden spotted paper)...she had tried it on in the living room and twirled around in it laughing at the feeling of it skimming her ankles....I hadn't really noticed her growing, and I felt sad when I realised that today was probably the last time that she would wear this lovely dress. I wonder if I will ever feel ready to cut it up and repurpose it? At the moment I still feel like I want to preserve and keep everything they've ever worn just as it is...

We took them somewhere with bridges to cross, caves to hide in, and darkened passageways that weave between towering rocks. Zebra-girl is just like Ian...everything she sees she wants to climb, with an absolute fearlessness that I can't comprehend. Dinosaur-boy is just like me...we enjoy the views and have to battle hard to not let the squelching mud and imagined trolls beneath the bridges ruin our fun.

At the end of one of the passage ways we reached a clearing and saw this little wooden ride-on toy...we watched a small toddler pottering around alone at the bottom of a large rock chattering to himself as his father scaled a vertical rock face high above him, using only chalk on his hands to gain a grip.

The rocks were covered with scratched engravings and we wondered at whether Toby still 'hearted' Sarah as he had done in 1983. This one below seemed a little more professional than some of the others.

And I took a photo of this one below (mistakenly) for Lindsay: Olivia & Daddy 07. Although of course I'm not suggesting that Lindsay's family would take part in this kind of rock defacement! (I say mistakenly because i've now remembered that actually Lindsay's little girl is in fact called Olive - what a beautiful name - but i've left it in, as I think that if you have to vandalise rocks, then doing it with your father is rather sweet-spirited...and also because it is nice that fellow bloggers come to mind when out and about...even if I am a dotty thing who misremembers the vital details- sorry Lindsay! x)

We couldn't leave without Ian having five minutes to himself doing his best impression of a mountain goat.

We stood at the end of the passageway and Dinosaur-boy looked high above where his daddy climbed and said to me: Do you think that boulder will fall on Daddy's head?

Ian looked up and obviously hadn't previously noticed what was wedged in between the two rocks above him. It had probably been there for hundreds of years...but that doesn't make it look any less precarious (you can see it at the top of the picture below).

Climbing Note: Sometimes it is harder to get down than it was to get up.

I hope that you all had lovely weekends too, and most especially Mrs Birthday Girl, Ginny. x