Fountains

Have I ever told you about Fountains?

Briefly, it started off with a few monks getting rained on in a corner of Yorkshire and became one of the biggest abbeys in the north of England. Then Henry VIII sent his thugs in, and everything was sold off or given to his cronies. The abbey became what it is today, a huge and impressive ruin. The land passed through a succession of wealthy families who added parkland, built a grand house, landscaped gardens, put in summerhouses and follies, and so on. It now belongs to the National Trust and is a great place for a day out if the weather is OK.

On Saturday the weather was very OK, and Fountains is not too far from where the Sunshines live. We spent all day there, and walked for miles and miles. I'd never been to the Deer Park before, but they had, and we went up there to watch the fallow deer. There was a red kite (that's a bird, not a thing that you fly) overhead, and swans with nearly grown-up cygnets, almost as big as their parents but still with grey-brown feathers. One of them was the troublemaker, and another one tried to wander off and was brought back by mum. That must be embarrassing, when you're trying to show off to the tourists and mum grabs you by the neck and winds you in. Even though it's early in the year the coots on the lake had two little chicks bobbing about on the water.

It was a good place for dogs, too. LYS made a lot of friends. And there were small children running about and doing all the things that small children should be doing. Fountains is good for a workout, too. The path from the car park is downhill on the way there and uphill (boy, is it uphill), coming back. We'd just got down there when I saw two young mothers with double buggies gearing up for the long push up through the wood. One of these buggies contained two children both about a year old, with 'Bro' and 'Sis' printed on the pram cover.

"Hello!" I said. "Boy and girl twins! That's exactly what I had, many years ago, and this,' indicating LYS 'is one of them!'.

"I bet it's easier getting him up the hill now," said the mum.