We lay in bed for ages on Saturday morning, listening to the rain pelting against the windows. It was lovely, and I think we we all really needed the rest, but I regretted having got up so late when the sun set just a few hours later. This time of year, it seems like the sun rises, meanders across the sky just above the horizon for a bit, and then sets again. But, as usual, we got the laundry done (they know us at the laundromat now), cleaned the house, and visited the library. Boring but necessary. Oh, and we bought a new coat for Stephen. He is not usually easy to shop with (/understatement) as he tends to know what he doesn't like rather than what he does. But the coat purchase was actually - amazingly - fairly painless.

We took advantage of today's - I was going to say nice weather, but it would be more accurate to say lack of rain - and spent the day outside. We caught the train to Dorking (neighbouring town) and walked back home along the North Downs Way. Stephen stayed home, on the grounds that he has two tests next week, and needs to study. This is true, though the cynic in me wonders just how much studying actually happened while we were out...



Before we got to the woodsy bit, the walk took us through some fields, where we pretended not to be afraid of the cows. You can see the girls' and my legs disappearing rapidly into the distance behind the cows. Bobby spent ages gazing into their eyes, though.



The autumn colours are lovely at the moment.



And there were pretty views for almost the whole way.



It was very muddy though. We gained a new understanding of the phrase "stuck in the mud" - at one stage Emily really did almost lose her shoe.



The walk was longer than we'd realised it was going to be - 12.5 km, according to Bobby's GPS, and we were all pretty tired by the time we got home. But I enjoyed it a lot; it reminded me of my own childhood. We used to go for walks on Table Mountain almost every weekend when I was Sophie's age. Though Bobby is more of a fun, energetic dad than mine was; there was much tree-climbing and stick fighting and running and playing hide-and-go-seek along the way today. I'm so glad he has that quality - I tend to the fuddy-duddy side myself so without him life would be a lot more boring for the kids (and for me).