East Devon Way (in a day)

41 miles and our longest training walk for the upcoming Afoot in two dales LDWA event. We just need to claim our certificates now 

The Pogues

Seaton paddle boarders

Boxing Day beach run

Christmas Eve beach run

Pollock and perch

The pollock I caught last weekend off the beach at Seaton plus the beast of a perch I caught one evening after work in the week on the Chesterfield canal. The perch was my first ever caught on lure and wasn't far off two pounds

Family time

We had a lovely family get together today with Alfie and his folks. The weather in Devon was better than forecast and we took lunch outdoors

Stef's parents are always great hosts and it was smashing to have four generations together

Tom, Lacey and Alfie haven't seen much of Tuss since he was small but they enjoyed each other's company relaxing on the patio

Alfie's christening

We were in Devon at the weekend for Alfie's christening. He's two and a half now and we had a lovely afternoon at St John's in the Wilderness church then in the pub afterwards

Alfie

Five weeks

Family

Sam is with us for a few days; mainly for his open-day intro at college yesterday, but also to see if we can all fit in the house. I picked him up in the West Country on Tuesday evening from his dad's, and we did well getting home an hour or so before midnight after a better than expected drive up the M5 and M6

Yesterday I took Sam to college and asked him on arrival if he wanted me to come into reception with him. "No, it'll be fine" he said, and he was right; it was fine

Last night we had a BBQ. It was fun manning the charcoal and tongs, plus sorting out drinks. The fact Stef and Sam finished their food sitting under golf umbrellas didn't put too much of a dampener on things

I've never felt part of a family (I know only seven people with my surname and two of them are a couple who will be divorced soon), and it's a very long time since I've felt as content as I do this morning. I think we'll be okay

Swallows

Four; last night. Ace

Twilight in Boston

Sub-Eight

It was eight weeks to go until our wedding on Saturday. Most of the bigger things (church, dress, rings, hotels, my cuff-links) are sorted now and we're largely down to fine-tuning and sorting our wedding day race

We spent the weekend in Devon and should have been running the Grizzly yesterday. Around the middle of last week we decided we are in no kind of shape to do a mostly runnable 20 miler so we spent the day with Stef's lads instead

I'm running out of time to lose some weight and my training is still all over the place with decent weeks logged then weeks when I get out once at best. Last week was a 'one runner', albeit a very enjoyable Wednesday head-torcher

Alfie's doing great

Alfie has two teeth now and must only be a week or two from walking. We had a great day at Bicton yesterday and there was a real feeing of spring approaching with birds singing and daffodils flowering

Alfie's first Christmas

Alfie at nine months

Alfie is nine months old now. He was on tip-top form yesterday when we met him and his mum and dad at Bicton!

Sidmouth sunset

Alfie and the green ball

I took this photograph on Saturday with Stef's phone camera. It's amazing the way technology has come on in my life-time. I wonder what people will be doing when Alfie is middle-aged?

Perfect day

Stef and I have been in Devon since Friday evening and had a great day yesterday. We met Tom, Alfie and Lacey at Bicton in the afternoon after having a walk along the estuary at Topsham to Bowling Green Marsh RSPB reserve Alfie is seven months old, sitting up and with his first tooth coming through. Last night we had fish and chips in Seaton, a walk on the beach and a glass or two of Bacardi. A perfect day really!