Fountains Abbey

A Tail of Two Fountains

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A Tail of Two Fountains

It is amazing what a difference seven days makes. On two consecutive weekends wee had gone to Fountains Abbey. The circumstances could not have been any different. The first weekend was the same as any other weekend, with a distant background rumbling of this illness coming fast from the other side of the world. Seven days later strict social distancing was in place, a day after that, the country was in lock down, something none of us had seen coming a week earlier.

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Deer, Deer and Sparklers

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Lyns was working nights Friday and Saturday night so James and I took the opportunity to have a sleep over at Nana and Grandads. Cheekily, this also meant that I could go out for a run on Sunday morning. Dad volunteers at Fountains Abbey and he had heard there was a deer walk this weekend.

We headed over for lunchtime on Saturday. The walk seemed really interesting as it tours round the deer park stopping from place to place to give a little talk about the area. Unfortunately, it is not really suitable for very small children as James could not keep up with the pace of the walk. Not that it mattered, as we know the area relatively well and there are so many deer it would be impossible not to find them.

The weather was absolutely stunning and even though we all wrapped up, we did not really need it. We even go some spells of sunshine which was nice. James was in his element, running around and exploring everything. Once off the road James was pretty safe to explore wherever he wanted, as long as he kept away from the deer. It is currently the rutting season and whilst the deer kept their distance, there is a higher than usual chance they could get aggressive.

James had lots of fun spotting all the deer. At first they were all reindeer to him, however we quickly explained that these were red and fallow deer. Once he had worked out the difference between them, he became quite an expert at pointing them out.

There are some lovely properties in the deer park. Some are owned by the national trust and you can rent them out as a holiday home. Others are privately owned. I mean, imagine living in the house pictured below. It would be amazing.

Very quickly we had been left behind by the group on the tour so we made our own little tour for James, shortening it to suit the distance that he could walk. As we were nearing the car on the return leg, we came across some huge piles of fallen leaves. James proceeded to do what all little boys do when confronted with piles of leaves.

After we had got back to the car it was down to the cafe for a cup of coffee and, in James’ case, a hot chocolate. He must have been thirsty after his walk as he demolished his hot chocolate.

After we had got back to nana and grandads it was time for a fire and some sparklers. James loved the sparklers and went through two full packs of them. Grandad had fired up the BBQ and we had a very enjoyable dinner of sausages in buns, a very bonfire night style dinner.

Sunday morning saw me up bright and early and heading back to Fountains Abbey. This time I was on my own for the purpose of going for a run. It was over cast and very warm for this time of year. I had a very pleasurable few hours, running several laps around the deer park as well as exploring some of the footpaths around the area. I had not truly appreciated how hilly the area was. There are very few flat bits.

After getting back to nana and grandads and having a couple of hours playing with James it was back home to wake mummy up. James loves waking mummy and he is so cute doing it with with big kisses and cuddles. He certainly gets a better reception than I do when I wake Lyns up.

We had a party at our nursery in the afternoon, followed by heading to our friends, Lorna and Paul, for some fireworks and dinner. We had a very pleasurable evening with the kids having lots of fun and mostly enjoying the fireworks.

As with always, it was a shame the weekend had to come to an end. James and I had a lot of fun, a testament to which was the speed he fell asleep once his head hit the pillow after we got home.