Pub lunch

It's not often that the weather up here is so good that you positively want to eat outside but today was one of those rare days, so I grabbed a deck of cards and took Dan and Abi to the Marton Arms in Thornton in Lonsdale for a pub lunch.

This is the garden where we sat and played Go Fish! while we waited for our food. Nothing beats playing games with the kids; you can chat about the game or anything that comes to mind, so you hear all sorts of stuff that you never get when you quiz them directly ("How was school, today?" "Fine.")

It's also entertaining to be reminded of how competitive and funny Abi is and how corresponding patient and good humoured Dan is with his little sister.

Not pictured but just across the road from the garden is St Oswald's church, where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle married his first wife. (It's said that Sherlock Holmes was named after the vicar.) It's also claimed that Wuthering Heights was set in this area (the Brontë sisters were schooled nearby, in Cowan Bridge).