Pastures Wild and Pastures Tamed

Because I hate to waste any moment when the weather is good I set the alarm early with the aim of getting some jobs at home out of the way in the morning. That was a silly idea. Neither mind nor body was willing to get up at such an ambitiously early juncture. Both were telling me that this was to be a chilled out day.

It may not sound that chilled, but I went for a 30 mile spin on the bike, out to Appletreewick, Hartlington Rakes, Hebden and Burnall, and it did actually feel relaxing after the 120 mile epic of last Sunday. I got back to catch a bit of play in the Test Match before going down to the club to watch the boys.

I was hoping we'd win the toss and bat first, as I know Forrest is much better batting when fresh than after 50 overs in the field and in the heat. But it was not to be. It was the perfect day to be watching cricket, temperatures again in the high twenties. It was helped by great bowling performances from both by sons, Roam taking 4-16 off 8 overs and Forrest 3-25 off 13. We bowled the opposition out for 150 and we felt that was a comfortable target. Unfortunately, that didn't quite work out as planned. Forrest got a ball that popped and was caught at slip for 17 and it all went downhill from there. We slumped from 25-0 to 48-8, with a brief fight back at the end when Roam, coming in at No.10, showed the upper order how it should be done. He was very upset that his hard work with the ball did not yield a result.

The evening then disappeared in a haze of the usual stuff and I pretty much succeeded in having a day entirely away from the computer except to skype. It felt like a relaxing day on one level but it was pretty much all go another - other than those idyllic hours in the afternoon watching the cricket in the sun, with my sons grabbing seven wickets between them. There may not be too many more opportunities to watch them play together like this.

I chose this shot to remind myself of what was another perfect summer's day. This wild meadow was full of a wide range of different grasses. It was very hard to capture, but all the subtly different shades of colour and shape were quite astoundingly beautiful. Cycling along the lanes there are so many different shades of green on display. I can never grow tired of this constantly changing landscape.