Cruel World

This is a Prisoner of War camp from the Second World War, near where I grew up. More informationhere if you're interested. It's in the grounds of Featherstone Castle - more of a country house than a proper castle really and on the banks of the South Tyne.

It's a lovely spot for a walk, though the end of our walk was a bit spoiled when we went to a bit of the river that a group had been picnicking at... and found the river full of dead toads. They were all spawning, but dozens of them were dead with legs missing and entrails hanging out. I'm really hoping someone will tell me that's perfectly normal and a natural event (if a cruel one) but I fear it may be a more human cruelty that is involved. It left us all rather grumpy and upset. The kids, happily, have a fairly matter of fact attitude to this kind of thing. While me and Mam were bemoaning the fate of the poor toads, the kids were wandering off to look for something more interesting "well, there's nothing we can do about it - these things happen".

Later in the day we popped along to the farm to take them some wee plastic bottles that would be useful for feeding the lambs. On the way out of the lambing shed we passed the pile of dead bodies - a few sheep and half a dozen lambs, with associated entrails, placentas, etc. The kids didn't bat an eye at that either. Tougher than me.

Anyway, I spent a lot of today wallowing in memories of when I was little - revisiting lots of the places where I used to play, teaching the kids how to climb the trees I used to climb... so it didn't take a lot for the kids to persuade me that we could stay an extra night and go home tomorrow morning instead.

Very sad family news tonight. My uncle, who has been very very poorly for a long time, died. He wasn't an old man. My aunt lost her mum late last year too. Life can be very cruel.