A lovely Christmas Day with ma and pa Booth and the Joneses. A slight bias of photos of lovely Clara, who provided us with lots of entertainment throughout the day, especially with her eagerness to get her hands on any electronic device, read and play the piano!
A few festive days at the start of the holiday, albeit a little subdued due to enforced recovery from illness. The Strictly Smokin' big band gig in Newcastle was superb and the turn out for Carol singing round the tree in Richmond market square was excellent.
A blustery walk on Leyburn Shawl was a welcome breath of fresh air and mum and dad provided us with a lovely evening with family and friends on Tuesday.
Christmas Eve was an opportunity for a fine lunch with family at the White Bear in Masham followed by an evening with Lisa and Jim when we were introduced to the game of Cards against Humanity, which I embarrassingly won!
The first weekend in December started with a choir concert in Coverdale and the Joneses arriving in Richmond on Friday night.
Naomi and I had a lovely day shopping in Leeds, bringing back fond memories of uni days. Meanwhile Tim and John had a great local day with Clara.
The Dales Bike Centre festive ride was a great day out on Sunday, shared with John and Will. A smashing crowd of 25 riders. A wintry day and the odd bit o' tinsel and a santa hat kick started the festive season! Photos can be seen on the DBC Facebook page. My fingers were too cold to take pictures!
Tim also enjoyed a ride, albeit in the wind, on the road up Swaledale where he refuelled at the DBC!
A trip to IKEA in Leeds on Friday night paved the way for furniture construction on Saturday to (almost) finish off the lounge.
We were lucky to be able to squeeze everything into the camper. It was tight! 
A road ride via the DBC in the afternoon was possibly a little underestimated but we managed ok with the lights we had arriving back at home at 16.45. The irony was that actually I'd been discussing, at length, with Stu at Fremington about lights! Just more proof that they're worth the investment.
En route to Bainbridge I was faced with an unexpected issue in the camper. A certain smell. Considering the possibility it could be from another vehicle, I then saw smoke coming from one of the speakers. Fortunately I could pull into a farm at Bellerby. Following a phone call to Tim, we figured it was probably the radio so I removed the fuse and carried on my merry way. Quite a daunting experience which initially left my heart in my mouth!
Riding on new territory proved to be a success with some great descents near Semer Water on Sunday. Tough going riding up wet grass over moorland and on muddy tracks with slippery rocks but I enjoyed some of the best downhill sections on byways I've ridden so it all evens out. My encounter with a number of 4x4s really annoyed me at first but it spurred me on to do a superb section again (extra loop!) as they got in the way the first time. They did let me pass, very politely, and the second time I caught them up. I dutifully let them pass before a hill on a road, leaving me with 2 lungs full of fumes, leading me back to contemplation of my thoughts on this one.
Looking across to Raydale
Semer Water
A pleasant and sociable weekend involving lots of pedal rotations in Swaledale.
Also great to catch up with the Becca, Dan and the girls and we had a lovely meal with Nicky & Rob on Saturday night.
