Five rise

Our New Year's resolution was to go for a walk as many weekends as possible, to enjoy the area around us - after all, that's one of the main reasons we moved! When we made this plan we didn't really take into account the fact it gets rather cold in winter, and while we keep warm while walking Marisca, sitting still on Daddy's back, can get a bit chilled. It hasn't stopped us walking, but has made us re-think our routes until Spring.

Last weekend we walked along the canal to Bingley five rise locks: only a mile or so, but lovely to be out in the crisp air. The locks are currently being renovated: four of the lock gates are being replaced. This meant the complete lock rise had been drained, and was open to the public to walk through. We had to go - we're both geeks about this sort of thing, and we need to make sure Marisca appreciates our industrial heritage.  Here she is at the bottom of a lock, being impressed:

The open day was very popular: we were glad we got there at opening time, as the queue rapidly grew very long.  There was a steady procession of people filing down and through the locks:

Of course, no walk is complete without a tea shop, and the five rise cafe was doing a roaring trade.  We stopped off for tea and cake: Marisca refused to eat a bite of her flapjack until she had helped us eat all our ginger cake.  Only then did she decide to sample her cake - Tim manged to get in on the act, as Marisca is finally working out how sharing works:

I should point out that Marisca was in the middle of chicken pox - not that you could tell.  We were lucky that she had very few spots on her face, so we were able to go out and about with a child who didn't look or act ill.  We kept her away from other children until she was better, but after days of no toddlers we were glad to be out and about!