Come and Play Betsy May: My family and my life.

My family heals me; nurtures my soul; inspires me; cares for me; is proud of me; is honest with me; trusts me; believes in me; supports me; keeps me sane; keeps me grounded; loves me. I know these words aren't ground breaking in terms of the theme of family love, but it's difficult to find sentences that can evoke the happiness I feel when my family is together in one place.

My family, minus one brother who is busy at university, went on a day trip to Holwell Gorge, somewhere between Exeter and Frankford (I think). It was my other brother's last day visiting us before flying back to Western Australia, so we thought we'd better do something a bit interesting.

The Gorge was beautiful, but very cold as the tall trees cut out most of the sunlight. We weren't sure if there would be a walk for us to do because a few years ago landslides had destroyed parts of the track and we weren't sure what had been done since to restore it. The track was visible, however, so we decided to have a go. A few big, inconveniently placed trees made the track into a bit of an obstacle course, and eventually the trees became too big to straddle. But, I got a few decent pictures and only fell on my face once, so all in all it was a pretty lovely day out with clear blue skies, an energetic dog and my brilliant family. Or at least that's what we all thought until we clambered back into the car and soon after discovered several fat, black and malleable leaches - all of which ended up having a little flying adventure out the car window.