Pete left Stick Number 11 with us in Crickhowell at the start of the summer - it sat in our hall all through the floods in July, on into the autumn and into winter. I don’t know quite why it took us so long to take it out on a walk, since we walk most days - maybe we felt that the stick needed the whole family for its first foray.

Finally on the 3rd of November, we resolved to take the stick out on a regular walk of ours, from the house through town, up Great Oak Road to the the farm track to the deserted houses, then up the steep fields to Table Mountain from where Crickhowell gets its name (Crug Hywel or Hywel’s Fort). Our daughter is about 16 months old now and whilst her walking is pretty good, she still goes in the carrier for walks that are further than the shops and back. She was pretty taken with the stick and did a good job of waving it around in an erratic and frankly dangerous fashion. Maybe we should ask Pete if he can make some toddler sized versions - ‘toddle-with-me’?

Anyway, we got to the foot of the mountain, where we left the stick near the stile before having a family argument about whether we needed to go to the top of Table Mountain or just round the side and back down the valley on the Beacons Way.