Oh, when the sun beats down

There has been a summer hiatus in all sorts of things, but two of them - walking and boardgaming - have kicked off again.

And your shoes get so hot, you wish your tired feet were fireproof

Following my ascent of Haw Pike (which is actually no height at all, although it was very windy up there) I have been on the fells above Burnsall. For those among you who are colonials and therefore susceptible to a bit of twee, I include a picture of the stocks at Appletreewick.

On the gaming front a new venue has been discovered and thus I have played six games - including four new to me - and impressively come last in every single one. It was the first time that I had played Citadels with only three people and while the special rules are, I think, better because one can plan more efficiently I, er didn't. Ticket to Ride was as good as ever, but I was far too unambitious in my choice of which routes to aim for. Seasons was full of interesting mechanisms, but I'm not keen on games where players acquire special powers throughout the game because I can never keep track of what is going on. I also didn't like the theme, which was far too "Mystic Warlords of Ka'a" for my taste. The Enchanted Bunny didn't actually put in an appearance, but it was lurking in the background somewhere. Greed is a card drafting game where gangsters and property developers are conflated - which seems reasonable. Keyflower is a much-hyped game with a huge number of things to do, but not many ways to score that somehow doesn't tie up very convincingly. And Among the Stars is an intergalactic version of patience as far as I could see.

So from that lot, while Keyflower is the obvious hit, I would choose to play Ticket to Ride any time.