(Following on from Blog 57)
Wednesday, 3rd July – Tried to join the Friends of Hatfield Forest, but all I could do was to join an organisation that had nothing to do with the forest.
Friday 5th July – In the morning, the temperature in the computer was only 10°C.
Bought a green second-hand waterproof coat from the Nutshell in Kirkland. Not only did it fit, but it could be unzipped from above and below. I have been trying to get one like that for decades – and it only cost £15!
Monday, 8th July – Went for an early-morning walk in Brigsteer Park Wood and from there to Helsington church and Wells Garth. Chris phoned to say that there was a reply to my latest blog, and I was able to respond.
Tuesday, 9th July – Tried to consult the Ordnance Survey maps in my computer, but I couldn’t find the symbol that looks like a sandwich. This sort of thing requently happens when I try to make use of new inventions. Fortunately I can still use the computer for writing and storing text.
Wednesday, 10th July – Sent a message to the Wainwright Facebook site, but I couldn’t find it in the site.
Thursday, 11th July – Sent another message to the Wainwright Facebook site and this time I could find it.
Friday, 12th July – Walked round the Nutshell, a fascinating little shop.
Monday, 15th July – Photographed some unidentified wild flowers from my sitting-room window using a telephoto lens. The wall behind them was almost black in the photograph, making the flowers stand out.
Tuesday, 16th July – Identified Whiteside Pike, White Howe and Great Yarlside in the view from the top of Kirkbarrow. I assumed that the farthest hill visible at the left end of the view was Grey Crag because Wainwright said that Kendal could be seen from there, but I couldn’t prove it.
Wrote to Steven Pinker saying why I disagree with his statement on the radio that we will never be living in utopia and directing his attention to Blog 24 of my website.
Wednesday, 17th July – Went for a walk in a wood near High Jenkincrag about a mile east of Kendal.
Saturday, 20th July – Went on a six-mile walk to Eycott Hill, where I have never been before, and from Mungrisdale to Souther Fell. The walk was jointly promoted by the Wainwright Society and the Royal Geographical Society, and I showed them the article I wrote for the Geographical Magazine in 1981. From time to time the leader stopped to point out an unusual insect or plant. There were other people who were knowledgeable about natural history. These might have been members of the R.G.S. I saw a tiny frog when somebody pointed it out to me. Somebody else took a photograph of a lizard, but I didn’t see it. Saw a wild flower that I was told was Betony.
Sunday, 21st July – Finished listening to a very interesting radio programme about the Moon.
Monday, 22nd July – Transferred most of my savings to an account that pays interest.
Tuesday, 23rd July – Inspired by a lady I met on my recent walk who is interested in spiders I looked up ‘Britsh spiders’ in the internet and found a site where people send photographs of spiders for other people to identify.
Looked up the Kendal Ramblers in the internet to see if there were any suitable walks coming up and found that they had one the next day.
Wednesday, 24th July – Went on a walk in fine weather with the Kendal Ramblers from Witherslack to Yewbarrow, where I have never been before.
Saturday, 27th July – Printed a photograph taken only 200 yards from my walk to the shops that I never thought of taking before.
Sunday, 28th July – Went for a walk along the ditch that surrounds Kendal Castle.
Tuesday, 30th July – Received a £20 note with the King’s head on it.
Wednesday, 31st July – Went on a ten-mile walk in fine weather with the Kendal Ramblers starting in the village of Winton near Kirkby Stephen and passing through the ouskirts of the villages of Kaber, Brough Sowerby, Church Brough and Great Musgrave. Much of our route coincided with that of Wainwright’s Pennine Journey. I discovered many interesting places that I had never seen before including a vast area of meadowsweet, the finest oak tree that I have ever seen and a well and a cave near Brough church. Took a photograph of three of the members surrounded by wild flowers. Ten miles is just about the greatest distance I can walk in a day without suffering the effects of exhaustion. I am fitter now than I was four years ago.
Friday, 2nd August – Identified a wild flower that I had photographed on my walk to the shops as orange hawkweed or fox-and-cubs.
Saturday, 3rd August – Ordered a deep yellow tie from Amazon because my green tie is worn out and I can’t get a green one.
Sunday, 4th August – Receied the tie I ordered.
Monday, 5th August – Listened to some scenes from Mrs Dale’s Diary broadcast in 1954-5, some of which I remembered.
Printed the Viewfinder panorama from Black Combe for the next Wainwright Society walk. I found that I could print it all on one page and still read the lettering. I am glad I bought a colour printer.
Tuesday, 6th August – Found a current Nationwide debit card in Low Fellside and took it to the Nationwide office.
Friday 9th August – Paid a subscription to the Kendal Ramblers.
Bought a battery charger at Boots, but I couldn’t find a way of connecting it to the mains. I was just about to take it back to the shop when I found that I had a plug with a suitable hole in it that I had never noticed before.
Saturday, 10th August – Went on a Wainwright Society walk from Whicham to Black Combe with 1800 feet of ascent, twice as much as Loughrigg Fell, which I had difficulty with in 2018. It was cold and misty on the top. Spoke to a remarkable lady who recognised a peregrine falcon when it was too far away to identify and who saw Scotland when it was too faint for me to see.
Sunday 11th August – For some reason people keep on saying nice things about me in the Wainwright Facebook site.
Saturday, 16th August – Finally got round to writing to the British Film Institute offering to send them my collection of scenes from television.
Thursday, 22nd August – I frequently find photographs of myself in the Wainwright Facebook site. Often I don’t remember having seen them before and don’t know where they were taken.
Sunday, 25th August – Sent an email to Chris Butterfield suggesting that we upload the whole of the ten-hour version of my collection of scenes from television because anyone who doesn’t want a scene to be used can remove it.
Tuesday, 27th August – Finished reading the Collins guide to British trees, which introduced me to a lot of trees that I had never heard of.
Wednesday, 28th August – Found the video of Flight over Spain in my website along with the relevant blog and noticed that the total number of visits has now reached 100,000. I was able to watch the video for twenty minutes, but if I wanted to watch the rest of it I had to start at the beginning. Later Chris phoned and told me how to avoid this.
Saturday, 31st August – Found a tiny insect in the bath, and from its size and shape I could tell that it was a louse, which I hadn’t seen before.
Went for a walk in Lord’s Lot near Crook in beautiful weather. The grass of Parnassus was in flower.
Tuesday, 3rd September – Went on a Kendal Ramblers walk in beautiful weather from Patterdale to the Aira Force tea room.
Thursday, 5th September – Walked along Ennerdale with Chris and Priscilla as far as High Beck. Saw a pill millipede and an orange peel fungus, neither of which I had seen before. Discovered that the short cut that I recommended heading east from Low Beck was unsatisfactory and that it would have been better to have continued along the beck to the end of the forestry road. This is uncorrected in the latest edition, and there is nothing I can do about it.
Friday, 6th September – Sent the words of my poem The Legend of Wainwright (which I offered to Mike Harding in 1992) to Chris at his request.
Saturday, 7th September – Found The Legend of Wainwright in the Wainwright Facebook site.
Sunday, 8th September – Finished listening to a very interesting radio programme about fungi called Entangled Life.
Monday, 9th September – Looked up ‘Bedlars Green’ in the internet and found a photograph of Whistlefield that had only been there for six days.
Thursday, 12th September – Ordered a mobile phone that can only be used for phone calls from Vodafone for £79 because the one I have is too complicated.
Saturday, 14th September – Dreamed that I met my brother and told him that I thought he was dead.
Finished reading an interesting book on mathematics called ‘How Big is Infinity’, which introduced me to several new concepts including Stirling’s formula.
Went on a Wainwright Society walk from Dunsop Bridge to Brennand Farm and Whitendale Farm in the Forest of Bowland. Someone was comparing the view ahead with one of the drawings in Wainwright’s Bowland Sketchbook when an insect landed on the book. It stayed there long enough for me to get out my copy of the Collins Complete Guide to British Wildlife and identify the insect as a large ichneumon wasp.
Helen Hackney, whom I mentioned in my diary for 23rd July and 10th August, showed me a book of beautiful Ordnace Survey map covers, and I showed her some of my favourite maps. I also gave her ten hours of my favourite scenes from television.
Monday, 16th September – Collected my new mobile phone from Vodafone.
Tuesday 17th September – Went up Latrigg and Lonscale Fell with Chris in beautiful weather.
Tuesday, 24th September – Finished reading Professor Stewart’s Incredible Numbers, which is even more interesting than the otther maths book I read recently.
Went to a Wainwright afternoon in the Armitt Museum in Ambleside. There were a lot of interesting books in the room where it took place. Chris gave a talk and I made a very small contribution. Afterwards we went to a public house where I had an interesting conversation with someone whom I later discovered was the person I met in Ambleside in 2019.
Sunday, 29th September – Chris and Priscilla called and enabled me to consult the Wainwright Facebook site and to find the Ordnance Survey maps in my computer. When we set off I couldn’t start the car. Chris suggested that I used my spare key, and this worked. I would never have thought of it. We walked along the Whinfell Ridge from the A6 as far as the third summit of Ashstead Fell, where I cut my leg, and identified a fox moth caterpillar on the way back.
When I got home I went through the Wainwright Facebook site and found several references to myself that I hadn’t seen before.