Saturday, 1st October – Went by taxi to Glenridding to meet ten other members of the Wainwright Society and two dogs for a walk to Keldas and Grisedale. It seems to me that the people and the dogs enjoyed the walk in exactly the same way and that we belong to a multi-specific society.
Tuesday, 4th October – Read about the Radio Times Treasure Hunt, in which people are trying to track down private recordings of old radio and television programmes as I suggested in my diary on 19th January, 2006.
Wednesday, 5th October – Wrote to the Radio Times Treasure Hunt. Within ten minutes I received an encouraging reply asking me to send them the list of the contents of my collection of scenes from television so that they could compare it with what is already held in the archives.
Saturday, 8th October – Finished watching the film about the sinking of the Titanic made in 1997. It was even more realistic than the 1958 version.
Sunday, 9th October – Finished watching the 82-hour version of my selections from television and I find it so much better than everything that has been broadcast recently that I feel that it must be kept for posterity. The scenery is better, the commentary is better and the music is better. The only respect in which more recent broadcasts are better is the clarity of the picture.
Monday, 10th October – It was a beautiful day, so I got a bus to Oxenholme and went for a walk on the Helm.
Tuesday, 11th October – Received a letter from Mark Abbott on headed notepaper with a panorama from Orrest Head on the bottom, so I replied enclosing a copy of a letter I wrote in 1980 on headed notepaper with a panorama from Scafell Pike on the bottom.
Thursday, 13th October – Someone on the radio said that all radio programmes have been kept since the 1980s. If the same is true about television programmes it means that I may not be in possession of a unique historical record as I wrote in my diary on 17th April, 2001.
Monday, 17th October – Received an email from the Radio Times Treasure Hunt saying that I can’t help them because they only want whole programmes.
Tuesday, 1st November, – Finished reading Otherlands by Thomas Halliday, which was published in 2022 and which introduced me to the names of oceans and continents that no longer exist. It was beautifully written all the way through. Among the interesting things I learned were that life originated in deep-sea alkaline vents and that the earliest known multicellular life comes from a landmass called Avalonia.
Thursday, 3rd November – Going through the mass of material in my computer I came across a link to a collection of extraordinary photographs of trees that I had forgotten about. [The photographs can be seen here.]
Monday, 7th November – Looked up ‘matchbox labels’ in the internet and found a page containing fifty labels described as ‘vintage’. Not one of them was in my own collection.
Saturday, 12th November – Went to Ambleside for a gathering of members of the Wainwright Society in the Parish Centre. I couldn’t hear what the speakers were saying, but at one point I had the impression that they were talking about me. I was later told that this was true. Towards the end of the meeting they sang some of my favourite songs. I had a lift home with some people from Natland.
Sunday, 20th November – Listened to a radio programme on which it was said that there is more liquid water on Europa than there is on Earth.
Tuesday, 29th November – It was so misty I couldn’t see any of the trees from my sitting-room window except for the four in the foreground.
Thursday, 8th December – By using my camera as a telescope I was able to see Mars just after it had been occulted by the Moon. Later I could see it with my naked eye.
Friday, 9th December – Chris Butterfield called and took me to Andrew Nichol’s house. Chris gave me a copy of his book Wainwright Memories, for which I provided the maps. This is the only book I have found in recent years that stays open when you open it. He has already sold 300 copies at £25 each, although I have only sold 100 copies of my book at £10 or less in four years.
Saturday, 10th December – In the morning the ground was covered in snow. It had been forecast the day before. Found a photograph of Andrew and myself in the Wainwright Facebook site with a favourable comment from someone.
Monday, 12th December – Discovered an internet site called ‘Google Street View’, which I had read about in Chris’s book. The temperature on the computer screen was -6° C in the morning.
Thursday, 15th December – The temperature on the computer screen was -9° C in the morning.
Sunday, 18th December – Went outside early in the morning and found the ground covered in ice, although the temperature on the computer screen was +2° C.
Monday, 19th December – The temperature on the computer screen has now gone up to +12° C. Went to a Wainwright evening organised by Chris and Priscilla in the Council Chamber of Kendal Town Hall. As at the meeting in Ambleside, I could tell that people were talking about me at one point, but I couldn’t tell what they were saying. Afterwards I talked to some interesting people.
Tuesday, 20th December – Watched a wonderful programme in the Smithsonian series about Argentina, a country that is completely unfamilar to me. The programme was produced in 2022.
Wednesday, 21st December – Chris phoned to say that ten copies of my book were sold in the Town Hall, which is encouraging.
Thursday, 22nd December – Received a letter from the Great Diary Project saying that they have incorporated the new information that I sent them on June 21st.
Sunday, 25th December – Finished reading a book about Hadrian’s Wall by David Taylor which is cleverly arranged so that every chapter has exactly the same number of lines. Watched a cartoon called The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, which was produced in 2022, and which was just as good as the cartoons that were made when I was young. I also enjoyed a programme from 1986 presented by Val Doonican including a beautiful song that I have never heard before.
Thursday, 29th December – Received an email from John Manning that went on and on and on, so I sent him my website, which also goes on and on and on.
Friday, 30th December – My weight is now 9 stone 11 pounds, the lowest it has been for at least fifty years.