Whistlefield, which is mentioned in my entry for 2nd October, is the cottage near Hatfield Forest and Bishop’s Stortford where I spent the first eight years of my life. For more about the coincidence mentioned in my entry for 29th October go to Blog 10 and scroll down to ‘Coincidences’.

Tuesday, 1st October – The average number of visits to my website per day in September was 225, more than for any previous month.

Took my new mobile phone back to the shop because I couldn’t get it to work. I tried it out ouside the shop and it worked!

Wednesday, 2nd October – Printed a 2½” map of the Whistlefield area from the maps on the computer.

Thursday, 3rd October – Went on a walk with the Kendal Ramblers from Oxen Park to Abbot Park, Stock Farm, Low Bethecar and Top o’Selside in perfect weather. On the way up I could see part of Wales and I tried to photograph it, but I couldn’t get the camera to focus.

Sunday, 6th October – Chris phoned and asked me to go on a walk to Stoodley Pike with him on Tuesday, when rain is forecast. He must have a good reason to want to go to somewhere so far away in such weather.

Monday, 7th October – Finished listening to a very good radio programme, ‘ Vesper Flights’ by Helen Macdonald.

Tuesday, 8th October – Waited for Chris in a layby near the M6 while he was waiting for me in another layby nearby. Fortunately my mobile phone was working, and I was able to find him. We drove to the road in Mytholmroyd, where Chris lived in the 1990s, and walked from there to the monument on Stoodley Pike and on to Todmorden. I remembered how dark it was in the monument and thought to bring a torch. We found the date 1892 inscribed on the monument, although I had written in Pennine Way Companion that the oldest date was 1930. Took a photograph through a gap in the hills of the tall buildings in the centre of Manchester. Chris stopped to talk to some people who were familiar with my work. Found a young toad whom I was able to persuade to jump onto my hand. He was so friendly he stayed there long enough to be photographed. The last time I saw a toad was seven years ago. Discovered a remarkable piece of natural sculpture called the Basin Stone that I had never heard of before. Altogether, we walked for about seven miles. We returned from Todmorden to Mytholmroyd by train. I dressed for the rain, but most of it fell when we were in the car. When Chris was driving, I used his satnav to navigate and found this very much easier than using maps.

Thursday, 10th October  – At Chris’s suggestion I took the car back to the place where I bought it. They showed me how to unlock the boot and passenger doors, and they changed the batteries in both my keys. I didn’t know that keys had batteries.

Saturday, 12th October – Read on the internet that there is self-catering accommodation in Bishop’s Stortford.

Monday, 14th October – Read in the internet that there is self-catering accommodation at Hatfield Park Farm a quarter of a mile from Hatfield Forest where you can stay from Friday afternoon to Monday morning.

Wednesday, 16th October – Phoned Robinsons because I can’t get satellite television and was told that nothing could be done about it. Then the man called and got it working, but he wouldn’t accept any payment. I find that people are like this nowadays: I still haven’t been charged for the new taps that were fitted six months ago.

Friday, 18th October – Found the word ‘Photo’ under ‘Write something’ in the Wainwright Facebook site, and this enabled me to upload the photograph of a toad that was taken on October 8th. I had to print the photograph and scan the print because I didn’t know how to get it directly from the camera to the Facebook site.

Received an email from the British Film Institute National Archives in reply to my email of 16th August saying that they don’t want my collection of scenes from television and that they don’t know of anyone who has a similar collection. I would have thought that they would have had hundreds of offers like mine.

Saturday, 19th October – Ordered two sets of headphones, two waterproof notepads, two pedal covers for the car and five blu-ray discs from Amazon.

Watched the film ‘The Ghost Train’, which I watched at school. I didn’t remember any of it, but I thought that it was very good.

Tuesday, 22nd October – Went for a walk from Capplerigg Lane near Crook to Lindreth Brow, where I found the well shown on the map, but it looked more like a cave than a well. Came back by a different route.

Friday, 25th October – Found the Wainwright website and Chris’s article about our walk to Stoodley Pike, which I found fascinating.

Saturday, 26th October – Met Chris and Priscilla in the layby near Hucks Bridge and went for a walk in Bretherdale linking various byways. Breasthigh Road was an unmetalled road, which is what would be expected. The byway along Bretherdale Beck turned out to be a narrow, metalled road. The parallel byway to the north was nothing more than a path, and it would be quite impossible to drive a car along it. At Bretherdale Head, I took a photograph of the porch of an abandoned house with vegetation growing on the floor and seat. Discoveries like this can only be made when I go to places where I have never been before. Found some fossils embedded in rocks at the side of the path and saw a snowball tree. Priscilla used her equipment to identify an unfamiliar fungus. We walked for five miles in six hours with about 1400 feet of ascent and descent. I couldn’t use the stepping stones near the start of the walk because I am too unsteady on my feet, so we had to keep to the northeast side of Borrow Beck.

Sunday 27th October – Found illustrations of some of the places we went to yesterday on page 308 of Westmorland Heritage. I didn’t think of looking for them before we went.

Tuesday, 29th October – Learned of yet another coincidence concerning President Kennedy. John Kennedy replaced Dwight Eisenhower, and Elton John replaced Reginald Dwight. [I checked on the internet that the name of Elton John was not chosen because of this connection.]

A few days ago, Chris asked me what I thought was the happiest period of my life. Now that I have had time to think about it, I have come to the conclusion that the answer is the period in which I am now living: I don’t have to go to school or work, my income exceeds my expenditure, I have somewhere to live, and everyone I meet is kind to me.