Saturday, 1st February, 2025 – Arranged for somebody from Robinsons to call on Tuesday to help me with my television equipment. Then I watched the latest completed volume of my selections and discovered that it included a scene that I didn’t want and couldn’t erase.
Tuesday, 4th February – The man from Robinsons happened to call at a time when the machine was playing up. He said that a lot of my problems are caused by having too many programmes recorded, so I deleted some of them after he had gone.
Wednesday, 5th February – The man from Robinsons called again and took away the recording machine.
Thursday, 6th February – The weather was so beautiful in the afternoon I went for a walk though Serpentine Woods and over Kendal Fell.
Friday, 7th February – Filled the holes at either side of the kitchen window with Polyfilla.
Monday, 10th February – Because I don’t have the equipment to work on my collection of scenes from television, I worked on my planned article on Kendal in the Nineteenth Century using the notebook that Chris gave me. Among the sites I identified were those of Rosemary Hill and Fountain Brow in the Fellside area.
Tuesday, 11th February – Went on a seven-mile walk with the Kendal Ramblers from the village of Caton near Lancaster to the wind farm on Caton Moor and back. I found it much easier than their last walk.
Wednesday, 12th February – I can still watch BBC and ITV programmes using the satellite equipment, but if I stop watching a programme before it is finished I can never find it again.
Thursday, 13th February – Found two buildings in Kendal that had actually been improved since they were illustrated.
Monday 17th February – Phoned Robinsons and was told that I have to buy a new machine.
Wednesday, 19th February – Finished the field work for my article on Kendal in the Nineteenth Century. I would not have been able to do this if I hadn’t lost the use of the equipment for editing scenes from television. I was lucky to get ten days of fine weather.
Received an email from the secretary of the Wainwright Society saying that they will be reprinting Pennine Way Companion including the additions I sent them in October, 2023.
Friday, 21st February – The man from Robinsons called to deliver a new BRD recorder identical to the old one. He said that he had noticed me walking round the town taking notes.
Saturday, 22nd February – Discovered that I had started on my article on Kendal in the Nineteenth Century in two different locations in my computer because of the state of my memory.
Sunday, 23rd February – Received an email entitled ‘Hefted’, written by John Manning and including a feature about me with a photograph of the tent on Scafell Pike and a link to my website.
Monday, 24th February – Read an interesting Facebook article about Wainwright that was written in 1972. Succeeded in erasing the unwanted scene that I mentioned on February 1st.
Tuesday, 25th February – Looked up ‘When the world was a little younger’ in the internet and discovered the beautiful words of a song.
Discovered that I can still watch the programmes stored in the old recording machine.
Wednesday, 26th February – Chris called to give me a memory stick containing the whole of the collection of my favourite scenes from television. He showed me a television programme in which he recently appeared. He said that he agreed with me that the old television programmes are better than the new ones, which suggests that there are people out there who will appreciate the trouble I have been to in preserving the older scenes. After he had gone, I was able to copy one of the scenes from the memory stick to the computer and from the computer to another memory stick, which means that, given enough time, I can copy the whole collection. Ordered a 500 GB memory stick.
Thursday, 27th February – Copied the contents of the memory stick I got from Chris to the computer. I find that copying is much faster than I expected and that I can use the computer for other purposes while I am doing so. The scenes broadcast between 1984 and 2014 are excellent, but many of the later scenes include material that I never intended to keep, which I would have thought was impossible, and many of the scenes are missing. It is a good thing that it is this way round because the later scenes are more likely to exist elsewhere. Received the 500 GB memory stick.
Friday, 28th February – Ordered a new computer from K.T.D. because my old one is falling to pieces, but I found that transferring the email from the old computer to the new one was too difficult for me. The man from Robinsons called to repair my television because it keeps switching itself off. As soon as the shop closed, the television became worse than it was before it was repaired. Now I cannot watch anything. Received some work to do on Pennine Way Companion from Derek Cockell, which was posted on Monday. I also have work to do on Kendal in the Nineteenth Century and on my website. Everything is happening at once.