Tuesday 18 August 2015

Tuesday 18.08.2015

In the peaceful Cotswolds having survived the madness and mayhem that was Boomtown - yes,it was that good. And there IS a song called Winchester Cathedral despite the sceptics and nay-sayers I've met this week. And now I've seen the building itself - Boomtown takes place just outside the city which is very chocolate-box pretty and a reminder that there are dozens of interesting towns and cities waiting to be explored. But for now it's onwards and upwards to a field in Devon. ☺

Monday 10 August 2015

Monday 08.08.2015

A quick walk round the woods on a fairly nondescript summer`s morning yesterday - and then the day got steadily brighter and warmer.
And today, out of a stuffy building at lunchtime, it was positively hot, not something we`ve been saying that often this summer.

Bennachie shimmering away in the distance







the long and winding road - well long anyway -







and a stolid, grey church, pretty in the shade of some splendid trees.







Should be warmer as the long trek south to Festival Land begins, so warm in fact that thunderstorms are threatened....hey ho - que sera, sera.


Meanwhile, I am late to the party, but just discovering Stuart Maconie. Or rather, having known him as a musicologist (indeed saw him last year when he was on tour talking about The People`s Music) am just discovering his writing: try Adventure on the High Teas, a delightful, informed and shrewd analysis of that mythical animal "Middle England" and also Never Mind The Quantocks - how country walking can change your life, a "cull", as it says on the back of the book, from his monthly column in Country Walking. Has had me snorting into my coffee - a tad embarrassing when you`re on the train.






Sunday 2 August 2015

Sunday 02.08.2015

Lovely summer`s day all in all. Bit cool now the cloud`s come over and a breeze has sprung up but this morning it was sunny, warm in the woods (which did attract the flies - they`re seem to be a lot of them around this year) and with the kind of clouds that almost certainly have space ships hidden in them.



Disappointed not to have made the planned climb of Mayar and Driesh (http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/angus/mayar-driesh.shtml) but forecast really did suggest it wouldn`t have been much fun.......ah well, such is life (which is a famous saying amongst bushrangers as Midnite knew.......)