Thursday

The window of Oyster Clough Cabin

Today's walk was on  moorland east of The Snake Pass, before the road turns up onto Snake Pass Summit. I had parked Clint by ten fifteen. Soon I was ready to climb the long steep path northwards out of Birchin Clough through a pine plantation.

Twenty minutes later I was up in the light again clasping a detailed map of the area and ready to complete a long circular route that did not involve any proscribed public footpaths until I met Doctor's Gate south of Cowms Rocks near the old sheepfold.

You have to watch every step when walking in such terrain. Moorland vegetation can hide deep holes filled with water and there's squelchy peat and bogland to negotiate. I plod along slowly and carefully because one thing is for sure - if you have an  injurious accident out  there, there will be no good Samaritans passing by. You are as skiing aficionados might say  - off piste.

I circled the head of Birchin Clough and schlepped* over to the next major clough or valley - Oyster Clough. Previously I had noted that there's a shooting cabin near the top of Oyster Clough. I have visited  a good number of such cabins and they are normally locked up securely but this was unlocked so I went inside.

There was no evidence of grouse shooters using it but the roof and walls were well-maintained. It was very basic and there were log books dating back to 2017. I flicked through them, surprised by how many visitors there had been before me. Naturally, I left my own entry before enjoying a brief sit-down with my flask of water and three shortbread biscuits. The log books revealed that a number of visitors have slept in the cabin or sheltered from wild weather there. 

Grouse butt on Alport Moor - shooters crouch here as grouse are "beaten" towards them

I had forgotten to bring my compass but had little trouble finding my way to Cowms Rocks before descending to the old Roman track that is, as I said earlier,  known for some strange reason as Doctor's Gate. Nearly two thousand years ago Roman soldiers walked that way linking Ardotalia Roman fort near Glossop with Navio fortress at Brough in The Hope Valley.

The walk took me longer than anticipated - just over four hours . Clint admitted that he had scared off a sleek black Audi A5 who had pulled up next to him. "She said there was no way she would go out with a Hyundai i20!" he grumbled but then with a glint in his eye added, "You should have seen her bodywork!"

East of those lost hills, Sheffield was calling.

View to the old sheepfold near Cowms Rocks

* thanks to Steve Reed for this word

Find...

Like most people of my generation, I have never received any lessons in how to use a computer. Everything I know I found out simply by using computers. In other words, I have taught myself.

My computer interface is kindly provided by Microsoft. I am presently writing this courtesy of Windows 10. Worldwide, 77% of computer users use Windows. The number of Apple users tarries far behind - probably because of the extra cost factor. 

The helpful advice I am about to provide is aimed squarely at Windows users who have opted for the most popular browser  - Google Chrome. Apple folk may want to look away now. In addition, I recognise that many Windows users will already be aware of the facility I am about to explain.

Please look to the top right hand corner of your screen. You should see something very like this which is a snip of my own screen:-

Click on those dots and a grey dropdown menu should appear. The tenth item on  the list will be "Find...". This is a photo of my own screen:-

Click on "Find..." and then a search box will appear:-

I was on a BBC news item about Hurricane Elsa  which is currently making its way to northern Florida. Just to illustrate this "Find" facility I decided to search the text for "Elsa". The instantaneous search told me that the word "Elsa" appeared seven times in the article with the first appearance already being highlighted in the headline. Here's a snip of some more of that item with "Elsa" highlighted by the computer:-

Now let's suppose you were investigating a long academic article but all you want to know is - has the writer referred to sulphuric acid? You can just call up the "Find..." facility, type "sulphuric acid" into the search box and the computer locates the chemical name where ever it has appeared. There have been many occasions when I have found this "Find..." facility very useful and there may be times when you can also discover its usefulness. Apologies to more advance users such as a certain female resident of Ludwigsburg, Germany.

I expect that there will be an equivalent facility within Apple systems but to me that is all as mysterious as the Mariana Trench.

Questions

Two magpies

It seems that on our journeys through life, we are forever trying to make sense of things. Questions shuffle across our mindscreens about big and little things. From fairly insignificant personal stuff to enormous questions about the nature of the universe.

For the past forty years I have been a regular feeder of birds in every season and this extended experience has thrown up a whole bunch of questions...

• Why don't magpies whistle  - instead of cackling like the three witches in "Macbeth"?
• Can different species of bird communicate with each other?
• Why do pigeons seem so stupid when their navigation skills are so brilliant?
• How exactly do swallows make their way to Yorkshire from Africa each year?
• Having never seen goldfinches in our garden how come two arrived on the very morning I put up a new feeder containing niger seeds?
• Why do many gun crazy men in Malta and some other Mediterranean islands think it is okay to shoot birds, helping to drive them to extinction?
• Where do birds go when it is raining?
• How do all the other birds know to disappear when there's a sparrowhawk in our garden?
• Why are rooks such nervous birds when they are on the ground?
• Why have robins got red breasts?

I have asked God Google all of these questions but the answers have characteristically been unsatisfactory or inconclusive. Besides, even though the questions have arisen,  there is a sense in which I do not really want to know most of the answers.  The mystery of what is unknown can be very appealing.

Robin - I took this picture in the wintertime

Switchover

For those who do not dwell on this sceptred isle, I feel I should explain this blogpost before I write it. Throughout the pandemic Britain's Health Secretary has been a cod-faced fellow called Matthew Hancock or "Matt" as he prefers to be addressed. His reign, like his marriage, came to a shuddering halt after he was photographed in a steamy clench with his political aide - Gina Coladangelo.

Then a former Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer - Sajid Javid was asked to take over Hancock's role. He has been in the job for less than two weeks now.

Hancock always said he was "following the Science" as the pandemic progressed but Sajid Javid is following something else - perhaps the Economy or possibly his own unscientific instincts. "The Science" has now been side-lined and asked to shut up as Britain approaches "Freedom Day" on July 19th. What ever happened to caution?

A Tale of Two Health Secretaries

March 2020

HANCOCK: We're following the Science.

June 2020

HANCOCK: We're following the Science.

October 2020

HANCOCK: We're following the Science.

January 2021

HANCOCK: We're following the Science.

May 2021

HANCOCK: We're following the Science.

July 2021

SAJID JAVID We're not following the Science.

Onward

Harry Maguire celebrates his goal in Rome

"Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that." - Bill Shankly (legendary Liverpool F.C. Manager)

Today , Sunday July 4th, every English Sunday newspaper leads with last night's football result: England 4 Ukraine 0.  It was the last match  at the quarter final stage of the Euros - the European nations football championships which are normally held every four years. This game happened at The Olympic Stadium in Rome, Italy.

Ukraine seemed quite pedestrian and did not have an answer for the zippiness of England's attacks. Once again our lads played like a proper  team - working for each other. I was so pleased to see our captain Harry Kane score two but even happier to see ex-Hull City player Harry Maguire score a thunderous header. Same for  Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson who notched his first ever  goal for his nation. It was a moment he will always remember.

Here in Sheffield, your amiable host had his feet up  on our  reclining La-Z-Boy sofa with a cold bottle of India Pale Ale on the side table. I twitched and jerked, living each kick and tackle as my blood pressure rose and fell. This is how I feel when watching my club team - Hull City and only England can make me feel the same way.

What a brilliant performance and now we will meet Denmark in next Wednesday's semi-final.  One thing is for sure, Denmark will be nervous about playing England. Fingers crossed we will beat them and then go on to meet either Italy or Spain in the final next Sunday. For England fans like me, this is pure dreamland. COME ON ENGLAND!

Hollingworth

Horse at Flaxfield Farm

For one reason or another, I had not been able to take a long walk in the countryside since last week but that changed today (Friday). I steered Clint over the hills to Hollingworth near  Glossop. On the way, rather than listening to BBC Radio 4  as usual, I decided to play  an album called "The Very Best of  Jackson Browne". I bought it in 2004 but had not listened to it in ages. These years we are living in they just flick by don't they? Before you know it another decade has gone.

I parked on a particular street in Hollingworth having previously checked it out courtesy of Google Streetview.. Then with boots on I said farewell to Clint and headed north, through woods up onto treeless moorland.

The day was dry and rather sultry but did not provide the best conditions for photography. There was a constant haze and colours were muted. I plodded constantly for three hours - passing four reservoirs  - before taking a rest on a stile south of Flaxfield Farm.

Lane north of Hollingworth

I drank my water and ate my apple and then Geoffrey appeared. He was seventy six years old and could talk the hind legs off a donkey. He was wearing navy blue shorts with a navy blue T Shirt and scarlet braces (American: suspenders). When he came close to me to look at my map, I realised that he was wearing make-up. Not the kind of OTT make-up that drag queens might wear but a light foundation cream with ruby lipstick and a little light blue eye shadow behind his silver-rimmed spectacles.

As luck would have it, he decided to walk with me for half a mile or so. I  much prefer walking on my own but it was hard to refuse him. At a path junction we separated. He was heading up to a remote triangulation pillar and I was returning to Hollingworth. Geoffrey was a nice man with a zest for life but when we parted I realised that he knew nothing about me, apart from the fact that I had driven over from Sheffield. In contrast, I knew a great deal about him - including the names of his late parents, his sister, his best friends, where he had played in a band, his pension arrangements, how he had acquired his camera etcetera. This is by no means the first time that I have had a meeting with a stranger like that. They pour stuff out and seem disinterested in anything that I might have to say.

I felt pleasantly weary when I got back to Clint - four and a half hours after I had left him  snoozing under a tree. He woke up as though emerging from a dream about Turkey where Hyundais  are manufactured for the European market. "Wh...what? Err...! Oh it's you! Let's be off!"

Bench and signpost at Higher Swineshaw Reservoir

Songs

In the happiness that being a first time grandfather brought, I was doing a lot of singing and two new songs emerged as I swung from well-known traditional ditties into my own wordplay. And there was Phoebe in my arms, feeling the vibrations of my voice, listening to the songs with no idea  what they might mean as she nonetheless continued to learn rapidly about the multi-faceted world into which her mother had pushed her on January 15th.

Making this blogpost has given me an opportunity to write these songs down for the very first time. Just the words. I have my own tunes for them but you are welcome to create your own...

One day

One day you will see the sea
Bursting on the shore
And what is more
One day you might see a starfish
Or perhaps a little crab
And he might pinch your toes
Who knows? Who knows?
One day. One day. One day...

One day you might see the stars
Travel up to Mars
If that's your dream
And up there, up there
You might float around
Never touch the ground

Or even make a sound
Who knows? Who knows?
One day. One day. One day.

One day you might climb a mountain
Right up to the top
Never have to stop
To take a breath
And up there, up there
You might see the world
Its patterns all unfurled
So green. So blue.
One day. One day. One day.

________________________________

Slumberland

Ohhhhhh! We're off to Slumberland!
We're off to Slumberland!
We're feeling very sleepy
So we're off to Slumberland!

All the little girls and all the little boys
With their bouncy balls and their shiny toys
Running to the river as happy as can be
Splashing in the water, merrily!

Ohhhhhh! We're off to Slumberland!
We're off to Slumberland!
We're feeling very sleepy
So we're off to Slumberland!