Visits to University open days (going to study Spanish & Portuguese) with Rowena as well as driving lessons. Clara great GCSE results & now at sixth form.
January
 |
| New Year's day walk from Oldgate Nick along the ridge to Shining Tor with Penny & back via Thursbitch. |
 |
| Cat helps with Christmas jigsaw |
A winter-walking weekend at Llyn Idwal with St Albans Adventure Group, where I began the Saturday night meal on Friday night. Though where I put the flaked almonds, or was it something else?, I never did discover.
 |
| Ascending Devil's kitchen |
 |
| Tea break somewhere on the Glyders |
 |
| A walk with Amazen. Never complete without scratching a cuddly pig |
 |
| Curbar Edge with SWOG |
A second winter-walking weekend. This time to Newtonmore with Sue & Martin Banfield. Marked by high winds, a wee blizzard not conducive to photography, & a reprise of the same meal made in Wales.
February
A deliberate overdosing of January walking before toenail ablation on 1st Feb. This was its last pre-op pose, the mouldy nail having been cut right back where it has lifted off the nail bed.
 |
| Before |
No hill-walking or running for seven weeks, so confined to barracks
 |
| My Nimbus 2000 on the doorstep |
 |
| Planted as a plum tree |
 |
| The Park Run briefing whilst 'marshalling' |
March
 |
| Wythenshawe Hall 5th March 2016, 10 days before arsonists ruined it. |
 |
| Finally healed, a fresh pink toe, permanently minus a nail (27th March) |
April
Hosted Mum & Dad's 60th wedding anniversary celebration.
Acquired my first-ever smart phone, which lightened my walking pack, changed the way I took photos & used maps.
 |
| Dunham Massey 30th April |
I couldn't wait to get away before the May Bank holiday ended, so hopped it to Windermere hostel (used to be known as Troutbeck) & walked the Kentmere round.
 |
| Cat inspects my packing preparations |
Then headed out on the long trip North to grab some outlying Munros. A number of singletons including Ben Hope, Ben Klibreck bagged on a two-week trip, with a near-miss for "body in the bog 2016".
 |
| That moment when you suddenly realise you are not alone on the freezing-cold mountain after all |
 |
| Cairngorms |
 |
| Panorama of Eastern side of Ben Klibreck |
Back home just in time for the start of Clara's GCSE exams.
Spent many evening & weekend hours with Rowena learning to drive until she passed her driving test on 7th July.
June
 |
| Had great fun making Clara a 16th-birthday cake |
 |
| Not my happiest day to run into the only bollard in the car park |
 |
| A memorable day's walking in the rain to Black Hill |
Gripped by existential panic at the impending EU referendum, seeing the polls & the outbreak of absurdity in the shape of BJ & MG playing it like a sixth form debating contest they didn't expect to win... rather than do nothing I joined in leaflet delivery, standing in the shopping centre, handing out leaflets at metro station. To say the Leave vote was or wasn't racist is to misunderstand what was actually going on - people openly declaring in the street to 'send all the immigrants home' (who were simultaneously taking jobs & scrounging on benefits). It was a most bad tempered debate. The most intriguing argument I was given was "send home the foreigners so the British* scroungers will have to go back to work". * actually the phrase used was "scroungers in Wythenshaw".
I now learn that I am no longer an ordinary UK citizen whose democratic opinion is to be considered amongst others, but a member of a despised "The Liberal elite" whose opinion no longer has validity being soundly defeated in a poorly defined binary vote. No business makes a decision without first doing a feasibility study including costs & benefits. We seem to have done the opposite, clearly nothing new as Lewis Carroll put into words: "Sentence first, verdict afterwards"
July
A week walking in the Picos de Europa, staying at Tama near Potes, organised by Martin Banfield. It was hot, there were big mountains, big hikes up hills with alpine meadows with flowers, beer, wine and decent food in the evening with people who tried very hard not to bring up the referendum. I did & we were all in heated agreement. That's Liberal elitism for you.
August
A trip to see an outdoor dramatisation of The Hobbit in Lancaster's Williamson Park was rained off after the second act.
A wend up to Edinburgh via Arnside, Hadrian's wall, Berwick. Edinbugh festival is a very hit & miss cultural experience. From the sublime mime artistry of Teatro Delusio to the unbearable din of a Scottish folk-heavy-metal band - playing bagpipes in the Queen's Hall. We left after enduring less than 10 minutes.
 |
| Clara's octopus |
 |
| Edinburgh botanical gardens |
Clara's GCSE results were excellent, just badly timed to coincide with the day Cary flew out to Pisa to swelter for a couple of days before ...
September
Two and a half weeks in Italy walking in the Appennine mountains (my blog of the trip) with Martin (his blog), Sue & Graham. A truly memorable experience - amazingly good weather, mostly clear views, & an almost continuous high-level ridge walk for over 100 miles. The food was pretty good too, but I could have done wth more cake on the hillside.
Then back home again in time for jam making & harvest
 |
| My pathetic chard garden (seedings planted out April) |
 |
| What it should look like (Dunham Massey) |
 |
| Pippa visited & we took a walk in the Clwydian hills |
October
The Loch Mullardoch Round: a 3-day, 2 nights backpacking trip taking in 12 Munros.
Then a solid fortnight or so cleaning & decorating a nearby flat for my parents. Hauling out the carpets to the tip was a seriously hard job, let alone all those ceilings, walls, skirting boards, cleaning of windows and venetian blinds.
November
 |
| Lots of warm, damp weather brought these out |
Helped Mum & dad pack up their house in Northern Ireland, mostly in banana boxes purloined from Tesco Eniskillen. A last walk around Castle Archdale on Lough Erne. A day off with trip to climb Benbulben, that was too ambitious for the amount of daylight, so cut it short.
Took the same overnight ferry as the removal van, let them in the same morning to unload then retreated to bed for two days to recover.
Just over a week later I was back in NI with Dad to finish off some garage clearing & house cleaning.
December
No half-marathon run-training undertaken this year & the difference it makes to the weekly 5Km Parkrun time is summarised well in the result report for 17th Dec 2016, the PB being in 2015:
No comments:
Post a Comment