We walk up Main Street and turn left up Old Smithy Lane. The first cottage has a sign outside, “An old rooster lives here with a young chick”. We climb up past the old smithy and the [...]

In the past, Ann and I lived just outside the Lake District. Even by the early 1980’s, the area was full of dead villages. The cottages still stood, but the owners dwelt in Newcastle and [...]

I am currently sporting a bias, both to left and to right. However, it’s nothing to do with politics. As I walk or run, I scan the verges to one side or the other. I think it is a maternal [...]

What a Spring it has been for wildflowers! I have never seen so many different species nor the sheer mass of pastel colours. In the Peak District the display started with anemone nemorosa, which [...]

We drifted down Main Street, past the byre and along the lane called The Gates. Two people approached, looked lost and so we chatted. However, their route was complex so we gave up our walk and [...]

Curbar Edge looked razor sharp in the morning light though the wind was stronger than forecast. We ran past the climbers practice boulder, covered in chalk, and up through birch forest. The path [...]

Welcome to my world (with apologies to Jim Reeves). I currently live in a bubble composed of birdsong, wild flowers and mountains. Well, not quite mountains because such edifices have to be over [...]

Buying a new house in the Peak District is pretty difficult. The few new houses are built on brownfield sites because planning approval is impossible elsewhere. So, when new houses were [...]

Everything you read today implies a negative correlation between age and fitness. Muscle declines from the age of forty, as does bone strength and sexual performance. The brain cells diminish as [...]

I have recently replied to a couple of respondents with a personal desire for sky burial. They contacted me because I have written two previous posts on the subject. The first was on setting a [...]

I watched that Climate Change Festival on Sky Arts, which was a mistake. It was held at the London Coliseum, my favourite theatre, by English National Opera. It was droll, joyless and portentous. [...]

The derelict cottage in the Peak reads rather like an old poem. Indeed, it even sounds like an old poem as the moping owl calls in the dead of night. The photograph shows the building exactly as [...]

I become heartily sick of programmes analysing our lack of preparedness for the pandemic. We were not prepared and I doubt we ever will be. As mentioned in a previous post, I was tasked in 2005 [...]

I have read that stone walls last about 50 years before they need rebuilding. That’s similar to a human life, you might think! However, until I moved to Taddington I gave stone walls little [...]

This is hot off the press, literally springing out of the countryside. Because we usually walk most days, there is always something new to see and experience. Today, we walked up Slipperlow Lane. [...]

I have ticked the box to state that this post is a cornerstone content. That forces me to double the number of words and avoid those of over two syllables. Even worse, I have to link this post [...]

Ann and I are searching for a property in the Peak District. For certain, it will need to be warm and comfortable, with a good view and well away from flooding potential. However, the essential [...]

Once, in what sometimes seems another life, Ann and I were the Northern Veterans 10K champions. I won the men’s race first and then cheered her in later, in the women’s race. What a [...]

I developed an intimate knowledge of outdoor loo’s, in case you want to know, when I was 12 years of age. Poverty saw my mother send me out to work on a milk-round. I was earning, paid a [...]

Going underground in the Peak District is rather easy. Derbyshire is riven with old mines and mining waste. Huge numbers of men worked out lead, copper and coal. However, humans don’t [...]

The coalman appeared outside my barn window, having stepped out of his truck. This was covered in full sacks ready for delivery. It could have been a carnival float but no, this was the genuine [...]

We left our campervan at Froggatt Garage for servicing and MOT. It was 8am, very cold and we had to get lost for the day whilst they did the work. With Covid in mind, we didn’t want to use [...]

Ah, life in the countryside. Back in Christchurch, my mountain jacket or duvet, and my big leather walking boots were, let’s say, overkill. Wearing them seemed odd and set me apart from [...]

My move to another pagan paradise, a new tribal area, is about to happen. Blame it on lockdown. Ann and I reconsidered where we should be for the next decade, assuming we survive, of course. The [...]