Walk This Way ....

I wasn't expecting a great start to the New Year with my walking but the first three days I've passed 40K steps , which is a good return. February will be more difficult as I will need to hit 12K a day and part of me thinks I can't do that, but part of me is determined that I WILL do that.

I was looking It a post I'd done about Tideswell and Litton in 2009 here which contains less than 100 words, and looking at it I'm surprised that there are that many. It is remarkably sparse, although it is my ambition to do a coherent post of maybe ten words, though I am not sure that would be possible. While I can ramble on about something and nothing sometimes I do need to be reigned in to stop me from going off at such a tangent that I fall of the edge of whatever I'm actually doing.

At this point this post clocks in at around 170 words, so the Tideswell post would have probably finished after the first paragraph.

Anyway people will probably expect me to include "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith, a band I missed when they first came round and still don't think I missed much. The only song of their's that I really like is the excellent "Livin' On The Edge" though I am sure lots of people will tell me how wrong I am.

Instead I've been listening to the excellent "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" by Hawkwind a thouroughly enjoyable album from start to finish, but while the opener "Spirit of the Age" is great, my favourite is still "Damnation Alley" based on the book by Roger Zelazny (turned into a rubbish film but it works well as a backdrop for the song) and probably appropriate given Donald Trump's "My Button is Bigger Than Your Button" Shenanigans with Kim Jong Un

Snow, Laziness, Apathy,Lethargy and Ethiopiques

.. and it's cold. Back from Litton, and back to work . This is the part of the year where I thought my walking would take a hit, you can wrap up but sometimes the biting cold and wetness can get to you and you just want to get on a bus or get in and keep warm.

I don't know if it;s an age thing or my natural laziness, but I seem to find it increasingly difficult to do things that need preparation. This can be getting the laptop and mouse out the bag to do a blog post when I'm on holiday. Another is playing a DVD, you have to get up , find the DVD , take it out of the case, switch on the DVD player , tune the TV to the DVD channel, and play the DVD. It's far too easy to take the alternateive route and click a few buttons on the remote and play something on the TIVO, or on demand. Although strangely I still like  playing things on vinyl, and that is very incovenient and labour intensive.

Cooking is similar, I am alwasy tempted to chuck a frozen pizza in the oven, though last night it was mashed normal / sweet potato and bean burger which meant cooking but it was worth it. I still don't do ready meals, although part of that is that ready meals often take as long to cook as it would to prepare from scratch.

I like to be able to walk into a situation and start doing what I want to do, I don't like the preparation , so maybe I'm not lazy , just selective.

I am still hitting my rolling monthly million steps despite the weather, though part of the motivation for that is the fact it helps with keeping my blood sugar under control.

While on holiday I picked up a Best of Ethiopiques album , and I remember listening to some of this music and actually being frightened by it, it was so other worldly atmospheric, but disturbing. I corresponded with Nadine Shah about it, so will include "Yegelle Tezetta" byMulatu Astatke which is a great piece but I find there is a strage menace behind it. Have a great Tuesday everybody.

Sleepless In Litton

Not exactly, but my sleep patterns this week have been a little weird, going to bed around ten, then wakig up every two to three hours untill about fuve am then drifting into vivid dream sequences, which in themselves are fairly mundane mixing up familiar places and people , like work environments, before waking about eight o'clock and sort of wanting to go back to sleep, but knowing I am awake so getting up shaving and showering and getting dressed.

Today I've been in Bakewell, and managed to do 11K steps with a walk from Litton to Tideswell and back, and was surprised in how quickly darkness fell.

I got back to Music In The Green in Bakewell (I first wrote about it here - February 2016) and bough a rare Five Hand Reel vinyl album "A Bunch of Fives" which I have never seen before, so I added that to my collection. It was a 1979 album after the departure of Dick Gaughan, I can't find any digital music from the album so I will leave you with "Bratach Bana" from their first incarnation.

It Wasn't Tuesday

For some reason I spent yesterday thinking it was Tuesday, I suppose that can happen when you are away on holiday, and the benefit is that as today is Tuesday , in a way I've mentailly gained a day. I have been trying to keep up my steps and didn;t think I would make it yesterday.

I realised that effectively just walking to hit the number of steps is a bit boring like all the things that I don't like doing, but I usually have to have a place to go to or something to see or a place at the end to , but do realise that I need to keep walking to stay reasonably healthy.

Yesterdaywas spent at Chatsworth and generally relaxing, and today will be a trip to Bakewell.  There's some instagram pictures here.

It's strange how there is often a psychological block that stops you from doing things, I thought that Tideswell was too far to walk just because it's a featureless country walk but itturns out it's not so featureless or far as I thout there's some more pictures here and here.

I was thinking of including songs based on what day it is, until I can't think of anymore, so the #SuddenlyItsChristmas sequence has not lasted that long has it.

So today I'll include "Tuesday Aftertoon" by The Moody Blues from "Days of Future Passed" , which is the first in this maybe not to lengthy sequence

Still Loving Bowie's Music

I'm in Litton and the weather is very mild, not wintery at all. I easily walked from Litton to Tideswell and back , twice , ensuring I am on top of my step target fr December.

In the Red Lion I met a 96 year old who looked extremely well regaling us with tales of being called an old codger by people who were actually older than him. I remember the first time I became aware of age thinking that sixteen was old, then it slowly crept up with the evenual realisation that there was sweet nothing you could do about your body aging but you can make sure your mind doesn't get old by doing the things you enjoy and keeping as active as you can.

I turned sixty two months back and still feel and act like I did forty years ago, I just ache a bit more and take a bit longer to recover from things but that is just life . I knew someone once who was sixteen going on sixty fiv, I intend to stay the opposite.

Tomorrow I think it's the Chatsworth Christmas Fair, but essentially this week is about doing nothing mainly.

I am not posting a seasonal song today but have been listening to "Christian F" a soundtrack consisting of third period Bowie songs , which includes a live take of "Station To Station" which as I listened to it became my favourite Bowie song. I know others will replace it, but that's Bowie for you so I will leave you with "Station To Station" as you prepare for another day of work and I prepare for a day of relaxation.

Paper and Water

Today is the second day of spring and we have had rain and snow , so plenty of water. This has got lots of my friends jealous that I have snow and they don't. We also had blue skies sun, so four seasons in one day scenario. The snow came down , melted then fell again, melted then fell again and so on for the the rest of the day. I'm sitting writing this hearing the wind blowing down the chimney, wondering whether tomorrow will be any different. Let's face it the weather can do what the hell it wants and we can do nothing about bar make a reasonably educated guess.

Then I took the tiny road from Litton to Tideswell , which at the end has a sharp double right turn. Most of the way it's a single track road. Well what I wasn't counting on was a large articulated lorry stuck , unable to move forwards or backwards blocking the road. Not sure what the poor driver was going to do, but I turned round to find an alternative route. I had £2.25 in my pocket and wanted to get to the cash machine in Tideswell. Getting to the bank, I found the cash machine was "resting" , so used the Post Office to get some pennies.

At Peak Volumes

Coming out of the Post Office I saw a sign saying Peak Volumes , a book shops I was unaware of. I went in and the place is crammed with second hand books. I spoke with the guy and asked if I could take some photographs. He was really friendly. The place is a veritable cornucopia of reading material on lots of subjects such as art, fiction , formula 1, music , chicken farming and lots more. This is the second discovery I have made this week (Music In The Green being the first), third if you count the Litton Shop. I love finding new things and this week has been full of that , making new friends finding new places and just having a good time.




I've chosen Dion's take on Bruce Springsteen's Book of Dreams for the song for this post as it seemed fairly appropriate.

So that's been today, I hope your week is going well.

Lovely Litton Shop

Litton Shop

I didn't intend to write this but feel I must do a short piece on the local shop at Litton. It's run as a co-operative and stocks most of the things you need as well as providing a social focus in the village. It's also a coffee shop . supports a post office and has some excellent home made cakes which I have sampled. It's run on a volunteer basis with support from the Co-Op and has been running for the last sixteen years , becoming an essential part of Litton  village life.

The real plus is the people the manager Carol , Barbara , Tina, Stephanie, Myra, Judy and one of the customers Tony. They have regaled me with stories and opinions and analogies with The Wicker Man, and are amazingly friendly and welcoming. It is gorgeous to come to a lovely village and meet up with such lovely people. And I have an invitation to a Cheese and Wine Evening and Quiz at The Village Hall , a totally lovely place.

If you ever come here or even drive through , you have to check this place out , and check the coffee and lemon varieties of their sponge cakes.

I won't bother with any music for this , but it's just an appreciation of a lovely place with lovely people

Coincidences By The Busload

Sometimes really unexpected coincidences occur. Yesterday I posted about my need to keep things simple because I am not very intelligent , and used as an analogy Lego which led me to an Iron Maiden video of them performing The Wicker Man.

Yesterday as I parked my car, I was getting watched by a guy in another , thinking I had "taken his parking space" . He started out slightly aggressive , but we chatted and when he realised what lovely person I am , we got on like a house on fire , shook hands and my car stayed where int was.

Today I want in the local shop, I'm staying in Litton in Derbyshire, and if you want to see the cottage it's here Anyway the guy was in having a coffee with friends and we chatted on and he asked how long we were staying:

I said "A week"

He said "Have You seen the film 'The Wicker Man' .... he only went for a week"

Much more guffawing ensued and I told him about the Christopher Lee video I did. And how it got pulled and all that . I bought some biscuits and left

Bond

Came back , switched on the TV and "The Man With The Golden Gun" is on TV just at the car bridge jump scene , and of course Christopher Lee played Scaramanga , three nippled golden gun toting assassin.

So this weekend has been Christopher Lee influenced , coincidentally

Around Tideswell

Just a little more on the Peak District holiday , and more recommendations . Tideswell is a great village with some great buildings such as the afformentioned Natwest Bank,
with it's Griffin at the Front door:

Then there's the corner chippy , which highly recommended , opposite the bank ,and is another striking Tideswell building:

Just near to Tideswell , is the village Litton featuring the excellent Red Lion pub , which apart from being excellent features some incredible caving photographs on the wall , the work of Robbie Shone who's gallery can be seen here: