Them Big Oak Trees

One of things I noticed on the walks in the Lake District was the number of big oak trees that we saw along the routes. It's not surprising that one of the pubs we frequent is The Royal Oak in Ambleside, which I discovered as it was featured on the cover of Half Man Half Biscuit's excellent "CSI Ambleside" album.

While there are lots of different tree species, Oaks are fairly distinctive and are striking and obvious in any landscape and there are a few examples on this slide show instagram link here.

I was wondering whether to combine this post with the last post, but it does give you the opportunity to just listen to one song to accompany my mindwanderings, but it's always good to see Oak Trees as I don't think there are too many round the Newcastle area.  I certainly haven't noticed on my walks to work, although tomorrow morning I will keep an eye out to see if I can see any.

So I going to include the excellent "Them Big Oak Trees" by The Wonderstuff from their album "Hup", and I only recently discovered that Miles Hunt of the band was married to Mary Ann Hobbs the 6Music DJ.

So I am just about to have tea, an Aloo Chol from Rajnagar after enjoying the first episode of Doctor Who with the wonderful Jodie Whittaker, looking forward to the rest of the series.

Pastoral

I didn't really write last week, though I was on holiday, although as I was doing what I wanted I would have expected to write even more. The main thing about a holiday is to get away for the pressure of having to do things although you do force yourself to do things because you are on holiday.

One of the days we did the Dalemain Loop which is a six mile part of the larger Ullswater Way , taking in Dacre and Pooley Bridge before returning to Dalemain Hall. There's some images here if you want to see.

Dalemain Hall contains a hell of a lot of marmalade so i helped myself to a couple of jars, and the people there are very helpful.

In Pooley Bridge I had some coffee and cake at Granny Dowbekin's and later visited The Crown next door for some excellent food. Granny Dowbekin's had an excellent range of food including a decent spread of vegan options.

The Crown's food was excellent including courgette fritters which you can see here.

At one point we were walking along the river and a bird took off and it reminded me of the sound effect used in Pink Floyd's "Grantchester Meadows" which was part of the Roger Waters solo section on the studio section "Ummagumma" so I will include that for this post.

61

That's me sixty one years on this planet, and I still find it amusing the number of people who deem themselves old or middle aged at thirty, forty or fifty. Really you can do nothing about time and a birthday should be an excuse have fun not be despondent. Though the fact is some people are only happy when they're miserable, the usually read the Mail and don't listen to music.

I have not done much today barring visiting Ambleside, eating at The Priest's Hole and researching whether to visit Skipton Castle and Woods, due to the amazing cane sculptures that I want to see.

I was in Kendal yesterday and was sad to see that the only record shop I know has gone, so it may be that I don't pick up any music this holiday, but I do have more than enough to listen to, and one of those is the new James album as well as the new Arctic Monkeys album. So I willleave you with "Better Than That" by James, which is just absolutely wonderful.

Going to catch upon "Better Call Saul" and "Constantine" tonight.

The Value Of Music (Again)

A few weeks ago I noticed a Bruce Springsteen box set. It was good quality bootlegs from 1978, comprising five complete concerts backed by the E Street Band, and the tracks are obviously the same for each concert, but this clocks in at fifteen discs, which is more sixteen hours of music and the cost of this set? Thirteen Pounds. Even if you class it as a single three disc concert that's still a lot of music for your money. That's less that a pound per disc.

In 1975 albums were around £2.75, at that time Job Seekers Allowance or the equivalent was £2.75 a week, so if albums had kept pace with inflation we would be paying £80 for an album, but even I think a tenner is the norm for a CD these days. A vinyl album is around £20 and I did pay £25 for Hawkwind's "Space Ritual" on vinyl with the original fold out artwork.

I also bought a box of Phil Collins' first eight albums in a presentation box for £7.99, again less than a pound an album, and a Graham Parker set for the same price for his first five albums.

Rhino have a series of Original Albums consisting of five albums in replica card sleeves for around a tenner, less than two quid an album. Although this is already recorded material so there may not be any production costs apart from the printing and pressing it's still a remarkably cheap way of getting your hands on music and I do wonder whether the artists are getting their just rewards for this music.

So this is the last post for September and tomorrow my number of years on this planet increases  by one. Luckily I don't have to go to work but think I may be off to Ambleside,weather permitting.

That Was Close

This was the first month that I thought I couldn't hit my 340K step target. The main reason was the amount of time I was ill in bed. I hit my record all time low daily step count at less that 1.5K, that is half the very low national average. Many days I struggled to hit 5K and I needed to average 5k, but today I hit the target with two days to spare.

I think October should not be a problem but it's all based on the weather being OK and me being fit enough to walk.

As I write this I'm checking for updates for my laptop as it hasn't been used for a couple of months so that may take some time, last time I did it via my phone and it wiped out my data.

So it's Friday and this must be the most boring post I've ever done although it's my 250th this year.

So we'll go with The Pet Shop Boys "Being Boring" then I'll drop into the realms of Morpheus.

Throwing Darts In Lovers Eyes

Over the last couple of days I've been listening to "Christian F" and I have posted about it here and here in the past. It's a cherry picking of Bowie songs from the Berlin era and quite short although that may be just me wanting more and more.

It opens with the excellent istrumental "V2 Schneider" which like most Bowie songs, once it starts you have to listen to the end, although this is effectively an instrumental with background vols chanting the title.

It contains a live take on "Station To Station" which is possibly my favourite Bowie song, although it is split in a few brilliant sections after opening with the electronic steam locomotive sound, finally hitting the excellent coda of "It's Too Late ... The European Canon is Here"

Also the title of the post comes from that song and it's a violent image that has stayed with me since I first heard it, another example of Bowie's excellent poetry. I have found another live take to share with you, for you to enjoy and the weekend closes in on us.

Enjoy

The Sydney Opera House Illusion

I'm still coming to terms with "The Sydney Opera House Illusion", seeing it out of every window in my office, with the realisation that this is not just what my eye / brain combination is doing, but it can be caprured by camera, so it is real, but I'm still at a loss to understand how it happens. Yes I understand he effect of frams and angles but surely they should dot cause items to appear nearer the further you move from the frame. You don't even have to try, and the thing is, because you see it every day you become immune to it until you actually notice it.

Most people don't notice it, but I am not most people, as you know I often go off on tangents and lots of my thinking is very lateral, so I am the sort of person who will notice things like this. The thing is I am 60 and this is the first time that I have actually noticed this. Sometimes it means you see things that you normally wouldn't see because it magnifies small details (though you don't actually realise this is happening). When you are next in a room with a view you should try it.

I think "Just An Illusion" by Imagination is a pertinent accompaniment for this post.