A Walk - not just a Ramble!

Health

It is not unusual for my health to dominate my thinking but at the moment it is with positive thoughts.  My GP was away recently and normally I don’t bother seeing anyone else – I just wait till he’s back. It is so much easier than trying to explain my case history to someone new who only has a five minute slot for the whole consultation. But on this occasion I saw another member of the practice.  He suggested a referral to the stroke rehabilitation physiotherapists at Clatterbridge (even though I haven’t had a stroke).  It turned out to be an excellent idea.  Laura, the physiotherapist I saw, was most helpful and understanding.  Neurological consultants are concerned about finding a cause, measuring the progress of the deterioration and finding a solution – and have only been successful at the middle one.  This charming neurological physiotherapist was concerned with the impact that my disability has upon my lifestyle and with finding ways of lessening that impact by tips and tricks and exercises.   I was most impressed.

More Reading but Nothing Serious

Edwards St Aubyn “Never Mind” (1992).  When I read ‘Lost for Words’ I thought I’d found a new author whose works I would love and I looked forward to working my way through his complete works.  He has a series of novels about Patrick Melrose so I chose this, the first one.  One review describes it as ‘epic, intimate, appalling and comic’.  I know the critic was using appalling in the sense of nightmarish or harrowing but I think the use of it in the sense of ‘awful’,  Not for me.  A mere five out of ten.

I have read a few more cosy crime books recently, including some by new authors.  Michael Pearce’s ‘A Dead Man in Malta’ (2010) was enjoyable and ranked about 7 out of 10, bearing in mind it was never meant to be anything more than a fun read.   

Ann Purser’s ‘Tragedy at Two’ (2009) had a slightly darker side, raising, as it did, the thorny issue of gipsies and their effect on a settled village community.  Or the effect of a settled village community on a Romany encampment, depending upon your viewpoint! 

Ann Granger “Testimony of the Hanged Man” (2014).  The latest in the series involving Inspector Ben Ross and his wife Lizzie, investigating crimes in Victorian England.  Fun cosy crime.

Susanna Gregory “Death of a Scholar” (2014).  The twentieth chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew, set in 14^th century Cambridge.  Amusing cosy crime and keeps me up-to-date with the whole series.

Claude Izner “The Pere-Lachaise Mystery” (2007).  I mentioned the first in this series recently.  I have now gone on to read this one, the second in the series, and then “The Montmartre Investigation” (2008) and “The Marais Assassin” (2009)

Garth Christian (Ed.) "A Victorian Poacher; James Hawker’s Journal" (1961) The story of a Victorian poacher who spent his life dodging fines and worse as he took hares and rabbits and game-birds from the rich estates to feed himself and other poor.  In those days if a man stole a sheep he got 14 years transportation.  A pheasant would cost him the same.   Not the best read of its kind but interesting nonetheless.

Ponytail and glazed expression

It is a while since I showed a picture of myself so I thought I would treat you to two today – back view with my controversial ponytail and front view with a glazed expression (but perhaps that is usual). 

Autumn Walks

I have had a few walks from home into Heswall recently.  Sometimes I have walked back as well. Walking back is a lot easier because it is mostly downhill.   At other times my bus pass has come in useful.  The first time I walked it I was shattered and my breathing was bad.  It took me 45 minutes.  I can now do it with little more than an ache in my arthritic hip and perhaps a slight tug on another muscle or two.  My time is down to 25 minutes.  That is assuming I don’t keep stopping to take photos which I have done on a few occasions.  

 It’s a lovely time of year for walking.

I usually end up in Avanti – my favourite coffee shop.   Aroma in Irby has nicer coffee but is too noisy and we rarely go there now.  And sadly Linghams coffee shop has become ‘Toast’ which has different staff from the old days and little variety - the name Toast just about sums it up.

Would you like to join me for a cappuccino?

Scottish Holiday – Day Ten (Friday 15th August 2014)

I have, at long last, resumed sorting my photos of our Scottish holiday in August.  Day Ten began with a 6 a.m. walk along the front at Inveraray.

After breakfast we set off for Moffat.  The first stop was to take photos of Loch Long and Arrochar.

Our next stop was Loch Lomond where folk were learning to toss the caber.

And musicians entertained us.

It wasn’t long before we arrived at Moffat where we were staying the night.

You would hardly expect a Pagan to have a monument this size!

A little walk (as opposed to a ramble!)

Grammar

I was recently discussing with Canadian Chickadee how my use of grammar has changed over the decades (or perhaps misuse might be a better expression!).   I have looked at some of my writing from the 1960s.  And I have plenty to choose from – there are samples everywhere I look!  These scribbles and scrawls formed what was probably my heyday of writing – letters, natural history articles, a book (attempted), poetry (mostly of the love-sick variety), an anthology, a diary….    I compare my writing nowadays and I realise there are all sorts of grammatical (or ungrammatical) things that in those days I would not have put up with.

The paragraph above, in the style of the 2010s contains four sets of brackets; two hyphens or dashes; a row of dots; a couple of exclamation marks; a sentence that begins with ‘and’ and a sentence which ends in ‘with’, a preposition.  The latter item is a matter of taste and my taste has changed.  I no longer find the sentence that ends in a preposition quite so offensive though I do generally try to avoid them.  The other things are simply laziness.  I have smacked my wrist and will endeavour to try harder in the future.  I avoided the temptation to put an exclamation mark at the end of the last sentence and to put this sentence in brackets.  Do you think their absence has made a difference?

Claude Izner

I thoroughly enjoy crime novels, especially when they are historical.  My favourite period and location are usually Victorian England but I have had a change recently.  I have just discovered a new author called Claude Izner.  The name is a pseudonym hiding two sisters, Liliane Korb and Laurence Lefèvre, who are both booksellers on the banks of the Seine in Paris.  The hero, Victor Legris, is also a Parisian bookseller.  Set in Paris in 1889, the first novel in the series, “Murder on the Eiffel Tower” is a masterpiece of historical research into the Paris of that time with the addition of a clever little crime plot.  There is, of course, a love interest or two and Le Monde’ described it as “A charming journey through the life and intellectual times of the era”.  I have now reached the third book in the series and can thoroughly recommend them.  

Misty and Roland

Washington Bear went down to Exeter with us earlier in October and met Daughter and Son-in-law’s cats – Misty and Roland. 

This is Misty.

 This is Roland.

And here they are together, about as together as they get.  

 

Lunchtime on Exeter Quay

Lunchtime on Exeter Quay, 11^th October 2014.  (I know, you are still waiting for the last couple of days of our Scottish holiday – they will be posted soon.)  This was during a week-end in Exeter.  On the way down we stopped overnight at Tewkesbury and on the way home at Glastonbury and Staunton-on-Wye.

The Quay.

The rope ferry.

Black-headed Gull.

Pirate with a difference.

Daughter and Son-in-law (we are busy thinking of revised names for the family members, hence the shortened version for the moment).