Summer’s a busy time of year, don’t you think?

Just when you feel like sitting down with a G&T in the sunshine (or the shade if you prefer) you realise that there’s ‘work’ to be done:

• The allotment needs weeding (desperately), and watering (from a rain butt!), plus the peas need picking before they grow old and are unacceptable to eat
• I need to pick the soft fruit from the blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes – before the birds get them!
• I have been neglecting my fly fishing – on the grounds that the river level’s so low that the trout can see me rather too clearly – but the season ends in September!
•  The vacuum cleaner needs repairing/replacing –  and many other household chores that were put-off during Spring and the previous winter because of my ‘manyana’ policy.

However, don’t panic Mr Mainwaring!

The long period of light days, especially the evenings, provides more time to do some of these tasks. So I’m working through my ‘To do’ list – slowly – favouring the more interesting/least energetic jobs.

That means the household chores lose out a bit, but I have managed to go fishing with my Probus friend Bill – a delightful evening lake fishing near Jervaux.

I was right – the trout could see me, but I enjoyed the anticipation, the trout I just missed catching (It must have been HUGE!), and the post-fishing beer at The White Bear in Masham.

Delightful!

What’s better than an English summer, especially when England are winning at cricket!

The TV and the newspapers are emphasising the dangers of our recent lack of rain. The various fires on northern and western moors are continuing, even if they have largely dropped out of the news.
It certainly hasn’t rained for a while – I appreciate that because my often boggy garden’s as dry as anything (lawn going brown, cracks in the earth in the flower beds starting to widen, the pond’s a bit low with the evaporation from our lovely sunshine ..)

Some people going on holiday are experiencing higher temperatures when they get back to the UK than they experienced while they were away! It’s just so unlike the country we live in ( this  includes our progress in the World Cup!). Something odd’s happening!

A representative of the water companies was trying to explain how this situation had arisen.
• My thought was we didn’t have enough reservoirs to catch and store all the rain we had over winter and in spring, to avoid it all running out to sea.
• She explained that we were using the water faster than they could treat the water to make it potable, and that the diameter of the water pipes in our street was limited (too small), and they couldn’t provide any more water because it wouldn’t fit into the pipe!

I guess that we need to sip slower and glug more sparingly! Stand under trees!

It does look like we might be getting some rain soon – we’ll probably just get the wrong sort of rain! We’ll then be getting flood alerts rather than hosepipe bans!

For a species that can venture into space, we still seem to be unable to control our conditions back here on earth.

Still, that’s enough on Brexit!

The World Cup is dominating (pleasantly) my life.

A football fan, with a long term affiliation and support for Arsenal, I haven’t been to a ‘real’ live match in years. Actually I have been to a couple of matches to see our local Harrogate football team play, but I found that I missed the ‘remote’ enabling me to freeze and replay the most exciting bits, and to see incidents from all angles!

You can’t beat the real thing for atmosphere – or can you?

Plenty of atmosphere last night, when England played Colombia! Fascinating to see the different styles of football on show.
• England were light on their feet but rigorous, considered and planned – and found it difficult to actually score against a good defence.
• Colombia were sparky, excitable and very physical, grabbing our key strikers in entangling embraces as soon as they looked likely to shoot – actions that in some countries would result in forced marriage by the family! In this match only the occasional yellow card resulted!

The crowd seemed to be full of Colombians (or their supporters) – only an occasional phrase of our national anthem could be heard before being drowned out by a sea of boos whenever we touched the ball! No respect for those who invented the game (we claim)!
I felt sorry for the referee, who was besieged in a tumultuous crowd of yellow shirts protesting against an apparent injustice for long periods of the game. I couldn’t have been as calm and tolerant as he was.

After a penalty goal for us (England), awarded for some very excessive grappling by the opposition, we looked unlikely to score again, while controlling most of the game – UNTIL an excellent goal by Colombia right at the end of normal time!
Why is it that most of the goals scored are at in the last few minutes of a game? Arsenal were well known for this – it was just the preceding 85 minutes that were disappointing last season!

After another half hour of extra time this competition requires a penalty shoot-out to decide who proceeds in the competition – a brutal and somewhat arbitrary rule that does create highs of hysteria and despair.

England has a notable track record in this aspect of the game – our current manager having lost us a World Cup match in the past by missing his penalty! Supporting England is an emotional experience, full of highs and even fuller of lows. On this occasion the ‘law of averages’ finally asserted itself and we won the shoot-out and the game!

Next game is against Sweden at the weekend. I can’t wait – just got to get the champagne and the antidepressants handy, thus covering both possible outcomes!

At our most recent Probus meeting we had a wonderful talk about ‘Doctors without Borders (a.k.a. Médecins Sans Frontières).

Andy Dennis gave us a highly professional and moving talk about this worldwide humanitarian organisation, started in the 1970s, that relies for its funding on individuals and companies rather than governments, in order to maintain its independence from governments and political pressure.

Their work in areas of conflict, where local healthcare resources are overwhelmed by circumstances, where people are unable to get healthcare because of the remoteness of their habitation, and in natural disasters such as the Haiti earthquake, and epidemics such as the Ebola outbreaks, has a truly global impact.

It seems to me that it’s the individuals that really matter.
• I can’t imagine having the grit and determination of volunteers like Andy, putting themselves in extreme danger in caring for people who they’d never met. The contrast between life here in Harrogate and life in Africa, where Andy acted as a nurse in desperate situations like the Ebola outbreak just a few years ago, was amazing.
• The talk made clear that there was hope for individual patients, with just a few weeks’ re-hydration and medical treatment restoring them to their normality – among the many patients not so fortunate.

It’s very easy to get ‘donor fatigue’, exposed as we are to endless advertising and appeals to our consciences – on TV and in the Press. Pictures of emaciated children are moving, of course, but I cannot deny my irritation sometimes when, sitting in my comfortable home, immune to the massive difficulties faced by others, I am interrupted from an evening’s TV viewing to be jolted back to earth to face the monstrous injustices in our world.

I wonder if there is a selfish gene? Richard Dawkins certainly thought so back in 1976, when he was concentrating on gene-centred human evolution.

With the guilt I feel at being relatively selfish, maybe I’ve got one of those genes rather than the ones that amazingly selfless volunteers like Andy have?

I wrote in my last musing about the impending extended Probus walk on June 12th – a six miler from Buckden in Upper Wharfedale that included the most fantastic panorama of the whole valley.

Well, we’ve walked it, and it was as good as advertised!

I know this isn’t guaranteed, as it’s easy to rave about a walk when the weather is wonderful on the reconnoitre – it can be a different walk if the visibility is poor and the much vaunted views have to be imagined!
We hit it lucky. All was clear as we walked up-river to the hamlet of Hubberholme. Strictly I believe that a village may have a church and a hamlet doesn’t – but Hubberholme does have a beautiful church (maybe it’s a village?). We peeked inside and spotted a few of the mice carved into the pews by the famous ‘mouseman’ Robert Thompson of Kilburn.

Then a steepish climb up a rough track lead to a pleasant level stroll along a limestone ridge. Seated on large limestone blocks, with a superb view of where we’ve been and where we’re headed, must make this the best location in Yorkshire for a coffee break!

We then made a gentle descent into the tiny hamlet of Cray (which seems to consist only of the Inn and a couple of farms), through meadows packed with wild flowers.

We crossed a beck on sturdy stepping stones, before a vigorous, but brief, climb. The last half an hour of the walk was level, with more fantastic views, ending with a gentle descent into Buckden on a former Roman road.

We then took the short drive back to Cray, and the White Lion Inn, a small and simple pub that provided us with great food, beautifully served.

Here am I, a few days later, writing about our fabulous walk while the wild winds are hammering the trees of Harrogate into submission and it’s trying to rain on us!
Lucky us!

PS I’ve been looking back at my more recent musings, and believe that I’ve slipped into a bit of a rut – the musings are mostly about the weather and the walks! Very English.

Probus offers a lot more than that (I haven’t even talked about our recent wonderful social trip to Masham’s Black Sheep Brewery!) I’ll do so…..

Every year members of the Probus walk groups ‘volunteer’ to lead a walk, and this year, in a moment of bravado, I decided to choose June for both my walks, the regular and the extended walk.
Brave! Possibly foolish!
I’ve gone on lots of walks over the years with Probus – so many that I can’t remember them all and often come across places during walks that I now recall from previous different walks I’ve done!
You’d think that such intersections would build up a picture for me of the whole of the Yorkshire countryside over time, but I think that’s rather optimistic!

I do like finding new routes, especially if I’m leading, but it’s getting difficult. They have to be circular, either about four miles (or six to seven for the extended ones), not too strenuous and most important of all based on a great pub with good food for lunch!
I generally browse the Web and look at pocket-sized books entitled something like ‘ strolls in the Dales’ or ‘walks and pubs in Yorkshire’ for inspiration. Then I do a reconnoitre walk to test the walks out – sometimes by myself but often more enjoyably with Probus friends or with family.

I’ve found a couple of great walks for June, using a revised selection strategy. I’ve decided that it’s all about the food, and there have got to be great views. What could go wrong?

The extended walk on June 12th is a six miler from Buckden in Upper Wharfedale, including the most fantastic panorama of the whole valley and of the entire triangular route.
The regular walk on June 26th is a three and a half miler from Embsay, with truly amazing views from Embsay Crags.

Both of these walks are shorter than our typical walks, but it’s the food and the views that matter, I thought. However, I now appreciate the implications of my new strategy!

To get good views you do need to walk uphill (and then downhill!) before you get that lovely lunch!  That somewhat threatens the ‘not too strenuous’ criteria.

There’s no gain without some pain – but the views will make it all worth it (hopefully)!

There’ve been lots of ‘events’ recently. I guess we live our lives through a series of events, rather than moment by moment (well, most of us anyway!)

Hatches, matches and dispatches loom large as significant events for family and friends. Those of us of more ‘mature’ years are kept young–ish by grandchildren, but we probably see more of the dispatches now. We at Probus have sadly recently lost two longstanding members, Bob and Roy – whom we’ll sorely miss.

National events like the Royal wedding this weekend bring us all together for a very short time (especially if the weather’s wonderful, as it was). Lots of positive emotions come to the fore, for a change – though the press always seem to get hold of an angle that’s got an intriguing or sad side – just to spoil the party.

A recent Probus speaker on the History (and the Future) of the Press was very strong on the importance of ethical journalism – and a number of times recently things she said in her talk have chimed with the national news. It just shows how up to date we’re being kept a Probus by our fascinating speakers!

My Italian class were treated to some interesting facts last week, related to the celebration of significant events.
Apparently (obvious with hindsight) confetti is an Italian word (rhymes with spaghetti!), but actually means sweetmeats, via the Old French confectum (as in confectionery etc.), meaning ‘prepared’.

Originally thought to be a Roman delicacy, from the 19th century onwards these small candies/sweets were thrown during carnivals. Obviously the English turned the custom into the throwing of small pieces of paper at weddings or other occasions – much to the chagrin of those responsible for cleaning up afterwards!

Well the Italians haven’t given up on their more colourful practice. Indeed the Medieval city of Sulmona in the Abruzzo region of Italy is the centre of production of small hand-made almond sweets with crisp, colourful sugar coatings – used for a variety of occasions, often fashioned into decorative shapes, usually flowers – as in the photo.

Tasty and works of art too!

Another delightful five mile walk in upper Wharfedale – cunningly different from the similar walk we took in November (see an earlier Musing), being shorter (hurrah!), not including Burnsall, and having very different weather.

One of the challenges of walking some miles away from Harrogate is that you never know what the weather will be like when you get there! It’s always a bit of a gamble! The forecast was suggesting scattered showers, and the skies were alarmingly grey on our journey to Linton – but it stayed fine throughout the walk.

For our group of ten Probus walkers, gloves were definitely optional, and trudging up quite a few hills helped us maintain a good temperature. The Falls themselves are always worth a linger, being attractive in most weathers. One of us could recall having seen, on an earlier occasion, trout jumping the falls as they made their way upstream.

A pleasant walk along the riverside, with a brief coffee break next to the pedestrian ‘suspension’ bridge across the river. The engineers and sailors among us started to distinguish between pitching, rolling and yawing in attempting to explain the various cables controlling the movement of the bridge as we crossed. I think there needs to be a bit more focus on controlling the yawing! (but no such need to control the jawing!)

Comparisons were inevitably made with the Millenium ‘wobbly bridge’ in London wrt cost and beauty!

We crossed many fields, full of gambolling lambs, and walked along quite narrow country lanes bordered by high stone walls.  The sun was now fully out – it was even rather warm – and the views of the countryside were magnificent.

Among the many very pleasant conversations we had was a bit of a debate (inconclusive) about how far the distant hills were. Soon enough we commenced our downward stroll towards Linton and the Fountaine Inn for an excellent lunch.

This walk is definitely a contender for ‘best walk of the year’, helped just a tad by the lovely weather.

Maybe summer is here at last…?

Just returned from a week in The Canaries, and having become used to the heat and the all-inclusive food and drink regime at the hotel, I thought the day after the flight home would be an opportunity to join in a Probus walk and to start eroding the excess weight (not the luggage, unfortunately!).

It was one of my favourite extended walks in upper wharfedale, starting from Kettlewell
With a prediction of light rain later we set off through the village en-route for Hag Dyke. The higher we got up the side of the valley, the stronger the wind, and subsequently the rain, arriving earlier than expected. This was a harsh test of legs, and even more drastically of my nose – which had been scorched in last week’s sun and was now frozen in wind driven hail!
Hag Dyke, not an attractive term, means an enclosed area of land at the edge of a mountain. The stone buildings are now an attractive youth hostel, but they date back to the 1680s when the lead mines opened.
Reaching the hostel, some 1525 feet above sea level – and it felt like it- we could see patches of snow above the hostel, on the slopes of Great Whernside. Had the weather been better we might proceeded further, but instead, guided by Bill our walk leader, we descended back towards the village by the ‘steep route’, as opposed to our outward leg which was apparently the less steep route. Really?
Buffeted, on or off, all the way down the steep valley sides until we reached the shelter of Kettlewell. At this point I received an unexpected ‘Facetime’ video call on my phone from my sister in Western Australia, proving that distance is no bar to communication these days – even in the Yorkshire Dales, where one might have thought that a mobile phone signal would be something miraculous!
The Racehorse Hotel provided us all with the obligatory steak and ale suet pie, and all was well with the world.
In spite of the challenging weather, I prefer Yorkshire to Fuerteventura (ironically meaning ‘strong winds’), except for maybe one week a year when it is nice to get an early dose of more predictable sunshine. Oh, and the winds are a darn sight warmer!

This week we were treated to a blockbuster of a talk about the life of Lord William Armstrong. I confess I have only recently become aware of this man, born in Newcastle in 1810, who became a key figure in the creation of a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ for an expanding Great Britain. He was active in so many areas – science (especially electricity), inventions and engineering (especially bridges, reservoirs, ships and armaments). He and his wife also created a marvellous home, Cragside, in Northumberland, which with its landscaped gardens and surrounding estate is now owned and managed by The National Trust.

I was struck by how Armstrong was a ‘networker’ before the term was invented – sharing conversations and collaborating with his peers in society who included Brunel, Faraday, Stephenson and many others. His breadth of vision and his capacity for work across so many different areas were truly remarkable.

What an era that must have been! Our media is full of how our current age is a time of unprecedented change and opportunity (and risk), but Victorian times created so many innovations (engineering hardware rather than today’s virtual software) that powered our country (and our region) into a World leadership role.

Giants like Armstrong, who engineered those changes, became immensely wealthy, established and revered figures, who seemed to think about the less well off (Armstrong built and gave to the people of Newcastle lots of its present day infrastructure), and philanthropy was an important part of his legacy. Cragside itself remains a treasure for our nation to enjoy.

Our current crop of billionaires seem to be a less attractive lot than their Victorian peers, though some do endow vast funds to help improve our world. We seem less positive about the Amazons, Googles and Facebooks of today, and many major companies are owned by anonymous pension funds, whom we rely on but don’t regard or identify with.

Maybe it’s the passage of time that enables us to see the true contributions of these colossuses(i). Elon Musk (of Tesla and Spacex fame) may be seen in a hundred years’ time as the founder of a new world on Mars – quite a Columbus!