Thursday, 1st May, 2025 – Tried to send my April diary to Chris for uploading to my website. I couldn’t do this using the new computer, but I could do it using the old one. Consulted the table of sales of my books on the new computer and found that they are not arranged in columns as they are on the old computer. Received an email about the Coast to Coast Walk from Jo Willmott, whom I met on March 29th.
Friday, 2nd May – Postponed all my other jobs while I concentrated on replying to Jo Willmott
Saturday, 3rd May – Took a photograph of a fantastically beautiful sunrise. Received a copy of the latest reprint of ‘Pennine Way Companion’, including my recent additions. Now, at last, all the twelve books that I revised are in print.
Sunday, 4th May – Looked up my name on the internet and found a message about me that Chris had written eight months ago.
Monday, 5th May – Went for a seven-mile walk with Chris and Priscilla from Hawes to Burtersett, Wether Fell, Cam High Road and Sleddale. I had no difficulty keeping up this time. Chris telephoned Chris Linke in America, and we were able to see his face on the screen. Priscilla rescued a lamb that was trapped on the wrong side of a fence. She used her very clever equipment to identify Sweet Cicely, which was flowering along the roadside. Bought a beautiful cushion in the Wensleydale Creamery for £15.
Wednesday, 7th May – My interview with Julia Bradbury was broadcast today for the first time in ten years.
Thursday, 8th May – Offered my article on ‘Kendal in the Nineteenth Century’ to the Westmorland Gazette and to the Wainwright Society magazine ‘Footsteps’. I first started working on this article in 1999. Received an email from the Wainwright Society accepting my contribution and asking for photographs and a map. The article was phrased on the assumption that there wouldn’t be a map.
Finished looking through ‘A Guide to the Country Houses of the North West’ by John Martin Robinson, a wonderful book that I found in the local collection of the public library.
Saturday, 10th May – Set off at 6:00 a.m. in fine weather to survey those parts of the route that are not shown on my map of 1912.
Sunday, 11th May – Surveyed the path in Serpentine Woods.
Tuesday, 13th May – Sent my article on ‘Kendal in the Nineteenth Century’ to Chris for uploading to my website with a link from ‘Alfred Wainwright Books & Memorabilia’.
Wednesday, 14th May – Found the article on my website.
Thursday, 15th May – Received a Special E-Newsletter from the Wainwright Society featuring my work on ‘Pennine Way Companion’.
Saturday, 17th May – I sometimes find that I spend so much time correcting things that have gone wrong with the computer, I don’t have enough energy left to do the things that I want to use it for, but I still prefer to use a computer than a pen and paper.
Watched a very good musical called ‘A Night on the Town’, which was made in 1983 using songs that had been written much earlier and that were performed even better than in the original. It is surprising that I have never seen this film before.
Monday, 19th May – Finished reading ‘Doggedly’ by Pam Ayres, which was published in 2024. It is amazing that one person could make up so many poems that rhyme and scan.
Tuesday, 20th May – Looked up ‘massive gravity’ on the internet because I had never heard of it before, and I came across vast amounts of physics that I never knew existed.
Selections from ‘A Night on the Town’ came to 28 minutes.
Wednesday, 21st May – Finished the map for my article on ‘Kendal in the Nineteenth Century’.
Friday, 23rd May – Received an email to say that I have to pay my road tax within seven days, but when I telephoned the vehicle licencing centre I was told that I didn’t have to do this for another ten months.
Saturday, 24th May – Found a spider outside my front door that I identified as a cucumber green spider using the internet.
Only 140 copies of my book ‘Happy Memories’ have been sold, but my website, where people can read the book, has been viewed 140 thousand times.
Sunday, 25th May – I recently received a letter saying that the interest on my savings account is going down from 2.25% a year to 0.6% a year. That seems to me to be a ridiculously large reduction. I have noticed that prices have been increasing more than usual lately. I would have thought that when that happens, interest rates should be increasing to keep up with them.
Monday, 26th May – Went for an early-morning walk on Scout Scar and found some King Alfred’s cakes growing on a dead tree.
Tuesday, 27th May – Posted the map to the editor of ‘Footsteps’.
Wednesday, 28th May – Received an email from the Wainwright Society asking whether I am going on their walk on June 14th. I would have preferred to wait until I know what weather is expected before I decide.
Friday, 30th May – Read on the internet that it is possible to travel from Edinburgh to Stansted by air.
Saturday, 31st May – Sent an email to Chris suggesting that we do this.