Friday, 1st August, 2025 – Went for a walk in the old part of Kendal with the Kendal Ramblers. The leader stopped to talk from time to time.
Saturday, 2nd August – Went for a walk on Castle Hill because it was such a beautiful day.
Sunday, 3rd August – Received an email from Kate Young offering me a lift to Scorton and saying that Sue Ingle is planning to write an article about me. Sent an email to Sue Ingle suggesting that she consult my website.
Monday, 4th August – Watched a cartoon film called ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’, which was made in 2023 and which shows that the art of producing good cartoons has not been lost.
Tuesday, 5th August – There was a Kendal Ramblers walk today, but I didn’t go on it because rain was forecast and because I had done most of the walk before. Watched a television scene that was shot in Hell Lane, a magnificent place that I have never been to, although it was within two miles of my former home in Bridport. I have found references to it before and assumed that it was another name for Shutes Lane. I didn’t notice that the name ‘Hell Lane’ appears in another location on the two-and-a-half-inch map.
Friday, 8th August – Picked a blackberry in Garth Heads on my way home from the shops. Then I noticed that I had also picked up a striking black and green dragonfly. When I got home, I identified it as a southern hawker. If I hadn’t picked the blackberry, I would never have noticed it. This makes me wonder what other things I have missed that are right in front of my eyes.
Saturday, 9th August – Went with Kate Young to Scorton to join a five-mile Wainwright Society walk to Nicky Nook, where I have never been before. On the way, Kate pointed out a roe deer in a field. While we were resting near the Ordnance Survey column, I found a wild flower that another member identified as Climbing Corydalis. On our way back along Grize Dale, I saw more unfamiliar wild flowers, but there wasn’t time to identify them.
Monday, 11th August – Wrote to the website ‘Snowdon Info’ suggesting that they create a link from the Snowdon panorama and received a reply to say that they were happy to do this. I was astonished to learn that someone else had worked out that 29 lakes were visible from Snowdon before I did. I think that they are unlikely to be the same 29.
Tuesday, 12th August – Found the Snowdon panorama on the ‘Snowdon Info’ website and sent them the photograph of Scotland from Snowdon.
Wednesday, 13th August. – Went back to ‘Snowdon Info’ and found a link to my website. I also found that I could enlarge the panoramas so that the smallest lettering was legible. Somebody on the radio said that people can email the BBC, requesting radio programmes, so I asked them to repeat the series ‘The Countryside in …’ from the 1960s.
Thursday, 14th August – Found a message on the Wainwright Facebook site to which I could think of a reply. This doesn’t happen very often.
Sunday, 17th August – Saw Venus and Jupiter close together in the sky. Listened to a talk by Vita Sackville-West, which was recorded in 1950, and which shows how standards in broadcasting have gone down in my lifetime.
Monday, 18th August – Read on the Wainwright Facebook site that ten people liked my latest message. This is the first time that I have noticed a comment of this sort. Went back to the Snowdon Info site and found the photograph of Scotland.
Tuesday, 19th August – Sent an email to the Snowdon Info site questioning some of their statements. *
Wednesday, 20th August – Received an email from Sarah-Jane saying that she and Amy will be in this area in October and would like to meet me. What a pleasant surprise! [Sarah-Jane is my niece, and Amy is the daughter of my nephew Martin.]
Thursday, 21st August – Sent a message to the Wainwright Facebook site about the Wainwright Memorial Walk.
Tuesday, 26th August – Finished reading my diary from 1954 to 2025. One thing that struck me was how much I have forgotten that was written in recent years.
Thursday, 28th August – Read a message on the Wainwright Facebook site in which someone mentioned the change I made to the route to the east from Brunt Knott in the Outlying Fells, and I clicked an icon to say that I liked it.
* Here is the email I wrote on 19th August:
I was pleased to find the photograph of Scotland from Snowdon in the Summit Panoramas section of the Snowdon Info site.
Near the top of that section I read ‘It was said as far back as the 19th century that it’s possible to see a total of 24 counties, 19 lakes and 17 islands from the summit, although we think this is stretching it!’ I should be very interested to know where you got this information from. It seems to me that it is very unlikely that anyone in the 19th century would come up with the same figures that I did in 1980, particularly as the number 24 refers to counties that didn’t exist in the 19th century
You will find the list of islands in the right-hand part of Sheet 3 of my panorama. If anyone in the 19th century came up with the same number of islands that I did they would either have to make the same decisions that I did about Kitterland, Llanddwyn Island and the Skerries or include islands that I missed.
If the reason you chose to mention the number of new counties was that you wanted to be up to date you should surely have taken into consideration changes to the counties that have occurred since 1974. To save yourself the trouble of doing that you could say that the number of traditional counties visible is 29.
All the places mentioned in the lists on Sheet 2 have been confirmed by observation except for the one in Scotland, and that is no longer in doubt. (If I were compiling the lists today I would replace the Merrick with Cairnsmore of Fleet, which is not controversial.)
The panorama referred to may be seen at http://www.
More correspondence about panoramas will be found in my website by going to ‘Scrapbook, continued’ and ‘Panorama correspondence’.