On 1st February 2026, I uploaded fourteen more pages to the ‘Scrapbook continued’ section of my website. Some of the more recent photographs are mentioned in the following diary:
Diary, January, 2026
[I stayed with Peter Crew in his house near Llanberis in 1971 when I was working on the Snowdon panorama, and he distributed panoramas to the shops for the first few years after they were published.]
Friday, 2nd January – Met Jan Nicholson in Garth Heads. She said that she had written about me on the internet in the past day or two, but I couldn’t find her message.
Sunday, 4th January – Went for a walk through Parkside Cemetery and on Castle Hill.
Monday, 5th January – Jan Nicholson invited me into her house and gave me some books of my choosing. She also gave me some bulbs in a pot, which I put on my kitchen windowsill.
Wednesday, 7th January – Read on the internet that Peter Crew had been awarded the C.B.E, and that he died in 2024.
Sunday, 11th January – Finished reading the computer scans of my correspondence from 1954 to 2009. There was much that I had forgotten, and I found it fascinating.
Monday, 12th January – Discovered that I can get the mobile phone to work if I hold down the red button until the message changes, then press the red button again before dialling. Why didn’t they tell me this the last time I took the phone back to the shop? Now, if I can’t start the car when I am far from home, I should be able to phone the R.A.C.
Watched an excellent programme in the series ‘The Good Old Days’. It included many of my favourite songs with appropriate costumes and scenery.
Wednesday, 14th January – Went for a walk with the Kendal Ramblers along the River Kent from Kendal to Levens Bridge and back along the old canal. Sometimes the canal took the form of a strip of wild vegetation; sometimes it was just a hollow; and sometimes it disappeared altogether. The best stretch was where it passed through the woodland called Larkrigg Spring. Someone said that she used to have the same sort of car as mine and had the same problems.
Saturday, 17th January – Sent a message to the Wainwright Facebook site telling people that some of the Wainwright television programmes that were broadcast in 2007 will be shown again next week.
Tuesday, 20th January – Started on a Kendal Ramblers’ walk from Troutbeck church to Sour Howes, but when we got to Dubbs Road, they turned me back because I was finding it too difficult. Actually, I found it more enjoyable walking down on my own because I could take my time. In a way, it was a good thing that I turned back because this gave me the energy to revisit some of the places I went to on 14th January and take photographs. When I got home, I found that there was another vehicle in my usual parking space. When it had gone, I tried to move the car, but it wouldn’t start. I would rather not have a car than have one that doesn’t always start, and I can’t sell the car because doing so would pass the problem on to someone else.
Wednesday, 21st January – Took the car round to Cumbria Suzuki, and they got it working perfectly at a cost of only £15.
Thursday, 22nd January – Typed ‘How can I predict an aurora?’ into the internet and read that one was expected tonight! Unfortunately, the sky turned out to be entirely hidden by cloud.
Friday, 23rd January – Transferred the photographs I took on Tuesday to my latest scrapbook.
Saturday, 24th January – Arranged the Freesat programmes so that the surviving episodes of Aerial America won’t be lost when there is no longer room for them. Followed the nature trail in Serpentine Woods as far as the Wishing Well. Then I lost the route, but later I found it again.
Sunday, 25th January – The plant on my windowsill is now starting to flower.
Tuesday, 27th January – Received the first results of the survey amongst former pupils of Buckhurst Hill County High School that I took part in last April.
Wednesday, 28th January – Finished reading a book called The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. The author is extraordinarily knowledgeable, and he writes as though trees are aware of their existence, as I once suggested,
Thursday, 29th January – Went on a seven-mile Kendal Ramblers walk from Levens Bridge to Heversham church, Hincaster Hall, parts of the old canal and Stainton. We ended up following the long avenue of oak trees in Levens Park. Among the places I discovered were Pump Lane near Hincaster, where there really is a pump, and the packhorse bridge in the centre of Stainton, where I took a photograph.