Haystacks

To recover from the excesses of the prior day’s wedding, Colin, Mel and I went for a short hike on Saturday. We walked around something called the Haystacks – a group of small peaks above Buttermere that apparently looked like hay stacks to someone. I am not sure that I quite share the recognition. The 5 mile loop is a popular hike since it was apparently one of the favorite walks of the grandfather of English hill walking Alfred Wainright. He liked it so much that he had his ashes scattered at the top.

When I walk in the UK, which is not often, I am always impressed by the way everyone is so well equipped for adverse conditions – sturdy boots, heavy duty waterproof jackets and leggings. No one is put off by bad weather over there. A bit of a contrast to hiking in the Sierras where if it’s bad weather we just don’t go and sunglasses, sun screen, and abundant water are the vital equipment.

Haystacks

Looking down on Buttermere from near the top of Haystacks

A Lake District Wedding

This weekend I went up to the Lake District in the north-west of England to the wedding of the daughter of my good friends’ Steve and Yvonne. I was at Queen Mary College with Steve, so we go back quite a few years (far too many to really want to count them). Also joining us from our college days in the Geology Department was Colin (and his wife Mel). We had quite a nice time reminiscing on our past times together.

As for the wedding itself – everything went off wonderfully and a good time was had by all. This summer in England has been the wettest since records began so you can imagine the anxieties over having a good day for the wedding - the odds were against it. Nevertheless, the weather gods were smiling on Fridat for the wedding and while it was a little overcast, it stayed mostly dry and there was even sunshine for the photographs.

As you can see from the photograph, the bride and groom looked absolutely splendid. My congratulations to Ben and Anna who are now sunning themselves on the beach in Cancun.

Richie Havens

I went to see Richie Havens perform this evening. He put on quite a show. Of course he is getting fairly old now – 66 by all counts – and his audience were of a similar age (there weren’t too many youngsters in the crowd); but his voice still sounds the same as it did back in the 60’s (remember his opening act at Woodstock?). He still does that percussive rhythmic guitar strumming while his thumb frets the notes and his foot stomps up and down. He is pretty hard on his guitars, breaking 2 strings during the show, and re-tuning without missing a beat.

He looked like a genuinely nice guy who has grown old gracefully. Of course he did many of his old classic songs – Freedom, Here Comes the Sun, etc. One can only imagine how many times he has performed those tunes in his life.