My adventures with walking, backpacking, running (hobbling?), cycling, amateur radio, traditional folk music and song...and loads of other stuff.
View from Oban Bothy
Wednesday 24 April 2013
Tuesday 23rd April, St George’s Day in Altrincham
Sunday 10 February 2013
Saturday 9th February, Kidney Research
NP+1 (aka Neezup) were asked to play at a fundraising ceilidh last night. The event was held in aid of Kidney Research UK at Oughtrington Primary School, near Lymm, Cheshire.
It was well supported and I’m fairly sure the charity made a few bob out of the event. The band had a great time, the audience were very enthusiastic….and they fed us. It was fun. A good result for all – especially those who enjoy gherkins, of which there were many.
Gherkins that is.
Alison in gherkin demolition mode
A willow in the process of being stripped
All of NP+1 in action (L > R: RJP, JJ, Les, the long-suffering Rick)
Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of Rob, our rather excellent caller. Next time perhaps….if he stands still long enough.
Anyroadup, I need to buy some gherkins. I’d forgotten how good they are.
I wonder if they can be dehydrated for backpacking>
Friday 19 October 2012
The last week or so
He though he’d wind me up by rolling up on his rather nice Laverda Jota. He succeeded.
I used to like Chris a lot.
Monday 8 October 2012
Saturday 6th October, Fun in the Peak District
The first part of a busy day
If you’ve been paying attention you should remember that today was the day when I was going running with the Cheshire Tally-Ho! Hare & Hounds.
The venue was the Rose & Crown (Robinson’s), a fine pub tucked away in the hills close to Wildboarclough.
The Rose & Crown, Allgreave, with Steve – one of the trail-layers
I was rather worried about my lack of fitness and also the state of my dodgy knees. I had done some walking but very little running so far this year. With this in mind I determined to jog and walk the route, I was confident that I’d be able to get round if I took it easy.
I left the pub in the company of Ding Dong Bell, Whitworth, Fast Shipley, and Club President Park. I’ve run from this venue before and each time the route has headed north and dropped down to a muddy and very wet Clough Brook. Hopes of keeping clean and dry were dashed within a very short time, Clough Brook was as bad as ever. Oh well.
In theory the club operates a ‘pack’ system of running: the pack sticks together for all but the last 2 miles of the run – this is the responsibility of the whip.
President Park splodging up towards Shutlingsloe
True to form, within a couple of miles of the start of the run our pack split into 3 groups: Whitworth & Park leading, me in the middle, with Ding Dong Bell and Fast Shipley bringing up the rear. I was quite happy with this, I didn’t want to hold anyone back because of my slow pace.
Trundling off on my own I had to concentrate on following the sawdust trail, there isn’t another pair of eyes to look for you – miss a lump of trail and you could easily get quite lost. Fortunately the day was clear and the trail was well laid, I stayed on trail for the entire route.
Entering Macclesfield Forest
The Leathers Smithy pub on t’other side of Ridgegate Reservoir
Some stream crossings are cleaner than others….
Some of our route coincided with the Gritstone Trail
Coos in Derbyshire?
The heavy rainfall of the last few months had left the Peak District a little, er, soggy. Running with Tally-Ho! is never a clean experience, but today’s trail was muddier than most.
Running with Tally-Ho! can be a messy business
Sting in the tail, the last 400 metres may have been on tarmac but it wasn’t flat
A water-trough on the final run in presented at the right time to clean muddy feet
I arrived back at the pub at around 3.30pm feeling remarkably good. My knees didn’t ache and I certainly wasn’t tired. I’d been out around 2 1/2 hours, certainly not the fastest time of the day for a 9.6 mile run, but I was more than pleased. Just a couple of days ago I was doubting if I could run even half of the route.
Geoff, Mark, and Steve, just back from their run
The pub’s facilities were good: a hot shower and a place to change. Dinner was more than adequate: home made meat & potato pie with peas, followed by apple strudel for afters.
Post-run shoes
Around 20 runners were out today, not a bad turn-out for a small club. A good route with plenty of variety, and a decent pub at the end of it.
The second part of a busy day – another ceilidh
Freaks in the Peaks are a group of dancers whose interest in dance is predominantly in Border Morris but also encompasses all manner of other traditions and styles: British, European – no holds barred. Every few months the group meet of for a weekend of dancing and fun. These gatherings are often held in the Peak District.
This weekend was the Youlgrave meet. The group descended on the village hall, using it as a base for the whole weekend, sleeping in it, cooking and eating their meals there, rehearsing their dances – and generally socialising.
I left Allgreave and drove over to Youlgrave in the early evening, the sunset was staggering:
Saturday night sees a communal meal followed by music and dancing. This is where I came in.
I arrived just in time to join the group for their evening meal. Although I had eaten at Tally-Ho! earlier, I just had a very light snack – it would have been rude not to!
After the tables were cleared, the dancing began. The band consisted of any musicians who wanted to play. Tonight’s band had me on melodeon, plus others playing melodeons, a fiddler, a piano, banjo, accordions…along with others too.
It was around 11pm when I left for home. I would have preferred to stay over but I needed to get back. It was 1am when I got to bed….a bit pooped! I was planning to return to Youlgrave the following morning but family responsibilities got in the way. Oh well, next time!
Sunday 7 October 2012
Friday 5th October, A Birthday Ceilidh in Goostrey
Tonight’s ceilidh was no exception, a lovely smiley birthday girl who had lots of nice friends – all determined to have a good time. Held in the village hall in Goostrey, not far from Holmes Chapel.
Playing with the Midgebite Ceildh Band is always a pleasure – we just have lots of fun, and I like to think that if the band is enjoying themselves then our enthusiasm infects our audience. Fun escalates: we enjoy ourselves > the audience enjoy themselves > we get positive feedback and so enjoy ourselves all the more….etc. Not that this audience needed any more enthusiasm – they were seriously up for it!
I often worry about the future of folk music and dance, our modern ways of life seem to almost obliterate these traditions. It is something of a relief to see younger dancers enjoying themselves so much. I don’t know whether these youngsters had been previously exposed to e-ceilidh (English Ceilidh) but they really threw themselves into the evenings activities with energy that embarrassed much of the adult audience!
Sunday 19 August 2012
Two different ceilidhs
Friday 17th August
The Marmaladies have done this ceilidh before and reported back that it was fun. Held in the Friend’s Meeting House in Manchester city centre and run by the Quakers. The building is adjacent to Petersfield, site of the Peterloo massacre of 1819.The event promised to cheerful and gay. I’m not a religious type at all, but I’ve got a lot of time for the Quakers. The event was certainly gay.
The Marmaladies were operating with extras at this event. In addition to Clur on whistles and flute, and Marian on fiddle, we had Kathy on flute – she’s a long-time member of the band but has been in Glasgow for the last 4 years, John on guitar, Mike on Cajon (and a very excellent sound man), Brian as caller, and me on melodeon. It was a lively musical mix, with and excellent caller and a tremendously enthusiastic, and sometimes colourful audience:
An early finish (10pm) left us enough time to pile all the gear into Mike’s Tardis of a Landrover, squeeze the band in too, and then head to the Beech in Chorlton for rehydration.
It was a brilliant evening, enjoyed by everyone. I really hope we get the chance to play this one next year.
Saturday 18th August
A different band for this one – Midgebites. We were one down for this one – Bill, our very excellent percussionist, has moved up to Morecambe to look after his poorly lady. The band insisted he stay with Gina, whilst she’s under the weather. Fingers crossed for her full recovery!We were down to John W on guitar, Emma on fiddle, me on melodeon, and Brian as caller….. but no drum. This could be a problem.
We decided some time ago that if Bill couldn’t play with us for some reason, we would turn the booking down. What to do?
A couple of hours of messing about with bits of wood came up with a stompbox. It’s simply a box that has a microphone inside. I tend to stamp my feet in time with the music – so why not capitalise on my footwork. The box worked a treat. Okay, it didn’t have the fiddly, frilly drum sound that Bill produces so well, but we had a beat for the band to ‘lock’ on to – and it seemed to help the audience too.
The ceilidh was an Anglo-Chinese wedding…well he was British, she was Chinese. The reception was at a small church hall in Hale, not far from JJ Towers. As is often the case with weddings, it was a late start. We were booked from 8pm until 11.30pm, but the speeches etc delayed kick-off until 9.30pm. It was curious to see one half of our audience dressed in sober, western attire, whilst t’other half were dressed very brightly indeed.
Sunday 15 July 2012
Sunday 15th July, Haworth
Freaks in the Peaks are a jolly fine bunch. They like to laugh lots, dance lots, play music lots, some of them even drink lots. And they like to go for walks.
A typical Freaks weekend will consist of 20-40 dancers and musicians ‘camping’ at a village hall in a pretty part of the country. This is usually, but not exclusively, close to the Peak District. The weekend is spent learning new dances, practicing old dances, laughing lots, and doing all the other stuff that Morris Dancers do – including dancing outside pubs. Beer may be involved at some stage.
Although my dancing days are over (it’s the knees you know) I still like to laugh, play music, enjoy the occasional drink, and go for walks. This last bit is where I come in.
The Moorish Freaks weekend was held in the Yorkshire village of Haworth, famous for Kate Bush and Timothy Taylor. For some strange reason the side wanted an experienced walker to recce and then lead a short but interesting walk on the Sunday morning. Experienced walkers were impossible to come by….so they ended up with me.
A gentle 5 mile route was recced the weekend before the Great Event and all was deemed to be good.
On the morning of the walk, the Freaks assembled outside the Baptist Church where they had spent their weekend of frivolity, er, frivolitting. I’m sure there should be two ‘t’s in frivolitting, just one doesn’t look right…..nor does it sound right. Whatever.
A feature of these little walks is spontaneous dancing. This can happen anywhere, as long as the ground is reasonably level and there are no wild sheep around.
At a most unsuitable road junction there was spontaneous dancing. It was good. Some car drivers stopped to watch the spectacle, others just shook their heads in disbelief before driving away – worried that they might catch something. Like fun.
A little further on, at Bronte Falls, which is close to Bronte Bridge, there was more spontaneity
Then a quick pose
Then we all went to the pub. En-route we came across some backpackers. They had been backpacking. they might even be members of The Backpackers Club - there was a club trip in the area that weekend. One of them had a Golite Pinnacle. I’ve got one of those. They’re good.
At the pub, the Wuthering something-or-other at Stanbury, there was more dancing and stuff: It’s what Morris Dancers do
Then we all went home, apart from the hard-working organisers who stayed behind to clean the church hall and leave it spick and span. What fine folks they are.
The walk was a gentle 5 miles with around 500ft of upness. Very pleasant.
I’m not sure if the Brontes would have approved.
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