April Jumble

As usual I had plans for blog posts that never really got as far as an actual post, and now April has slipped by. 

I started the month in Bath, where I went for a short break at the end of March. The pictures I've taken make it look wetter than it actually was -  Bath is very lovely when the sun comes out and the bath stone glows gold, but despite trying, I didn't manage to capture those fleeting moments. 

I didn't go in the actual baths either as I've been there before, but I did visit a number of other attractions, and also popped into Persephone Books, mostly in search of a copy of Few Eggs and No Oranges which I borrowed from the library some years ago and wanted my own copy of. I also picked up a copy of Minnie's Room by Mollie Panter Downes, but although I enjoyed it I didn't think I'd read again and have dropped it at the bookswap. 

Bath has quite a few bookshops, and I also bought Brandy Sour, which I think I will read again - as well as having a beautiful cover, it packs a lot in a small space. 

Then later on in the month I read Sophie Kinsella's last book How Does it Feel? - also very slim - which is a fictionalised account of discovering she had a brain tumour and the confusion and treatment and ways she found to get through it. 

It's the first book of hers I've read through since Shopaholic, which mildly irritated me with it's excessively happy ending.  She's very funny in this book in describing how she started writing Shopaholic and the horror of one of her fans at a book signing when she threatens to write a book without a happy ending. 

She also, rather sweetly, tries to provide one here, but of course she can't.  

Between that and Julian Barnes' Levels of Life - which is about the death of his wife (as well as about hot air balloons), and Olivia Laing talking about Virginia Woolf's drowning in the Ouse, April could have been a gloomy month, but actually none of these are gloomy books. I'd recommend any of them. 

I'm still gradually walking the Grand Union Canal - I'm well within striking distance of London now, and have been taking in some lovely Cotswolds scenery, as well as more frequent villages and pubs. The next bit begins at Apsley, and perhaps takes me as far as the top of the Metropolitan line. 

Happy New Year 2026

I'm having a quiet New Year, having been staying in two other people's houses over the festive period up until yesterday. 

Which gives me plenty of time to get this post into shape before I relax with a glass of something celebratory. 

Like this gin, ginger ale and lime juice I had in August

Or this Harvey Wallbanger from January 2025

It's been quite a good year for walks.  

a long trek up the Phoenician steps in Capri

and up Vesuvius

and down the valley and up the other side in Matera

As well as places nearer home like Oxford and Brighton and Sheffield and my ongoing project to complete the Grand Union Canal, and of course London:

Its not been a bad year for books either. I gave C P Snow a whirl for the first and second time, read a Nina Bawden for the first time since I don't know how long (I read a lot of her as a child but never really got into her books for adults), read four books in translation and got seriously stuck into books by Catherine Aird, George Bellairs and of course E C R Lorac

Full list pasted below:

Black Beadle - E C R Lorac

The Affair in Thor's Head - E C R Lorac

The Long Shadow - Celia Fremlin

Army Without Banners - Ann Stafford

The Religious Body - Catherine Aird

The Captain of the Pole Star - Arthur Conan Doyle

Passing Strange - Catherine Aird

Parting Breath - Catherine Aird

Murder as a Fine Art - Carol Carnac

After Effects - Catherine Aird

A Going Concern - Catherine Aird

A Dead Liberty - Catherine Aird

Henrietta Who? - Catherine Aird

A Late Phoenix - Catherine Aird

Wild Chamber - Christopher Fowler

Guilty by Definition - Susie Dent

The Stately Home Murder - Catherine Aird

Some Die Eloquent - Catherine Aird

Talking to my Daughter about the Economy - Yanis Varoufakis

Slight Mourning - Catherine Aird

The Last Devil to Die - Richard Osman

Murder is Easy - Agatha Christie

Deadly Duo - Margery Allingham

We Solve Murders - Richard Osman

City Adrift - Naresh Fernandes

The Point of Distraction - Will Eaves

Scandalise my Name - Fiona Sinclair

Not to be Taken - Anthony Berkeley

Jumping Jenny = Anthony Berkeley

Leaving Beirut - Mai Ghoussoub

Underground, Overground - Andrew Martin

Cat and Mouse - Christianna Brand

Learning to Talk - Hilary Mantel

Ghost Cat - Beverley Butler

The Last Children of Tokyo - Yoko Tawada

Death Under Sail - C P Snow

Duplicate Death - Georgette Heyer

Black Plumes - Margery Allingham

Murder Makes Mistakes - George Bellairs

Death in the Fearful Night - George Bellairs

Death on a Dark Sea - R A Bentley

The House of Silence - E Nesbit

Excellent intentions - Richard Hull

Death of a Tin God - George Bellairs

A Strange Manor of Death - R A Bentley

Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie

What Katy Did Next - Susan Coolidge

Clover - Susan Coolidge

In the High Valley - Susan Coolidge

The Greenwell Mystery - E C R Lorac

The House of Footsteps - Mathew West

Unnatural Causes - Richard Shepherd

Stone and Sky - Ben Aaronovitch

Colonel Marchand - E C R Lorac

The Perfect Alibi - Christopher St John Sprigg

A Flat Place - Noreen Masud

Death in Room Five - George Bellairs

Lonelyheart 4122 - Colin Watson

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

A Legal Fiction - Elizabeth Ferrars

Murder in the Basement - Anthony Berkeley

The Mystery of Henri Pick - David Foenkinos

Death Stops the Frolic - George Bellairs

How to Stop Spending Money Your Don't Have on Clothes You Don't Wear - Jodie Gillarty

How to Save Money - Ann Russell

How to Clean Everything - Ann Russell

The Library of Unrequited Love - Sophie Divry

Hybrid Humans - Harry Parker

W is for Wasted - Sue Grafton

Smoke Without Fire - E X Ferrars

Insomniac City - Bill Hayes

Family Money - Nina Bawden

Crime in Kensington - Christopher St John Sprigg

Fatality in Fleet Street - Christopher St John Sprigg

The Gentleman in the Parlour - W Somerset Maugham

Cat Among the Pigeons - Agatha Christie

Homecomings -  C P Snow

A predominance of crime fiction as always (50 out of 77 books), 14 non-fiction books. Approximately two thirds women authors. Stand out books for me were both non-fiction: Noreen Masud's A Flat Place and Bill Hayes' Insomniac City. 

So on to 2026. My only resolutions are to declutter 12 more things than I bring into the place (this sounds a doddle, but in my experience is harder than you'd think. We seem programmed, both individually and collectively, for accumulation) and end 2026 at least a few pounds lighter than I am now. No unrealistic goals, or absurd regimes, just a bit of running and fewer fried potato products. 

So Happy New Year all. See you in 2026

 

Canal Walk - quick catch up and Wolverton to Fenny Stratford

I've done a few more sections of the Grand Union Canal since I last posted about it. Some hasn't changed much since I last did it over 10 years ago. Some seems to be much busier (Stoke Buerne, in particular, had a small museum, a decent size café, boat rides and ice cream), or far more developed - walking around the Braunston tunnel (you can't walk through) was better signposted, and the path led through an open park with landscaped grass. 

I have done a bit more wandering this time - checked out Rugby, which felt like a town of two halves - lovely thatched cottages seen from the bus, well kept bits and then the shopping centre and the part near the station where there is clearly less money (found a good chip shop though). 

Rugby Station, February

There are still long stretches of not very much. 

Busier though, the more it moves south. Locks and villages and new flats. Up market pubs where it's table service and feels a bit awkward just asking for crisps and cider (although the staff have been consistently fine about it) and little local ones with cheese rolls and Kitkats on the bar because they can't get kitchen staff. 

As part of exploring more off the canal I also visited the library and small museum at Rugby and nosed around a few churches. I've read quite a lot of plaques and notices about Bletchley Park and how people were billeted around and the buses they took, and others about long-gone railways and factories. 

In one eye and out the other, some of it, but it's giving me a sense of the place I didn't get last time. 

Then there are big things - like the huge Milton Keynes park and fun fair I realised I was skirting yesterday and decided to go and look at.  

Fenny Stratford, where I finished yesterday, is still served by the railway - a small train that shuttles back and forth on the same tracks between Bedford and Bletchley. So my plan is to go to Bletchley, actually have a wander there first (although probably not visit Bletchley Park as that feels like a whole day thing) and then head to Fenny Stratford and continue the walk. 

Birmingham to Calias Lane (via the Canal)

Strictly speaking this is two buildings in Birmingham, one in Leamington Spa and a stretch of canal that happened to be nicely framed by a tree. I've walked three stages of the canal now, and the next (Calias Lane to Long Buckby) gets me past the long stretch without a train station, and as the days are getting shorter as well it should all become much more manageable without my having to be too hot on timings or stop overnight. I started in February, so it was a bit of a muddy one but thankfully no actual rain.  

I've been attending an art class as well. Oil painting, which is incredibly messy (I always manage to get paint on my face and fingers) but good fun. It's an evening class and the teacher keeps saying it's not long enough to paint in really, but I think most of us don't expect to turn out a Rembrandt - just learn some more techniques and restrict the mess to somewhere that doesn't have a carpet. 

Anyway this is the painting I'm happiest with so far. 

Tilbury and the Thames

Cornwall

 

This is not mainly a walking blog - part 2

One of the things about doing a walking challenge – and particularly a walking challenge involving hills - is it does improve your level of fitness, even if, like me, you still come out of it in your early 50s and overweight.

How to retain that level of fitness is the next question – and the answer is clearly to keep walking (no problem, I like a good walk), and to continue to incorporate hills in that walking.

So with that loose plan in mind and no real schedule this is some of the walking I've been doing this summer. 

Early June: I revisited the last bit of the South Downs Way (Alfriston to Eastbourne) with the aunt who wasn't feeling up to the charity walk. Definitely more able to appreciate the views when I wasn't so exhausted. 

9th June I did a very familiar part of the capital ring - Streatham Common through Crystal Palace (another hill) and Grove Park. No photos from that though, it's too familiar.

I did take some nice pictures later in the month while on holiday in Cornwall. We stayed in a place called Cardignan Woods and got to Heligan and the Eden Project and Fowey.

Shortly after that I had an eye operation (all went well and my eyesight is hugely improved) and then was dog sitting. 

4th August I had a very loose plan take the tube to Camden, have a quick look in the market (I enjoy the vibe but also enjoy getting out again, the crowds are crazy at the weekend) then walk up to Archway, take the hill up to to Highgate and the ridge across to Alexandra Palace and back. 

Somehow though after a bit of meandering I found myself at Chalk Farm and decided to head up Haverstock Hill to Hampstead instead. A hill is a hill. 

Past the ponds on Hampstead and a zigzag towards Highgate (I had to use google maps for this bit, I'm not that familiar with Highgate).

Then at Highgate I picked up the parkland walk to Crouch End. This follows an abandoned railway line, and the pictures below are of the old station.

By that time I was quite tired so I picked up a bus to the nearest tube and came home. 

The week after was far less hilly. I started in Poplar and walked up the river Lea from Bow Creek nature reserve. 

My aunt’s response to this picture was that Poplar had changed. well some of it has, and a lot is still changing. In ten years it will be different again.

     

That was a very hot day - we seem to have had the odd really hot day or two this summer, but nothing consistent. Near this spot I found a community garden, a public toilet and a small cafe where they also did bottles of frozen water, which was very welcome. 

and then along the River Lea and up the canal to Stratford where I ended up outside the Abba Experience just as it was turning out. I'd seen it advertised but had no idea where it was. People looked like they'd had a great time. 

I've left some things out - a trip to Box Hill, definitely, a wander around Borough and to Elephant and Castle after meeting friends and taking in some tourist bits (the monument and something called the Southwark Needle that I must have walked past a dozen times and never noticed) a canal walk from Byfleet to Ripley, a river walk from Richmond to Kingston - I've no pictures and these weren't 'big' walks. 

The next proper walk though was Leith Hill last week. I last went up Leith Hill in March when I was 'in training' and took the longer, slower path from Dorking (incidentally I just checked google maps for the date – 9^th March - and google thinks I took a ferry to Dorking on that occasion. It occasionally has these blips. It's like a strange parallel universe.)

This time I went from Ockley, which is the steeper side. There is a footpath from the station to Ockley itself,  but you have to know it and my over-reliance on IT sent me down the road. People were very good about pulling around me and slowing down, but I did have to stop a few times or step up on a high bank. Next time I'm going somewhere unfamiliar I'll have to research it better. 

Anyway I got up the hill - quite breathless (I used the route on Fancy Free Walks, which I like because they don't try to make you install an app as so many of the sites do) - stopped for chocolate fridge cake and coffee from the small cafe (it's really just a hatch in the bottom of the tower) and then went up the tower. 

and down again. 

So that was my summer. It's feeling quite autumnal out now but I'm in Cornwall again next week, which will definitely involve some coastal walking. The plan is to get up St Michael's Mount (either the day I arrive or if I check in too late the next day) and then down to Mousehole where I haven’t been since a teenager and have an explore and a cream tea. 

Then I head across to Tintagel (taking the only sensible public transport route and arriving at 6.20 in the afternoon) visit Tintagel next day, do some more walking, and then go down to Truro for the last two days. 

I have some contingency plans around museums and galleries if the heavens open (especially in Truro, where I’ve never been and which looks rich in history) but at the moment the forecast is patchy, which is good enough. I'm never going to be too far from a cafe or a pub if I have to bail out.