Scenic Saturday - County Durham

Number 43 in the series.



This is the only English county with the word "County" in it's title. The official county tourist board says, "With its iconic Cathedral and Castle World Heritage Site - Durham City is the jewel in the crown of an extraordinary county. The Durham Dales and Vale of Durham are diverse landscapes, dotted with market towns and picturesque villages. The Durham Dales and North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty are home to moorland and forest, whilst the stunning Durham Coast begs to be explored."

In the city of Durham, the cathedral stands on a bluff high above the River Wear.

Scenic Saturday - Cleveland

Number 42 in the series.



Cleveland - part North Yorkshire, part County Durham - is largely urban, consisting in the main of the old steel towns of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Hartlepool and Redcar, although Redcar is also a seaside resort. I have found little scenic value except for the small town of Saltburn-by-the-Sea, which is the subject of this week's picture.

My Fab Five

I was asked a difficult question the other day. What, my interlocutor wanted to know, was my favourite book of all time? Did I describe the question as difficult? Belay that: it is actually impossible to answer. Other people - and you, dear reader, may well be among that happy band - might have no problem coming up with an answer. I am not so fortunate. For a start, there is no way I can remember all the books I have read or that have been read to me. Yes, I did write "read to me". Well, the question did say "all time" so I reckon it must cover the books that were read to me when I was too young to read them for myself.

The one book I do remember having read to me was Robin Hood. It was fully illustrated with colour pictures on just about every page but what I remember most was my father having great difficulty deciding whether the word "bow" was pronounced to rhyme with "how" or "hoe". Later, I thoroughly enjoyed the Secret Seven and Famous Five books by Enid Blyton as well as all the Swallows and Amazons titles. All ripping stuff, but not really among my all-time favourites.

For a book to be selected as my favourite of all time it would have to be one that I can and have read time and again, enjoying each reading as much as or more than those that went before. There are many, many books that pass that test simply on account of my age. As I get ever closer to my allotted three score and ten (less than a year to go now) I find that I can pick up a book and start reading only to discover on page 7 (or 23 or in chapter 3) that I have read it before. Not that I necessarily recall all the details of the plot, far less who "dun it". But that doesn't automatically mean the book in question can be regarded as a contender for the title "All-Time Favourite". For a book to be in that position it would have to be one I know I have read before, one whose plot I remember and in which the denouement comes as no surprise. That still leaves me with a fair few from which to choose.

On further consideration, I have decided I just cannot pick out any one book as my all-time favourite but I can make a short-list of five titles. I will also restrict my selection to no more than one title by any author. There are several titles I considered but which failed, in some cases very narrowly, to make the cut. These include Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and - much to my surprise as I don't usually enjoy fantasy - Lord of the Rings (I know - that's three books but I couldn't separate the three titles). So what is on my short-list? I am slightly surprised that three of the books fit into the genre "war" although, in fact, two of them are concerned not so much with the action but with the reaction of men caught up in war; with their courage and cowardice, their loves and hates, and with what sustains them in almost impossibly difficult situations.

And, at last, my fab five (in no particular order) - with brief reviews by other readers.

The Cruel Sea (Nicholas Monsarrat): "The story of the crew of a newly commissioned corvette, acting as an escort to merchant convoys during World War II. The crew is initially mostly inexperienced, from non-naval backgrounds. The plot focuses on their differing reactions to some of the horrifying experiences they have as the German U-boats attack their convoys with increasing success. Some will survive the war, and some won't - but all of them will be changed by their experiences."

Birdsong (Sebastian Faulks): The book's hero, a 20-year-old Englishman named Stephen Wraysford, finds his true love on a trip to Amiens in 1910. Unfortunately, she's already married, the wife of a wealthy textile baron. Wrayford convinces her to leave a life of passionless comfort to be at his side, but things do not turn out according to plan. Wraysford is haunted by this doomed affair and carries it with him into the trenches of the war. Birdsong derives most of its power from its descriptions of mud and blood, and Wraysford's attempt to retain a scrap of humanity while surrounded by it.

HMS Ulysses (Alastair MacLean): "When I first came across HMS Ulysses, I read it from cover to cover without putting it down - three times in a row. The story about the captain and crew of the HMS Ulysses, the story about men driven to the limit and far beyond by terror, cold and hunger, who somehow kept going because of their love and devotion to one extraordinary man, was one of the saddest, most capturing and most compelling stories I've ever read. I could almost feel the crew's desperation, feel the piercing cold, hear - and be tormented by - the captain's ripping cough. Not many books have the power to capture me that way. I know HMS Ulysses almost by heart by now - but whenever I read it, I still do it from cover to cover, without putting it down. Once I begin, I just can't let it go until it's all over."

In Pale Battalions (Robert Goddard): "The story is about finding and understanding your identity. A young lady raised indifferently by her grandparents learns the truth about her parentage in pieces throughout her life. She is lucky enough to find love with a wonderful man and have a fulfilling marriage enjoying motherhood but her past remains a mystery for most of her life. The title refers to a war and indeed World War I and it's terrible toll plays an important part of the story, [but] I believe that the root of the book is identity. The story is told through the perspectives of a few different people in the life of the main character. The truth only becomes clear at the very last pages. You do need to have patience. I found it heartbreakingly true and have read it 4 times. The writing is compared to Daphne DuMaurier but I don't think that is necessarily true. What is apparent is the way that layers of the story are similar to an onion. The more layers that are peeled away, the more story you find."

Under the Greenwood Tree (Thomas Hardy): "A poignant little novel. It is a tale of a traditional country community, it's choir, which is under threat, and a romance. The novel highlights the beginnings of change for such communities, through the travails of the "Melstock Quire", which is being threatened by the introduction of a new organ. Meanwhile Dick Dewey pursues schoolmistress Fancy Day - although he is not her only admirer. There is a gentleness and warmth to the characters we meet in Melstock, their traditions and concerns become ours, it is an absolute joy, a real timeless classic."

And there, in the words of others, you have them.

Vanity

Am I a vain person? I, like most other people, like to think not. But an email I received yesterday from our Lions District Governor Elect gave me pause and made me wonder.

I have been District Webmaster since the beginning of July last year and have been asked to continue in post for another 12 months. While I don't consider myself in any way expert in the production of web sites (the software I use was bought 11 years ago and has never been updated) I can produce something simple. The District site is not one of my best, especially when compared with the Brighton Lions site or my own Les Lavandes, but I agreed to his request although I would be very happy for somebody else to take the job on. Having put the background in place, to that email.

"Could you please also email a .jpeg passport-style head and shoulders photo of yourself asap to Lion X", it read. A photo? Of me?? I'm not sure that I have one that I would be happy for others to see. I generally stand behind the camera rather than in front of it and I'm certainly not a person who starts preening himself whenever a camera lens appears. Perhaps it's some kind of reverse vanity because I am only too well aware that I'm not the world's most photogenic man. In any case, he asked for "passport style" and I certainly don't have one like that.

Later.

I've found a group picture and cropped it to just me. This will have to do.


Actually, that's not too bad at all considering.

Good news

Well, fairly good news. When I got out of bed this morning it was raining. Now, given this country's reputation for being wet that might not sound exactly like good news but here in Brighton we have had no rain at all for ten days. And then it was just a bit in the morning, soon over, and a very light shower in the evening. This morning's rain didn't last very long either. We do really need rain. Already crops are failing for lack of it and the soil in the garden is like rock where it isn't just dust. It means I am having to put the hose on the vegetables just to keep them alive and growing - and that doesn't do my water bill any favours. It also means the vegetables I do grow are getting more and more expensive.

I have been toying with the idea of giving up growing vegetables. These days I find my back dislikes the digging and weeding involved - another of the disadvantages of getting older. What I would like to do, I think, is plant a small orchard. Actually, what I would really like to do is own a large-ish orchard. I like the idea of fruit trees spaced properly apart so that they can grow to their natural size, unlike so many commercial orchards, with the grass beneath being cropped by sheep.

A psychoanalyst would probably decide that this "wish" of mine is really a subconscious desire to return to the womb or some such. You see, I was born and brought up in Kent when that county was still known as the Garden of England on account of its orchards and hop fields. Although we lived in the town of Gillingham, orchards weren't far away. Indeed, there was one hill only a few miles distant which afforded a 360 degree view, all over cherry orchards. In the spring, anyone standing on that hill could imagine himself standing on top of clouds as there were billows and mounds of white blossom all around. One of my oldest memories is of going to the nearby village (as it was then) of Rainham and taking the footpath running along the side of the churchyard. Immediately behind the churchyard was an orchard (I don't remember what fruit) with sheep grazing. Whether it was right to do so or not, we would sometimes take bread (yes, bread) to feed the lambs. I'm not sure they appreciated the food on offer, but they were tame enough to come and investigate.

Well, even though the rain has stopped now I shan't have to use the hose today as I expected to. That will give me more time to print out Lions Charter Night menus.

Quote of the day

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity." (Christopher Morley)

That showed up this morning in my sidebar and, as it will be gone tomorrow, I thought it worth copying. You see, it resonates with me. And if "resonate" seems to be the wrong word, then tough. I know what I mean.

I like especially the third commandment: "Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do". I only wiish I could live up to that. There certainly have been times when I have struck out on my own but those times have been fewer and farther between than I would really like. I wish I had both the courage and the imagination to be a true eccentric, to do things that are not so much really daft as just a little odd, things that perhaps many people would like to do but that would make them too self-conscious. And don't ask what sort of things. I don't have the imagination to think of any.

Oh well, I shall just have to settle for a life of drab conformity, I suppose. How boring that sounds.

Contemplating

I have for some time been giving thoughts to perhaps maybe investigating the possibility of installing solar panels on the roof to produce electricity. It's not something that has been in my mind continually but I have contemplated the idea sporadically for two or three years. In both England and France one sees small solar panels beside road signs and I know of a swimming pool in France that is heated by solar energy. This latest bout of meditation was brought about by an article in a supplement to yesterday's paper - one I rarely glance at but which caught my eye on this occasion.

We do have an ideal roof - south facing, uncluttered and unshaded by trees or, indeed, anything else. But there would be a considerable outlay involved. So what benefits would I receive for my expenditure?

Obviously I would reduce the cost of my electricity. If the solar panels were to produce sufficient, I might even get my electricity for nothing. Indeed, if there were to be a surplus to my requirements, that surplus would be "sold" to the national grid. On top of that, the Government would pay me for all electricity produced - even the electricity used by me - and the rate of payment is index-linked for a period of 25 years. Provided a future Government doesn't move the goalposts. On average, I understand, the cost of installation is £12,000 and this could generate savings and income of nearly 10% per annum, much better than any savings account is offering.

But what about the cons? The biggest seems to be the as yet unknown question of whether the installation would make a house more difficult to sell. I have seen arguments both ways, but I live in Brighton and here we have elected the country's first (and so far, only) member of the Green Party as our Member of Parliament. The Greens are also the biggest party on our local council. That would seem to indicate that the installation of solar panels would be a plus when it comes to selling a house in this town. In any case, I doubt we will be looking to sell for many years so the "problem" might look completely different by the time we do come to sell.

One thing that does rather concern me is that there could be considerable improvements to the technology over the fairly short term - after, of course, I have installed a system. But that always applies to just about every aspect of life.

I shall continue to mull this over - but I may well call on the people ropund the corner who have solar panels on their roof just to find out what their experience has been.