Yorkshire

I got to the back pages of the Guardian today and saw

Obituary
Carey Bell
…

In 1986 Carey and his ferociously talented guitar-playing son Lurrie came to England to tour with my band Junkyard Angels. They made an unusual pair – on the one hand Carey, ostensibly a slightly grumpy old man who loved to party, and on the other his quiet introverted offspring. Night after night watching the telepathy between them on stage was a revelation: every nuance of Carey’s playing would be echoed by Lurrie’s frenetic bursts of guitar, his dad smiling at him with popping bloodshot eyes urging him on.

…

The reason this struck me is that Carey Bell was my claim to fame. It was 1987, we were at the Leadmill in Sheffield on a Sunday lunchtime. He was an astonishing harmonica player. At the interval a couple of the guys I was with (we were all in a blues band at the time) disappeared, coming back to drag me to meet the man himself ‘Carey wants words’. Graciously, he let me join him on stage for a harmonica duet of ‘Juke’ the one tune I could really do justice to at the time. He didn’t blow me off the stage too far… but he was orders of magnitude better than I was. After the gig, in the dressing room he told me ‘You’s a man’ high praise, before going on to steal my cigarettes, ‘I smoke’ he said, point at the empty brandy bottles ‘I drink’ and smile like he had a guilty secret ‘I f**k too’.

According to the obit, he was 70 when he died, which means he was only 50 when I met him. He looked older: bugged, bloodshot eyes and yellowed teeth. He was drunk as a very drunk thing and not a little scary. It was one of my musical high points.

The Interactive Nolli Map of Rome Website: “The 1748 Map of Rome, by Giambattista Nolli is widely regarded by scholars as one of the most important historical documents of the city ever created. “

At this site you can overlay the 1748 map with satellite images and see just how accurate it was… there are also articles about the architecture of Rome…

We went for a little walk in the Peak District national park’s northern bit, which is just south of the M62. As we approached Soldiers Lump (the name on the map made it my destination du jour) and the trig point we spied this chap just off the path and had to have a chat. Anne of course was much chattier than me but she is trained in that sort of thing.

Me: Hello there. What on earth are you doing here? Strange-but-genial-summit-chap:Fishing Me: For? SbGSC: It’s ham radio. Today’s a summit day where we have people on nearly every summit in the South Pennines. Anne: Is it short wave? SbGSC: Yes and this one’s FM. Anne: So why are you up here? SbGSC: It’s called Summits on Air…. …[additional chat I can't remember] … Anne: Can I take your photo? SbGSC: What publication are you from? Anne: None. But I’ll put it on flickr SbGSC: Oh good… we have a group.

Turns out there’s a web site

Questions I later wish I had asked:

But what do you actually say to each other… ? Are you just a little miffed now we have Skype and IM?

James, giant of a man… or had the talk of ‘little people’ had an unforeseen effect?

Martin demonstrates the correct technique for stepping stones.

James points out Martin’s drowned remains to an unsurprised Noel

Two years ago, very shortly after we met, Liz asked me if I’d like to join her on a ‘bit of a walk’. Said ‘bit’ turned out to be the fifteen mile route to ‘Ell and back. Which goes nowhere near Elland but is organised by the Elland rotary club. It’s also in the Long distance walkers association handbook and, by any definition but theirs, is a long walk. By the LDWA standards 15 miles is a social stroll, there is a 30 mile option as well for those that don’t do walks under 20 miles.

We had a great time so we did it again yesterday. Despite the BBC weatherman gleefully describing Sunday’s weather as being ‘wonderfully spring like’ the night before, it was a wee bit windy up on the tops. It’s a nice way to spend a Sunday morning, and afternoon, and you get pie and peas when you finish, proper mushy peas and a nice pie which is mostly meat, and mint sauce. That’s cuisine that is, especially when washed down with a pint of guinness.

Bitter & Friends… not bitter friends Originally uploaded by itsjustanalias.

A week and a bit away from t’web and I’m beginning to get a little twitchy. It’s a little weird though, being back for so little time and already the last year has taken on something of a dream like quality, almost as though it never really happened. There were a few things I was looking forward to (in addition to seeing friends and family): Bacon butties with brown sauce, mature cheddar cheese, a pint of bitter in the pub, frosty mornings (which I’m still looking forward to). The house in Greetland is great, fine views south over the valley, Liz assures me that it’s fantastically green (but with the colour blindness I’m afraid I see green as, well, green, it’s never lush or fantastic or bright, I’m just happy when I can tell the difference between it and brown.

Hemos estado acá por una semana sin el internet (y lo extrañé). Es raro estar acá por poco tiempo sentir que el año pasado ya tiene un aspecto de un sueño (un buen sueño pero irreal en unas formas como no hubiera ocurrido). Tuve muchas ganas de algunas cosas en la vuelta acá. Un sandwich de panceta con salsa marron, queso fuerte, una pinta de la cerveza local, las mañanas heladas. La casita es excelente con vistas buenisimas al sur del valle verde. Liz me dice que es muy verde (por el daltonismo mío no puedo ver muchos tipos de verde, estoy contento ver la diferencia entre verde y marron).