Summer Time

Yesterday's walk (for the record) was one we'd set out to do a week or so ago, but been rained off before we even arrived at our starting point. Yesterday was fine (though not quite as fine as the sky in the picture suggests - if the camera doesn't lie, it certainly exaggerates), and we left the car in the car park at Brancepeth Station, and headed back along the railway walk towards Durham until we reached Brandon. Then we turned across the road and down Scripton Lane to the river (past Tudhoe Lodge). We followed the Wear past Page Bank onto land belonging to Lowfields Farm, then turned uphill to have lunch at their farm shop. From here it was a short walk up to the railway and back to Brancepeth.

Yesterday we could have picnicked, but the farm shop makes it a handy walk for days when that isn't an inviting option; though the riverside path could become very muddy in wet weather.

Tudhoe Lodge is a gatehouse of the Brancepeth Estate, built by Lord Boyne in 1870 as a home for the estate gardener (according to the City Council's Conservation Appraisal). It was originally called 'East Lodge', but Scripton Lane was once a route to and from Tudhoe - and you can see where people using that route must have crossed the Wear, though not how! The arms on the gable end must be a version of those of the Russells of Brancepeth - certainly the goat is their crest. (No, I don't know why).

Index Librorum Lectorum

As I've explained before, I keep notes on the books I've read, and I've just reached the end of another notebook. And, for the record, these are the books I've read since September 2007. It seems to be a very long list, partly, I think, because the notebook was more narrowly ruled than usual, and so had room for 18-months worth of books, partly because - at last! - I have very nearly cleared the backlog of books to be written about. ( List behind the cut )

I've linked the title to my review of the book if I've written one, here or elsewhere; I'm happy to discuss books of which I haven't published a review (on the understanding that 'discussion' may be no more than "I have nothing to say about this book!")