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shewhomustFirst walk of the year: park at Fulwell Mill in Sunderland, climb up onto the Cleadon Hills, with views south to the mouth of the Wear and north to Tynemouth (though if there's any point from which you can see both at once, I didn't find it), down to Marsden and back along the coast. I think of this as a short walk, because it's a walk we do in winter, when the days are short - but ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
durham_rambler has sent me a link to a map he made in January 2008, which gives a distance of 9.8 miles. Perhaps that's why we decided against walking it in January 2008; and perhaps it's why I feel so worn out by it now.
First photos of the year: this one isn't the very first, but it's the one I like best of the first batch, up on the Cleadon Hills.
First fish and chips of the year, at the Marsden grotto. And from there, first walk along the coast, and first walk on the beach: if it's the first walk of the year, I suppose it goes without saying that it's also the first walk on whatever sort of terrain we chose - but starting with a walk along the cliffs suits me just fine.
First musical gig of the year was Thursday, at the Sage, when we heard Louisa Killen as part of the 'One Night in Gateshead' series. There's a whole post I could write about that, but briefly: I enjoyed it, but wondered about the extent to which Louisa Killen relied on her guests, Johnny Handle and Emily Portman. Does she no longer have the voice or the stamina to carry an evening alone? Even if that were the case (and it may just be that she had a cold that particular evening), why not use the interview format that they'd used with Bob Davenport? She had enough anecdotes about the folk revival of the late 50s, starting a folk club and collecting songs, that I'd have loved to hear more... This is no criticism of Johnny Handle, who I was glad to hear will be doing his own 'One Night in Gateshead' show, nor yet of Emily Portman, who was tutored by Louisa Killen and sang - magnificently - some of the traditional songs she'd learned then. Her own compositions on her MySpace page are quite different but identifiably rooted in the traditional stories, twisted fairy tales well worth a listen.
durham_rambler has sent me a link to a map he made in January 2008, which gives a distance of 9.8 miles. Perhaps that's why we decided against walking it in January 2008; and perhaps it's why I feel so worn out by it now.First photos of the year: this one isn't the very first, but it's the one I like best of the first batch, up on the Cleadon Hills.
First fish and chips of the year, at the Marsden grotto. And from there, first walk along the coast, and first walk on the beach: if it's the first walk of the year, I suppose it goes without saying that it's also the first walk on whatever sort of terrain we chose - but starting with a walk along the cliffs suits me just fine.
First musical gig of the year was Thursday, at the Sage, when we heard Louisa Killen as part of the 'One Night in Gateshead' series. There's a whole post I could write about that, but briefly: I enjoyed it, but wondered about the extent to which Louisa Killen relied on her guests, Johnny Handle and Emily Portman. Does she no longer have the voice or the stamina to carry an evening alone? Even if that were the case (and it may just be that she had a cold that particular evening), why not use the interview format that they'd used with Bob Davenport? She had enough anecdotes about the folk revival of the late 50s, starting a folk club and collecting songs, that I'd have loved to hear more... This is no criticism of Johnny Handle, who I was glad to hear will be doing his own 'One Night in Gateshead' show, nor yet of Emily Portman, who was tutored by Louisa Killen and sang - magnificently - some of the traditional songs she'd learned then. Her own compositions on her MySpace page are quite different but identifiably rooted in the traditional stories, twisted fairy tales well worth a listen.
