Great progress in week 4 of new knee! 10.5 hiking miles, and back on the fells. Began a new round of post-surgery Wainwrights (with @kitzingercelia.bsky.social). Summited #Latrigg on Wed and #Ling today. So happy! #nhs1000miles

Day 25 post-left-knee replacement - and I'm back on the fells! Yippee! Gorgeous light for my first Wainwright (of Round 4): the mighty Latrigg

Week 3 post-knee-replacement surgery - I've exchanged the crutches for walking poles & walked a little over 8 miles. Also managing forward rotations on the static bike. Really pleased! Pics are from Nichol End Marine, looking (L) towards Clough Head and (R) towards the Skiddaw range #nhs1000miles

Kudos to Grasmere Players for stonking performance of Cinderella in Grasmere Hall this eve. Loved @k12tree.bsky.social 'modernising the monarchy' as Mountain Rescue! Pic L-R: Paul Davies - Ruby, flanked by ugly sisters, Barry Porter & John Coombe; Caroline Robinson - Cinders; Max Ireland - Buttons

Good progress with my 2-week old knee: 5 miles (in 0.75-1 mile increments) this week. So lucky to live close to this wonderful scenery! #LakeDistrict #nhs1000miles

Fun treat in store for 11th March: sample the amazing Grasmere Dialect Plays, recreated by members of the Lakeland Dialect Society. At 6.15 in the Studio, @tbtlake.bsky.social, Keswick, as part of the fabulous 'Words by the Water' Festival. Prog and tickets here: wordsbythewaterkeswick.com/events/

2 x 0.5 miles this week with my 8-day-old knee: to bridge over river Derwent & Dubwath Silver Meadows with visiting niece #nhs1000miles #LakeDistrict

8 more hiking miles for #nhs1000miles this week (YTD 16 miles) + a new left knee yesterday! Might be rather fewer miles for the next few weeks …

A few from a wander by a part-frozen #Derwentwater this morning: another gorgeous day in the #LakeDistrict

Gentle start for #nhs1000miles 2026. 2 small Wainwright summits for 8 very frosty boots-on hiking miles. Here's us on #Dodd this morning. Pretty sure this will be my last summit before knee surgery next Sat, tho' I hope to clock a few more miles this week #LakeDistrict @kitzingercelia.bsky.social

Winter textures on Whinlatter this morning #Wainwright #LakeDistrict

Interesting piece on On Cecil Sharp's 'epiphany' and the gendering of Morris dancing: thequietus.com/opinion-and-... @kitzingercelia.bsky.social

Last (short) hike of 2025, with @kitzingercelia.bsky.social: a chilly wander over Latrigg. Here's the view over Derwentwater into Borrowdale and the high fells beyond. Happy New Year everyone!

I love these images - but wouldn't have the discipline to do this kind of photography myself www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Final check-in of the year for #nhs1000miles. My total boots-on hiking miles for 2025 is 1107. Pics are from a few unexpected miles in the last week: post shingles and pre (left) knee replacement on 10 January.

This morning on Fleetwith Pike - with @kitzingercelia.bsky.social. Merry Christmas everyone!

Thrilled that Mark Richards used my Nov photo of Skiddaw across Derwentwater as a reference pic for this wonderful pen-&-ink drawing. Also that his drawing illustrated Countrystride's 'Christmas Cracker' podcast: www.countrystride.co.uk @fellranger.bsky.social @countrystride.bsky.social

Some much-needed good news, including • renewables overtake coal as source of electricity globally • new oceans protections pledged in the High Seas Treaty • landmark litigation to facilitate accountability for climate breakdown • indigenous wins at COP 🌱❣️🌊 www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

Enjoyed the live Solstice sunrise broadcast from this spectacular Irish passage tomb this morning - even tho' the sun wasn't as co-operative as last year! #NewgrangeSolstice

Well, this is one #nhs1000miles post I hadn't anticipated. It's 0 hiking miles for me this week - not because I've had a (second) knee replacement (scheduled for yesterday), but because I've gone down with shingles. It's nasty! Surgery will now be delayed for at least a month...

A post for map nerds, from @ordnancesurvey.bsky.social The triple alignment between true north, magnetic north and grid north will leave England tomorrow (at Berwick-on-Tweed) and won't return for hundreds of years See www.youtube.com/watch?v=18kQ...

Acquired a real treasure today (for £7!): a copy of Harriet Martineau's "A Description of the English Lakes", illustrated with original wood-cuts by William J. Linton of Brantwood. (William Linton also illustrated Eliza Lynn Linton's fabulous book "The Lake Country".) Here's just one of the images:

This is ace!

Great fun for big (as well as little) kids tonight on the yellow brick road @tbtlake.bsky.social Keswick. Special shout out for Vinnie Monachello's Toto: "bark bark" has surely never been as expressive ...

Today in London, with @kitzingercelia.bsky.social: Picasso exhibition at Halcyon Gallery and pre-Christmas lunch with sister and nieces

Yesterday in London, with @kitzingercelia.bsky.social: Banksy exhibition and Christmas lights in Regent Street & Russell Square

10.5 hiking miles for me this week. Today's outing - a Sale Fell circuit with @kitzingercelia.bsky.social - may well be my last fell walk of the year: my (second) total knee replacement happens on 13 December. Hope to get a few more gentle miles in before then. #LakeDistrict #NHS1000miles

Slightly late to this - very good - news! www.ilga-europe.org/news/we-welc...

Creative afternoon being tutored by the head gardener -Ken Swift - at the Lingholm Estate in the art of festive wreath-making. All materials, except the spices, were from the Estate gardens & we were based in the original (1871) greenhouse

Excellent news! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It's 30.5 boots-on hiking miles for me since I last posted for #nhs1000miles Here are a few more pics from this week's snow in the #LakeDistrict (Tewet Tarn x2, view towards Clough Head & the Dodds, Castlerigg Stone Circle) @kitzingercelia.bsky.social

Interesting Utopian idea (although read the comments too)

"My NHS colleagues & I weren’t willing to let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Boris no longer mentions them at all." My piece on the responses to the UK Covid-UK Inquiry report that try to airbrush the dead away. Sincere thanks, @theobserveruk.bsky.social. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Sunday #morningread ☀️🪽

Another literary pilgrimage today: below Blencathra, past Tewet Tarn, over Low Rigg & into St John's in the Vale - where 19th Century stonemason, schoolmaster & dialect poet John Richardson lived & is buried (in the graveyard of the church he built)

Minus 4 degrees at Castlerigg stone circle this morning - and we had it to ourselves. (That's @kitzingercelia.bsky.social in the red jacket.) Another fabulous snow day in the #LakeDistrict

Little vid of snow-covered Blencathra and Skiddaw from Low Brandelhow this morning (+ some bonus geese under the trees) #LakeDistrict

Four views of #Skiddaw from this morning: from #Portinscale; across Nichol End Marine; from Lingholm Kitchen (walled garden in foreground); and across #Derwentwater (greylag and canada geese under the trees) #LakeDistrict @kitzingercelia.bsky.social

Tupping underway in the local fields. The texel ram (centre left) has a raddle bag with yellow marking powder - just look at those yellow bums! The herdwick ram (centre right) wasn't too happy ... #LakeDistrict

Got all Wordsworthian seeing recent post from @cumbriawildlife.bsky.social about Lowick Common. 1st extract is from Dorothy's journal of 3 Oct 1800; 2nd is from William's "Resolution & Independence", written 1802, published 1807. For more info, see: www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/nature-reser...

Finally some good news. 🏳️‍🌈

Positive 🦇 story #lovebats #batresearch #conservation #batconservation #trees phys.org/news/2025-11...

This is absolutely appalling. "The UK will not contribute to a flagship fund for the world’s remaining tropical forests, in a bitter blow to the Brazilian hosts on the eve of the Cop30 climate summit." Absolutely pathetic. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

8 km of retreat in just 2 months...! 😱 The fastest glacier retreat ever recorded in modern history, at Hektoria Glacier (Antarctic peninsula) 📈🔥 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Via Etienne Berthier

Just 11 hiking miles for me this week; largely in the woods, as so wet and windy up on the fells. #LakeDistrict #NHS1000miles

All Souls' Day, with Phillip Gate's soul cakes at our Lakeland Dialect Society meeting: "T' bairns are oot wi' their masks an' their clouts, Beggin' for soul-cakes frae hoose tae hoose, 'A penny for t' guy, or a farthin' for fun,' But mind yer winders-they'll soot 'em wi' glee!" (Ethel Fisher)

We publish *imaginary* research abstracts! The Journal of Imaginary Research is now accepting submissions of new short fictional pieces. Click to read: Why Abstract fiction? The theme How to get started What to submit to us What *not* to submit journalofimaginaryresearch.home.blog/2025/10/28/c...

29 miles this week - and that takes me over the #nhs1000miles goal (the earliest in the year I've ever met it)! My YTD is now 1021 boots-on hiking miles. Pics are from mid-week in Martindale with the Skiddaw U3A Roamers. The ethereal blue is Angle Tarn. @kitzingercelia.bsky.social

Soggy morning in Keswick, visiting the Cumbria Life Home & Gift Fair: a chance to see inside the newly-renovated Cumberland Pencil Factory (+ eat, drink, browse & shop). Best bit: finding that the free - advertising - copies of Cumbria Life magazine contain my article on the Grasmere Dialect Plays!