Parasol, Ink-Cap, Smooth Chanterelle, Red Cage

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Hi ya-all!

Went for a l o n g walk today and tried to find the Palouki path from the goat shed (near Ag Barbara). Not possible. That’s going to have to come out of the next edition. However, a new route has been marked (with my yellow footprint signs). Taking the road up from Sotiros, on the bend where the asphalt stops and a dirt road goes off sharp right, take the marked track entrance. (Thank you very much Jane and John).

I then drove over to Djilili and walked along the valley to Glysteri beach. That route is already getting overgrown again and will have to be given a haircut before next April for sure. Took these images of fungi enroute.

PANORMOS HIKE

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Hi Hikers
I’ll be guiding a hike to Panormos beach this Sunday, 7th September, starting from the Internet Cafe (Post Office street) at 9.30am. We should arrive at Panormos around 1.35 where we can have a swim and lunch. Return to Skopelos by municiple bus. Cost E20.
See you!

SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER

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Hi there walkers! Just to say I’ll be back on the island at the beginning of September and ready for business, assuming the bulldozer hasn’t been too busy this summer. Glad to say that whilst walking in the UK, I’ve found a great site that’s given me inspiration regarding the sign boards I want to errect.

See you in September!

Good evening lads and lassies

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So it’s six days since Steve and I left London and I’m just about to return to London tomorrow morning. Steve and I spent the first night of our trip at a place halfway between Beverley and Hornsea, recommended by Ann (particularly for its food) called Tickton Grange. Restored Regency, it specialises in weddings (book two years in advance for a Saturday wedding) and one was just in its final stages when we arrived. Went into the bar before dinner, which we had pre-booked, and the local gentry were arriving. It’s the best restaurant for miles around (fifty miles probably). The blazers and cavalry twill, peaches and pearls started to arrive to be greeted by the restaurant’s maitre. Steve was dressed in his best T-shirt (as opposed to his worst one) and me looking the epitome of Narrow Neck Beach cool and we found ourselves somewhat on the edge of things. As everyone was asked what they would like to order before they went in, we got the distinct sense of the staff warily circling us. ‘Are they guests or the plumbers?’ seemed to be the general approach. Resisting the temptation to shout out ‘But we’re Professors’, we remained cool. The maitre eventually asked the barman to approach us and enquire very discreetly whether we wished to dine or wanted another pint of beer. But great food.

On the following day, we had a look at Beverley (very old with beautiful churches and the best supermarket in East Yorkshire), visited the seaside town of Bridlington (painted by David Hockney who was born there) and ended up at a local tourist attraction, Sewerby Hall. A lovely day (known as summer in East Yorkshire) it was like something from the 1950s with a brass band, a cricket match, afternoon teas.

Then on to Hornsea to stay in a B&B – Hornsea doesn’t do hotels. Surprisingly pleasant and modern – desrcribing itself, for the first time in the history of Yorkshire B&B, as providing a ‘contemporary experience’ it has 4* hotel style rooms with a full English breakfast. Curiously my room has a discreetly placed bath in the middle suggesting that my ‘contemporary experience’ should be more interesting than sitting reading, watching TV and doing my blog. However, pleasant enough.

Steve left on the Monday and I started cleaning, getting decorators builders and plumbers, filling in forms, seeing estate agents and solicitors and all the paraphenalia of selling a house. In the six months it took to evict the tenant, the international economy has, of course, collapsed, along with – we are told – the housing market. Predictably, the British media have pronounced the end of the world, with starvation, poverty, travelling on public transport, and negative equity (the worst of all these things apparently) arriving in the next two weeks. The only positive point is that the new series of Big Brother has started – the high point of the year in England – and there is a particularly deranged character who is attracting media attention and so it is possible that starvation, poverty etc etc will have disappeared by the weekend.

However, the estate agent has seen the end of the housing market several times and given there are only four houses like ours in Yorkshire suggests we should go ahead and try and sell. So I rush around and organise things, hoping that once I leave, all the various people turn up and do their jobs.

Meanwhile I’ve been keeping an eye on what’s happening at home. I’m pleased to see that Devonport is not too worried by starvation, poverty etc etc, but instead is extremely outraged by the closure of the Tainui Road petrol station. All of those who don’t know Devonport should take some time out – but this is a true story. It is particularly very pleasing to know that Devonport isn’t only interested in cycle lanes. Quite what Caltex and Chevron (including the CEO of Caltex’s parent company in California) thought when they were bombarded by telephone calls and emails explaining that the people of Devonport were not very happy (or words to that effect), I don’t know. Presumably the CEO and his VPs and Assistants had to go on to Google Earth to work out where the hell Devonport was. Clearly the realisation that there were several hundred more of these people about to ring them up and email them was enough for them to decide that, with oil at $250 a barrel (says the Times this morning) they could afford to back off. So, congratulations to all of you and to Vic.

Now I have a weekend in London seeing people, then visits to various universities and some work in the British Library. However, must finish now as I have to go off and see Big brother. I think that Alexandra should be the first to be thrown out of the house, though on the other hand……….

WALK 22 GLOSSA VOUNO

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This route has totally gone back to nature. Together with 4 volunteers, I have just spent many hours in the heat, trying to clear a way through from the bottom of the Vouno hill on the Old Clima side, through to image 87, but it’s going to take many man-hours to do this. There is however a dirt road that goes around the hill but it is very steep in places and a much longer route. I’ll let you know when I manage to get the track open.

Squirrel Kills Itself and Conference.

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Well the conference finished several hours early after a kamikaze squirrel incinerated itself and blew up the campus transformer, so no power. Being a conference on the use of new technolgies in learning and teaching, no one had a whiteboard and pen, or quite knew what to do without their thinkpads and powerpoint, so we had a farewell in a rather gloomy hall, and said our goodbyes on the pristine lawns outside. Off campus by 12, I had several hours to wait for my flight to Washington and then on to London, so I spent them in the luxury of the conference centre where in the 15th century Italian lounge, bar and poolroom, I was given food and drink (for free). If for some unimaginable reason you end up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, insist on staying at the Graylin Conference Centre. Its fantastic (in all senses of that word).

During my stay there I had the chance to do one of my ‘List of 100 things to do before…’ – that is, eat grits. After all these years of reading about grits in books and wondering what on earth they were, they turned up on the breakfast menu. I had assumed they would at least be half alive, so was disappointed to find out that they are made of ground corn and look a bit like porridge. But the cheesy ones were delicious!

Eventually, trotted off to Greensboro for a short flight to Washington DC – I thought. As soon as I walked in I could sense an atmosphere. Loud voices and frustrated looking people. Lots of delays on the departure board. Tornados and storms had swept in over the eastern seaboard and most of the big airports were closed. This was about 6.00 in the evening, and as I was only supposed to have one hour in Washington before connecting to London, I quickly saw I wasn’t going to make it to London as planned. During the next hours, my flight was delayed, cancelled, uncancelled. There was an attempt by the few remaining passengers (the rest had gone home) – supported by a helpful United Airlines employee – to ‘hijack’ an international plane, diverted by the weather to Greensboro on its way to Washington. Three of them succeeded, when the pilot took pity but he wouldn’t allow checked baggage, so I was left at Greensboro. We eventually left Greensboro at 11.30 pm and arrived in Washington after midnight. They had managed to book me on a 9.30 London flight so I thought I might get a hotel, but all rooms in Washington had gone – so once again there was no room at the Inn for me. I slept (in the loosest sense of the word) in the baggage claim area (the only place with comfortable seats and an all-night cafe) and then managed to get into the business lounge when it opened at six and had a couple of hours sleep.

While waiting for the Greensboro flight I heard one of those odd conversations which makes you wonder about people. In front of me were four English people, all in their 20s and 30s, obviously returning from a business trip. They were arguing (in a very restrained English way) with the United Airlines counter staff as they were all trying to get conections to various places in order to go to other meetings. So they were fairly pissed off, as were the counter staff who had no planes and no information. At one stage, the counter staff went off to sort something out. At this stage the apparent leader of the group – as if he had done his Human Resources training by watching The Office – turned and said, in a friendly informal manner:

“By the way, while we’re waiting, I thought you would be interested to know that I had sight earlier today of a memo from Head Office that things are not going too well and there will need to be a major round of redunadancies. It’s not clear whether it will affect you – the company would be foolish to get rid of people with your talents (and I’m not saying that for the sake of it), but I just thought I should warn you. Now where’s that bloody airline man?”

I saw him later, and his baggage had gone to San Francisco by mistake, so i guess there’s some justice.

So eventually I got to London about 12 hours after I was supposed to and checked in to the Charing X Hotel about 11.00pm on Thursday. Ten hours sleep and I’m preparing to go with Steve upto Yorksire tomorrow to sort out things with the Hornsea house. At least this way I get to stay in the same place for a week.