April Items
30 April

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I'm still writing all this in May.

April was a complete write-off in terms of writing and communication so I'm still working from memory and official diary entries for general signposting of chronology.

Item - Holiday

Just after Easter, Ross and I took a mid-week break up in The Lakes. We stayed at a Quaker guesthouse in Grasmere called Glenthorne. Food was good. Room a little pokey and too close to reception for comfort - I felt constantly on show. We would probably go back.

We would, however, do things differently. Ross could have done with researching a few more easy walks for us. You don't go to the Lake District for the flat terrain. Walking with a wheelchair is not easy and Ross was reliant on me all the time.

We didn't have good radio reception and so I missed out on background music from Radio 3 and talk from Radio 4. I'd take more CDs next time.

There were daffodils everywhere. I guess most were planted rather than wild so as to present pretty pictures for the tourists. And, in fact, it was that Theme Park element that I really didn't like. But when you've got the spirits of Beatrix Potter and the Lakeland Poets hanging over you, I guess you have to go with the flow.

We took in a few trips out and the best of these was to an Arts and Crafts House in Bowness-on-Windermere called Blackwell. It was designed by M H Baillie Scott between 1897 and 1900 and was an absolute delight. Unlike most of the heritage houses we have visited over the years, I could actually imagine myself living there.

I loved the way that the house had been positioned in the landscape so that every window gave onto a new and interesting view of Lake Windermere and its environs. I loved the play of light within the rooms. I loved the use of wood and other natural materials. I loved the attention to detail in the carvings and the mouldings. But most of all I loved the colours in the ceramic tiles round the fireplaces in each of the rooms. Exquisite does not do them justice.

And in the gardens we observed a different way to prune and cultivate our hellebores which I think we shall follow. It involves cutting out the foliage early on to develop the flowers through the Lenten season. Then cutting out the flowers once they are done so as to promote the foliage for the rest of the year. Simple when you know how.

I'm fairly certain that this is a place we shall return to on many occasions. Right now I give the place four stars as the discovery of the year.

Less attractive and amenable was National Trust property, Sizergh Castle. God it was gloomy. All those oak panels on the walls soaked up the light. Still it was very atmospheric.

We could probably do with re-visiting the place later in the year in more clement weather (it was the greyest and wettest of our days in the Lake District) and when the garden is further developed. The daffodil meadow and the vegetable garden were very appealing but the rest of the garden really had yet to wake up and the lawn was a quagmire. We really should have been told not to take a wheelchair down there at all. I think two and a half stars for sport.

Being in Grasmere, we had to do Dove Cottage before we left and we managed it on the final morning. I was one of the places in which Wordsworth lived and Coleridge, Southey, De Quincey and Scott were all guests there. Frankly it's a bit of a pokey little hole and it suffers from being dedicated to a single artist.

As with all such places, it has become very introverted and twee and self-congratulatory and lacking in self-criticism. There's an awful lot that was wrong with Wordsworth's life and works but you wouldn't have heard any of it mentioned within that hallowed precinct. Two stars is generous.

So, walks, fresh air, bracing views, birdsong. Yes, we will certainly go back to the area another time.

Item - Health

After a number of weeks of waiting I attended an appointment with a local GP who is also a specialist Dermatologist. I'd gone to Dr Dye (my own GP) to ask advice about a mole-type thing on my chest which had been itching for quite some time. I've got other such moley things on my torso but none of them itch intermittently like this thing. So, given the press stories about skin cancers and the need for early treatment, I figured that I needed professional advice.

Well, I now know more about seborrhœic warts than I knew before.

• They are harmless growths which are not infectious.
• They are not a form of cancer.
• They are usually found on the chest, back or face.
• They vary in size and colour.
• They can itch.
• They usually develop in later life and are more common the older you get.
• Both men and women get them.

When asked if I wanted it removed either by freezing or by surgery, I opted for not. Both procedures are minor but my view is that, if you don't really need to hack things off your body, then don't. The doctor agreed with my common sense. The proviso is that, if circumstances change, I can always ask for another referral and get the job done at a later date.

At the end of the month, I have developed a pain in my neck. I think that I did this in yoga when attempting a modified head stand. However, it is nearly the first anniversary of car crash I was involved in last year so I suspect that there is a bit of unfinished business that I am re-visiting.

And as we tip into May, my Bradford Index at work has settled at zero. This means that, since the time I took off following the RTA, I have had no unscheduled leave in the past year. The Bradford Index is a measure of attendance which is used by Human Resource Departments as a way of discerning who among members of staff is having a lot of time off.

The maths goes (Number of days off) times (Number of incidences - squared). Consequently, if you have a lot of one and two day absences, your score is very high whilst one absence of three weeks scores relatively low. I guess it allows you to flag the people who don't make Mondays because of the weekend bender or indulge in Friday illnesses to go Sales shopping. And, because it is mathematic, it can been seen as quasi-scientific.

I think that it's like all information - open to interpretation and misuse.

Item - Weather

Well April was a continuingly cold month - not freezing but well below the norm. Then, all of a sudden towards the last week, it became more mild and wet as well. And so, BANG; the blossom was with us. Overnight pink cherry blossom frothed over the trees. Fields filled with yellow rape seed. Magnolias blossomed. Leaves greened the hedgerows and into the woodland areas. At last, a feeling that some layers of clothing could be shed. At last, some further opportunities for cutting back on the central heating.

Item - Gardening

It's been a good month for the rhibes, the hellebores, the polyanthuses, the snakes head fritillaries under the plum tree and the rockery primroses. We've had good blossom on the plum tree and so we hope there'll be a bounty of plums in the autumn.

It's been a bad month for the cyclamen, the muscari and the camellia.

I also spent quite a bit of time cleaning out the pond and ridding it of as much duck weed and blanket weed as I could. The result is a much healthier looking pond. The water snails seem to be thriving on it. I also put some pottery chippings on top of the baskets of plants to stop the soil erosion and have put out the solar powered fountain which has a good few hours of plashing now that we are well into the time of light. The ranunculus began flowering mid month and has kept going.

Item - Eating

The asparagus season began at the end of the month and I've treated myself to some good English asparagus.

I did an astonishing throw together in which I fried some shredded lamb from the Sunday joint in olive oil and then added in the asparagus to cook until tender. Meanwhile, I sliced up half of a beef tomato, some cucumber, a few dried apricots and half a small red onion into a salad. I mixed the lamb into the salad, drizzled some balsamic vinegar over the top and layed the asparagus over the whole.

Voila. Instant meal. Taken with a glass of chilled Fair Trade Pinot Grigio from Chile. Consumed out of doors in the sunshine in our garden. Bliss.

Item - Watching

Two (not very good) movies to note.

If Jumper had been a tense drama concerning knitwear, it might have generated more interest for Ross and myself. Not even the presences of Hayden Christensen, Samuel L Jackson and Jamie Bell could enliven proceedings. You can only think that the idea looked much better at the conceptual stage.

I enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl when I read Phillipa Gregory's novel some three years ago. Whilst this film adaptation was OK, I didn't get the same sense of history being made afresh as I did from the novel. It felt that we were treading a known path rather than reaching for an uncertain future. And I didn't like Eric Bana as Henry VIII. But then Henry has not fared well this month. I suppose the best you can say is that we watched to the end and weren't completely disappointed.

Item - Reading

My reading this month has taken in a large number of authors re-visited - with one exception - mostly with merit but without distinction.

For example, I picked up the story of Philip Reeve's Quartet which I began in January with the third in the series, Infernal Devices. This satirical sci-fi novel based around the idea of moving cities and a philosophy called Municipal Darwinism had become sourer in tone. Side-swipes at contemporary issues that had been playful jests in the first two novels here felt nastier. I liked it less and will be glad to have read the last book and to be done with them all.

I enjoyed Mr Golightly's Holiday by Sally Vickers even less than I had Miss Garnet's Angel. It started off OK with a rather bitchy portrait of village life and then I began to be aware of looming symbolism. Anyway, to cut a long story short and to spoil the ending (which I guessed well in advance) for the rest of you, Mr Golightly turns out to be God taking time out to reflect on his successes and failures. Ultimately, I found it unsatisfactory and twee.

Last year I read Dissolution, Dark Fire and Sovereign - the first three novels in a series centring on Matthew Shardlake, lawyer, former religious reformer and investigator of murder and mayhem in the time of Henry VIII. Revelation is the fourth and it was, in this household, eagerly awaited - as they say. And we were disappointed. It is slow to get going and overly convoluted. I still think that the background politics of living through the madness of the last years of Hal's reign are probably the most interesting parts of the novels. So, I can't say it was anything more than reasonable.

The Spook's Battle, however, was good. This is also the fourth in a series. The fifth is out in the summer and I have pre-ordered it from Amazon.

Final book to mention is Dumveyn by Alexandra Raife. It's a bit Mills and Boone in tone in that everything ends all right in the end but it does have the refreshing aspect that it's about healing rather than falling apart. I'm not sure that would want to read many more books by her - judging by the plot synopses I've read, they all seem to be very alike - Highland setting, damaged people learning how to right themselves by the final chapter. A reasonable read.

Item - Listening

I've been off to a number of concerts.

My increasing re-acquaintance with the RLPO gathers pace. For £10, I sat at the back and enjoyed Paul Lewis and Vasily Petrenko guiding me through Beethoven's Piano Concerto No4. It's a work I've long enjoyed but not heard live for decades. I left the concert hall at that point. I was quite satisfied with what I'd heard for the money I have spent and I didn't really want to sit through Johann Strauss and his waltzes and polkas. I find a little there goes a long way. But the part of the concert which I heard was easily worth three stars.

A couple of weeks later and Ross and I were both in attendance for a concert of Russian music again with Petrenko at the helm. It was tremendous. We began with a surging account of Rachmaninov's tone poem The Isle of the Dead. Simon Trpceski was the soloist in Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No3 and he fairly burnt up the keyboard. Wild applause and an encore (rare at the Phil) of Debussy's Girl with the Flaxen Hair. Then, after the interval, a favourite piece of mine, Shostakovich's Symphony No5.

Well, Petrenko was clearly rung out by the end. He'd obviously tapped into something quite deep and personal for him concerning the Russian soul. I've never heard such a searing account of the slow movement and sour wit permeated all four movements. The ending was a concentrated assault on the senses. I rarely stand up at the end of any performance. I believe that you save such gestures for very special occasions. I stood that night. It was that good.

In between times, Ross and I made it to the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral for a return visit by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. Last year's concert of music from the Sistine Chapel was one of the highlight's of the year. This year's programme of Tudor Church Music (not Tallis and Byrd but rather Parsons, Tye and White) was good but not excellent.

I spent a little money on the new recording of Cosi fan tutte conducted by Charles Mackerras. It was a real treat and I'd been wanting a version sung in English for a while. I'm honestly not sure that comedies are best served by being sung in a language not your own. There's really not a weak link in the cast but the men are particularly good - Toby Spence, Christopher Maltman and Thomas Allen. A very good purchase.

Item - Watching and Listening

Television has not been wonderful this spring. Torchwood sort of tailed off a bit. By the end, I was glad that they killed off Owen although I hope they replace Burn Gorman with someone as attractive - that's if it does come back; there was no announcement of a third series. Dr Who is back but, for me at least, the jury is definitely out concerning Catherine Tate as a Dr Who Assistant. Andrew Graham-Dixon is normally very good value for money and I still treasure his A History of British Art. But his latest series on The Art of Spain was a disaster because the producers turned it into a travelogue rather than allowing the man to talk about what he loves.

The height of the season was a series of programmes hosted by the actor Simon Russell-Beale and featuring Harry Christophers and The Sixteen which looked at the development of the great European choral tradition. He took in (in reverse order) the Lutheran tradition under Bach, the English Renaissance under Tallis and Byrd, the Counter-Reformation and polyphony under Palestrina and began with the end of plainchant and music by Leonin and Perotin. It was programming of the highest order mingling music education with personal insight and sublime performances. Excellent without a doubt.

I was so taken by what I heard in that first programme that I invested in this Naxos disk of twelfth century music from Notre Dame de Paris. It's a complete knockout. Excellent throughout.

I made it over to Buxton to see English Touring Opera perform Donizetti's Anna Bolena. Well, I'm glad I've seen it. It completes my viewing of the trilogy of Donizetti's English Queen operas which also includes Mary Stuart and Roberto Devereux. Of the cast, Julie Unwin was reasonably stalwart as Anna, Julia Riley was the best of the bunch as Jane Seymour, Riccardo Simonetti blustered ineffectually and petulantly as Henry VIII and Luciano Botelho was alright as Lord Percy.

I just didn't really like the work and it clearly needed a more high octane production and music direction for it to work. Worthy, commendable but not entirely admirable.

Ross and I should have gone over to Pacific Road Arts Centre in Birkenhead to attend the UK premier of George Benjamin's Into The Little Hill given by Ensemble Modern. This was trumpeted as something of a coup for Liverpool 08 and the City of Culture. Certainly the London press was very fulsome in its pre-performance praise. Well, we didn't go. Ross had an ear infection and I'd had a busy week at work. Roland went and, as a consequence, I have a programme. From his description and from the reviews I have read subsequently I would have been less than pleased to have made the effort.

I'm honestly not against serialism and a-tonality in themselves but they have to serve a purpose and, from what I have gleaned, I can't say that really the piece deserved the title of an opera. It doesn't really even sound as though it was a piece of music theatre. Perhaps it should have been described as just a vocal piece. It turned out to be two people discussing the politics of the Pied Piper of Hamelin story and, apparently, adopting a number of different characters to do so.

Having attended two recent new works with James MacMillan's The Sacrifice last year and Jonathan Dove's Pinocchio earlier this, I don't want to stifle the idea of new work but I can't muster more than a passing two half stars for this particular piece and I'd probably given it less if I'd actually attended.

It seems more than two years since Ross and I went on the Baltic cruise together but it isn't. When we docked at Oslo, we saw the building site which was to become the new opera house. Well, the official opening of the Norwegian National Opera House in Olso has just taken place.

I must remind Ross that we've both said that we'd like to return there sometime.

Item - Football

Liverpool FC are through to the semi finals of the European Cup. Steve Gerrard and Fernando Torres seem particularly pleased about this fact.