R's rue

Ten miles west of this keyboard, you reach The Derwent Valley. Once it was a river in its early stages travelling from the Pennine moors south towards Derby. But cities need water and so in years gone by The River Derwent was dammed - not just once but three times to hold back many millions of gallons Adam's ale. Three vast reservoirs were created - Ladybower, Derwent and Howden. When the ambitious engineering project was finally completed, King George VI arrived to plant an oak tree. That was on September 25th 1947. Today I needed a good, long walk and for some reason hit upon The Derwent Valley which I have visited many times before. I parked Clint where the road ends by The King's Tree and set off on a nine mile circuit that took me almost exactly four hours. I walked the length of Howden and Derwent reservoirs then back up the other side. At the point where I turned north, I noticed that water was lapping over the Derwent dam plunging down into Ladybower. In addition,...

The 9th of the 10 episodes of And Just Like That was a cracker, and a cracker for one vignette featuring Charlotte’s dinner party with Anthony and his new boyfriend  Just as the guests arrived Charlotte had to run off and teach daughter Lily how to insert a tampon and the new boyfriend , realising he was in a Jewish household proclaimed loudly that the Holocaust was a falsehood. Anthony’s subsequent  shriek of “ Get Out “ had me crying with laughter. I have to say that Carrie’s new beau has lovely hair btw and the trajectory that the series has now taken is quite wonderfully fresh turn. I told my friends Mike and Jane all this on zoom this evening , but it was somewhat lost as they don’t watch the new series xx   from Going Gently https://ift.tt/3rVAaAm

 What are you reading? What are you baking? What are you ordering? What are you dreaming of? What are you grateful for? Are you playing Wordle? from R's rue https://ift.tt/3o0wlc0

Yesterday my friend Colin collected me from the cottage and we went to lunch  We had a lovely long chat over celeriac soup which was drizzled over goats cheese and walnuts and put the world to rights over steak pie and poached haddock and poached egg Now in my late fifties I’ve cultivated more male friends than I ever used to possess. And more male  gay friends which may be a surprising fact for some.  For years my only gay friend was Nigel, who is still my go to  when I want an objective, occasionally waspish and totally honest opinion about something.  Now I am single, I have a few more. Chaps that understand more of the nuances of the gay world later in life. My straight male friends have increased in number too, a fact I love too.  Over the past decade sexuality seems to mean less in male friendships than it ever used to be I applaud  that fact so very much. I’m planning a visit to Sheffield soon and one completely necessary friend ca...