Book Bingo

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Returning my library books yesterday I noticed a sign promoting their latest book challenge – Book Bingo. The challenge is to read or listen to 12 books from different categories during 2026. Always up for a book challenge, and considering I haven’t taken part in one for a while, I decided to check it out and of course I signed up for it.

You can complete the challenge by reading the books in any order and they do not necessarily have to be taken from the library, but the libraries will be promoting each category in the month that they appear on the “Bingo card”. These are the categories.

January – A Book That Is First in a Series

February – A Book You Loved as a Child

March – A Book by a Debut Author

April – A Book with a Green Cover

May – A Book Recommended by a Friend

June – A Book with a Number in the Title

July – A Book Set in Another Country

August – A Book You’ve Been Meaning to Read

September – A Book with a One-Word Title

October – A Book That Begins with the Same Letter as Your Name

November – Reread a Favourite Book

December – A Book Published This Year

A quick scan of the list of books I have read this year and I see I can already tick off February having just reread The Sword in the Stone by T H White.

So, what book was a favourite of yours as a child that you would like to read again?

The Paris of the North

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Rumour has it, or at least a report in The Times on April 25th 2000 declared that “Napoleon III was inspired to build the grands boulevards of Paris after a jolly holiday in Southport…”

Southport – a Lancashire seaside resort where even the sea itself is in a state of decline. Southport’s pier once extended 1,460 yards over the sea but now, if you could but look down through the boards of the pier head you are more likely to be gazing on mud and marsh grass. Except the pier has been closed for renovation since 2022.

From a Boat at Coniston

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I look into the lake (the lacquered water
Black with the sunset), watching my own face.
Tiny red-ribbed fishes swim
In and out of the nostrils, long-tongued weeds
lick at the light that oozes down from the surface,
And bubbles rise from the eyes like aerated
Tears shed there in the element of mirrors.
My sight lengthens its focus; sees the sky
Laid level upon the glass, the loud
World of the wind and the map-making clouds and history
Squinting over the rim of the fell. The wind
Lets on the water, paddling like a duck,
And face and cloud are grimaced out
In inch-deep wrinkles of the moving waves.
A blackbird clatters; alder leaves
Make mooring buoys for the water beetles.
I wait for the wind to drop, against hope
Hoping, and against the weather, yet to see
The water empty, the water full of itself,
Free of the sky and the cloud and free of me.

Norman Nicholson

The Pot Geranium (1954)

The Other Half – a walk continues

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Margaret Heathcote stood on the bridge over the river Derwent in the village of Grange and thought it would be a lovely place for a chapel, so she set about to raise the money and within 11 years a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity was built.

In 1922 a stone cross was erected in the churchyard to honour the men of Grange who fell in the First World War.

Imitation Norman dogtooth decorations inside the church.

Up and out of the village along the road towards Portinscale, remembering to look back at the Jaws of Borrowdale.

I continued along the road, past the Borrowdale Gates Hotel and its tempting offer of afternoon tea, turning off into a driveway that led through Low Manesty Woods and the path that would take me by the side of the lake.

Eventually you have to leave the lake at Brandlehow park and walk up towards the road once more. But only for a short time as you immediately pass through a gate and a path that leads past Lingholm to Nichol End marina

Taking the road out from the marina and the final, lengthy section of road walking through the village of Portinscale, crossing the bouncy foot bridge that leads to the footpath back into Keswick and the rain.

The Howras

Half a walk

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The plan was to catch a bus to Rosthwaite and walk alongside the River Derwent as it flowed northwards towards Derwent Water and then complete a half circuit along the western shore back to Keswick. That was the plan. Many years ago I had walked from Rosthwaite along the river path, swinging round Low Hows and to sneak back to the summit of Castle Crag – there is no direct route to the summit other than by taking it by surprise from the rear, as it were, and climb a zig-zag path through a surreal slate quarry. After the exertions of the day before I decided I would not be attempting any climbing, however lowly Castle Crag may be, but would stay on the level – as level as any route in the Lake District can be. I particularly wanted to start my walk from Rosthwaite because of the sheer beauty of that stretch of the walk.

In his introduction to Castle Crag, Wainwight has this to say above his illustration of the route from the village – “the thick line forming a square has a special significance, It encloses one mile of country containing no high mountain, no lake, no famous crag, no tarn, But, in the author’s humble submission, it encloses the loveliest square mile in Lakeland – the Jaws of Borrowdale.”

As each of the passengers boarded the small bus we were told that, because of road works and road closures the bus was only going as far as Grange bridge. Each and everyone of us had to rethink our plans for the day as we all embarked by the bridge.

As I hadn’t quite made my mind up by the time I had crossed the bridge I wandered into the Methodist chapel for a few moments and looked around at their display of local art work and information booklets.

After purchasing a few items i decided I would just cut straight to the second part of the walk and continue round the lake, only to change my mind a few steps further on when I was tempted by a signpost to Seathwaite and decided to just go along a short way and see what it was like. It was quite a clear and easy track leading to Hollows Farm and a camp site.

towards Castle Crag
Looking back towards Skiddaw
Hollows farm campsite – closed until Easter

I had taken a rather leisurely pace and realised that the walk was going to take longer than I had planned so unless I wanted to get back before rain and darkness fell it might be best to turn round, and save this walk for another day.

Before and After Summer

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Looking forward to the spring
One puts up with anything.
On this February day
Though the winds leap down the street
Wintry scourgings seem but play,
And these later shafts of sleet
– Sharper pointed than the first –
And these later snows – the worst –
Are as half-transparent blind
Riddled by rays from sun behind.

Shadows of the October pine
Reach into this room of mine:
On the pine there swings a bird;
He is shadowed with the tree.
Mutely perched he bills no word;
Blank as I am even is he.
For those happy suns are past,
Fore-discerned in winter last.
When went by their pleasure, then?
I, alas, perceived not when.

Thomas Hardy

Finzi song-cycle Before and After Summer Op.16 (1949)