caving

 

In the Alps via the miracle of a 6th hand 1980's Minibus. This is a noisy, cramped but very cheap way of getting there. If you take enough Pro Plus the chronic lack of sleep needed to do it in 24 hours whilst either driving or being sat amongst 3 weeks of dehydrated chicken supreme, primula and rapid apple becomes much more bearable. A diesel engine at a constant 4000 rpm in 4th gear has a memorably fatiguing engine note, I can hear it now 30 years distant.

We are in the Vercour caving, next to the region's premier show cave is the Grotte de Gournier. It starts with 40m of recent glacial ice, held by the gathering dark at a few degrees above freezing and forming a blue lake which fades to an eerie black at the back. We have a rubber dinghy and our youth with us, we will be fine.

Over the lake in the dinghy we go, rigging a ferry line to speed us along and climb our wire ladder up into the cave passage proper. The cave itself is festooned with huge stalactites for what seems like miles. The main part of the cave is nothing more than a gawping tourist walk, but still quite a thing. We spend some hours in there, the yellow glow of the flames from our water powered acetylene lamps lighting up the tube train size tunnels and the chaotic jumble of collapsed calcite all over the floor, until we are happy but hungry and tired. 

Back we go to the dinghy. It has lost some pressure whilst we have been away. Dave bends down to put some air in the valve.  As he blows the forgotten flame from his headlamp burns a neat hole straight through the rubber dinghy. We now have less pressure in the dinghy, quite a bit less. 

We do our caving back then in fibre pile suits with a plastic overall over the top of them. They keep you much warmer than a wetsuit, but you can't swim in them, if you do they fill with water, your wellies bob over your head and you risk drowning, it has happened. 

Heads are scratched, we make a crude patch with the bit of tape that was wrapping up our mars bar emergency rations. Dave puts some air back in the dinghy. Do you laugh or cry at this point? We all silently do a bit of both.

The tubes in the base of the dinghy are still intact, we have a slightly glorified lilo to get us back to the distant light on their own these tubes will not quite float when carrying a human. The first person across pulls themselves on the rope as quick as they can. The dinghy starts to sink by halfway, but they make it over without getting too wet.

We re-inflate the dinghy but the patch is definitely losing some of its stick in the water. I'm next, again it works, but less well, I'm fairly dry by the time I'm out but the water temperature is definitely glacial and you can hear the bubbly hiss of the tape patch leaking.

We keep going, the patch gets worse. Dave is second last, he basically sinks in the dinghy but he can stand when it happens and he makes it to shore. Pete is then the only one of us left on the far side the lake, lightest and youngest, somehow he becomes our talisman or perhaps sacrifice. Ultimately he is comfortably the toughest of us all, but that takes another few years to really emerge.

He decides to take his suit and overall off, put them inside and swim with the dinghy/lilo in his pants. We will pull him from the shore

Off he sets, we all pull on the rope. It is surprisingly slow work even with 4 of us, with 10 metres left, Pete lets go of the dinghy/lilo and starts to swim as the icy water is freezing his hands up. He heads for the cave wall but finds nothing to hold onto with his frozen hands, this is starting to look bad. He flails and thrashes along the wall swimming and scrabbling as the cold shock gets to him. Finally he can stand and falls towards the cave entrance, we help him into the sunlight shivering were he lies like a fish.

Soon the sun revives him and thoughts turn to cheap red wine in plastic bottles and bad dehydrated food. Grand day out.

Read More

Harrogate's Transport Revolution - Waiting for Godot

I don't know much about Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, but I do know, somebody gets a beating, someone else goes blind and then denies something ever happened, oh and Godot never comes.

If you are interested like I am in seeing less congestion and more active and sustainable travel in Harrogate, waiting for Godot is a fair metaphor for the process we seem to be perpetually engaged in.

As a town our residents and various local governments talk a great deal about the great things we will do to fix the congestion, we all agree is a problem. We also agree things would be much better if people (some of which let's be honest are us), didn't drive everywhere all the time. 

Grand plans are formed, they get funded by central government due in part to their eloquence, detail and perhaps also the fact it's a tory central government funding a tory council's plans. They then get modified by North Yorkshire County Council's Highways department because of, trees or drains or because, well you know stuff. Usually they are diluted sometimes improved, but they change. 

Highways then begin the process through their lead actor come public facing sage - Councillor Don Mackenzie  Executive member for the 1970's (who communicates mostly through a column in the local paper bizarrely), of setting a series of dates when these schemes will not be implemented. 

Godot is always due but he never quite gets here. We countdown, we wait, we hear footsteps but, no not quite, not yet, soon. Godot's failed arrival is greeted by a new date for his non arrival, tantalisingly close but still beyond our grasp, on we go, on, on, on. 

In the play there are only two acts. I imagine the audience wouldn't stomach any more. In reality we have had as many as six dates for when the Otley Road cycle way won't be implemented. Four dates for the Beech Road scheme to fail to be enacted and we await dates for when Knaresborough Road, Oatlands Avenue and Victoria Avenue won't be improved for cyclists. The pedestrianisation of James Street may not happen as soon as nowish although it may not happen up to and including next May.

Remember these are things the council have agreed to do and have money allocated for, but not doing them is the only way to guarantee that current levels of congestion remain high and new dates for them not to happen can be set. 

Soon (dates to be announced), we will be not be implementing a Park and Ride, not looking at how we can give buses priority on the A59 and A61 in town and we won't be building a bypass through Killinghall.

 The lights dim and the characters remain on stage 

"But that is not the question. What are we doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in the immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come -- ”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Read More

The joy of exing Xmas

Spoiler Alert

If Christmas is your thing and I know some people who wait a whole year for the next one, you probably shouldn't read this. This vitriolic diatribe is about persuading you to abandon much of the 21st Century UK Christmas and make your own fun. If you feel the very idea is mean-spirited and tantamount to murdering David Attenborough, you should probably look away now. If however part of you thinks that there could be real joy to be had in walking the road less travelled, perhaps I can persuade you? You have been warned...

We cancelled Christmas last year. We simply, after forty something years stopped doing it. We celebrated the solstice on the night of the 21st. What with it being a real, observable thing requiring no faith based belief system and all. After the solstice it gets lighter daily, that surely is worth getting excited about? I know some people who are devout Christians and for whom Christmas is a massively important part of their year. If that's you, good on you, crack on. It's not though, my philosophical world view and I don't really want to play any more.

Our plan worked well. We lit a fire as it went dark (did I mention I like a fire) and had shed loads of candles on. Then ate food, had presents and went to bed. A shorter day that didn't start at 5AM or finish when you get bored of Mrs Brown's Boys had some tangible benefits: Our model had consequentially less chance of one eating or drinking oneself to death, the telly was no crapper than any other day and we actively avoided a row by being asleep.

We have fiddled around with the idea a little for this year but the core elements remain. For me the most significant factor is the feeling of release from the compelling need to do odd things because nearly everyone else does. This sense of liberation is something that will now be hard to give up easily. You will take my un-christmas from my cold dead hands.

Things we won't be doing during this years festive season or I hope ever again:

• Sending Christmas cards or I imagine getting very many. I figure if we are worth talking to it will happen on one of the other 364 days in the year. If we aren't or you aren't, at least we won't both be pretending simply because it is dark, we are off work and the Victorians didn't have social media. Sorry if you are going to miss getting one, but honestly the joy of not writing them far outweighs the joy of trying to decide what to do with the bloody things for a fortnight before throwing them away.
• Opening an advent calendar. Why, what is that about? I know Chris Rhea has already set off because I have heard it via The Daily Mash. Why doesn't' the arrival of the Messiah simply have a theme tune, it works well for Chris? We can all count to 24 and the date is on most people's phones nowadays. Do we need to mark the days with bad chocolate?  More to the point are there any religious celebrations we can't reduce to a chocolate-centric shopping opportunity? I was tempted to add to my keep list (see below), the Blue Peter Advent Crown just out of sense of nostalgia and because it had small fires on it (fire is good. I should have said that earlier). The fact it has tinsel on it, ultimately did for that idea. 
• Eating turkey. It's proper shit isn't it? The best type of turkey is a chicken and that is so good we eat it all year round. Why have one day a year when you eat something worse for a special occaision? What kind of crap tradtion is that? The American settlers had no choice, the forests where full of them and food was scarce. We do, don't be stupid.
• Anything to do with elf's: On a shelf, in a blender, negotiating with Michel Barnier about an amended Brexit settlement. In fact no elf based capers at all. Don't really have a problem with elfs, yet somehow the whole elf thing seems to have snuck up on us, for reasons I'm not really sure of. I'm against it.
• Putting good whisky out for a reindeer herder when you could just drink it straight away. Some of it will evaporate that's why the bottle has a cork in it. Plain daft, not in my name.
• Going out for a works Christmas dinner in some kind of fun park style, mass catering, 7th circle of hell event venue. You get a bad dinner, worse wine, but with glitter, tinsel, a party popper and Slade. You pay 35 quid for food and entertainment that under normal circumstances you wouldn't accept from a one hygenie starred kebab shop, on the way home after a skinful of IPA. Truly bizzare. Our running club holds it's Christmas do in January, genius idea. By then the staff are sober enough to heat the food up properly and as they do this stuff more than 10 days a year, don't drop things on you or fight with the Maitre D.
• Feeling festive, whatever that is? This transcendental state often seems to involve mince pies, permanent inebriation and emotional meltdown from many true believers. They keep it together for a couple of weeks on the run in through most of December. Then colllapse faster than the agent of any Spice Girl but Posh claiming  their client is "to busy" to go back on tour one more time. Our festive friends implode or go full on supernova fruit loop for 48hours under the strain of providing, funding and experiencing a "proper Christmas." 
• Mulled wine, that bollocks is just bad wine made worse. It tastes like stuffed up warm ribena  and that is not even ribena at it's best. Actually It tastes worse than the mouthwash at the dentist after a particularly painful scale and polish. I suppose it doesn't have the bits of plaque and blood in it when you spit it out, but that is all I have to say in it's defence. 

Things we are retaining because you can pick and choose what you do it turns out.

• A tree and a few trees outside with lights on. Although the one inside is admittedly plywood it is a "tree" and the ones outside look nice whilst it is darker than Theresa May's political prospects. Anyway we are keeping trees with lights on, but no angels, fairies or other mystical tosh. I don't see fir trees in much scripture although I must confess I have only skim read a good proportion of it. As it stands it is mostly too bloody hot for coniferous trees in the middle east and I doubt it snowed much even a couple of millennia ago. We nicked the tree idea off the Germans, who nicked it off the Romans, who nicked it off the Pagans. I'm nicking it back, I like a tree.
• Presents probably less of them but it' still nice to buy the kids a bit of stuff. I just won't be pretending though that a curiously coca cola inspired, weirdly attired, overweight, middle aged white bloke, has snook in whilst we were asleep. Strangely Santa  rather than trashing the place after roughing us all up a bit, prior to stealing the car keys and making off with the laptops, has decided inexplicably to leave loads of stuff for us to open, because he knows we have been GOOD. 
• Doing something stupid or being in/near fancy dress on Boxing Day. For the last few years we have chased a turkey and/or a Brownlea around Otley Chevin. In the past mountains have been climbed, or raft races entered or some form of getting outside has been indulged in. Vitamin D is hard enough to come by without getting a whole pigs liver and a pint of cod liver oil down you before lunch during the dark days of winter. Being outside might just help a little. I will take the risk.
• The  Royal Institute Christmas Lecturers. Top people talking about science but dumbing it down to a point I can understand it and so can my kids. That is definatley worth keeping and even getting a little enthusiastic about. It's Prof Alice Roberts this year, she is great, she knows about bones and dead people.

Have a happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year. Here's to longer days and shorter nights. Remember you don't have to do anything you don't want to.

Read More

Even more thoughts on a Harrogate Relief Road

Cairn Hotel in town this morning, NYCC are presenting their addendum to a report on congestion in Harrogate.

We are now offered:

A modified package B - sustainable interventions of many kinds, but including bus lanes, bike lanes, town centre pedestrianisation and crucially road space taken off cars, (not sure why no park and ride in this package seems daft).

or

Package E (iii) which is the sustainable stuff above, plus a park and ride, plus a relief road (the blue line above) but with no junction on Bilton Lane.

Many people speak at the start, the best for me are a guy Tony Hart (sorry if I got your name wrong) who is hilarious but also eloquently opposes the route in many ways.

The Keeping Nidd Gorge Gorgeous guy also has a go and was rousing and clearly angry, he feels North Yorkshire Council have produced a report that is not fit for purpose, as we still don't have enough detail on the proposed route. I cheered at the end, many loudly applauded and the meeting chair gave up on asking the crowd to be quiet, he must have known when he was beaten.

This morning Andrew Jones MP was on the front page of the Advertiser opposing a relief road. Graham Chalmers was dishing out papers at the start, nice touch it set the scene.

When Councillors commented on the report, Richard Cooper - Harrogate Borough Councils leader did the same as Andrew Jones and rather well. I have had my fallings out with Richard in the past over a bike crossing, but he was good today. He essentially said he was dead against the road as it would destroy the gorge, the greenway, the golf course and a fair few people's houses (he didn't mention Henshaws, but they look like they are in the line of fire too). He said we should go for sustainable initiatives big time and then if people still wanted to drive they can sit in the traffic. Music to my ears.

Don Mackenzie defended the idea of consulting on both packages, his view though is I feel to build a road. He said something along the lines of getting people out of cars is dead hard and people in his constituency want less traffic in Harrogate. I don't know if Don is motivated by a belief a road will work, or if he is interested in East -West connectivity but he seems willing to defend his view against a fair bit of political and public opposition.

What happens now is I guess that both packages will go to public consultation. What matters if that happens, is that all 100,000 Harrogate residents get a chance to respond and not the whole of North Yorkshire. Don Mackenzie said that was what would happen let's hold him to his word.  Richard Cooper though thinks the road will never happen even if it gets to the funding stage. We shall see.

For me ultimately I think the clinching questions are, and bear in mind initially I thought a relief road was an ok idea but it would be fair to say my view has changed.

1. Will a relief road work? Based on the report(s), which I think fail to make a convincing case and the experience of other places were roads like this have been built and overall traffic volumes have increased. I have profound doubts, and so I don't believe it is worth a 100 million quid punt.
2. Is it worth stuffing up the gorge, the golf course, Henshaws and the Greeenway for now we know that's where it would go? For me no, I would rather do sustainable stuff and over time behaviour will change or people will sit in cars.

More on the meeting from the advertiser here

To be continued...

Read More

A Barely Defrosted Steak Pie - Leeds Commuting

No one likes biting into a  barely defrosted steak pie, at least no-one I know. That's how I feel about travelling by Northern Rail at the moment. It will keep you alive but it is not satisfying and you end up with gravy and ice on your face.

I have been taking the train more recently, my car died. I bought a folding bike. I end up on the Harrogate Leeds train one or twice a week now.

The trains usually run on time, there are new ticket machines, you can buy tickets online via an app and there are more, quicker trains on the route I travel. The staff are pretty friendly these days and they are trying to turn around a brand that was badly tarnished by under investment in the last decade.

Northern Rail get quite a lot of stick and in fairness some is deserved. I am often one of those  winding up their social media account on twitter, I doubt doing this though is the vehicle for change I would wish. It is more a reflex action for their decision to run an account that seems to designed to deflect people's attention away from the reality of the service they provide. A service which even they know is far from perfect. If their account was one that was actually interested in helping travellers who are often stuck at a station as a service fails, or is short formed and so rammed to the gunnels, or because in my most recent case water was leaking in though the window seals as we wound our way to Harrogate in an overstuffed 2 car train where 4 cars is the norm. Perhaps people would be more inclined to give them a break?

The fact that they are still running some 1980's bus bodied pacer trains long beyond their design life is shocking. My dad helped design these at the end of the1970's they were a 15 year stop gap that's a very long gap to stop. I make it 35 years or so. I have not travelled on such poor trains since I rumbled round the Peloponnese in the 1990's. These leaky, inefficient, noisy, hangovers from the last millennium do nothing to justify the £10.60 return I pay to travel 34 miles. The industrial action that is a blight on services sporadically is not helping their cause. Two train crew operation seems likely to endure, sort it out Northern.

Trains are full, even outside of rush hours they are busy, they must be turning a profit and they receive considerable government subsidy. If we are to get even more people into trains and off the roads we need a better railway yet. The train operators have to do more and they need to keep up the pace or they should expect more whinging and scrutiny form people who are in my case at least trying to travel more sustainably than a single occupancy car journey.

They must do more though, even though I think things are on the up they could do worse than consider some of the following:

1. Carnet style tickets you get a 10% discount  or some such for buying your journey's upfront in blocks of 10 or a dozen (and Northern get the cash upfront too) and you use them over a maximum 6 month period. This works well elsewhere and the regular but not daily commuter like myself gets some benefit.

2. Do something about their pricing structure. Some fares are discounted if you buy upfront some are not. Working out season ticket prices requires the persistence of a saint. If you split your tickets you save money, this is all just avoidable and exploitative crap.

3. An oyster card style app has got to happen hasn't it? Buying a ticket is still a right faff.

4. Travel for kids and students is priced as though they are merchant bankers, they deserve way more price breaks than they get. We should do better for our young people.

Much of the whinges above are probably not even things that Northern could fix but WYCA and Chris Grayling could, we deserve better. I'm not asking for Crossrail 2 just something that doesn't leak and is cheaper to travel in than a car.  I want to do my bit to fix congestion, but I can't do it on my own.

Read More

More thoughts on a Harrogate Relief Road

North Yorkshire County Council's chances of getting a relief road in the Nidd Gorge took a hit today. Don Mackenzie deferred putting his Relief Road out to consultation for 6 months or so. I imagine in no small measure as a result of the hue and cry the idea was attracting. He has toned down his rhetoric but I feel he is still struggling to "see beyond the bonnet", here is a quote.

He said "sustainable transport and demand management measures would need a carrot and stick approach to encourage people to use public transport, walk or cycle and discourage them from using their cars. As well as looking at such things as an improved cycle network and pedestrian schemes, options now to be considered in greater detail could include steep increases in parking charges, the extension of on-street parking charges, congestion charging and other measures."

Now that sounds like scaremongering to me or at best an inability to look at the whole picture. Try this... What if you raised your parking charges in town but used the revenue to fund a free circular mini-bus service round town, this is where the traffic data suggests many local journeys are made? That is a carrot and stick measure. Leeds Beckett where I work runs a similar shuttle bus service in Leeds, there is also one run by the hospitals of Jimmies and the LGI. Both are well used and cost about 30K per bus per annum.

He also suggests the conventional bus services are good and under used. True but they could be better, why use the bus if it is no quicker than your car because it is stuck in the same congestion? So increase your bus priorities, give them lanes to themselves in rush hour, this stuff is fairly well understood and it's use is wide spread. 

Do all and more of the bike and walking stuff that we already have plans for. It won't solve your problem, but it can contribute around about 10% modal shift, or half of a relief road's alleged effect on town centre traffic at a fraction of the cost.

Put Park and Ride schemes in. One at the Show Ground, one the Skipton Road side Jennyfield way. They are fairly standard in many big towns and cities. All of the above suggestions are absent or under represented in the current sustainable transport and demand reduction package (option B).

What I propose above is option B+. I'm sure we could do way better  than the above (option B++) if we really looked hard. Hopefully the impending 6 months of improving the sustainable and relief road offer will be evidence based and not just a way of polishing the relief road turd, whilst spreading fear about cars being crushed in a sustainable inferno. 

Don and NYCC seem to have a car centric view of the solutions to the problem and I guess that makes sense even if I think it's shortsighted. Cars are the overwhelming mode of transport in Harrogate.

However the answer for me is to encourage people to use their cars less in town. Not to build greater capacity. I think we have reached or are close to peak car in Harrogate if the congestion is a guide. If the solution from a road point of view is a relief road down the Gorge on balance I have failed to be convinced of the arguments advanced for it. It seems to offer too little benefit for the damage it would do. I have argued in the past a relief road might be a price worth paying, but I now believe it would not be. I changed my mind, I hope on the evidence or rather the lack of it and if I am honest because of the very strong public opposition to a road down the gorge.

I  think a relief road in the gorge is dead in the water now, too many of the people of Harrogate don't want it. Don is right about something though, the other choices mean people thinking about how they get around town, he calls these difficult decisions. For me the difficult decision would be to do nothing.  The first task is to get local people to understand that whilst a car is convenient because it is on the end of your drive. If you then have to spend 20 minutes sat in traffic before you can get into town, actually it is a right royal pain in the arse.

The final difficult decision is to implement a plan that looks at solutions to Harrogate's transport problems that look beyond the bonnet.

To be continued.

Read More

Ode to the Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny ambled in to Starbeck

Oddly for a vegetarian mammal it brought eggs,

It left them somewhere safe and said.

"Den access is not what it was, check it out small humans."

Then enigmatically but helpfully,

"Its all about the Last Straw."

Then he took himself off for another year.

Read More

A few specifics then Councillor Broadbent

It's election season, Starbeck is to have a new County Councillor after the frequently politically useless Liberal Councillor DeCourcey Bailey leaves the theatre of Harrogate politics. I only accuse her of being politically useless because she seemed to be totally reactive at her best, or mostly actively inert even when her residents were asking for her help, on issues her party supported. Phillip Broadbank is the new contender, I got their Party Leaflet through the letterbox yesterday and a wonderful mix of policy-lite soundbites and meaningless waffle it was too.

I would like to vote Liberal, hard as my heart is I can't support the Tories, they represent the dark side of armegedon in my mind coupled with all that is tooth and claw in human nature. Thing is I really need a few specifics form Councillor Broadbent before I can help vote him into office in Starbeck.

Will he commit to lobby actively for increased bus priorities on the Knaresborough Road? Will he try and progress the Harrogate sustainable transport plan which puts a cycleway Harrogate- Knaresbrough (via Starbeck) but seems to have ground to a halt in the Hands of Rebecca Burnett and Richard Cooper.

50K of public money has been spent on this where is the report? Do we have funding or have we just thrown the money away? Will he seek to find out?  If he says he wants to explore sustainable transport options.

Will he do something about some form of youth provision in Starbeck? A youth club, youth worker or bike project or perhaps skills training working with Carl Nelson at Veloheads in Starbeck who already does some of these things with kids, just not ones form Starbeck that kind of thing. If he says he wants to fight to reduce antisocial behaviour that would seem like a concrete form of action.

I'm sure I can think of a few others but that will do for starters. Over to you Phillip.

Read More

In the world of Harrogate Borough Council this makes sense

Begin forwarded message:

From: Harrogate Borough Council <noreply@harrogate.gov.uk>

Subject: Response to your Bins and recycling enquiries submission

Date: 24 March 2017 at 14:41:44 GMT

To: xxxxxx@gmail.com

Dear Rachael Prince

Thank you for your enquiry, received on 23 March 2017.

I appreciate that you returned the bin at the time it was offered, but once a bin has been refused, it is not possible to re-issue it. The garden waste service has been reviewed and restructured to make it more equitable for all residents, and it will be offered in the first phase in 2017 to those who currently use the service and then extended to other residents in 2018.

It is not simply a question of providing the bin, but of being able to provide sufficient vehicles to empty the bins.

The garden waste service is a non-statutory service, which means that your council tax does not include a charge for it, so you are not being charged to receive a different level of service from your neighbours and they will of course be charged from June 2017 if they wish to opt into the service.

If you need to contact us again about this enquiry, please quote your case reference FS-Case-20074126.

Jill

Customer Services
Harrogate Borough Council
PO Box 787
HARROGATE
HG1 9RW
email: contact ustel: 01423 500 600

www.harrogate.gov.uk

Read More

How to make a Nidd Valley Beanie

This hat is crocheted using two different colours as a twin spiral.

You will need two standard balls of Aran weight yarn. One dark grey,  one yellow, I used Drops Alaska Dark Grey Mix  and Rico Essentials Sun yellow  along with a 4mm crochet hook, I like the knit pro Symfonie hooks, other hooks are available.

Most of my pattern is blatantly stolen from the Moriaty hat on little house by the sea  from whom I also nicked the pics (didn't seem a lot of point taking my own), but I have modified it as I find I get a hat that is too small otherwise.

When I crochet, I work the stitches pretty tight, I get an almost felted effect as I firmly snug the yarn up after each stitch.

Notes on sizing

I have an average size head and am pretty baldy, this hat fits snug with 120 stitches as the crown circumference.

If you crochet loose you might want to drop the 2 double crochet increases in round 18 and just double crochet into each stitch. Alternatively if you have a big head with thick hair or want a loose hat you could repeat round 18's 2 double crochets on round 19, you would then have 130 stitches and a bigger hat.

Method

dc means double crochet

Shaping the crown

To start: with your dark grey yarn make an adjustable ring (this is just a slipknot) by making a loop with your yarn with the tail end of the yarn in front of the working yarn, insert your hook into the loop and draw the working yarn through, then chain 1.

Round 1: dc six times into the adjustable ring, then pull the yarn through so you have a big loop and remove the hook – remember to do this on every round so that you don’t accidentally unravel your stitches.

Round 2: Join contrasting yarn into the adjustable ring, pull the ring closed, then dc twice into each of the stitches in the previous round. (12 stitches)



Round 3: 1 dc into each stitch of previous round. (12 stitches)



Round 4: 2 dc into each stitch of previous round. (24 stitches)



Round 5: 1 dc into each stitch of previous round. (24 stitches)

Round 6: 2dc into first stitch, then 1 dc into next stitch. Repeat until end. (36 stitches)

Round 7: 1 dc into each stitch of previous round. (36 stitches)

Round 8: 2dc into first stitch, then 1 dc into next two stitches. Repeat until end. (48 stitches)

Round 9: 1 dc into each stitch of previous round. (48 stitches)

Round 10: – 2 dc into first stitch, then 1 dc into next three stitches. Repeat until end. (60 stitches)

Round 11: 1 dc into each stitch of previous round. (60 stitches)

Round 12: – 2 dc into first stitch, then 1 dc into next three stitches. Repeat until end. (75 stitches)

Round 13: 1 dc into each stitch of previous round. (75 stitches)

Round 14: 2 dc into first stitch, then 1 dc into next three stitches. Repeat until end. (93 stitches)

Round 15: 1 dc into each stitch of previous round. (93 stitches)

Round 16: 2 dc into first stitch, then 1 dc into next 4 stitches. Repeat until end. (111 stitches)

Round 17: 1 dc into each stitch of previous round. (111 stitches)

Round  18: dc into first stitch, then 1 dc into next 11 stitches. Repeat until end. (120 stitches)

Crown shaping is complete.

Main body of the hat

Continue to alternate your colours by dc into each stitch as before for 14 more rounds. It helps hide the transition to a single yarn if you chain 6 stitches as you switch to working a single colour yarn. You will see what I mean when you get there.

If you have enough yarn you can then work 8 rounds in black or yellow as you choose to make the final coloured band at the base of the hat. I ran out of dark grey so I did 5 rounds in Grey and then 3 in yellow.

Weave in all ends.

This hat fits half way down my ears and over the eyebrows, if you want longer do a few more rounds.

Finally dip in some warm water and plonk on head to dry and block it into shape.

Read More

To do nothing would be stupid and dangerous

What if we had money to improve Leeds Transport along a gridlocked road corridor and had evidence that the current road layout was killing and injuring people disproportionately but we did nothing about it? That would be bonkers would it not?

So here we are, the Otley Road corridor into Leeds resembles a carpark at rush hour which is bad for drivers. It  makes Leeds a clean air black spot. It holds the buses up and as this new map of cycling casualties in Leeds for the last five years shows. It appears to be injuring more than it fair share of cyclists.

This is a bad thing and as of now there are no plans to do anything to change this lamentable situation. You can't make this stuff up.

What if you put a park and ride on the available land by the ring road. Improved bus priorities into the city and made them electric. Fitted a segregated cycleway so people could park and ride (bus or bike) and you funded it using some of the £175 million quid you have from your failed trolley bus scheme? That would be better for everyone.

If you wanted to drive  in you could, but if the buses where good or you fancied the bike you would. That's the experience from the rest of the world anyway.

So why wouldn't you do that Leeds City Council and Greg Mullholland MP?

Read More

The price of Sucess

Sam's Idea I acquiesce. Horton again, not long after dawn, sun is out, mist on the tops, a great day. Yorkshire's Three peaks is the target. I'm easily the least able member of the party which includes a dangerous Rickard, but nothing ventured, why not?

We start well, Penyghent gives in easily. 40 minutes sees us on top in the mist and making good time back towards Ribblehead, now in full sun, the miles tick by on good undulating tracks but mainly down. Sam is stamping out a good tempo. 10 miles in at the tea shed, all is well and nearly half distance done.

We take Whernside direct. It is steep, boggy and unrelenting. The ridge looks a good way off. There is a keen wind chilling you down as the slope steepens to hand territory at the top.

Sam is shouting the odds, threatening my death over route selection but he should be quiet, he is way out in front and unlike me can still speak. Matt is keeping him company as I hit my VO2 max and engage crawler gear.

The top is a windy freezer, no place to linger. I shuffle off to the valley, but the writing is rapidly on the wall. My legs are cold, solid and empty and sub 10 minute miles are but a memory of past glories, even though only an hour ago. I am the shambling man.

I stumbletrip down the track but I'm barely passing walkers, cramp is kicking off leftrightleft. Sam and Matt are now walking faster than I can run. We chat, they know the undead when they see it and I persuade them to keep going, I will self-rescue to the pub. What a trooper.

So here I am, there is a log fire. I contain some very nice sausage and mash and I'm just starting my second pint. I should be annoyed at a poor effort but that's the furthest I have run post op and the pace was ok. Even my disappointment is tinged with happiness.

Oh and Matt and Sam get to run a negative split on the last leg and smash 6 hours.

There is still a lot of work to be done by me, some of my long term goals look distant, but I have come a long way in 7 months after major surgery. The price of ultimate success is initial failure and I now know where my limits currently are. Good Day

Location:Horton in Ribblesdale

Read More