Lovely Mike's book

Heather land and bent land
black land and white,

God bring me to Northumberland
the land of my delight;

Land of singing waters,
and winds from the sea,

God bring me to Northumberland
the land where I want to be;

Heather land and bent land,
and valleys thick with corn,

God bring me to Northumberland,
the land where I was born

These are words of a poem on the back cover of Diary of a Walker a book of collected walks Mike Bell walked. He was a member of our Wednesday group, but we had no idea that every week he wrote down something about the route, the weather and who led the walk. When he died suddenly last year, good friends Brian and Maureen Hart took on the job of editing his notes and then preparing this book for print.

The copies came from the printer yesterday and I am enjoying dipping in and out of the book. Inevitably it has brought tears to my eyes; Mike was a very good friend.

On a different subject, I went to hear Mandy Barker speak at the Hexham Photography Group tonight. She does some ground breaking work on the issue of plastic debris in the oceans and on beaches. Her work is beautiful, intricate, technically amazing but most powerfully it raises awareness of serious issues. The internet images are a poor reflection of the large photographs we saw on A size paper tonight. She has won various prizes and been exhibited at many major exhibitions to do with recycling and care of the oceans.

Also had a hair chop - very short by my standards, but I think I like it.