"Leaves were falling just like embers.
In colors red and gold they set us on fire.
Burning just like a moonbeam in our eyes. "

So the song goes and there is absolutely nothing else to be said about the beautiful autumn ambience walking around the Durham Woods and City Market area in the graceful afternoon light. On the way in I saw two jets with a contrail each behind them cutting across each other at an angle thousands of feet up but because there is so little moisture in the cold air up there today the contrails lasted for about 10 seconds and then just vanished. Wonderful.

Fiona is laid up with sinusitis and  flu and probably anything else nasty which is wandering around at the moment so couldn't come out for a walk with us. Miles had a day off during the week with a nasty cold so he is working the weekend to catch up. Very good doggy and he is really getting into the work ethic as well as the Mathematics. Good lad. So, it was just my youngest Clifford and me to trail around the trail getting some strides in and enjoying the quiet. Clifford brings out the quiet in me and it is always very peaceful walking with him. We stopped for biscuit break at the Cloisters in Durham Cathedral and then we went into the Cathedral and there was an all woman choir singing which was very beautiful particularly the low contraltos who were putting a lovely resonance and foundation to the music. Very nice. I love choral music I really do.

It was quite a laugh at biscuit break because I told Clifford about a rather speculative bit of social research somewhere I can't remember that says basically boys tend to marry women who are like their mothers in their personalities. He asked me where I got this from and I said I couldn't remember but I also said don't believe me look it up for yourself. He said "Don't worry dad I believe you, you have a very convincing demeanour!". "Convincing demeanour" I think he is totally right there and he is very good at finding the right word, expression and occasionally even a verbal paragraph to capture the moment. Good lad he has really come on in the last few months.

So, the lads are busy, the wife has been cuddled with a great listen to" Old Ideas" by Leonard Cohen and now it is time to go into the "lets cook something nice for the family mode". I have some major dissatisfactions at the moment mainly to do with work, that is not getting it and music that is, not getting somebody to play it with, but I have to say they pale into insignificance compared to the security, good feeling and love of my family. And friends by the way. I think a lot about the people I used to know, the ones I am in contact with  now as well as the ones I have not seen for 20 years. I pray for my friends and every time I go down to York and have a truck around the Minster I always go to the Prayer Chapel and say prayers for my mother-in-law, family and a guy I used to know in York called Simon Hoban who sadly, died last year. I truly hope that all of my friends achieve what they want to achieve in life, are happy and also that I may see all of them again one day.  I was thinking a bit  about a woman I knew in the 80s called Jane Docherty and what a fine lady she was . I hope I see her again one day.

A cracking day . I got out this morning to do my Baha'i stall under a beautiful blue sky with high cirrus clouds whirling above all those ice crystals slowly falling and had a nice time sat there taking some questions about my religion as well as a folk taking a handful of leaflets. Had a nice mini chat with a Christian lady doing a Christian stall just up the way . Nice .

Fiona was totally zonked with her sinusitis today so me and the lads went for a lope around the Durham Woods and then had a nice biscuit break in center of Durham at the market , well I say biscuit break  because we raided the pie and cake shop and got a Cornish pasty, choccy muffin and Clifford wolfed a vanilla slice . All washed down with Diet Coke . When Mums away , the boys will play . Yum yum!

Had a good rap and roll conversation wise with the lads today and it was good to be tonking around nice and briskly because Fiona wasn't there to slow us up. But we missed her ! Miles drove really well and got us back home and i crashed with the lovely Fiona for half of the Leonard Cohen  live in London cd and then got down to knocking up the meatballs , homemade tonight , tomato sauce , sphagghetti and garlic bread to feed the hungry pack . Two episodes of Fawlty Towers coming up and then later Fiona and I are going to watch a documentary about the Stax recording and record producing outfit which will be great because we love that Southern Soul. Great day !

About time the Maths A Level is being looked at. Very easier and very much harder combinations can get a pupil  the same result . I hope they make Mechanics 1, 2,3,4 compulsory . Mechanics 3 and 4 are that tricky that even the independent schools don't do them. The kids wouldn't do so well  and risk losing a University place .  My hard working eldest son did Mechanics 3 and 4 all on his own !  I worked out that of all the Maths students in the UK him and a few other crazies were the best prepared for a Under Graduate Maths Degree. He did all of the Further Maths Modules as well.

It strikes me sometimes we are trying to get the best out of kids and make them all the same so no one feels bad, at the same time . Not possible!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20067870

Good stuff. Most cosmologists now accept that something from nothing ie the Big Bang or Creation for the Christian and Muslim folk is wrong and that the Universe is more likely to have existed forever. It does with its end because space is flat and goes on forever in a straight line , no problem with that : no end ! But , if the Universe has no beginning it could not be proved by science, only accepted as a belief position because in order to prove a scientific truth a cause is needed . If the universe has existed forever it has no cause . This lets in God , Providence or whatever Name a person chooses to call it because what creates that which has no cause?

I believe that religion and science have a common purpose : understanding the universe and allowing ones life to be led by whatever that universe is saying is the best way forward and not holding on to views and practices that are useless now. Best of all though is the Cern scientists are breaking down the rather tribal and antagonistic barriers between some scientists and religious folk because the universe is very much saying : have differences but think and behave as if it is diversity that is an expression of a unity between all human beings.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19870036

A post from a Facebook mate, Toby Philpot about John Martyn.

"Working in folk clubs (and showing no talent for music) I hung out with musicians (making tea and rolling joints, etc), so I guess I have to find a piece by John Martyn (I used to baby-sit for him and Beverley) - who knew he got an OBE! "

"When I ran away to the USA, he phoned ahead, so a friend would settle me in, until the jet-lag wore off...and through the following 18 months of my hitch-hiking around he would occasionally pop up through FM radio to reassure me... it felt like a postcard...in those days before mobile phones, email, and all that. Bless 'im."

 Today I had a smashing walk with Clifford and Fiona around the Durham woods. It was a lovely blue sky interrupted by cumulus clouds desperately trying to build up into huge piles but it was not warm enough for that. As we walked about a kilometre into the woods we arrived at the point where last Saturday in the early morning I came across two Roe Deer browsing the lower branches and I stopped immediately and whilst they looked up and saw something, because they have very poor eyesight they just thought I was a tree. Totally magic. They were 2 young Deer and I looked at them for about 10 min before they moved off slowly down another path so I just had to follow them down there very softly and quietly. The path they had taken was enclosed by fences on either side so they just had to keep moving down towards the road but as they just got there some vehicles turned up so one of the Deer shot off to the left and the other one came right up to me more or less 5 m away before it realised I wasn't a tree I was a human. Great stuff. It couldn't go back down to the road and it couldn't jump over the fences so it just sidled past me back up to the path where I had seen them originally.
So I followed the little beastie up there and it had gone through a gap in the fence but because it thought I had gone away it tried to come back to the gap and only realised at the last moment that I was there. I was hoping it would come straight through the gap because then I could have patted it on the head as it went past as I was hiding behind a tree. What an adventure. Anyway it knew I was there so went away from me and I followed it along a high fence that partially obscured me from it and it seemed very disorientated so much so that it came up to the fence where I was stood and only realised in the last couple of metres that I was there. I saw that I was actually distressing the poor animal so I moved away quickly which got it moving in the opposite direction towards where its sibling was. I am not going to follow Deer in the future, well not too far, because I think it distresses the animal and I am not too happy about that.

But, that was last week and this week, the same place, I had my family with me the leaves had turned even more brown and golden and it was a lot quieter with very few people around. There has been a lot of rain over the last couple of days so the ground is very boggy. When we had biscuit break at the Cloisters in Durham Cathedral we had a look at the roosting bats and one of them was hanging free from the wall and we could see a lot more of it. Really good!

Durham Centre was absolutely packed out with eager beaver looking young people no doubt studying in the many fine educational institutions in the City of Durham. We may be in a recession but life still goes on. On the way back home we saw many fine cumulus clouds in weird and wonderful shapes because the thermals that give the push to drive them up and outwards were not very consistent so they were collapsing after building up for a bit and then spreading out into to velum a sort of disk like cloud which was at the top of the cumulus cloud given it an almost mushroom effect. Eerie.

 

Miles had stayed at home to get on with his Mathematics Revision and he is working very well and has two more exams in Middlesbrough next week. When we got back home Fiona and I had a good crash out and cuddle listening to the best of Leonard Cohen which was really good. The usual tea of meatballs and pasta followed and we are now watching Fools and Horses which is very funny. Another day to add to the last 25 years of a pretty good life.

A Facebook  comment about the Jimmy Saville allegations.

"Its just not good and very disappointing. In my view the 70's were about the worst time in UK history because most people knew what shouldn't be happening but just went along with it . A guy from Reeth Brass Band who I played with from 1970 to 1974 was convicted for sexual offenses against children. I got a phone call from North Yorkshire Police because they thought me and several of my friends may have been victims of this guy.

 I have to be a bit careful what I say here because one of the problems I had speaking to North Yorks Police  was that they just wouldn't accept that there was a highly sexualized culture in Richmond and the Dales at that time  which did cross the age of consent law with willing participants on both sides of that age. All part of pubs , underage drinking and getting to know the exciting world of adults. To be quite honest Emma I'm always left with the impression with North Yorkshire Police that who you are and who you know is a big factor in whether a person is prosecuted for virtually anything.

Its murky stuff this  but I expect more of this to come out in future particularly to do with adults from the 70's who had authority over children. What I think is also going to come out eventually   , and this might  cheese you off  and I'm sorry about that , it is only my perception at the time ,  is that some young people who had illegal sexual contact with adults in the 70s may not have been as unwilling as everyone seems to paint them. I don't mind saying this because it happened to me  . An amorous 17 -18 year old had a grope of me in an institutional context when I was 13 - 14. I certainly don't see that as abuse at all , even though I wasn't interested , well not like that , she seemed a bit old , but the point is , that lady went on to be a good mother in Richmond and is most definitely not a child molester at all  and other than the fact that she thought I might be into it when I wasn't that sort of thing was pretty routine at the time in the Dales area and I can't say I feel violated just sickened by the general very sexualized culture that prevailed at the time which seemed to distort a lot of childrens childhood. When I say routine I didn't perceive it as a regular occurrence but it did happen to me once and it was mentioned occasionally with other friends I knew.

It was a discussion around this sort of problem that I disagreed with North Yorks Police about . The line of questioning from them was such as to ensure that issues with no other people were raised , typical North Yorkshire , in fact they never even said who might be involved at all  I only found that out after the guy had been convicted and from my mother. As I said to North Yorkshire Police there was a very sexualized culture at the time, a time when guys over 16 would refer to girls under 16 as "jail bait"  which indicated that some would if they could and even that some did . As I said very murky.

If anyone thinks that this problem has gone away it hasn't . I used to pick my lads up from the school gate everyday at Longfield School. I saw a lot and had some interesting discussions with parents . But anyway a girl in Miles' class who was 15 , as Miles was , met her boyfriend at the gate sometimes , who I'd seen around on my walks and even spoke with him and he was 18 to 20. It was all a kissy and clinchy  and done right under the noses of teachers who were seeing the children off the premises and could see that that child's boyfriend was definitely not under 16. As I've said murky stuff .

Until society strictly agrees to the age of consent law, teachers and parents in particular,  we are always going to get a  blurring of the age of consent as part of our culture which just sexualises children whilst an awful lot of people in our society right now are  just watching it happen even though its illegal and breaking the law. Thats what is so tragic about the Jimmy Saville story : a lot of people  knew about it but will be running as far away from the issue now because at the time it was part of the culture. If that culture never existed at the time and all those people who saw what he did said something he would have been stopped in his tracks. But , if that 70s sexualised  culture  hadn't existed a culture he seems to have exploited could he have even done what he is alleged to have done?"