Sunlight reflected on Great Slab Bow Fell

Sunlight reflected on Great Slab Bow Fell, originally uploaded by M+MD.

Changing Weather

Changing Weather, originally uploaded by M+MD.

View from top of Glaramara

Bagging Wainwrights

There are 214 hills in the 7 Wainwrights pictorial guides to the Lake District. They are not exactly all the biggest hills - though they are pretty close. Lots of people (mainly from the North of England) make it there ambition to climb each of these hills. I have done about 67 of them - though I am not certain of some of the early adventures. A couple of days on the walk I did in 1981 are a bit vague - especially the first day when I climbed Grasmoor above Buttermere and the last day when I climbed High Street.

There are now lots of resources on the internet for walkers and climbers. This site allows you to mark each hill you've climbed - pretty cool. My Wainwrights

This weekend I hope to add another five to this list. Watch this space.

Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes Concert at Vicar Street, Dublin on July 1, 2010

What a fantastic concert. Its been nearly twenty years since we saw Elvis Costello at the Feile in Thurles in 1991. He has taken many musical twists and turns - that what I like about him. Currently he is touring with a band called the Sugarcanes. In theory promoting their album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane. This is a bluegrass and country themed album. But in practice the concert was the full repetoire. It's a long time since Elvis played in Dublin - I'm not sure how long - but I missed the last concert and I won't be missing the next one.

Elvis Costello
uploaded by M+MD

Jim Lauderdale
uploaded by M+MD

The band is pretty good line-up, featuring singer songwriter, Jim Lauderdale on Guitar and Vocals; Dennis Crouch on Double Bass; Stuart Duncan on Fiddle; Jerry Douglas on Dobro; Mike Compton on Mandolin and Jeff Taylor on Accordian.

Dennis, Jim, Jeff
uploaded by M+MD

Elvis Costello
uploaded by M+MD

Vicar Steet is such a cool venue. We had a table in the third row so as you can see from the photos and videos, the view was pretty amazing. He was clearly enjoying himself and didn't play just one long encore - but as you can see from the setlist below he played 3 encores. His main set was a very acceptable 15 songs. However he played another 13 in the three encores!

The Setlist was as follows (thanks to setlist.fm)
1. Mystery Train
2. Blame It On Cain
3. Down Among the Wines and Spirits
4. New Amsterdam / You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
5. Good Year For The Roses
6. Condemned Man
7. Complicated Shadows
8. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
9. The Delivery Man
10. Jimmie Standing in the Rain
11. Slow Drag With Josephine
12. Little Palaces
13. Friend of The Devil
14. Everyday I Write The Book
15. Don't Lie To Me
Encore:
16. Girls Talk
17. The Spell That You Cast
18. That's Not the Part of Him You're Leaving
19. Sulphur to Sugarcane
Encore 2:
20. Mystery Dance
21. Poor Borrowed Dress
22. Alison / Wind Cries Mary
23. Shipbuilding
24. (What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?
Encore 3:
25. The Crooked Line
26. Happy
27. The Race Is On
28. American Without Tears

Videos:

Elvis Costello & the Sugarcanes, uploaded by M+MD.

More Photos

A Training Exercise up Lugnaquilla

In preparation for the forthcoming Lake District trip we did a 6 hour walk up Lugnaquilla from the Glen of Imaal. We had great weather. It's probably the least interesting route up Lug, but we need the practice and also its the easiest side to approach the mountain. Greg brought Christopher and Peter, I brought Senan and Kevin brought Liam! We made it up in just over two and a half hours, whch is pretty good going. We took a longer time to go down, stopping for lunch. We decided to take in the next two hills which meant that we had a longer walk back to the Glen of Imaal pub, where we had parked the cars.

Lugnaquilla
uploaded by M+MD

Lugnaquilla
uploaded by M+MD

On Camarahill
uploaded by M+MD

Going Down
uploaded by M+MD