First Guitar

The first guitar I owned was an electric when I was 15. I wanted to become Jim Hendrix immediately. I saw no point in learning on an acoustic and playing 'Streets of London', I wanted to cut to the chase and play lead guitar straight away. I had my eye on this Avon SG copy in the record shop in Ulverston, it looked fantastic and, at £34 was in the dream realm of affordability. After endless visits to look at it and wonder I finally bought it one day. Getting it home, plugging it in to the stereo, and ... I didn't sound like Carlos Santana at all. I just sounded louder than someone on an acoustic. But I got over the disappointment and set out to learn to play blues lead guitar from a book. And it worked. I never bothered to learn chords but just to play lead guitar. To this day I find chords a bit of a pain. That's two things I have in common with BB King, he can't play rhythm and he can't sing and play at the same time [something else I struggle to do].

Anyway I grew to love the Avon SG and showed my love by butchering it. I took out one of the humbucker pick-ups and replaced it with a strat type pick-up [trying to have the best of both worlds] then I ended up taping a cut-down fuzz box onto the back of the guitar.

I have no photos of the guitar but found a few photos on line of the same guitar, usually accompanied by words like "My old uncle has this guitar. Anyone know anything about them?"

Sniper

When we were at Ro and Pete's for Christmas I saw a Snipe http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/s/snipe/index.aspx . On return to York I was surprised to see a Snipe here too, in the beck. This is a first. I think it must be the frozen landscape forcing birds to seek other sources of food and water.

We went to drinks at David and Anita's yesterday evening which was good. The photo is another shot from the party

Snicket

This photo of one of the snickets that we use all the time to get about York. It links the old railway coach works with the station and the old railway sheds. Back in the day it would have seen a stream of workers on their way to and from the works. Not any more.

Drinks

We had our Xmas drinks open-house today. It was a lovely day, apart from the ice and the perma-frost, so Rowan could keep all the children happy in the garden with the snow, the trampoline and the dog. It was great to catch up with people, a good relaxed party.

Guitar

My Xmas present from my Mother was this Epiphone Les Paul. I have never played a Les Paul, always being a Strat man. So it is a bit of a journey into the unknown. It is strange how you have to adapt your playing to a different guitar.

The quiet before...

We spent Xmas in Suffolk with my sister's family and my mother. Great success, the ice held off the roads allowing us to get there, and it all went well.

This is a shot of their new garden room just before the onslaught that is Xmas dinner. Ages ranged from 84 to 0.25 and it all went off very smoothly.

Happy Christmas 2009

Snow

Another shot of the snow-covered moor. The snow is hanging around and is still soft and powdery in a very un-British way. It almost seems like being in Pennsylvania again

Do the Math

Rowan enjoys an on-line maths website where she competes with children from around the world. This is her doodle sheet.

Cookies

One of our traditions at Christmas is Danielle, with Rowan [and Rhianna] helping, making cookies. Hanging them on the tree this year has been curtailed thanks to the presence of a certain Milo.

Civic

One of the things I like about Quaker Meeting in York is that it is well integrated into civic society, and not a sad small enclave cut off from everyone else. So a friend who came to visit once met the cab-driver who had ferried him from the station to our house, the next day at Meeting. And our plumber is now a regular attender - useful.

The photo is from the whisky museum.

Snowfall

It is a cliche to go on about how freaked out by a drop of snow we are in the UK. But it is true. We are blocked in by fully 7cm of snow. This is the moor yesterday.

Orchestrate

This is a shot of Rowan in the orchestra. I am really pleased that she enjoys it so much.

Typing is difficult today as I attempted to slice my finger together with th cabbage when I was cooking yesterday.

Ex Libris

The photo is of Rowan in the Whisky Museum.

Last night we had the annual Book Group party with a quiz on all the books we have read during the year. The quiz has had to get progressively easier as standards fall [and our memories fail]. Just to give you an idea, this year one of the questions was "Who wrote Love's Executioner?" one of the books we had read. And 3 people got it wrong.

We also had each chosen a piece of music for us all to listen to - these ranged from Northern Soul [me] to choral singing [John's own choir] via Kate Rusby and Purcell.

Plus, we had a game of Ex Libris http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/gamesin.php?UniqueNo=620 which was as much fun as usual. Judy won.

Scotland

Holidays have started. Rowan and I used our free train tickets to go to Edinburgh for the day. We had a great time. Visiting the Whisky Museum and going to the David Bann vegetarian restaurant.

Los Desterrados

Sunday we went to see Los Desterrados http://www.losdesterrados.com/ at the Early Music Centre. Edward and Sharon were there as well as Adrian and quite a few other people we knew. The gig was great, a really good band.

The photo is of the cross country last week on the Knavesmire.

Orchestra

It was Christmas Meeting at school on Saturday morning. "Rowan was playing in the orchestra" which is a pretty amazing statement to those of us who heard her on the horn one year ago - amazing.

Friday evening was a leaving do for some friends in a York pub.

The photo is of warm and sunny Hartlepool from last year.

Running

Rowan ran in the York Schools Cross Country championship on Friday - it meant I had to whisk her away from the frightening music teacher, Miss Hammerton, but we got away with it. Rowan ran really well, fell flat on her back in the mud, but still got back up to finish second. Really proud of her.

The photo is of Danielle at Durham

Family

Cousin Sarah stayed with us for a couple of nights as she had some work to do in Leeds. Great to see her.

The photo is another of Durham, one of the bridges over the Wear in the city.

Durham

Danielle took me to Durham on my birthday as a surprise. It was a lovely day, a walk by the river and up to an iron age hill fort, then pizza express and the free first class train home. It really is a beautiful city. The Wear was in full flow with cormorants giving it a Chinese feel.

Avalanche

One of my favourite lyrics has always been

"There's gonna be an avalanche

When I tell my cousin blanche"

but I have long since lost the deep soul track from whence it came.

Google had been no help, too obscure even for the algorhythm-kings. Until now.

The track is Family Tree by Patti Austin.

The photo is another from sodden Beverley

Dim Swim

Milo charged across the green grass of Beverley and into what he thought was the grey grass next to it. Only it was water. Much confusion and splashing in the river. He really is not that keen on cold swimming. He did deign to retrieve this stick for me but that was the end of it.

Beverley

Rowan was swimming in a gala at Beverley in the East Riding. Danielle braved the screaming parents, bad pa system, heat and general helldom while I escaped with Milo to walk on the sodden flatlands around the river. That's Beverley Minster in the distance on the photo.

Rowan set new PBs for two of her three races, and came back with two trophies and a "speeding ticket" so she was happy.

NRM

Whilst Danielle was at Betty's with Julie, Rowan and I went back to our favourite place - the National Railway Museum. It was here that we spent many hours of Rowan's formative years, and it is always a pleasure to go back.

Rory Gallagher

Danielle was off to a Betty's cooking course in Harrogate today and Rowan had a lie in. This gave me a rare opportunity to put on a music DVD of the late Rory Gallagher. I saw him twice in 1979 and they were two of the best gigs I've been too. The warmth of the man comes through the frenzy of the music - just great blues-rock and one of the very best guitarists. Rowan got up eventually and her comments "What's this? It's awful? Why are you watching this?" reminded me why I so rarely get to watch ...

This photo was a big success yesterday, generating a lot of interest.

Fayre Play

I had a stand at the school Xmas Fayre today. A lot of standing around, chatting to other stallholders, then a deluge of people all at once. It went well in the end, with a good number of people booking future portraits. Friend Emma was there selling her Shea Alchemy skin products, and plenty of interesting stalls. Glad its over now though.

The photo was one of the portraits I use in my publicity.

Photo Doubt

This photo is of an old pill box on the beach at Aberdvy. Not sure if it is good enough to make the cut - still thinking about it.

Advent

9 years ago Mother bought Rowan this Advent Calendar. It is made of cloth with little figures to velcro on each day of Advent. Rowan loves it and it has become a family institution; a good purchase.

Ride

Went a short ride with Ted and Dave on Saturday afternoon. Our first ride together since the Dundee trip at Easter. Short ride - fast pace [for us].

Saw Mark and Mandy last week for the first time since the great Guernsey wedding - always good to catch up.

The photo is from Rome in 2005.

Orchestrate

Friday evening we listened [with some trepidation] to the Junior Orchestra at Rowan's school. A horn section of Rowan on French Horn and two of her friends on Trumpet and Trombone promised potential discordance. Amazingly it sounded really good. The rest of the concert [with girls from the whole school in various groups] was good too.

The photo is another from the floods - this is the Ouse just south of York

Flood

When the rain falls on the Dales it pretty much all has to make its way down the Ouse through York. So although it has not rained here too much recently the River is still flooded. I took this shot of Cawood, downstream of York, yesterday on a quick spin on the bike.

Podcasts

So, Podcasts I listen to at the moment.

• Tech Weekly from the Guardian for irreverent update on tech news
• In Our Time with Melvin Bragg being erudite all over a bizarre mix of topics
• Football Weekly from the Guardian. A hoot, and an antidote to dreadful football conservatism
• This Week in Google - an American pod
• NPR All Songs Considered - music from the great National Public Radio institution in the US
• Stuff you should Know - another American one about a wide range of topics in a wacky style
• Composer of the Week - Radio 3, interesting and snappy
• Building a Library - another Radio 3 one. Can be too up-itself but can be good.
• Book Reviews from Simon Mayo Show Radio 5 - really brilliant.
• Film Reviews from Mark Kermode Radio 5 - a hoot.

The photo is from Turkey when Paul and I cycled along the Black Sea Coast in 1990.

Number 10 part 2

Every three years or so I change the work laptop. Which brings the pleasure of hours and hours spent re-loading, cursing incompatibility etc etc. That is where I have been for the last 2 days.

Danielle's trip to number 10 prompted me to dig up this photo from my school trip to London when I was about 11. In those days you could walk up to number 10 and talk to the coppers. Times have changed.

Busk

This band were busking in York on Saturday. Good drummer. Good to see kids giving it a go, even with Oasis covers.

Downing Street

Danielle was invited to a reception at no 10 last week. Got to speak to the Prime Minister, enjoyed herself.

We all went to Betty's for breakfast for a treat yesterday - such a good way to start the day. Then we walked the dog with Danielle's friend Alison at the Arboretum at Castle Howard.

Fraud

Looking at my business account on line yesterday I noticed two charges from Pizza Hut. That got me worried, either I had changed my eating habits and not noticed or there was card-fraud afoot. It was the latter. The bad news is that my card details had been used on four purchases. The good news is that I noticed, got the card stopped and should get a refund shortly. Using the CoOp bank has a lot of good points, and their customer care was up to scratch in this case.

So it was a wake-up call to me, and also left a nasty taste of someone using my name to purchase bad food. I will keep an eye on my accounts now.

The photo is of the Palmour family home when we lived in Penwortham - Whitefriars - with two new Palmours standing in front of it.

Penwortham - Beirut

I was brought up in Penwortham, Preston. An unremarkable place in name and character; this photo is of Penwortham Hill from our garden. I do remember looking at the roadsign for this road - the A49 I think - and seeing "Liverpool to Hull" written on it. This seemed a romantic and long route.

So it was a surprise to find this link http://www.lep.co.uk/weirdnews/Lancashire-town-compared-to-Beirut.5828757.jp comparing Penwortham with Beirut. Times move on.

Speaking Too Soon

Well of course, having bigged up the change to a nationalised rail service the inevitable happened: the train down was thirty minutes late, the plugs didn't work so laptops were curtailed, and the train back was twenty minutes late too ...

Photo: another shot from Lisbon in 2003. The view from the castle.

Rail News

Two years ago GNER lost the franchise for the East Coast Mainline rail service that we use to get from York to London and Scotland. Which was ironic; GNER had almost achieved the impossible goal of being a "well loved" privatised train operating company. The successor, National Express, ran the trains on time well enough but never quite seemed right [painting the lovely dark blue trains a watery grey didn't help]. So we travellers are all quite excited about being back on British Rail; both the track and the trains are now state-owned. It could all go horribly wrong and we could revert to the grumpy staff and bad food of British Rail - we will see.

The photo is from Lisbon in 2003.

Mr Powmell

I collect misspellings of my name. This means that rather than get annoyed when someone writes my name wrong, I am delighted to see a new one for the list. New ones are rarer now that we get less post, and all the obvious ones have been logged [Palmer, Palmouth etc] but I got a new one today - Powmell - taking the tally to 117. And counting.

The photo is of Clew Bay in Ireland taken from Craigh Patrick mountain.

SoundCloud

Send me your trackYou see this box? If you have an mp3 track of your own music you want to send me just drop it in there and I will be able to hear it. That is the theory. I am in the process of signing onto SoundCloud [next big thing] so here is a link to hear a track by me http://soundcloud.com/lenoir/lenoir-iraq
Meantime use my DropBox!

Fierce

Here is a shot of Milo. Photographing dogs is not my forte or choice, but I thought you might like to see what he looks like. This is his "fierce" look, his soft weasel look is impossible to photograph, as soon as the camera is out his ears go up!

We had David, Anita and Mimi for lunch, a great relaxed time.

Gateshead

Rowan ran in the first round of the McCains cross country challenge http://www.uka.org.uk/media/news/september-2008/11-09-08-mccain-xc/ . This is a national series with people from all over [the winner was from Aldershot, and there were teams from Northern Ireland for example]. There were some real fast runners in the under 13 girls event [Rowan will still be in this age group next year] and Rowan managed to come 10th which is a great achievement which also netted her £10! This must make her a professional.

The country has been awash with tales of terrible weather but it was great up north [unlikely to be reported by the London media]

The races are on Sky Sports 3 on wednesday next week at 7.30 ish. Not sure if the U13 girls will make it, but you never know!

Wheel Of Life

One of the tools that we used on the seminar last week was the Buddhist Wheel Of Life concept. The idea is that all the eight domains of your life should be in some sort of balance or else your wheel will not turn smoothly. There are many many different versions of it, but I found it useful.

Uncle Ralph

Danielle came across some photos from 9 years ago when she and friend Jenny took Rowan to the states for Thanksgiving. This is of Danielle's great uncle Ralph who is unwell at the moment.

I was in London yesterday and caught up with friend Paul in our regular wine-bar haunt at Kings Cross - great to catch up.

Training

I went on a Business Link seminar yesterday in Harrogate with Judi James http://www.judijames.com/ who I have seen before. The topic was stress management and conflict. As usual the best bit about these events is the networking opportunities, the coffee and the chance to reflect on life, work, the universe and everything. I enjoyed myself and met some interesting people including an optician, a vet and a GP practice manager.

The photo is from Ireland in 2004 when we went to stay with Danielle's friend Jenny in County Mayo.

Isle of Man

Milo got very excited to find apples in the garden. So excited that he ate 6 or so. We did not know this until he helpfully threw them all up so we could count. He is better now, but a little sheepish.

Started the week with a game of badminton with Edward. Great way to get going. In between games he explains geeky IT stuff that is beyond me - very useful.

The photo is from the Isle of Man when we visited in 2004.

South

This is another shot from Holland in 2003, on one of the horrifically overcrowded Dutch beaches.

Today Rowan came 4th in the regional biathlon heat. She was happy to go on the school coach this year, and did not need us to come with her --- growing up. Her team came 1st, so they are in the Nationals again early next year. That is the good news. The bad news is that it is not in Bath but Aldershot. Only a southern based organisation could have a national championship in Hampshire.

Lucky Strike

I saw a play at the ICA in London in 1981 that I have remembered ever since. It was called Lucky Strike, and had no dialogue and a lot of jumping around - it made quite an impression. I thought it was gone forever until I googled it recently and found all about it http://www.hrantalianak.com/plays/lucky_strike.html

The beauty of the Internet.

The photo is from 2003 when we three went on a cycle ride in Holland - can you spot Rowan?

Hens

The photo is of me and cousin Gill in the hen coop on the farm - our destination of choice.

Danielle is keen on keeping hens, so watch this space.

Had a good day in London yesterday. At one stage I took a bus from Walthamstow to Barkingside and its route was so torturous that it actually left the AtoZ - it felt like stepping outside our universe and into strange uncharted lands [aka Essex]

Rowan is having a busy time socially. Sleepover here last week, bonfire part tonight, party tomorrow. Our role is to ferry.

Party

Friend Eddy had his 50th Birthday Party last Saturday at the Station Hotel. He had the good idea of getting all guests to choose favourite dance tracks for the disco "so that people can't say that the music was rubbish". With a couple of ghastly errors [The Smiths?] it worked brilliantly. Danielle and I danced pretty much the whole time. Our choices? Danielle had DeeLite and InDeep, I had Earth Wind & Fire and Grace Jones. Little Boots and Bobby Byrd missed the cut. Great Time.