Frank Montgomery's Personal Pages
Summary of 2023
Dear Friends,
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year.
Finding it:
13 February was my first hillwalk of the year.
While laying out my walking clothes the night before, I noticed
something in the shirt pocket.
Lo and behold it was the wallet that I had ‘lost’ last December!
I only use this shirt for
hillwalking, and had withdrawn from the previous walk (15 Dec) at the
last minute, putting the shirt back in its wardrobe without checking the
pockets! I was very pleased
to find the wallet again (and the £100 cash inside) but was very annoyed
with myself for all the unnecessary faffing involved in replacing credit
cards etc.
Family Matters My
sister Jo has had a tough year with surgery for breast cancer last
December followed by chemotherapy in March and radiotherapy in August.
The chemo triggered an attack of
atrial fibrillation resulting in an overnight stay in A&E, but a change
in drugs effectively sorted the problem, and she now seems to be cancer
free. It is now nearly nine
years since my sister Ged had surgery to remove a brain tumour, and her
MRI scan last month was clear.
Both sisters are remarkable in their fortitude.
Health
In the pre-op for my nasal polyp surgery last December, it was
discovered that my blood pressure was very high (223/107).
I am now on Amlodipine and Ramipril which have successfully
brought my BP down to normal levels.
I think I dodged a bullet there!
In March I had an echocardiogram at Leeds General Infirmary.
This was fascinating as I was able to see my heart valves
flapping away in real time!
After 20 months since the last attack, sciatica made an unwelcome
re-appearance two weeks ago.
I have not had to resort to painkillers as much as the last time,
and once again physiotherapy is the main route to recovery.
I had good news at the Seacroft Eye Clinic last week – my AMD is
still stable and no treatment was required.
That means it is now over a year
since my last injection – I suspect the reduction in blood pressure
might be a contributory factor.
Walks: I
joined the Geezers on five walks this year, three of which I led (Cracoe
– Linton on 6 Apr, with a surprise view of the massive
Swinden quarry;
Ripley – Ripon on 21 Sep, passing the historic
Markenfield Hall;
White Rose shopping mall - New Farnley on 9 Nov, via
Churwell Urban Woodlands
and great views over Leeds).
I much enjoyed the other two walks with this group: Mytholmroyd
on 29 Jun which was based on the history of the ‘Coiners’,
as related in the TV series ‘The Gallows Pole’; and the Otley Chevin
Geology Trail on 19 Oct, where thanks to Andy Gibson a
podcast described to us the 300 million year history
of this landscape.
The Winos group has not been very active this year, with just one walk
from Leathley (16 Jun), however I made up for this deficit with a walk
from
Ben Rhydding
to the north to mark Andy Beck’s 60th (17 Jun) and a walk
with Andy Gibson on 28 Sep to ‘The
Billing’,
a hill near Rawdon.
During my five visits to Glasgow I enjoyed four walks with my sister Ged
(Killearn (23 Mar); Meikle Bin (10 May); Stronend (7 Aug); Gleniffer
Braes (14 Aug)). Ged has
recently joined a walking group based in East Kilbride – the group is
big enough to fill a coach, so keeping everyone together must be quite a
challenge!
On my August visit I attempted to walk up Ballagan Glen (south side of
the Campsie Fells) from Strathblane. There is a reasonable path to start
with, then the route plunges into a jungle of bracken.
I persisted through this for a while but eventually decided it
was impenetrable, and gave up!.
The
route description
gives it a rating of ‘tough’, so it’s not just that I’m getting past it!
Cycling: The
Social Rides section of Leeds Cycling Campaign started the year with a
visit to the
Ron Kitching library,
maintained by Otley CC.
I took part in most of the LCC Sunday rides, leading several of them.
Notable was the ride to commemorate 50 years to the day (18 Jun)
since my first visit to Leeds.
In 1973 I had been sent to Leeds from Glasgow to help plan a
large traffic survey (in connection with what eventually became the
M1-A1 link). The ride was
an opportunity to recall some incidents from those days (such as when
local ne’er-do-wells dumped all our traffic signs and cones in the canal
at Apperley Bridge), and to note the many changes in the Leeds area
since those days. On 2 Jul
I marked my 74th birthday by leading a 74 mile ride to
Thornborough Henges,
a remarkable set of neolithic structures sometimes described as the
Stonehenge of the North.
In April I joined eight others cycling the
Lakes and Dales Loop
over five days. This route
goes round rather than through the Lake District, and includes some very
tough climbs, probably the worst of which was on our longest day from
Cockermouth to Spark Bridge when everyone had to get off and push for a
bit up
Far Kiln Bank (Dunnerdale).
At the end of the trip Barry and I cycled from Tebay to catch a
train at Dent Station. The
journey to Dent village was lovely, and we had a tea-break there.
Unfortunately we stayed a little too long, so that we struggled
to reach the station in time (Dent Station is the highest mainline
station in England, and is eight kilometres from and 120 m above the
village). In fact Barry
arrived just in time, and managed to persuade the guard to hold the
train for me for about three minutes!
I was exhausted but very grateful as the next train would have
been four hours later.
From 6-12 June Barry and I cycled from Dover to Doncaster, this being
the first third of our journey from
Dover to Durness
(the extreme south-east and north-west settlements of mainland GB).
Given the rather hot weather, the planned daily distance of over
114 km proved too ambitious and we ended up taking the train from
Cambridge to Norwich, and straightening out some wiggles on subsequent
days. But letting the train
take the strain was the right decision as otherwise I might have become
seriously dehydrated (again!).
Also we had more time to spend in Norwich, a fine city indeed and
one which I had never previously visited.
Valete
I drove from Glasgow to Rosyth for the funeral of my former supervisor,
colleague and friend, Howard Kirby.
The eulogy was given by Howard’s protégé Prof Mark Dougherty who
had travelled from Sweden. It
was good to meet Mark again, and also Susan Grant-Muller from ITS,
Richard Allsop from UCL and Austin Smyth from QEB.
When leaving the church I spotted a face that I recognised but
couldn’t put a name to, so I stepped forward and said ‘I’m sure I know
you but I can’t remember from where’.
‘I’m Willie Rennie, leader of the Lib Dems in Scotland’ was the
reply!
Other sad losses this year were my sister’s brother-in-law Martin
Farrell, and my cousin’s aunt,May McPake. I had got to know May and her
family quite well when I was in my teens, and it was good to meet up and
chat at the funeral lunch in Blantyre with Ros and Karen Bonner (and
their mother Pauline via WhatsApp video from Cork), Anne and Gordon
Campion, Jo Fazzini, David Reid and Neil Reid.
Culture
I continue to sponsor the
Sinfonia of Leeds, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this
year. Other musical performances
that I enjoyed were The Cunning Little Vixen (Janacek), The Pearl
Fishers (Bizet),
Masque of
Might (music by Purcell, to a modern story by Pountney, and with
stunning visuals) and Kinky Boots (Lauper) all at Leeds Grand Theatre,
plus Sean Shibe (classical guitar)
at Glasgow Royal Conservatoire. Sean
Shibe exudes a strong aura of seriousness and complete dedication to the
music. I first saw him in
Leeds where the look he gave to a phone-careless audience member was
devastating. The audience
in Glasgow was probably twice as large but he entranced it.
Other excellent events were The Crucible (Miller), live streamed from
the NT at Leeds City Varieties, and a talk from the wildlife
photographer Gordon
Buchanan at the Kings Hall, Ilkley.
I was less impressed by Falstaff (Verdi) at Leeds Grand and the play
‘Nae Expectations’ at the Tron Theatre Glasgow, but you have to take the
rough with the smooth!
Visits & Reunions:
On my various visits to Glasgow, as well as seeing my sisters and
cousins, I had lunch in Milngavie with Paul and Therese Mazoyer, Gerry
Quinn and Jean Young, and met two old friends of Jo: Anne-Marie Stewart
(who had come from the south of England with her husband to watch
Scotland beat Spain 2-0 at Hampden!); and Neil McMahon who lives in the
remarkably well-preserved 17th century village of Culross in
Fife. We were one day too
late to visit Culross Palace, but three weeks later Culross was the
location for the
BBC1 series ‘Villages by the Sea’, so in a sense we didn’t miss
anything!
In early June the Otley back lane party tradition continued, Nick and
Caroline Marler being our hosts.
Later that month I joined the retired section of ICE Yorkshire
for a guided tour of the refurbished York Guildhall, followed by a
guided cruise along the Ouse.
My nephew Rory came down for four days in July, and on his last
day we cycled to the Bird Sanctuary at Lotherton Hall, stopping on the
way back to admire ‘Nellie’s
Tree’, which won the title ‘British
Tree of the Year’ in 2018. In
October I had lunch with John and Rosa Walker (whose son Chris got
married in June). Last but not
least, two weeks ago I had lunch in Leeds with my old classmate Malcolm
Davidson (formerly Malcolm Gain), the first time we had met for 45
years! He moved out of the
transport planning profession many years ago and carved out a new career
for himself in the probation service.
Best Wishes
Frank Montgomery