angriest in the book group

 

17-10-23  I was excited by the prospect of this walk we had planned. I have done it many times, usually a combination of walking and running, from Longniddry train station to North Berwick. It covers much of the best of East Lothian. The wind tends to be to one's back and there is often a good mix of wildlife to point the camera at over the 14 miles of coastline.

The forecast suggested better weather earlier on so we opted for the 9.39am train. Which dropped us off at Longniddry about 10. There was a slight hazy thin cloud but I was glad I had opted for 3 thin layers and not the duvet jacket which would have been overkill. It was the last day of the year I wore shorts and only just warm enough. We had gone up to the station early giving us plenty time to pick up tickets (cheap day returns to NB) and a station coffee. Pret a Manger still do a filter coffee (with soy milk) for about half the price of a "real" coffee and for non-habituated non-addicts it still gives a sufficient lift without keeping me up late into the night. My usual weekly amount is one pre-parkrun coffee.

frosty start

curlew

Geese flew overhead near Aberlady. They gather around Aberlady in their thousands at this time. These were most likely pink-footed geese. Nearly identical to greylags (which featured here recently) but with a differently patterned beak. We didn't see any close up.

the magical forest

Aberlady and Gullane Parish Church

the first of several caterpillars today
probably a ruby tiger moth

barnacle geese just before the bridge to enchantment

redshank

On the bridge across to the nature reserve we saw this red-breasted merganser. The females are nearly identical to female goosanders - the difference being goosanders have a more distinct line across the neck; with the mergansers the colour fades into the body colour.

Just over the bridge and we met Caroline, who posts excellent bird photos on fb page Lothian Birdwatch. We chatted about how she got such good pics of sanderlings who are shy and tiny and difficult to get near enough for detailed images. She was sitting quietly on rocks near the shoreline when they came past her. I had previously wondered how she got such good close ups with only a 300mm lens however her Olympus is a micro4/3rds which gives her an equivalent 600mm reach.

We stopped to let a gang of LTTs tease and frustrate as they hopped around a bush right beside us then flew off without pausing for a decent photo.

herd of bison on the savannah

It was really pleasant on the beach without actually being spectacular. This was the theme of today, really quite good but just a few stops short of really great. While I was having a fine time I was aware we hadn't seen anything outstanding in the way of wildlife. It became an itch I was unable to scratch all day and although I hoped we'd see something at some point (there is almost always something to meet that expectation along the coast, washed-up or alive) it never materialised today.

Mary is far more zen about this than I am. When there are no butterflies, instead of complaining she will try mantras along the lines of "why are there so many butterflies" and the like. It is the equivalent of smiling while in pain in the second half of a marathon. The idea being to change the perception by willpower. Or self-correcting wish-fulfilment. While it is not always 100% successful it at least sounds better, more positive, than just whining like a spoiled brat.

And sure enough nobody likes a spoiled brat. There are dozens of them on tv; unhappy with the real world and paying surgeons to contort their average faces into gargoyles and satirical puppets in a misguided effort to quench a desire for improvement. So we can agree that always hankering for more, being dissatisfied with what you find around you is, or can be, detrimental.
And yet...

I avoid many aspects of the modern world. I have never taken an Uber or stayed in an Airbnb. Yet from what I hear, they (or experiences like them) are all about the reviews. And the reviews often have to be 5 stars. Anything other than a 5 star review is like a thumbs down. I don't know how this has come about. (Though I presume it is because young people have no nuance or intelligence but that is possibly just me judging them on the evidence given.) Why don't we have just 2 options; thumbs up, or thumbs down, if they can't intelligently assign different star ratings?

I get audio books from Audible and if I am swithering about taking a title I'll look to customer reviews to help. Far too many people give far too many books 5 stars (out of a possible 5 stars). I expect this is a carry over from those other businesses which presume anything other than a 5 star review is a fail. You quite like a book or even managed to get to the end of it. 5 stars. Book review completed. WRONG! Wrong wrong wrong! 5 stars is the best possible review and not a confirmation that you struggled to the last page before switching on the tv.

5 stars (to me) means you stayed up all night to finish the book. Means it moved you to tears or made you laugh out loud every 10 pages, meant you went without dinner because you couldn't put it down, meant the author took you so far out of yourself you didn't want to return, meant you changed your way of thinking, meant so much more than... yeah I quite liked that one, what was it about again?

I think the last book that I'd give 5 stars to unreservedly was Joe Simpson's Touching the Void which I stayed up all night reading because I couldn't leave him broken and dying hundreds of miles from home, rescue and recovery, even though I knew he survived because, after all, he had returned and written about his experience. It was extremely gripping and really moving. (Unfortunately he has never again managed to produce such a brilliant book. But one is at least about 100% more than nearly everyone else in the bookshop.)

I am telling you this to underline that I am not an old curmudgeon who takes an interest in, but generally despises, other people's efforts. Despite what my fellow book-groupers may think! I admit I am usually the hardest to please at the book group but I'd put that down to having higher standards. Occasionally I will rave about books or tv but I admit I don't love everything.  Also, if you're going to make me read Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian you can't possibly expect a glowing review. (Sorry Neil!)

lunch!

So when I look for Audible reviews I often skip the 5 star and 1 star reviews. They are invariably written by people of low intelligence who loved/hated the book but lack the ability to convey why, using words and sentences. They will gush approval or condemnation without detailing why, and you won't know whether they read a book, ate a meal, caught a taxi or rented a holiday home. It is more often the 2 star to 4 star reviews that convey nuance. Or stop short of adulation to temper it with notes about plot deficiency, cliches and bad grammar. 

And so I return full circle to the walk down the coast. It was not a five star experience but was a fine day out. We got all the way to North Berwick. (We got there: 5 stars! Did what it said on the tin: 5 stars!) But did not find a sea monster washed up on the beach. Now that would get 5 stars, which lets you know anything less has to get less than full marks. So there was room for improvement, but it wasn't a disaster either. Like a lot of life it was hovering around 3+ with the lack of birds or absence of late season butterflies stopping it getting higher-scoring feedback. I had originally titled this report "embracing dissatisfaction" to open the discussion about evaluating experiences and living with complaints: vs trying to express gratitude for having one's health and being able to stroll down a beach on a Tuesday like la-di-fucking-da! And then having the neck to complain that it wasn't all that, and I WANT SO MUCH MORE!

Okay, maybe just focus on the bits that were good. Normally I'd make sandwiches for an all day hike. However we knew we'd pass Margiotta's in Aberlady and hoped they had samosas and we could buy lunch there, for later. We got most of the way to Gullane and ate lunch on the rocks where I like to put my clothes when going for a swim. The tide was out, but that wasn't the deal-breaker about us not going in for a pre-lunch dip. The samosas were good but the real star of lunchtime was a plant based frittata. It was made by Planet Kuku and was not made with eggs; but tasted light and yet substantial and filled with what might have been cauliflower and other veg and was just spectacularly good. Edinburgh based company with quite a limited webpresence here.

Just after that we bumped into a couple of dudes (father/son?) walking a dog. We exchanged pleasantries and they pointed us towards the cave very near Murder Hill, the steep sand dune beside the rocks below Gullane. Weirdly we have never seen or explored this cave which goes in about 10m, far enough to be pitch black from halfway. We didn't have torches except for phones, but the camera flashes lit up the dark interior pretty well. I was interested to see if there was any herald moths or hibernating butterflies but I couldn't see any. Must take headtorches next time although the ancient cave paintings don't seem to be of high cultural value!

looking in

looking back out at the entrance

We stopped for 5 mins to chat with Hazel. She was chipper as usual. We talked about the amount of business she needed to do to justify parking here all day as the weather deteriorates. She admitted there was a judgement call about the day and whether it was worth it or not, to cover her overheads. I also remembered a question I had been meaning to ask: does she eat ice cream herself? (Or was it like working in the doughnut factory where you ate them for the first 4 weeks then never again.) While she doesn't have many cones she does like ice cream and always has the first one of a new batch. Nice!

loads of fox moth caterpillars

rose hip hooray

Now this pic above is to show the new gloves. Always a component of cycling and being outdoors in Winter. I was recently in Alpkit. I like their stuff although it can sometimes be a bit hit-or-miss. I have bought lots of their kit, mostly clothes, and like their ethos of decent quality at a competitive price. Last year I bought a pair of their Mica Gloves (£50). I found them pleasant to wear but not really warm enough. In fact disappointingly cold in the fingers. A few weeks ago I saw they had reduced their Shiel Gloves (in photo above) to under £30 and since they felt warm in the shop I bought them. They have been great so far. The fit is 4 stars rather than 5 but the warmth so far is excellent by comparison to the Micas. They are more of a lightweight duvet jacket sort of construction. 

tree trolls in the woods

turnstones

One of the few birds we came across while wandering down the coast was a gang of about 20 turnstones. They are lovely coloured birds and cleverly disappear into the sandy rocky background which matches their plumage. They scooted off as we approached.

still nothing on this plinth (other than Mary)

2 people walking 9 dogs - much barking

inland past driftwood

At least there is always stonechats I had been thinking. And usually there is around this part. But none today. What I thought was one turned out to be a wren.

another ruby tiger

another fox moth

Mary getting down and dirty

a palm top ruby tiger

the Isle of May beyond Fidra

So without walking on the roped-off grass I was still able to get this photo of the view through the propeller cone spyhole out to Fidra lighthouse. Which made me appreciate the accuracy of the tube through the cone to exactly the light of the lighthouse. Spot on!

It is unusual there are no photos taken from Archerfields beach to the JMW on the outskirts of NB. There is often stuff going on, and the Bass Rock swings into view. Perhaps M and I were deep in idle chat. Or beginning to feel weary from being out since 9am. It was now approaching 5 or a bit before. I think we arrived at the station around 5 with 20mins to kill and so a trip to the coop was made rather than sit cooling by the tracks.

Going across the farmers field there were 6 herons in a row. This is not usual. I was trying to remember when I had seen 6 heron before: like chess pieces sat round the car showroom beside the WoL near Roseburn. A quick check and it was in this blog in early Feb. I presumed some sort of minimal showdown or standoff with a view to arranging mating pairs but it seems unlikely unless they do this in February and October. Bi-annual mating standoff. Or maybe a really slow moving orgy. Who can stand the longest on one leg competition. Difficult to know and they weren't saying. A small group of curlews were invigilating and smaller yet group of thrush or starlings were acting as linesmen.

oystercatchers

last (and best) long tailed tit of the day
nice! but didn't quite make up for the general lack of birdlife

up the hill to trainfordshire

always good to be reminded

With a lot of options and difficult choices we settled on coop iced ginger sponges (pack of 4). The proportion of icing to sponge was perfect, rescuing the dangerously unpretentious goodies. On the way to the station we bumped into the (perhaps) father and son dogwalkers, who we thanked for directions to the cave. They too were catching the 17.25.  A fine day out!