Nearing the end of the R F Langley Journals which I admire greatly: the eye for detail, the commitment, the rigour. Yet, at the same time wondering ... how he wrote - on his rambles or at a desk afterwards? How to account for the meticulous observation? Or did the sheer regularity begin to attune the senses & allow for such recall? How, too, to juggle this with the teaching commitments & domestic obligations? No doubt an understanding & patient wife - not to mention the kids ("he's writing up his journal again ..." or "off on another of his walks"). Or perhaps not. What do these pages omit of compromises, disappointments, recriminations ... or those hours, days, weeks when he simply couldn't be bothered?