I haven’t told the Boudicca story for at least a year and today I cycled to Highnam Primary to do a Boudicca telling. This involves me daubing myself with woad (blue paint) , wearing a long flowing red wig and a long cloak as well as waving a sword! Feeling exhausted now it was nearly 28 miles on the bike!
It has been a good weekend here in Gloucestershire!
Lovely evening with friends on Friday night. It was off to watch the Mighty Hatters on Saturday- there was some trepidation when we saw the team news to us laymen the team looked unbalanced. What do we know! A superb team performance saw us thrash the Chair Boys. Hoping we now find some consistency and go on a run! A picture below.
It is currently the Cheltenham Literature Festival so I went with my son Pete on Sunday to see the most successful Gloucestershire Cricket Captain Mark Alleyne being interviewed along with Stephen Chalke the writer about their book. It was a delight – Mark was thoughtful, honest and erudite.
Finished the weekend going to see the dynamic musician Seth Lakeman at Stroud Subscription Rooms. A brilliant gig! A couple of pictures below – one of the band and one of Seth on his own playing the iconic and atmospheric Kitty Jay.
The only downside is Clare was unable to join me at the gig last night she had a bad back and I’m now full of cold!
Just getting into a busy period of gigs. Tomorrow night I am telling at Wick Court where I am Story Telling in Residence and then over to Gloucester to the Folk House where the Two Severn Bores may be doing a song and a story. Next week I am reprising Boudicca for the third year running at Highnam Primary. I also have a spooky tales coming up at a Care Home. Don’t forget the Two Severn Bores have our gig at Under The Edge Arts Centre Wotton on the 28th November- we are hoping a good crowd turns out. Tickets available on the website.
Had a soggy bird watch at Wick Court this morning! Highlight was a late Hobby – never seen one before at Wick Court. On the bird theme I had a lovely walk with my grandsons on Cleeve Common where they saw Stonechats galore!
I went to Court Lake early evening and saw 40 or 50 egrets coming in to roost. It was a mixture of Cattle Egrets and Little Egrets as well as a nearby Great White Egret. There are some grimy photos below.
Had an exhausting Thursday afternoon. I cycled to Gloucester to help with an after school birding club- we didn’t see much but had a good time! I then pedalled quickly to Wick Court to do a story telling session with young people from Camden. I slept well!
Over the last week we have had Tawny Owls hooting regularly close to our house (both male and female). Last night one flew over my head as i was going out at in the evening. Early this morning there was a female calling in our quince tree in our front garden. I will try and find where there are roosting.
Just back from a few days down in Exeter where it was our Granddaughter Ellen’s 5th birthday. We were chuffed to be asked to her birthday party. She wanted me to tell a story at the party- not an easy gig with 20+ very excited 4/5 year olds! A couple of pictures below.
Also had a great time at Topsham watching the tide coming in and with of course many birds. Saw many curlew, dunlin, godwits, plovers and redshank. Amazed to see 6 spoonbills feeding in their characteristic way heads moving busily sideways in unison. A kingfisher also flew by. Some pictures after the gig ones!
Last picture the spoonbills
Lovely morning out on the Severn doing the monthly Bird Survey. River was full of birds over 260 Curlew, an amazing 220+ Avocets and many more. Saw a good number of raptors including a stunning Hobby on a post. Obviously a late leaver. picture below of another Hobby couldn’t get close enough to today’s!
Had a good day with young people at Wick Court yesterday and again we saw four raptors including a Sparrowhawk flying past us in the Hide.
Apologies that it has been quiet on here recently! Have been busy!
I did birds at Wick Court last week with young people from Southwark. Sadly because of the History Festival I was unable to do Story Telling on Thursday night. I have a few gigs coming up over the next month or so.
Been covering a few miles on my bike and yesterday had a lovely social ride for a couple of beers!
Football was disappointing on Saturday- awful mistake early in the game cost us. The game management by Bradford was cynical and we couldn’t get round it!
Felt the blog needed a picture so below is an Arctic Tern – mainly because I am currently writing a story for the Two Severn Bores that features the bird!
Gloucester History Festival is on at the moment. We went to a talk on Boudicca and Joan of Arc on Saturday and I am going to one on King Arthur tonight.
Visited WWT Slimbridge on Sunday a wet journey on our bikes. Nothing special around – some pictures of Lapwings below. Last picture is of Greylags flying!
I am hoping to publish my new book early next year. It will be picture book and Jo Carr who works at Wick Court has done some wonderful illustrations. There is a taster of these at the bottom of the page. The next stage is to find a publisher- the proceeds from sales will go to Farms For City Children. So there will be some work to do on this.
The book is my story of Harriet the Hippo a story that I have told many times often to whole school audiences.
Finally I am back Story Telling again after the summer break!
