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!

Saturday was an interesting day. We had decided we would try out the train to football to save driving. There was a hiccup before we started because of a problem with the train tickets but come Saturday morning we set off full of hope to watch The Mighty Hatters. The journey up went smoothly and we arrived in good time to sample the ales at The Brickies before the game. Sadly the Hatters missed a score of good chances and ended up with a draw. The fun started on the journey back.

We managed to get a train quickly to London but when we arrived at Paddington we realised something was wrong- there were no journeys listed on the departure boards. No trains running! We were told to go to Waterloo and get a train to Reading. It was carnage at Waterloo as the first train was full and hundreds of us made our way to Platform 25 to scramble aboard the next train. I would guess 500+ crammed aboard this train with inadequate ventilation – the train stopped at every station -the journey took about 90 minutes (normally 25 minutes or so from Paddington). One poor man collapsed with heat exhaustion it was so uncomfortable.

Swarms of people moved towards trains at Reading – we were fortunate to get one to Swindon! Another train to Stonehouse eventually arriving home at 11.30 pm – I’m sure some people didn’t get home at all!

We are driving to the next game!

It has been an action packed few days! We had a couple of days of looking after our Grandchildren .gave us

On Wednesday night we went to Bristol Beacon to see Spell Songs– 7 talented musicians and the artist Jackie Morris. These musicians came together 7 or 8 years ago to put to music “Lost Words” the lovely acclaimed book by writer Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. They now have released a third album In Thin Air inspired by the new book The Book of Birds by Macfarlane and Morris. So the evening featured the new album in the first half and old favourites in the second half. It was a fantastic evening the music outstanding.

I have been doing quite a bit of travelling recently and I drove to Hertfordshire to play cricket on Thursday. My last game of the year! We were chuffed to chase down 250 to win. It was late when I got home!

I will save my epic journey yesterday for my next blog!

Below is a link for the Two Severn Bores gig on the 28th November- hope you can make it!

https://www.utea.org.uk/event-details/two-severn-bores