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

It was our traditional Bank Holiday family get together in Cardiff to ride on the small trains. Lovely to see everyone again, it is a special day. We having been doing this ever since my sister Liz sadly passed away. My granddaughter Ellen took me on one train ride- we both got very excited.

Today we took Ellen to Slimbridge and had a super time. Picture below!

I blogged on Thursday night while sitting on a train. I didn’t expect to sit there for two hours! sadly a problem on the line so we were stuck! I didn’t get home till 3 in the morning! Certainly didn’t expect to be back that late! For the Mighty Hatters it is back to the bread and butter of the league today- fingers crossed!

Looking forward to be Gramps for a few days- we have my granddaughter Ellen arriving imminently for a couple of days and On Wednesday we are looking after Owen.

Currently sitting on a train having watched The Mighty Hatters at Chelsea. A brave performance but they are a Premier League team and it showed. Now we can concentrate on the league!

I have been slow to go blackberrying this year especially as the blackberries appeared early this year. I went this morning and the usual thing – I got stung and pricked by the thorns my arm ached stretching up to reach those juicy berries high up. Well worth it because tonight we had my favourite pudding “Blackberry and Apple Crumble”- delicious! I do like the idea that these berries are free to anyone who can be bothered to pick them. Sadly our Bramley has only produced a few apples – not sure if that is a result of drought or a pruning last year! I keep meaning to write a piece about blackberrying but of course Seamus Heaney and Sylvia Plath would be hard to follow.

The Two Severn Bores gig at Wotton on the 28th November is now live on the Under The Edge Arts website. Will be more about this in future blogs- hope if you read this you will join us!!!!

It has been a busy week for me. We were busy for the the first three days of the week having fun and looking after our two young grandsons Owen and Robin. We visited Slimbridge on Monday and Owen was delighted to spot a distant Heron and a Lapwing! They enjoyed playing in Welly Boot Land!

Thursday and Friday I went to Cheltenham to watch Gloucestershire playing cricket. I went with my two sons on Thursday and cycled there on Friday.

Today I watched the Mighty Hatters being held to a draw.. We were frustrated by the petty fouls and an incompetent referee. Off to Chelsea on Thursday!