Today I have been working on relearning stories and writing a new one for next week’s gig. I am enjoying the stimulus of having something booked again and being given a theme for a story request!

Have to spend some of tomorrow checking through Style Proofs of my book. It is all very exciting! Didn’t know about having input on style!

Cricket was intriguing until the last hour or so!

Have been entertained by videos and photos of our grandson . I just look forward to be able to see him soon.

Yesterday’s answers on the Wales quiz.

a) The village of course was Under Milk Wood   b) The Stereophonics sang The Bartender and the Thief  c) Jones the Steam drove Ivor the Engine  d) St Davids is the smallest city  e) Charlotte Church was the soprano – my brother often tells people she is a relation!!!

Well I saw a host of golden daffodils today on my pedal across the Cotswold Hills so not the Lake District that Wordsworth saw! Lovely flowers and always cheer me up. At this time of the year if I had a bad day at work I would go home a different way where I knew there was a bank of dancing daffs!

Busy at the moment on relearning stories for next week.

Quiz today following on from daffodil thoughts and the fact it was St David’s Day at the beginning of the week is on Wales!

a) Which Dylan Thomas book describes a day in the life of a Welsh fishing village?   b) Which Welsh group had a hit with the song “Bartender and the Thief”?  c) Who drove Ivor the Engine?  d) Which Welsh city is the smallest in Britain?  e) Who was the teenage soprano with, according to her album, “The voice of an Angel”?

We knew rain was forecast this afternoon so it was a morning spent in the garden redoing a flower bed. Body is feeling it now!

Busy on learning and writing stories as suddenly it all seems to be taking off again. You don’t realise what you forget with what is really a year off! I know I have had some sporadic moments and I have recorded a few stories for libraries and schools. I also did a couple of outdoor gigs in August standing a long way from a socially distanced audience. I do have a good resource of stories that I tell so it has been enjoyable being reacquainted with them! I worry that my vocabulary has diminished with lack of use! I am currently writing a new story for young children for one of the schools who asked for a story on a specific theme. Fingers crossed I can still do it! Watch this space!

Yesterday’s answers to the Quiz on Canals.

a) The canals in Cambridge are called The Backs (technically they are not canals but rivers or branches of rivers with the flow slowed by weirs etc. They are at the back of some of the colleges- hence the name!)   b) Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal is the longest in England and is 3.24 miles long   c) The Duke of Bridgewater is known as “The Father of Canals”.  d)  The Panama Canal is 82km or 51 miles long   e) Ferdinand de Lesseps is associated with the building of the Suez Canal

Will try and do another quiz tomorrow back to my writing now!

Yes believe it or not I am visiting a school next week and also doing a virtual gig. So that is a big change for me! Still working on developing a couple of stories for next week’s virtual.

Had a chilly ride today with a friend and used my super duper summer bike. It makes a big difference when climbing because it has a carbon frame. Ended up coming back along the canal I was hoping I might see Common Cranes in the field alongside but no luck. We are lucky with the fields between the canal and the River Severn – it is a real haven for wild life.

Just watched the football. Brilliant we are now nearer to the Play Offs than the Relegation Zone! Not bad for a team with one of the smallest budgets! Up the Hatters! 

A quiz on Canals today.

a) What are canals in Cambridge called?   b) Where is the longest canal tunnel in England and how long is it?  c) Which English nobleman is called the “Father of canals”?  d) How long is the Panama Canal?  e) Who is the man famously associated with building the Suez Canal?

Apologies for going on and on about birds but had some positive moments today. I have mentioned that we have had a male Blackcap in our garden most of the winter and I have posted a couple of pictures. Well today we had a female Blackcap in the garden so fingers crossed we may get a nest nearby! My second piece of bird news was when on my walk today I saw two Spoonbills on the scrapes near Splatt Bridge – it was a recent quiz question. After I identified them they flew off in the Slimbridge direction; a quick fumble with my camera and I got a distant shot of them flying South. ( murky picture below).

Started playing with the idea of a short story for younger children today for a Telling soon.

Rather than a quiz today a couple of quirky bird facts.

The USA has about 200 million Starlings and it is all because of Shakespeare! a gentleman called Eugene Schieffelin thought it would be a good idea to introduce as many of the birds mentioned by Shakespeare’s works into the USA. In 1890 he released two flocks of 60 Starlings into New York’s Central Park!

Legend has it that Ian Fleming named James Bond after a neighbour and close friend of his who was the author of Birds of the West Indies when he glanced at his book.

I still have a grin on my face following yesterday’s football. Talk about a change of fortunes, as I mentioned yesterday we were abysmal in the first half and I couldn’t see anyway back and thought we were in for a real thrashing! My goodness what a transformation and what a change in my mood. Perhaps the England Cricket Team can take note! can’t see it but then couldn’t see yesterday’s turn around.

Watched a delightful video clip featuring my Peter with our lovely baby Owen. Peter lying next to Owen and waving a toy giraffe and he is making what might be called a squeaking sound (well more like a high pitched  crow)  and Owen is replying with a baby squawk. We have replayed it endlessly because it so joyful.

The pictures below is from our walk this morning some blossom and a Buzzard being mobbed!

What a lovely Winter Day showing that Spring is just round the corner. A delightful walk around Frampton Lakes. We saw two .Oystercatchers in the field near Court Lake picture below. Also managed some honest endeavour in the garden – moving compost!

A roller coaster of a football match today! I was at rock bottom at half time as the Hatters looked woeful and were fortunate to be 2-0 down. It was lucky there were no cats nearby!   Couldn’t believe I was watching the same team in the second half and we won! So currently Over the Moon Brian! Looking forward to Tuesday now!

Yesterday’s Answers on the Accident Quiz

a) Jackson Pollock was killed in a road accident in 1956   b) It was the Hudson River that Chesley Sullenberger landed his plane. c) Black Box Recorders are Bright Orange   d) Alpha Piper exploded in 1988  e) 3,000 m was the race where Zola Budd accidently tripped Mary Decker

No Quiz today!

It has been an interesting 24 hours! Yesterday I was cycling with a friend (you are allowed to exercise with one other) and we had done the same route almost a year ago. That ride had ended in disaster with a spate of punctures for both of us. Lightning couldn’t strike twice could it? Perfect cycling weather hardly any wind and we had enjoyed the first twenty odd miles until…………..I was whizzing downhill at 35 mph when I hit a pot hole! Luckily I didn’t fall off but both tyres punctured. Sadly the tyre was damaged so I had to call the cavalry (the wonderful Clare). Then my phone played up so struggled to get messages about what was going on (Clare had to detour because the road was closed. Eventually after 100 minutes plus since the pot hole collision I was rescued. You could say I was lucky I missed the cricket! Fingers crossed I have sorted out the bike now. I was out of sorts for some time afterwards.

I am down to do some Story Telling online over the next fortnight. Looking forward to it.

We had a dramatic moment this morning when my 85 old next door neighbour was demonstrating to me what Ian Botham would of done to the Indian spinners and he fell over and hit his head. He cut his forehead and was shaken. He couldn’t have it stitched but it was glued at the hospital. His wife told me the guidance from the hospital was he mustn’t play any rugby or football. I said he shouldn’t play cricket!!!! He is OK and can laugh at himself.

I have had positive feedback on the quizzes -thank you. I am going to change from doing a quiz on every day (apart from Sunday) to maybe three or four times a week and see how that goes.

Wednesday’s Quiz Answers on Dreams

a) A giraffe sleeps about 4.6 hours in a day in cycles the longest is no more than 35 minutes. They can sleep lying down and standing up.   b) Hypnos is the Goddess of Sleep  c) Oneirology is the study of dreams and sleep  d) The boy on the DreamWorks logo is sitting on a crescent moon  e) John Lennon sang “You may say I’m a Dreamer” in the song Imagine

Today’s Quiz is on Accidents

a) In August, 1956 which artist died in a single car accident while driving under the influence of alcohol?    b) Pilot Chesley Sullenberger landed his plane on which river in 2009 after his plane lost power?   c) The flight recorder on aeroplane is called a “Black Box” but what is its actual colour?    d) In 1988, an explosion destroyed which oil production platform in the North Sea?   e) Zola Budd accidently tripped Mary Decker in the 1984 Olympics in which distance race? 

Apologies but no blog tonight! It has been an action packed day that didn’t quite go as planned! New blog and quiz answers tomorrow.

Well last night  I was looking forward to watching my team play and football followed by today watching England bounce back in the cricket (I made sure nothing was going to get in the way of me watching today!) Oh dear! last night it was all going so well and it looked like we were on course for a well deserved three points. Then we decided to “manage the game” with about 10 minutes to go and it came back to bite us with a last minutes equaliser (still not sure where the ref got six minutes injury time). Then we got to today and the cricket………oh dear! Maybe tomorrow will be better because I am out cycling so will miss it!

Fingers crossed all goes well with the so called Road Map (I saw a letter in the paper saying why is not a OS map a more environmentally title perhaps!) I would like to see my family before too long!

Yesterday’s Car Quiz answers

a) The Driving Test came into law in 1935   b) Alec Issigonis designed the Mini   c) The Spirit of Ecstasy is on the Rolls Royce bonnet  d) The Model T Ford was called Tin Lizzie  e) Cedric is a Volkswagen T5 

Today’s Quiz is on Dreams/Sleep

a) How many hours sleep in a day does a giraffe need?  b) Who is the Greek God of Sleep?   c) What is the name for the scientific study of dreams?  d) The boy who is fishing on the DreamWorks logo is sitting on what?   e) Who sings “You may say I’m a Dreamer, But I’m not the only one”?