What I intended for today’s post I will do tomorrow because I have been locked out of the blog most of the evening! It is good news as well!

Quiz Answers below

a) The last conjunction that could be seen was in 1226 so seven hundred and ninety four years ago (800 will do as an answer!)  b) Olympus Mon on Mars is the largest volcano in the solar system  c) A supernova is the explosion of a star  d) Mars has two moons Phobus and Deimos  e) It takes about eight minutes for the sun’s rays to reach earth!

I was really looking forward to observing the celestial conjunction this evening where Saturn and Jupiter appear as a double planet. Sadly it was raining and not one star to see in the night sky. I did go to have a look but only found 3 strange blokes on camels who were lost! Seriously our British weather often spoils events like this-I can recall being invited into a home made observatory with a fantastic scope to see Halley’s Comet ( a one in 76 years chance) and it was a similar night as tonight.

We did manage to get a cycle in today; it was being Postman Pat (not sure which one of us was Jess the Black and White Cat). Luckily it was before the heavy rain started although it was damp and mizzle for us!

A Cosmic Quiz for today.

a) How long ago did Saturn and Jupiter last have a similar conjunction? b) What is the name of the largest volcano in the Solar System and what planet is it on? c) What is a Supernova?  d) How many moons does Mars have? e) How long does it take for the Sun’s rays in minutes to reach the Earth?

A delightful start to a showery Sunday by looking out of the window. Female Blackcap was the first bird I saw in the bushes close to our front feeders. As I peer out a Great Spotted Woodpecker appears a Coal Tit  dances in and out of a feeder when the coast is clear all within a couple of minutes. A little later the male Blackcap appears, I attempt to take his photo but he doesn’t play ball! How lucky we are to live in such a wonderful place.

Tomorrow I am hoping it is clear enough to see Saturn and Jupiter– I will take the scope out if it is clear because I am led to believe the moons could be visible. Will report tomorrow.

I apologise for my ramble through illicit card playing yesterday. I don’t think I conveyed the fun we had and how subtle our cheating signs were till we were rumbled ( we had got away with this for a long time). Our sixth form common room was a separate building from the main school building so we did get away with murder! Occasionally cards were hastily hidden when a teacher approached and a couple of times we got hammered! I don’t think young people today doing A levels are allowed such latitude!

Will try and do a quiz tomorrow or Tuesday.

I am sure all of you are depressed with today’s news so I am trying to be positive today and hopefully the rambling below might make you smile!

This year I have been in touch with some people I was at school with (having not been in touch with some of them for fifty years (yes I am old). We fondly recalled a game of cards we played as hard working sixth formers in our free periods and lunch time (we should of been studying). The name we called it was “Dirty Emma” and the idea was to lose the Queen of Spades (another name I’ve heard it called was Chase the Lady), we developed stylish flourishes for putting down the Queen. We developed this through our two years in the 6th form till so we split into two teams called the “Straights” and the “Curlies” -it referred to our hair nothing else! Our team (guess which one I was in) developed  an elaborate cheating system to give our team clues to the cards we were holding that the “Straights” had no idea about. We were winning regularly which they put down to bad luck. Then one memorable game one of our number starting scratching his knee vigorously (meaning lead with Hearts) which wouldn’t of been so bad until he said “How about some…..” and started scratching even more-so the cat was out of the bag so from that moment on both teams developed even more complicated cheating systems. Surprisingly none of us were recruited by M.I. 5  at least I don’t think so. All that waffle is so I can put in the picture below. There is also a picture of me just out in a School House Match- you might find it hard to believe I once had that much hair!.

I thought my football team played well today and could of easily won against a team that just came out of the Premier League.

Puncture repair day-yesterday’s puncture sorted and changed a faulty inner tube on my Mountain Bike. Just ordered new tubes and a new tyre to be on the safe side. As it was wet and windy it was doing lots of odd jobs sort of day.

Enjoyed watching the Great Spotted Woodpecker and the male Blackcap on our feeders.

Yesterday’s Quiz which I don’t think was that testing especially anyone who works with young people

a) Alex Schaffler is the wonderful artist who did the Gruffalo  b) Maurice Sendak wrote Where the Wild Things Are  c) Oxford is the city that features in Pullman’s books   d) The Lake District is where Swallows and Amazons is set  e) Mr Tumnus meets Lucy in Narnia.

Amazed that we have stayed in Tier 2 here in Gloucestershire we were expecting to go into Tier 3 as numbers have been rising. Not that it makes to much difference to us as we continue to be sensible with what we do.

Today has been a busy day a bit like what it used to be! Out doing a Bird Survey on the River first thing. A slow start but it soon warmed up both temperature wise and birds. 133 Snipe and two Jack Snipes was a particular highlight as well as five Pink footed Geese flying over, a couple of hundred Lapwings looked wonderful flying down the River in the sunlight. Many other birds to make it an excellent morning. A high tide and the picture below is just before it reached it we thought we had better not hang around!!!

I have mentioned the Tides and the Bore before the bank in the near foreground is being significantly eroded and we note it each month.

I did a decent ride afterwards almost forty miles developing a slow puncture, that needed some air on a couple of occasions!

Tonight we had a resumption of our Quiz League via Zoom first match since lockdown in March and in our match we scrapped home by one point!

Incensed reading about  Rees Mogg’s comments on Unicef what planet does he live on? Well I can answer that a very privileged planet! Marcus Rashford’s humanity towers over his spitefulness!

Finally a Tier 2 quiz but on Children’s Books as I mentioned them in yesterday’s blog . Yes I know I did one before!

a) Who illustrated the Gruffalo?  b) Who wrote Where the Wild Things Are?  c) Which English City is where Philip Pullman anchors his Northern Lights Trilogy and subsequent Book of Dust books?  d) Where is Swallows and Amazons set?  e) Who does Lucy have tea with in Narnia?

Thought I would share a lovely memory that was triggered by my Grandpa Joe question in the quiz. My first ever class I taught was what we now call Year 4 and my first class book was Charlie and of course at that time hardly anyone really knew the book or had seen the Gene Wilder film. It was a bit like the old fashioned Saturday Movies with the end of each chapter being a cliff edge. The children loved it and I remember them  absolutely living through Charlie’s despair and then ecstasy over the Golden Tickets. It gave many of the children that wonderful gift the love of reading. The class book was always important to me and was always a special part of the school day. It was great to see children anticipating where a story was going and occasionally bemused by the twists and turns. The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler was one story that memorably had children completely fooled at the end! many years I later had to give the author Gene Kemp a lift to the station and told her about it and she was genuinely touched.

Had some good news about my story Pig the Legend today so hopefully I will have some news about publication in the New Year.

Disappointed with the football tonight.

A surreal experience today Story Telling on line with Baguley Hall Primary School in Wythenshawe. As a Story Teller I feed off my audience and will adjust my telling in full flow as I gauge reaction. With young people I will often make the story interactive and it is not so easy on a computer but we all did our best today. I am hoping to more next term with schools because I can’t see live performances any time soon-so my normal flurry of Story Telling around World Book Day is likely to be online!

In my mid break I went for a walk with my binoculars and camera up to Splatt Bridge pictures at the end are I couple I took. I do take other pictures than just birds but that seems to be what I take most of the time in the present circumstances!  I did take hundreds of pictures of my delightful Grandson yesterday.

Thought you might like the blur of the Kingfisher (I did take several on the wire as well but thought the blur was more interesting), The Kestrel was just sitting almost asking for me to take it’s picture and I like the Fieldfare (there are many around at the moment along with the Redwings)

Yesterday’s Grandparent’s Quiz (another quiz around the end of the week.)

a) President Obama was raised by his grandparents  from the age of 10  b) Grandpa Joe went into the Chocolate Factory (more about that tomorrow) c) Victoria had 42 grandchildren  d) My Grandfather’s Clock stopped short never to go again  e) Clive Dunn sang Grandad

Short blog today as we have had a busy day travelling up to see our Grandson hence the title! We were even allowed to have a cuddle with Owen which we were not expecting! Wonderful!

Tomorrow I am Story Telling online during the day.

Quiz questions with a link to Grandparents

a) Which Post War American President was raised by a grandparent?   b) Who went with Charlie into the Chocolate factory?  c) How many Grandchildren did Queen Victoria have?  d) “It stopped short never to go again” comes from what song?  e) Who sang Grandad?

Should of been the title of the blog last night referring to yesterday’s superb performance by the Hatters. However today it could be Hats On it is so wet perhaps I should of put Soggy Sunday!

Have been busy relearning a couple of Christmas Stories for a virtual telling this week. Always find it slightly amusing to relearn a story I wrote but I only tell my Christmas Angels at this time of year! maybe I will get around to getting this story published although I may need to write another one to go with it.

I will try and think of a subject for a quiz tomorrow. We hope to see Owen David Church in the flesh tomorrow (sadly from a distance) so fingers crossed.