Well today 5 intrepid cyclists set out to ride from Frampton to Frampton via Gloucester, Forest, Wye Valley and Chepstow! As the title suggest we have to cross the Severn twice and do a wonderful picturesque route through the Forest. Four of us worked together as Headteachers many moons ago. I of course was the senior member!!!!

The picture below are of our motely crew on the Telford Bridge at Gloucester. Other pictures hopefully to follow of the desperadoes on other bridges in future blogs. Very tired now!

It is that season!

My favourite pudding is Blackberry and Apple Crumble. So I will take any opportunity to go picking. Once I start it  always takes me back to my childhood and those idyllic late summer days (the sun always shone didn’t it!) You would get stung and scratched to pieces in  pursuit of the juiciest and largest berries. Your clothes often get torn and ripped and then get into trouble! I would come back with a smeared blue/purple face and stained hands and a full tummy! Things haven’t changed!

Hoping to ride around the River tomorrow (80 + miles) with some old friends.

This blog would of been written yesterday if Storm Francis hadn’t struck and our area of Frampton had a power cut-it lasted for twelve hours! We don’t have gas in Frampton so it is quite a handicap as it got dark. We did have a visitor in the garden that some of our birds might of worried about! It stayed for a while and allowed met to take loads of photos!

I did record my Harriet the Hippo  story yesterday for the library service -this will probably be the last one of the summer-still struggling to transfer the story-need to find a better way in the future. Might be third time lucky later.

On a positive note Dan the other half of Two Severn Bores took part in a prestigious gig on Sunday night from that excellent venue St Georges in Bristol. He is aiming to work with me in the near future on finalising the podcast we recorded earlier in the year. Hopefully there will be news on this soon.

The title reflects that life is slowly changing and you are starting to plan your time again. It is gradual- the odd game of cricket, a meeting or two, various appointments and seeing my family! Hopefully a few gigs might be pencilled in over the next few weeks although schools may not start having visitors like me till next year.

The weekend turned out to be very social meeting an old pal on Saturday and seeing son and daughter-in-law in Maidenhead yesterday. We actually watched local Gloucestershire cricket team Frocester (Peter’s old club) win through to the last eight of the Village Knockout at Cookham! Peter loved seeing old friends on his patch! A lovely twist was an outstanding innings by Fin Dixon won the match-I know his parents really well!

The title says it all but not all at the same time!

Last night we actually managed to have a in the flesh Book Club (socially distanced in a garden)-so much better than the ubiquitous Zoom meetings! Our Book Club is called Beer and Books and there was plenty of Beer to support the Books!!!!This was our planning meeting and we have a cracking programme planned up to next summer! No doubt I will report about some of them in the future! You do realise when you meet again how important to all our well being it is to be social and sadly we have all missed it!

Today was our monthly Bird Survey out on River. Some great birds flushed by the Bore-  Avocets, Turnstones, Ringed Plovers, and Greenshank. We also had many migrants in the hedges including a couple of Redstarts.

The Bore is always magical and captivating. It is always different!

Well it has been a long time since I performed in front of an audience in the flesh and not through a screen! Today I was telling stories to young people at Kingshill House (we were outside) and although numbers were light (understandable) I thoroughly enjoyed doing it again. I also now have a visor if needed! The only down side was I cycled there with all my stuff which was great until I was half a mile from home and poor old “Shadowfax” my trusty workhorse of a bike suffered a double puncture! Silly choice to cycle on the canal heavily laden -especially with loads of stones waiting to jump out and attack my tyres! All repaired now!

Talking of bikes I retrieved my winter bike “Gringolet” from our David yesterday. He had been riding it while his were out of action-sadly another spoke had broken on it so it is now being repaired!

Finally following the live theme we are actually meeting for Book Club tomorrow outside socially distanced!

We managed to beat the rain today by minutes on our cycle ride to Tortworth for a well deserved coffee and fantastic cake. It is also our last day with our four legged friend Jake. It has been fun having him but you realise what a tie it is having a dog. Good to look after them every now and again!

I had a meeting yesterday with Jane who illustrated my first book. Her draft sketches for my new story are wonderful and will really enhance the story. have some decisions to make over the publishing over the next couple of weeks.

Finally I have a live gig on Tuesday with an audience! First one since lockdown! Also recording another story for the library service  this week.

Thought I would share a picture I took last week of a young grebe with parent bird on the lake close to our house. Will blog again tomorrow with hopefully some Story Telling and Book news.

I visited Wick Court today for the first time since lock down. For those of you don’t know Wick Court it is one of three farms run by the charity Farms for City Children and is  fairly close to me here in Gloucestershire. Young people mainly from London spend a week on the farm doing activities on the farm. The charity was set up by Claire and Michael Morpurgo  just over forty years ago. Under normal times I volunteer there taking the young people bird watching and at the end of their week I am Story Teller in Residence. I love my time at the farm. Sadly it will be some time before we see children at the farm again. All charities are struggling and I do worry about the future. Picture below is me with some young people at Wick Court (it is a web site picture).

First time because of circumstances that I was able to go for a decent ride today over the hills today. It was hot! Really enjoyable to stretch my legs again! Did have to ride by a raging barn fire with many fire engines in attendance!

Currently reading a book by one of my former pupils from Dursley Rosie Price. She is a talented up and coming writer.

Still struggling with a swollen hand following my game of cricket at the weekend there is a lesson there – I should of caught it and perhaps at my age I should know better!