Getting closer to a title for my story based at Wick Court. A few ideas “What are you looking at?” or “Don’t give me that funny look!” or the one that perhaps it won’t be but I quite like “I ain’t nuts you know!”  I will keep you up to date with your developments.

I had a delightful pedal yesterday. I went up Frocester and then made my way to Nailsworth. One of my favourite climbs is up from Nailsworth to Minchinhampton through the trees.

Football was disappointing on Saturday throwing away a 2 goal lead to draw! I am going again tomorrow night so hopefully we will find our killer instinct.

Just been re-reading my Story based at Wick Court. I am now sending to others to read through for feedback. I am aiming to self publish later this year or just into 2016. Any profits will go to the Farms of City Children (Wick Court is one of their farms). I just need a title for it so I will be asking for ideas in the near future.

I have been clocking up some miles on the bike this week especially tackling some of the hills around us. Getting ready for our Hardy Cycle Tour of Dorset at the end of the month. More about this in a future blog.

Finally what about the football result on Tuesday? A great result beating Bristol City two leagues above us.

Had to be this title after watching our Peter in the London Triathlon on Saturday. Initially amazed to see so many people committed to various Triathlons over the weekend but remembered our exploits as the Dursley Donkeys in the Team Triathlon at Blenheim. Same organisation! Pete was a real star and we were beaming proud parents. It is lovely to be able to share events like this with our children.

I mentioned cricket last week and well what a tremendous start to the Test Match. Still feels unreal, I kept pinching myself to see if I was dreaming! We also won on Thursday so have just about qualified for the knock out stages!

Slowly beginning to make headway on writing my allotment story. Also had some new ideas for telling an old Welsh Folk Tale so I will slowly develop  these themes over the next week or so. Hoping to have a another couple of new stories for adult audiences ready to perform during the next month.

Finally football creeps in, off to the Theatre of Mixed Dreams tomorrow night.

We are back briefly from our travels. I am playing for the Gloucestershire Old Men tomorrow in a must win game against Wales. We played on the first day of the last Test Match as well so fingers crossed both results are the same again!

Bit more about the Exmouth Exodus the bike ride from Bath to Exmouth all through the night. When eventually all our party had assembled we left Bath around 10 p.m. (my party was a youthful one apart from yours truly!) The tunnels just outside of Bath were great and the early part of the ride was on a cycle path. As the evening wore on, traffic, apart from the odd car was non-existent; a lovely feeling so we often were able to ride two or three abreast. I mentioned Cheddar yesterday and I was very tentative on the descent! Inevitably there were some slogs up the Devon Hills! Ride was well organised and after 30 miles we had a food stop courtesy of the local scout group. You realised then that there were quite a few of us at this point! There was another food stop at 60 miles. Watching dawn break over a tranquil Devon boosted our resolve. Finally around 8 a.m. we settled down to a splendid fry up in the café in Exmouth, we certainly needed it! Although we kept munching on route once we sat down to eat you realised how many calories you had used up! Finally we had to pedal back to David’s house in Exeter (120 miles altogether.)  Meanwhile our Peter was taking part in  Ride London so we reckoned all in all the Church boys were cycling for well over 15 hours continuously . Perhaps we all need our heads examined?

Looking forward to the weekend. We are up in Town watching Pete in the London Triathlon and on Saturday night we are going to see War Horse.

Well just trying to think of a title to cover the night ride, did think of Night Rider!

Well we did it! 120 miles of cycling through the night and early morning. A surreal experience especially riding down through Cheddar Gorge around midnight, the shadows on the rocks very disorienting! Will blog some more when we get home. Bottom is slowly recovering! At the moment camping in Devon.

Short blog tonight ahead of tomorrow’s epic! Clare and I went for a ride to Stonehouse for the opticians (cue all those jokes about my cricket). A new and novel experience my pedal fell off exactly half way! I ended up cycling home on one pedal not an experience I’m keen to repeat! Ironically it was my trusty mount “Shadowfax” which I had hoped to ride on the Exmouth Exodus tomorrow. Made me realise the bottom bracket needs some attention so will use “Sir Gawaine”  tomorrow. Glad it happened today and not 1 a.m. in the middle of nowhere!

Another win for us on Thursday this time we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat so we were “Over the Moon, Brian!” Still pinching myself about the cricket from Edgbaston-what an Ashes; error strewn but riveting!

This is a sporting comment blog so apologies to any Story Telling readers out there. I meant to write at the weekend to comment on the Tour de France. What a Tour especially at the end on the Alpe de Huez. I thoroughly enjoyed the coverage of that day especially reliving our exploits last year ( much slower than the tour of course!) On Saturday I am cycling with my Dave and some of his mates the Exmouth Exodus a ride through the night from Bath to Exmouth. (I will have my head examined!)

I am in the middle of a couple of veteran cricket matches for Gloucestershire Old Men. We beat Wales yesterday and Somerset today. Last week travelled up to Cheshire to last two balls at the crease and not trouble the scorers. So who am I to complain about England’s batting at Lords!

Well could easily be All Day Rain! Feels like one of those old fashion summer days of rain; we have spoilt recently! Who remembers the old Gordon Lightfoot song for today’s title? I might try to find it later!

Have been dabbling with my Allotment Story but I am struggling with parts of it. I am still searching for a new adult story for telling so I am currently working my way through different folk tales from several different sources.

The Gloucestershire old men went up to Cheshire for a game of cricket. We came second! I didn’t trouble the scorers and like all batsmen didn’t like the umpire’s decision!

Finally been getting quite a few miles in on my bike and getting in some decent climbs.

Oh dear the news from Lords was not good. After the highs of Cardiff that was a big let down! Beware the wounded Aussie! I had to go out for a decent ride and climb some hills just to get it out of my system. Was pleased with my climbing on a hot day.

I played an enjoyable game of cricket for my club yesterday and I have a Gloucestershire  veterans game to look forward to later in the week.

No Story Telling this week so I will make an effort to learn a new story. Also went back to my Allotment Story I started last year.

As I was by the river this morning I think we will have a song title from the “Boss”. I was doing our monthly bird count and it was a quiet morning not that many birds. All the scrapes have dried out and my patch hasn’t got many trees in it.

Had a lovely Story Telling at Eastington on Tuesday morning. I did “Harriet” and the children enjoyed seeing Malcolm the Head participating in the story.

Had a good day yesterday started with a Children’s Centre Meeting, then cycled to the station to go to Cheltenham to watch the cricket. Day was rounded off by Book Club in the evening.