One of my regular readers of this blog celebrated with his wife their 60th Wedding Anniversary yesterday and we were privileged to join in the celebration! It was a delightful evening!

Also yesterday I had at last managed to get in a decent bike ride doing 30+ miles over the tops – on my strava I called it The Skylarks and Cowslips Ride! I love listening to the trilling of larks and there were plenty doing that on the Common! On the bird theme we heard the Bittern booming again this morning this time from the house a good mile away! (The picture below is Cowslips on Rodborough Common I took three years ago)

Gloucester is lucky to hold a History Festival in the Autumn and a Spring Weekend now. So we cycled in this morning to listen to a fascinating talk on our nation’s attempts to ingratiate ourselves with the Mogul Empire in the early 16000s. We then were spellbound listening to the BBCs Jeremy Bowen talking mainly on the Middle East. We are lucky to have the BBC and the honest and knowledgeable  journalists who work for them.

Tomorrow I set off early to Manchester to watch the Mighty Hatters. Possibly playing without any recognised defenders against one of the best attacking teams in the world!!!! It would be more than a miracle if we avoid defeat! COYH!!!!! 

Good question! Thoroughly enjoyed our time in Exeter with family and had some delightful insights into the puzzling mind of a two and half year old!

Yesterday I took part with a good number of Gloucestershire Cricket Seniors doing a walk supporting Prostate Cancer UK and the Bob Willis Foundation. It was called Ron’s England Cricketers March and we were joined by Bob Willis’ daughter, grandsons and former wife. It was blowing a real gale and we walked over the top of Minchinhampton Common enjoying the early cowslips. Ron, is an amazing man and organises these walks with Seniors Cricketers all over the country . I have got to know him over recent years when playing against him (he plays for Buckinghamshire) and he also a fellow Hatter! So far his walks have raised over £35,000.

Talking cricket – I am off for nets later. sadly our pre-season friendlies next week have already been cancelled!

Book Club tonight to discuss Sirens of Titan! I found it a puzzling science fiction book.

Finally some Fritillaries in our garden below!

I have to start with football after yesterday’s dramatic win by the Mighty Hatters! I went full of trepidation knowing we had to win! When Bournemouth scored in the second half – I think many of us thought “oh no not again!” However, who should doubt the resilience and determination of my patched up heroes! The noise was deafening – much louder than the North London stadiums I visited this last week (with five times the numbers). Plenty of smiling faces on the way out!

Hope springs eternal- although I think next Saturday at Manchester City will be a damage limitation strategy! It is the home games that will be important.

Off now to visit our delightful granddaughter Ellen (and her parents) in Exeter. The start of a busy week.

Also had some lovely news about my volunteering at Wick Court which I will share soon.

In today’s paper there was a report on Bittern numbers were up by 24% and 234 males were heard booming across the country last year. My blog of a few days ago mentioned I heard one booming here in Frampton (also heard one in the village during lock down). I have seen one occasionally over the years here and a handful times elsewhere. It is a change to hear good news on environmental front! Not my picture above – I’ve never photographed a Bittern- years I ago I sat with a professional photographer in a hide at Leighton Moss in Lancashire as one flew in front of us- he clicked away and showed me the one that was likely to be published- it was fantastic!

I got on the bike today and surprisingly missed the rain! Hard work against the wind though!

Fingers crossed for the football tomorrow!

We thoroughly enjoyed our few days in North London and our visits  exceeded expectations and we enjoyed meeting old friends yesterday. The only disappointing part was the Mighty Hatters came second in both their matches! However felt very proud of our patched up team that were close to a point on Saturday and didn’t disgrace ourselves last night! I didn’t take a picture last night but Clare did! See below!

Still on our North London sojourn. Thoroughly enjoyed visiting Highgate Cemetery today- I last did it as 11 year old! We had a highlights tour that was really informative and fascinating. Also heard and saw plenty of birds. A few pictures below.
Tomorrow we going east to meet dear old friends.

Of course in the evening we will be watching the patched up Mighty Hatters at Arsenal- just hope it isn’t a thumping! Also after Saturday’s bruising game at Spurs just hope we don’t lose anymore players. I think we are down to 10 outfield players!

1. Long time since I have had a song title that fits my blog!! We went down to near Kings Cross (by bus) and pottered around by the revamped area near the canal. Enjoyed walking round a lovely small nature reserve. We then went to the Light Room and enjoyed an immersive light show about the Apollo moon landings. Took me back to my teenage years so felt nostalgic! Forgotten how optimistic the world was then, there was a clip of speech of Kennedy outlining the ambition. All narrated sensitively by Tom Hanks. A couple of pictures I took on my phone including the blossom in the nature reserve.

We had a lovely day in North London today. We went walking on Hampstead Heath visiting Fenton House and garden. Also enjoyed our bus journey to get there. We always try and travel by bus in London if we can because it always interesting. Found a great local pub for Sunday dinner.

Yesterday was a disappointment at Spurs. The Mighty Hatters battled superbly through adversity another defender injured at half time so we we only had one central defender on the pitch. Silly mistake at the end cost us a point. The stadium was impressive but like most premier league large stadiums was lacking in atmosphere. Really worried if we will be able to put a team out on Wednesday! A couple of pictures below.

Following on from yesterday’s blog = I got an absolute soaking today on my bike as it was raining cats and dogs, well cows and horses!!!!

Tomorrow we are off to North London. the Mighty Hatters are playing at Spurs tomorrow and then at Arsenal on Wednesday night. So we are staying up in Town visiting a wide variety of  places of interest in between. I am pessimistic about our chances in both games – we still have 11 players injured, the latest is one of the quickest players in the league and I think he might of given us an outside chance tomorrow. I just hope we are not thumped in these games- it doesn’t get any easier our next away game after these two games is Manchester City! I will have my fingers firmly crossed and will probably being watching through my fingers- well I can’t hide behind the sofa can I! Just as encouragement a picture of me after i won a football a few years with two of our players – the player on my right is still playing for the Mighty Hatters and I hope he might score a goal for us  this season and will then have an amazing record of scoring in 5 different divisions with the same team!

My goodness the last few days have been wet with some really heavy downpours!

Luckily this morning when doing the monthly bird survey out by the River Severn it was dry but windy! The ground was of course waterlogged. and there was plenty of evidence of last week’s five star Bores with flotsam littered everywhere. Saw my first Sand Martin, Avocet and Wheatear of the year! Heard stories of some Blackbirds that have already fledged!!!

The Two Severn Bores are rehearsing tonight to get back up to speed for our gig next month. It is amazing how much you forget about parts of a story if you haven’t told since last November!

The pictures for today are from India where the weather was certainly predictable – no rain and hot. I guess you don’t need many weather forecasters! One picture is me bowling in the net and the other two are silly ones! (p.s. those who know my cricketing abilities will know I am not a bowler!)

The one below the signs says “parking for the physically challenged” – which might be appropriate for the Glos Seniors Tourists!

This one is Sean and I being silly before play at the Rajkot Test Match! Note we are in our distinctive  tour shirts which you couldn’t miss us in. It get some comments from the commentators on T.V.!