Close encounter early evening today on my bike- a deer leapt out in front of me on a quiet road just below Rodborough Common not sure who was more surprised me or the animal. It bounded away quickly! Another wildlife encounter my son Peter met a Hedgehog in our front garden last night. We were really pleased to hear that they used to be frequent visitors but it is an animal that has suffered over the last few years.

Book sales for Pig the Legend are going well since the launch. All proceeds are going to the Alzheimer’s Society. The book is £7.99. Please get in touch if you want a copy, you can also order through your local bookshop (please avoid Amazon as we don’t make anything on the sales.)

Last lot of pictures (there are many more!) of the launch. It has been something of a whirlwind since that night. We have had my grandson Owen staying (and his parents) and I have forgotten how full on it is having a nearly nine month old baby around! It has been a real pleasure! I did watch the Hatters on Saturday.

I start my voluntary work again for the first time in eighteen months at Wick Court which I am looking forward to.

Finally family support at the launch!

A few pictures from last Friday, more to follow.

My multi-talented brother performing on the night.

Someone is  really focused on the action!

Lovely evening on Friday night for the launch of Pig The Legend. Had Dan Everett doing a couple of numbers and my brother Mike sharing his wonderful poems.

It has been a whirlwind few days so not had much chance to blog

I will keep putting photos from the night in the next few blogs. Here is a start!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Sounds like the title for a song! Sums up the end of the week. I have been out on the bike a couple of times trying to get back my bike fitness especially with the hills.

It was an underwhelming Bird Survey this morning, surprisingly quiet and we were disappointed that there were few migrants around. It might of been different later with the High Tide.

Tomorrow is the Book Launch for Pig the Legend. I think we might have close to 50 people there.

Today’s title is a tribute to today’s news about the passing of the Stones drummer Charlie Watts. Certainly that was the sound of my formative years and always loved Charlie’s dead pan expressions contrasting with Jagger’s and Richards exuberance.

Spend time today preparing for the return of children at Wick Court. My pal Neil and I take the young people bird watching so we putting up feeders and clearing the area.

Starting to think about the book launch for Pig the Legend on Friday- I have Dan the musical  half of Two Severn Bores doing a couple of numbers and my brother Mike performing some of his idiosyncratic poems.

Back on Terra Firma after my disastrous journey on Saturday (although we did have a lovely trip to Exeter to see our David and Vicky yesterday)

Cycled to The Fig Tree in Stonehouse today. The Fig Tree is a charitable venue for many community activities and I was attending Story Dens -the idea was for adults and children to share and enjoy books together.

Not a day to remember. Knew the weather forecast wasn’t great. I drove off to to watch football on my own. Strangely I didn’t go my usual route so ended up on the M4 and got well and truly stuck as motorway was shut -spent well over two hours hardly moving and hadn’t got as far as Hungerford. so soon realised  I wasn’t going to get to the game! Salt was well and truly rubbed into the wound when my team capitulated to an embarrassing hammering! AGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

Performed today at Kingshill House. Really good to play to a live audience again and added new bits to an old story that I have told many times. It is much more stimulating playing to an audience and I find new ideas come out of the ether as I am telling -today I developed one of the characters responses and it went well. I also managed to cycle to the gig so lived up to my Story Traveller name!!!! Lots of photos were taken so hopefully I can have them on the blog soon.

Short blog today with some more bird pictures from Northumberland.

I had a meeting at Wick Court today to discuss our volunteering. For those of you who don’t know Wick Court it is a Farm for City Children and I do Bird watching with the children who visit the farm and I have been Story Teller in Residence. the good news we have our first school since March 2020 arriving in less than three weeks!

I also met up with fellow Hatter Mick for lunch today it was supposed to be our normal pre season meet up but you will have noticed the season has started!

I have a gig at Kingshill House tomorrow (fully booked!)

Pictures below first is one of the many Terns we saw. Second is some seals that were a long way away so zoom helps!

Finally the last two pictures are Kittiwakes (lovely sea birds)