We are now back home after a lovely nine days away-really lucky with the weather. Over the next few days a few pictures in the blog from Northumberland mainly ornithological themes! Towards the end of the week I will do more on Story Telling and the  progress on the book.

Below Yellowhammers in the walk to imposing Dunstanburgh Castle.

The castle from a distance!

A lone Guillemot below the castle!

Amazed to see 100 plus Linnets flying around the rocks below the castle. Don’t think I have ever seen so many together before.

Finally came back via Manchester to visit Bridgewater Gardens and of course Barnsley to watch the Mighty Hatters earn a hard fought win!

A play on the Byrds classic for today’s title. We did see plenty of them a mix of Common, Arctic and the rarer Roseate Terms.  Wonderful acrobats diving all around us catching small fish. One lone Puffin on the water most are far out at sea now. I have plenty of photos to download when I get home. Yesterday I got several pictures of Kittiwakes and other birds. One surprise was 100 plus Linnets who kept flying over can’t remember seeing such a large group of Linnets before.

Disappointed with yesterday’s football my team need their missing defenders. We will be cheering them on at Barnsley on Tuesday night.

A lovely cycle today to Howick Hall and a delightful garden to explore. Off later to look for Kittiwakes. Have seen a good mix of sea birds while we have been here. Tomorrow we are cycling to Amble for a boat trip around Coquet Island to see a mix of Arctic Terms and Roseate Terms.

Sitting now listening to the magnificent Joe Root scoring another 100! Fingers crossed for the Hatters although not that optimistic we will get anything.

I am playing around with a story idea for my next gig, more hopefully as it develops.

We cycled to Barter Books in Alnwick today and enjoyed the train running above us! I was searching for more folk tale and mythological books to build up my Story Telling Library. Tempted by Viking Myths but I had many of the tales already. I am aiming for a long bike ride tomorrow have already cycled a fair bit since we have been here. We are aiming not to move the van at all while we are here.

My pictures might have to wait till we are back home to be included in the blog!

Currently enjoying the wonderful Northumberland coastline in Cedric our distinctive campervan. I am hoping to get some thinking time for developing new stories. You might even get the odd photo to blogs this week. Good for bird watching here, saw a group of Eider Ducks today.

Had an emotional return to football yesterday. It seemed an age since March 2020. I am a season ticket holder so you know everyone who sits around you so it was good to see those faces again. Everyone had a huge smile on their face. A wonderful atmosphere built up and then we saw a cracking display by the mighty Hatters who won convincingly despite having a poor referee.

Away on our hols tomorrow so will do an update on Story Telling when back.

Book Launch of Pig The Legend is on the 27th at the Three Horseshoes (let me know if you want to join us.)

I forgot to mention in recent blogs our Bird Survey last Thursday. It was fairly quiet it usually is late July. However, once we were surrounded by curious cattle we had a flurry of bird activity 60+ Starlings and the highlight was 30+ Yellow Wagtails including several  juveniles. Yellow Wagtails are migrants and we usually get two or three nesting pairs around the whole Frampton area so to see 30 was a surprise. Picture below of one of these handsome birds.

I played possibly my last game of cricket for this season yesterday and was absolutely exhausted after running many quick runs (we put on 36 in five overs) and plenty of boundary chases and dives (dangerous at my age!) I slept well!

My sporting journey continues – I am at Trent Bridge tomorrow for the Test Match and at the real Theatre of Dreams to watch my first football match in person since Covid stopped us. It was Wigan – Luton on 7-3-20!

I did say last week was a busy week for me full of cricket and Story Telling as well as the excitement of the books arriving. I have now fixed a date for the launch at the end of August at the Three Horseshoes in Frampton. If you are interested in coming along please get in touch.

I will start with the Story Telling which ended up a mixed bag. On Wednesday I travelled all the way to Lydney Library not knowing that because of the heavy rain they had cancelled (they had left a message but I had already left (ironically it is close to be opposite to us on the other side of the river but is a good hour to get there either via the Severn Bridge or via Gloucester.) On Friday I visited my old friends at Kingshill House to tell stories based around the theme of the beach- I had written a story specially for the occasion. I am back there later this month telling stories on a Visit to the Zoo theme which will test my repertoire! I am about to pedal off to tell stories at Tuffley Library. i have to say it is good to get in the swing of performing again.

I managed to play three games of cricket over the last week twice for Gloucestershire Seniors and a Sunday friendly for my club. Ironically I am at last finding the middle of the bat as my season is nearly over I have a game tomorrow. Have to say the body is suffering now!

We are also looking after a four legged friend Jake for a couple of days, it has been  good to have a dog around for a couple of days.

Well I’ve got them at last- copies of my book Pig The Legend. They arrived yesterday but I opened them last night as I was out at cricket. The actual publication date is the 28th August (I think it is something to do with the Book Trade). So I can sell the copies I have but Book Shops might take some time to order and obtain them.(remember try to avoid ordering through Amazon as we will make almost nothing for the Alzheimer’s Society)

Will blog about this week’s Story Telling adventures sometime over the weekend.

Volunteered to help with stories today in Stonehouse more reading than telling. The idea was to encourage families with books/reading especially after the last 15/16 months we actually had more volunteers than families but it was the first event and from little acorns!

It was good to see some old friends that I worked with when we ran the charity managing Sure Start Children’s Centres in the area. If our Prime Minister is really serious about leveling up and not just empty soundbites he might want to to something about the way his government has allowed Sure Start to  decline over the last ten years. I still think Sure Start is the best initiative any government has implemented in my life time-it was making a difference!

Performing in Lydney Library on Wednesday morning and Kingshill House on Friday.