A personal first occurred when we were in Sussex at the weekend. I saw my first Stork in this country (have seen them in other countries). Of course there is a well known rewilding project at the Knepp Estate that wasn’t that far from where we were bird watching at RSPB Pullborough Brooks and we spotted two Storks in the distance! I was thrilled especially as I missed the Stork that flew over our village earlier in the year. The picture below was taken by a friend of mine as the bird flew over Frampton.

Just a reminder about Friday! The Two Severn Bores are in action! It is free  (but you might want to bring some cash as a donation to the performers!

6pm on 18-6-8-23 at Bo-Ho Bakery, Kings Stanley! Please come along!!!!

What a handsome pair!!! I will keep reminding readers this week about Friday!

Lovely day in Sussex after yesterday’s disappointment at football. Not sure if I mentioned I cycled over Ditchling Beacon twice to get to the football and back. It was the right decision not to go on the train because apparently it was chaos afterwards. One of the many downsides of out of town football stadiums apart from soulless atmosphere is access both to and from!

We cycled to Sussex Prairie Garden. Lovely couple of hours walking around this delightful garden. Picture below and above doesn’t do it justice!

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Picture from  todays rude awakening in the Premier League. It  wasn’t as bad as the score line suggests. Onwards and upwards!!!

Currently in deepest Sussex in our wonderful camper van Cedric. We caught the train into Brighton yesterday. Thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Museum and Art Gallery.. There was a delightful display of photographs by the renowned photo journalist Roger Bamber who lived locally. His photos varied from the famous, to ends of industrial eras, humanity, humour and world events.

picture of the blog author trying on a mask!

of course today I will set off to watch the Mighty Hatters! Nervous and excited!

Off on our travels tomorrow- Sussex here we come! I will be cycling to Brighton on Saturday from our campsite to cheer on the Mighty Hatters  (now a Premier League team). Just hope we do better than the only ever time I have cycled to watch them when we lost for the only time ever at Forest Green!!! Fingers crossed we are competitive! Have to say I have been impressed by our recruitment.

Don’t forget the Two Severn Bores (me and my musical companion Dan) are performing at Bo-Ho Bakery Kings Stanley on Friday 18th August at 6 pm please come along if you can.  The performance is called Destiny or Fate! I will keep reminding you all over the next week!

Evidence of yesterday’s ride to see my brother. I went with Martin and we cycled down to the old Severn Bridge and across to Chepstow. Made amazingly good time and we were have coffee and of course cake after an hour and half cycling. It is a horrible climb out of Chepstow and our first set back happened we lost Sustrans Route 4 which should of taken us a decent fairly traffic free route to Newport. We eventually got to Newport for a well earned lunch and we found Sustrans 4 out of the City. Sadly we lost it again and our ride to Caerphilly was a lot more up and down than it should of been. My language wasn’t repeatable when I embarked on the final climb!

Successfully met brother Mike by the Tommy Cooper statue in front of the imposing Caerphilly Castle. See the picture of the intrepid cyclists above!

We were supposed to catch the train from Taffs Wells but major engineering work meant we had to cycle down the Taff Trail to Cardiff. Led by our Mike we thoroughly enjoyed the Taff Trail – it was off road and we felt quite smug when we glimpsed across the standstill traffic on the A470! One hiccup was after we boarded the train I managed to lose my train ticket as we fixed our bikes in the guard’s van – the guard was lovely when checking tickets and later came back to give me my lost ticket!

A great day!!!

Wow what a day! Heavy rain all morning and a howling wind this afternoon. It is supposed to it calms down tomorrow and Monday is looking ok for my cycle to my brother’s. I have a friend doing it with me which is always helpful if you get lost (my garmin’s map part isn’t working!).

I have also been looking at routes for me on Saturday when I cycle from our camp site to the football. Might use google maps on my phone for that one. It will be only the second time I would of cycled to watch the Mighty Hatters the other one didn’t end well! We lost heavily and seeing we picked up some injuries today doesn’t make me feel that optimistic1

I am aiming during the next couple of months to cycle either to my immediate family or from where they live. I have already cycled to the nearest our Pete as he is the nearest! On Monday I am planning to cycle to my brother in South Wales I have checked the weather forecast. and looks ok!

Had a lovely Story Telling with young people from Liverpool last night. Their ages ranged from 9 to 15.

Earlier in the week I walked up to the Sailing Club with my binoculars and was treated to a “Parcel” of Linnets of nearly 100 – it looked spectacular as they kept flying around. At Wick Court yesterday I saw a Charm of Goldfinches of 50 +!

Where on earth is my granddaughter Ellen? Just love this photo! can you find her?

Look at the picture below of what the postman delivered today! It is a book! COYH!!!!!!!

Story telling later at Wick Court to young people from Liverpool.