No I am not talking about Star Trek! An old school chum came to visit me – someone I hadn’t seen for about 50 years! We had a delightful birding walk around Frampton– it is a lovely village I live in! I do enjoy walks on frosty mornings and we have had a few lately! I did see my first Yellowhammer for a while and a striking Red Crested Pochard.

It is a busy period for me now nailing down stories for a couple of schools coming up. I also need to work on writing for the Two Severn Bores because we hope to get a show on the road for the Spring.

Looking forward to being back at Wick Court tomorrow – we had no children last week!

Some pictures below of the beautiful frost this morning. It is actually above freezing for the first time in ages as i write this. I do love mornings like this it makes January bearable!

I did make the pilgrimage North yesterday to watch the Mighty Hatters win for the second time in a week at Wigan! I actually had a beer with Chief Executive and Chairman before the game in a wonderful pub.

Off to a rehearsal later. Will need to start learning lines!

I went out birding this morning to one of my favourite places. Sadly because the water was frozen there was a distinct lack of birds. On my way back I saw 120+ Curlews and a couple of other birds (pictures below). I tried to catch the Curlews in flight!

Tonight we are off out for the Gloucestershire Seniors Cricket Dinner at the County Ground Bristol. Tomorrow I’m off to watch the Mighty Hatters at Wigan – yes I know I need to get a life!

Yesterday a few of my birding pals and I were involved in a Gull Roosting Count for WWT Slimbridge. It was a beautiful late afternoon with the scrapes all iced of over. However, two hours standing around meant toes felt like ice I even had 3 pairs of socks on! At our station we only had 250 or so Gulls while just along from us they had well over a couple of thousand! We felt quite inadequate! Sadly we had to endure the Hunt galloping past – they will say it was trail hunting but the evidence suggested otherwise!

In the evening to warm up my Book Club met. We were doing Books of My Life where each of us talked about books from being very young through our formative years and beyond. A super evening with a really diverse collection of books from our respective lives! I do enjoy our Book Club discussions!

A few pictures from the WWT Slimbridge today. We had a tour of Scott House which was really interesting- I will add an anecdote it reminded me of in a future blog in the next few days. For today some pictures from being on the reserve on a really cold day!

Bewick Swan

Water Rail on the Ice!

 Pair of Pintails

Male Mandarin Duck

Struggling for a snappy title today! I have had a busy three days so haven’t been able to contemplate the January Blues! 

Saturday saw me travel to the Theatre of Tattered Dreams to watch the Mighty Hatters. A good competitive game of football and through my gritted teeth have to say the best team won. I would go as far as saying that West Brom are the best team I have seen us play this season and I have seen all the top teams!

Yesterday afternoon I went to rehearsal of the Community Play that we are performing here in Frampton in April. We went through our songs which may come as a surprise for those of you who have heard my singing! More on the play in future blogs!

Last night I travelled to spend the night at my grandson’s Owen helping out his Mum and Dad who need someone to do the lifting etc! We are going back this afternoon to pick him up from Nursery ( a first for us!)

What a contrast to the drought of the summer we now seem to have non-stop rain and there seems to be water everywhere. So the pictures below are the Bore on the River Severn and a flood between the River and Canal a couple of years ago- the last picture is of the reed bed where I do regular bird watches! We are fortunate where we are because the River has a natural flood plain. At least today has been dry so far so I managed a decent bike ride but still plenty of puddles everywhere and I was often riding into a brutal unforgiving wind.

Tomorrow off to the Theatre of tattered dreams to watch the Mighty Hatters! Fingers crossed!

For the second year running I led the Wassail at Wick Court. Also like last year it was in   my own inimitable style! I started by explaining what a Wassail beforehand to the delightful young people from Ravenstone Primary School. I also had to fill in for 15 minutes so ended up telling Mollie The Sheep to them. Luckily the rain held off so we were able to give our toast and apple juice to the tree! If I get any pictures I will include them in future blogs. Afterwards I raced off to Gloucester to meet Clare and friends to attend a talk on Goshawks by James Aldred  a well known wild life cameraman.  He showed some great action clips and great photos.

Today it was looking after our wonderful grandson Owen which included going to “Tiny Tots Art!”

Just like the proverbial saying of the title you have spells when you have gaps on the Story Telling front then a ridiculous busy spell The early Autumn was quiet for me and then November/ December was like many buses all arriving at once. January has been quiet so far but I have just had a spurt of bookings for later winter/ early spring. Tomorrow I am leading the Wassail at Wick Court which will be done in my usual  idiosyncratic style! Also my first bird watching of the year group with young people before the Wassail.

Looking beyond gloomy January I have my AGM tonight for the Gloucestershire Seniors Cricket– will be good to meet up again with my cricketing chums.

Just back from Exeter where we have been on grandparent duty helping with the lovely Ellen (15 months old). We put her to bed for the first time and we were successful! This was a rehearsal for looking after her on our own. We are thoroughly enjoying being grandparents! We are with Owen (25 months old) on Thursday!

Have been struggling  on the writing front and it is getting urgent as I am supposed to meeting up with Dan (the musical  half of Two Severn Bores)  to discuss our Spring shows imminently!