Title sums up a super morning. We also pedalled for an hour first thing down by the River! Looking forward to my first Blackberry and Apple Crumble of the Autumn. I do find blackberrying quite therapeutic despite the scratches and stings!

Had a couple of Black Terns up at the sailing lake near home. Now in their Winter Plumage – we get them on passage sometimes see them in Spring as well as Autumn. Lovely little birds- also had a Kingfisher close by. my pictures of the Terns below. An Osprey also passed through but missed that!

Thought I was being clever and timing my ride today before the rain came in. So I went on Merlin my super bike but it doesn’t have mudguards. Big mistake!!!! Rain came when I was halfway round my 36 mile ride. So I got a real good soaking! It is a while since that has happened to me on the bike! Always wanting to take a positive but it is good for the garden!!

Talking of gardens – we have just collected a garden trophy from the Parish Council for the Most Improved Garden – it is judged on front gardens! We are unsure what we have done to improve the garden!

Delightful day watching our Peter doing the Cheltenham Half- Marathon. The last couple of miles are around Cheltenham Race Course. The picture below is him entering the race course. Our grandson Owen was rather bemused to see his father afterwards looking sweaty!

I had a lovely day doing Words in the Wild on Friday in Tewkesbury – sadly my audience was sparse! I now need to prepare for gigs on the next two Sundays. Both are for very different audiences.

I was bemused and I am  still scratching my head on how my football team managed to lose yesterday. The Mighty Hatters were well on top and we didn’t envisage the last ten minutes when somehow Wigan scored two goals!

Off to Tewkesbury tomorrow to do Words In The Wild. A story telling nature walk through a nature reserve. I will do a morning and afternoon session. Looking forward to it!

Managed a long cycle ride over the tops today – the first one for a while. It might be the last one before I start having to think about taking a rain jacket with me on my rides!

The blog has to start with last night’s football. had a lovely night back in Wales watching the Mighty Hatters. It was a very social evening going to the game with my brother and some good friends. Once again we met in the Chapter Arts Centre before strolling to the game. A good open game with some excellent goals. and we came away smiling!

The title is because today we took my grandson Owen on the bus to Pittville Park in Cheltenham. A real adventure for him and is grandparents! Of course we had to sing that song many times!!!!

Busy spell coming up learning stories for up and coming gigs! I also have to get down to some writing!

A busy spell. Had our Exeter family staying with us so have had the delightful Ellen to enchant us. Special day today we went to a park in Cardiff to meet with my brother, and nephews and nieces with their children with miniature railway. Pictures below of many of them on the train including my brother (you can’t really see Ellen who thoroughly enjoyed herself!)

Last Friday I saw a pulsating game of football where the Mighty Hatters were unlucky not to win. Need to take our chances- the encouraging part is we are now replicating  last season’s form. Tomorrow it is Cardiff so I will be visiting the city twice in two days!

I started the day with our monthly bird survey by the river- 160 Curlews , 23 Avocets plus various other waders on the River. Saw two Whinchats as well – picture above not brilliant quality but a great bird to see. Finished up with a Marsh Harrier just as we were about to finish.

Later I pedalled to Kingshill House Dursley to talk about a couple of future Story Sessions with very different audiences  I am doing over the next couple of months.

Finally my other son Peter moved today=phew!!!!

Well I attempted to put a video of the “Van Gogh Immersive” into the blog but you will  have to settle with a picture below of the recreation of his bedroom in Arles. Pity I couldn’t get the video to load!

We have had a quiet day after the bustle of the last few days and it has actually rained for a few hours! Good for the garden!

I have been working on the story I am going to tell at the Great Barn Festival next month. Good to knuckle down to some writing. We are supposed to be rehearsing later this week!

Short blog without pictures (might put one on tomorrow). Starry Starry Night is of course the Don Mclean’s song that refers to the famous Van Gogh painting “The Starry Night” . Yesterday we went to Bristol to visit the Van Gogh Immersive Experience.  We really enjoyed it and went with our good friend Dave. It really highlighted sensitively the troubled genius of Van Gogh and it was certainly “immersive”!

Today we have full on childcare looking after our delightful grandson Owen. Exhausted now!

A profusion of Apples have fallen off our Bramley so I spent time picking them off the ground and a few from the tree. So today’s offering was to stew them. Crumbles and Baked Apples to follow! It will be blackberries next for my favourite crumble! It reminded me of a poem I wrote a few years ago called a “A Really Great Apple” which was a tongue in cheek take on the apple that hit Sir Isaac Newton on the head. I might try and find it and put it on the blog. I did turn it into a short story for a competition which I might revisit at some point. The picture below went with the poem!