Thank you for the days

Great weekend with old friends from OTT in Derbyshire. We also did a bit of cycling really enjoyed some decent hill climbs.

Now we are back need to knuckle down with my writing and have several themes to develop and a couple of stories to rewrite.

Planning our next big cycle ride later tonight we are calling it The Heart of England Tour we are cycling from here to Norfolk in August. I did Frocester Hill today in 17 minutes not bad for an old ‘un!

Managed to get tickets for the Ashes Test at Durham, really excited about that hopefully I will get to see some cricket unlike at Dunedin!

 

Won’t get fooled again!

I love my cricket and at my tender age should know better. At my club (Slimbridge) I am now in the super veteran stage! I never thought I would be playing cricket much beyond 40! Yesterday we had a game with local rivals Uley. It wasn’t distinguished by great batting especially by yours truly who didn’t trouble the scorers out to a very lazy drive (not very Bill Church like!) The good news is I still manage to hold my own on the field. We just scrapped over the line chasing a low total, it was good to see my former junior players being the key figures in the game.

Off now to Derbyshire to meet up with friends going back to my college days and the forecast looks promising.

Isn’t Life Strange

Well after the gap because of New Zealand enquiries about gigs are coming in. Mainly schools but hopefully some interest for adult audiences will follow.

Spoken to several old friends this week and it is the traditional  OTT weekend coming up.

I am enjoying reading Sebastian Faulks “A Week in December” he is a good storyteller in print. Just finished a William Boyd thriller  that was one of those books I couldn’t put down.

Need to get back to disciplining myself with the writing especially when the weather is good and the Test match is on!

Mandolin Wind

Well what a useless blogger I am ! I said I would update last Friday and here we are on the following Thursday. The gig was good Pete’s band Irwin seemed much more confident than last time and I enjoyed seeing the offerings from the other bands too. Pete had a good following of friends many of whom we know. We were at the British Museum before the gig visiting the Pompeii exhibition, very impressive. I then went to see old favourites like the Rosetta Stone and the Sutton Hoo Helmet. I love the Egyptian Room and takes me back to a school trip when I was 10 (a long, long time ago). The textile museum on the Thursday was an eye opener should I take up knitting?

I won’t mention cricket because it a poor show, we hope for better this weekend.

Clare and I went away in our camper “Cedric” for 3 nights to Devon and cycled out each day. Weather was great-today back home is a disappointment with wind and showers despite 200+ swifts up at the lake.

No news on the update of the web site-Dave tells me it is going well.

A couple of gigs booked up so I will need to start preparing.

The title today reflects the wind but I didn’t hear any mandolins but it was a good song!

 

Singing in the Rain

What a day yesterday! Two days running with a soaking in the saddle. Need to watch for trenchfoot! I hope we are not in for a repeat of last summer! We might as well stop playing cricket in May!

Off to watch Peter’s band playing in North London tonight. Will update blog on Friday!

The Midnight Rambler

Life continues to be busy both socially; my voluntary work takes up much time. Since last weekend I have been busy with Hill, Valley and Vale meetings. I have also taken friends around Frampton bird watching-we had a delightful time on the May Bank Holiday walking slowly round the lakes looking at Blackcaps, Whitethroats and a brief glimpse of a Nightingale accompanied by the sound of a Cuckoo. The Three Horseshoes did us a super lunch afterwards. Last Wednesday with SP3 we had another Birdwatching walk with Phil Williams helping out on recognises birdsong. A lovely morning!

We have had been working hard on our fantastic garden, Clare’s vision and efforts have made the garden a kaleidoscope of colour.

The web site is being worked on and Dave who manages it for me  and he is hoping to show me what it looks like soon.Also managed to do some writing last week tidying up a couple of short stories.

Had a lovely weekend with friends in Wiltshire with a late night drinking whiskey!

Today has been a blur of meetings and voluntary work!

 

The Sleeping King

Well my last blog was “Busy, busy” and that has continued! Pleased with how my cycling has been going well and that is 4 rides of 20+ miles with some significant hills to climb at a decent pace in 6 days. I have been mainly on “Sir Gawain” but did do one on my old faithful “Shadowfax”. I now feel my fitness is back to what it was before the New Zealand trip.

Yesterday I did the Storytelling workshop at the Village Hall as part of Robin Wheeler’s “May the Fourth be with you” day which saw 4 different workshops at the Village Hall. I should have some photos of the day sent to me that will go on the new website page that is being created on storytelling for adults so keep a look out. I sandwiched the workshop with a story in two parts it was the story of the Sleeping King and it was the first time I have told it.

In the afternoon I played my first league game of cricket and considering we only had 8 players we put up a spirited challenge. It is a long story!

 

Busy, busy, busy!!!!!

No time to blog in the last few days-retirement is certainly busy! We went to the National Portrait Gallery last week with SP3- had a really good guide who took us to see a painting from each century starting with Elizabeth 1st. We then met up with our Peter for a meal. Saw our other son David on Saturday to collect my bike “Sir Gawain” he had been using while his was being repaired. I turned out for cricket with his club while there. So I have a game under the belt!

I have had a meeting with Dave Stayte who set up my web site for me about the proposed changes. He is now going to work on the changes so we should see a difference in the near future. Hopefully it will be more informative about what I can do. There will be a new page on “Performing to adults”.

I have cycled into Stroud yesterday and today I was at the Parliament Children’s Centre  today doing some stories – I felt like a granddad being allowed to play with the children!

On Saturday I am doing a workshop in the Village for adults on Story Telling before I play my first league cricket match. Tomorrow wearing my Children’s Centre hat I am at Shire Hall all day-another decent cycle in!

Also have a couple of conversations about potential gigs in the future.