Had a fantastic day at the Rose Bowl Southampton watching Afghanistan and Bangladesh in the Cricket World Cup. Pleased to say the rain stayed away! It was a great cosmopolitan occasion see the picture below. The atmosphere was superb with waving flags accompanied by drums, whistles, rattles and enthusiastic cheering! Good to be with both my boys.  See my picture (it was my phone!)

Don’t forget Two Severn Bores doing Severn Songs and Stories on Thursday at Quedgeley Library starting at 7 p.m. and it is free! Hope you can join us.

My contribution to my game of cricket today was the duck in the title-oh dear! Still we managed to win despite my offering!

I mention Cuckoos because I have seen 5 this year including two flying over the house. I have heard them a lot including today which seems late! Maybe I’m just lucky.

Don’t forget TWO SEVERN BORES on Thursday 27th at Quedgeley Library starting at 7 and it is free!

Just got back from checking out Quedgeley Library for next Thursday’s (27th) Two Severn Bores performance of Severn Songs and Stories. Hope if you haven’t seen this performance you can come along-it is free! Pleased to be performing in a Library again. I have my usual residency in the Round House at Wick Court this afternoon.

Don’t forget Sunday 30th is Wick Court open day from 3 p.m. -I will be telling stories in the Round House and at 5 we have the amazing Handlebards doing the Tempest.

Lovely Bird Survey this morning out by the Severn with encouraging signs of young birds especially Whitethroats and Swallows.

Certainly clocked up some miles on the bike this week! Two decent rides of 40+ miles including seeing old friends for lunch yesterday.

Don’t think I’ve had this Buddy Holly title before but needed rain somewhere in the title! It has been disruptive and certainly marring the Cricket World Cup, stopping getting on with things in the garden. It is hard on the bike do I wear a proper rain jacket or not? I have curtailed my longer rides over the last few days but planning a long one tomorrow. My cricket has been washed out as well.

We had a wide range of views at Book Club on Wednesday night. Always interesting to see how different our perceptions are.

Enjoyed Story Telling with old friends from Granton Primary School Streatham on Thursday afternoon. I did a couple of old favourites; one, the Russian Folk Tale I haven’t done for a while but I always enjoy telling it.

Advance notice of another “Two Severn Bores” Gig on our River Severn theme. We are at Quedgeley Library on Thursday June 27th starting at 7 p.m. it is free! It is at the moment our last Gig on this theme, we are now thinking about what we will do next year!

Finally on the 30th June we have an open afternoon at Wick Court from 3 p.m. (I will be telling stories in the Round House). From 5 the wonderful “Handlebards” will be doing the Tempest, their performances are always great fun (Shakespeare like you have never seen before!)

I will keep repeating the above events in the next few blogs!

No not my dancing but that delightful tasty cheese for today’s title as I finished off my run of three gigs in Hereford with the National Literacy Trust. Today I told a couple of folk tales from Japan and North America that I know well.

Book Club later tonight to discuss Mr Golightly’s Holiday by Sally Vickers, a book I enjoyed reading so look forward to seeing what the chaps thought of it.

Oh my goodness we have seen plenty of rain over the last couple of days. I was doing my volunteering taking young people bird watching at Wick Court today and ended up wet and cold! It is almost the middle of June!!!!! Obviously our bird count was down although we had some good spots. Delightful young people who asked some great questions.

Off to Hereford for Story Telling with the National Literacy Trust. I perform in the Odeon Cinema and last week while I was mid story the screen came on behind me! It certainly tests your versatility as we had to move eventually.

Lovely weekend meeting many old friends in Birmingham. Enjoyed seeing the Staffordshire Hoard at the museum it was breath-taking. What a wonderful find!

I had been looking forward to a day at the Cricket World Cup with my Dave and Pete in Bristol. We knew the forecast was pretty awful. It was! We had all arrived armed with brollies and waterproof we did need them! A lovely cosmopolitan feel with Sri Lankan and Pakistan supporters and plenty of others from around the world. Sadly for the people who travelled half way around the world there was no play. We spent a Father and Sons bonding in the pub where we were joined by a friend. Fingers crossed for our next one!

My week was busy with 3 Story Telling sessions with two in Hereford with the National Literacy Trust. Enjoyed performing to delightful enthusiastic young people. Back in Hereford on Wednesday. Working on learning a new story to tell.

Today’s title is not a song title (well there might be one that I don’t know) nor a homage to the only creature that has delayed a space launch but to the delightful noisy creatures in my garden today. At one time we had three birds in the garden; a mother, a very hungry youngster and possibly the male as well. The pictures at the end of the blog are what I took today of mother feeding the well fledged chick.

Only got one game of cricket in and we came second!

This week sees me working with the National Literacy Trust in Hereford on two mornings. I think this might be my 7th year of doing this. The NLT do a wonderful job often in neglected areas of the country. Their web site is a useful resource for those of you working in schools. I did point a couple of schools to Free Writing Fridays (on the web site) earlier in the year.