Had my first gig of the week today at Wychbold First School. Was pleased to have a smooth run up the motorway was clogged in the opposite direction. It was lovely day and I pulled out some old favourites. I was asked some really good questions on Story telling. Will be Story Telling again on Thursday night.

About to sit down to watch ) on the internet) the Mighty Hatters play – couldn’t make the game because of today’s gig. Fingers crossed- we only seem to beat the top teams at home and tonight Cardiff are down in the relegation zone.

I always struggle trying to take pictures of Goldcrests, we saw this bird at Wildwood near Exeter on Sunday. My son David snapped this bird (ironically I forgot my camera!). We spent the weekend in Exeter we were needed to look after my delightful granddaughter Ellen. The picture of the Otter below is an Asian Otter we watched feeding (snapped on my phone!)

Busy week on the Story Telling front. I am off to Wychbold to spend the day at the school. I am also Story Telling at Wick Court later this week.

The Two Severn Bores are also meeting this week to plan their next show.

Good to go for a ride today and not worry about ice! Having said that it is cold-  I am still wearing my balaclava, overshoes and glove inners!

Quite a bit happening on the story telling front and I will elaborate in blogs over the next week or so. I have been busy learning stories today for Tuesday’s gig.

I did my bird watching with young people at Wick Court on Wednesday. Despite the fog we saw 26 species including some Pintail flying over the River and a single Mistle Thrush only recorded three other sightings over ten years with the children!

Had a delightful day looking after my grandson Owen yesterday and in the evening my quiz team scored a resounding victory with a really impressive total.

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!