The title refers to the film I saw last week at Cheltenham Film Society. It was set in Brazil when the country was being ruled by the military . It was a really powerful and moving film and was important message for our times especially when powerful rulers try to suppress anyone who disagrees with them. Really enjoy the Film Society because we have the opportunity to watch many films from around the world that you won’t get at your local cinemas.

Tomorrow night The Two Severn Bores are performing at the Cabot Cruising Club Bristol  BS1 6SG starting at 7.30 (doors open at 7) for anyone who is around. I will be telling three stories one for the first time and one I have only done once before! Dan has written two great new songs to fit with the story themes! We then need to explore some new venues for this show.

What a wonderful weekend for Beer and Books in Stratford. Four of us had a wonderful cycle up on Friday. The weather was fair and our ride was punctuated by stops for cakes and soup. We thoroughly enjoyed watching Measure for Measure at the RSC Theatre. Not a play I knew and this production was certainly inventive. The acting and the set were first class. We are lucky to be reasonably close to Stratford and over the years have seen many original productions.

All of us thoroughly enjoyed our weekend- our Book Club is now twenty years old!

My body is aching now after the ride back! Didn’t get off to the best start found I had a puncture – every time I pumped it up  the pump ripped out the valve letting the air out! We eventually got away!

My football team even managed to win without me!

I write this blog just before our Book Club outing to Stratford (we are watching Measure for Measure on Saturday). Four of us are cycling up tomorrow and meeting three more there tomorrow night. We are pedalling back on Sunday. The weather looks fair although possibly chilly in the morning!

I am off storytelling later tonight at Wick Court. The Two Severn Bores are performing our new show for the first time  in Bristol next Wednesday- we are hoping to rehearse while we are in Stratford!

We managed the school pick up for Owen (my grandson)last night (our first solo pick up!)

Finally I went to the physio this morning to give my dodgy hamstring the once over- actually it was encouraging and i now need to be conscientious and do my exercises!

You might think that today’s title might be related to an upcoming story telling gig! However, it was a rehearsal for picking up our grandson Owen from school – we are down to do it on Wednesday!

Talking of rehearsals the Two Severn Bores had an encouraging one last week for our new show. We have our first gig next Wednesday in Bristol. Details in a future blog.

We had a lovely weekend in Lincoln. We were on a wonderful campsite with woods and lakes all around. We went on some lovely walks. We were surprisingly lucky with the weather – it hadn’t been an encouraging forecast. We also saw two lots of old friends over the weekend. I made the mistake of cycling to the football it is the third time I have cycled to watch the Mighty Hatters and they have lost all three – I should know better!!! Sadly they were very poor- a lack of fight and technique.

A busy time here. We have thoroughly enjoyed the Gloucester History Festival. Sam Dalrymple’s talk was outstanding on the History of the Indian Subcontinent on Tuesday.

I was back at Wick Court yesterday, not great for birds but the young people were curious and asked some really challenging questions.

I visited WWT Slimbridge today – got a soaking and it was windy as well. A couple of pictures I took below – a knot and a snipe.

We are off to Lincoln tomorrow (guess who are playing there on Saturday?) We are also seeing some old friends.

Short blog today. We always enjoy the Gloucester History Festival and on Sunday night we went to an entertaining talk on the History of Magic with super tricks thrown in.

Tonight we are off again to listen to Sebastian Faulks on his historical fiction and later Sam Dalrymple on History of India. Really looking forward to it. It is great to get so many talented people coming to Gloucester. We have one more talk on Thursday. There were a couple we would of liked to go to but we are off at the weekend.

Many of you will know I wrote a book called Pig The Legend. It was story inspired by the Siege Of Gloucester during the English Civil War. Today as part of the Heritage Open Days we went on a guided walk around Siege of Gloucester sites. It was an excellent walk and I was pleased I didn’t make an glaring errors with my book. Might of helped with some extra background to the book. A picture of the book cover below. (you can still get copies from me- sadly my first book Don’t Look At Me Like That has now sold out.)

We had a real soaking on Friday cycling into Stroud! It is certainly different to the cycling in the heat over the summer.

To say I was disappointed with yesterday’s football would be an understatement. The defending by The Mighty Hatters was pathetic.

A busy couple of days for me. On Tuesday I went with a Gloucestershire Seniors Cricket Team to Surrey for the vase Final as 12th man against Essex . Sadly they didn’t really perform with the bat and lost.

Yesterday it was back to Wick Court for my volunteering slot taking young people from schools in Yorkshire and Lancashire  birdwatching. There was a lack of birds but some great questions from some really curious and thoughtful young people!

We had a great discussion and plenty of laughs at our monthly Book Club meeting last night. We were discussing a short story by one of our own Brian.

We popped down to the Slimbridge WWT this afternoon mainly to buy birthday presents for my granddaughter Ellen’s 4th birthday. We wanted to get her some binoculars (not toy ones).We got her some! Clare wanted to look at a textiles exhibition so I slipped down to a hide for some bird watching! A few pictures I took below!

I had a lovely walk after story telling on Friday night. Only saw one other person but saw plenty of birds. About 20 long -tailed tits in a mixed flock of blue tits and amazingly at least 6 chiffchaffs. There were swallows darting over the lake and I saw a common sandpiper flying low over the water. Also heard a kingfisher but didn’t see it and a very noisy cetti’s warbler. Really good for the soul! Some pictures below but not mine!

   Chiffchaff

  Long-tailed tit

Common sandpiper