Back from three lovely days in Dorset. Yesterday was a beautiful spring day and we spent it on Brownsea Island. Lovely view of a red squirrel on a tree trunk,they are beautiful animals. We do enjoy Brownsea and the views from the hides are great.

Both of my lads have been under the weather recently and poor David has been ill out in the States. Hopefully he will be well enough to fly back Monday night.

Working hard on learning stories for Wednesday and Thursday.  I am going to attempt to tell Fair’s Fair for the first time to one class, they wanted a Victorian story and I think it is a delightful story that captures the era well. I am also re-learning my evacuee story for another class.

Quick blog from Dorset. Currently sitting in a pub in Corfe Castle. Managed to avoid the showers and enjoyed some good birding. We were at Arne today, no Dartford Warblers but Chiff Chaff. Saw my first Wheatear yesterday.

Busy with Children’s Centre stuff earlier in the week.

Busy learning a Victorian story for Wednesday.Need to work on my cockney accent when I tell this one!

Great win for the Hatters on Tuesday. Almost there! They have already sold out the last home game!

We are aiming to be away in Cedric our camper van later this week and I hope to learn a new story for telling while away. Might need to wrap up well at night!

Lovely afternoon yesterday celebrating our friend Robin’s 70th! Great food, good company.

I had a pleasant surprise by getting some good feedback from my storytelling earlier in the month from 3 different sources. I’ve just ordered new t-shirts (different colours) for performing because the original has been well used! I am still investigating getting cycling tops as well just to advertise the web site.

Just done a PB on Frocester Hill on my cycle ride (25 miles).

The Hatters got back on track on Saturday, fingers crossed for 3 hard away games over the next week.

Budget yesterday and surprise, surprise it appears to be a political budget not sure it will do much for those who really need help. Certainly not good for the environment.

Started to look for the first time at my Dream Story since I finished writing. Only looked at the last part which is probably a strange way to start! I do need to give it time to consider how the story hangs together. Hopefully will have read it through over the next week or so however I seem to be very busy over the next fortnight. A few gigs to plan.

Had a lovely day doing my voluntary Bird Watching at Wick Court on Tuesday. The children were delightful and were full of imaginative questions. The best was “If your favourite bird was a human being what sort of personality would they have?” You try answering that on the hoof!

Football was disappointing on Monday our first defeat for 27 games! We were poor and we were well beaten. Hopefully back to our winning ways on Saturday.

At last the fog has lifted down here by the Severn and we have had a super weekend. We spent Saturday helping our Pete move across London to Putney, so it is now a much easier drive up.

Pleased with cycling last week. On Wednesday did a PB on Frocester Hill and again on Friday. Did over 90 miles last week including 20+ on the mountain bike which means I have to work harder.

A bit of gap for gigs after the spurt around World Book Day. Some gigs booked for the end of term.

Off to football tonight.

Talking about pulling rabbits out of hats! Tuesday night at Cambridge we did! 1 down and not playing well and suddenly I was jigging around the room as we equalised at the death! It does look like the injustice of the 30 points might be soon laid to rest! I think all Luton Town fans will get very emotional when we finally leave the purgatory of the conference! Sorry if you are reading this and are not interested in football but my football team did suffer at the hands of the authorities when other clubs seem not to be treated the same way! Enough of that!

We had a wonderful book club meal last night that I hosted based on a Greek/Turkish theme because the book I choose is Song of Achilles. As always we had a some excellent offerings from everyone. We do have an innovative Book club we were suggesting we might look at films instead of books next year but that might be too radical!

Of to the theatre to see Life of Galileo later.

Next blog hopefully will contain some thoughts on stories!

It is great to see the sun again after what seemed to be endless weeks fo grey skies and rain! It means we have to start working hard in the garden! Clare and I did that today and had a cycle ride. On top of that I did a cricket net as well. I was feeling tired after a busy week story telling! Really enjoyed my gigs this week and they were certainly varied! Pleased with my poems on Friday ( I was specifically asked to perform poems throughout the school.) My “Waspish Morning” had full audience participation.

Went to Salisbury for the Luton match yesterday. No goal fest this time a 0-0 draw but we are now 15 points ahead! Big game on Tuesday at Cambridge avoid defeat and we can start thinking about returning to the promised land.

This week is mainly wearing my voluntary hats. Several meetings for HVV and of course my Bird Watching day at Wick Court as well. If I do get some time I want to start reading through the dreams story and then start the editing. Also got a Book Club meal to host here on Wednesday!

I mentioned previously it was a busy week. Completed the second gig of three this week earlier today. Made some subtle changes to a couple of stories that I repeated and I am pleased with the way the performing is developing.

Friday I have been asked to perform mainly poetry which will be a challenge for me! Will be busy all of tomorrow!

Off to Salisbury for footy on Saturday, will be a tough one!

Had to have that title after a new story I told yesterday. I was in my local school all day telling a variety of stories. One class were doing the “Sun, Moon and Earth” so I found a delightful folk tale from Taiwan that did have what could be said to be a dark side to it, well it had a lot of blood. I had a lovely day and was pleased how some of my tellings have developed. I am growing very fond of my Harriet my Hippo story and really must try to get illustrations for it and see if I can get it published.

Children are back at Wick Court after the half term break (2 weeks without children ) so off later to do my birdwatching with a school from Fulham.