Back to normal (whatever that is) after last week’s jaunt to the smoke. I was tired especially as we had a busy weekend. Yesterday I was back to Wick Court doing my bird watching with the young people. One group saw our old friend the Little Owl which is encouraging.

Just back from a marvellous ride over the hills including the climb up into the Slad Valley.

Back to my Story Telling residency tomorrow afternoon. A busy time ahead with a couple full days booked.

Off to Cheltenham on Saturday for footie. I thoroughly enjoyed last Saturday’s pulsating game at Luton not good for the nerves though!

Cos I’m tired and want to go to bed!

Back safely in Frampton after a wonderful week mainly in London. The “Blunderbirds” evolved during the week with many extra little bits encouraging more participation. We have learnt much about the schools that visit Wick Court and the challenges they face.

At the end of each session we gave the children the opportunity to ask questions about Wick Court. We had a wide range of questions ranging from the life cycle of a bee to can we take ipads to the farm! One frequent question in all the schools is the Mollie Story true; flying talking sheep?

Lovely finish at Ashmead School in Aylesbury for me as a birder. While in full flow telling Mollie’s story I could see several Red Kites twisting and diving right in my eyeline behind my audience. Of course while performing in London I often had the sound of parakeets echoing around.

Much to do to catch up but off to the bath now and off to bed……………………zzzzzzzzz

Today’s title reflects our visits to Waterloo station yesterday and today. Also the way our bodies feel after so many performances and many miles cycled; Sunset seems appropriate!

A couple of navigational hitches today and a near miss! Our performance has evolved organically with each day seeing something new added. Participation has also increased as a result.

Looking forward to getting home and we have been royally looked after by Laura and Gareth.

It had to be! We cycled back today over Wimbledon Common after another positive day yo-young across London. Another full on day visiting some amazing schools here in London. I have been reassured by meeting some amazing dedicated teachers who grapple with some really challenging circumstances, a million miles from this government’s latest crazy idea about grammar schools.Enough of the soap box!

Our performance has significantly improved . A hiccup today is that we arrived in Kingston 24 hours early. You just can’t get the staff can you it was our mistake! The Robin Hood Primary School were brilliant and certainly impressed us in how they adapted and welcomed us. Thank you Robin Hood School a truly wonderful school.

Keep checking for photos hopefully I will insert a few on Thursday night

Apologies for not getting the blog out last night technical issues no WiFi. I hope to add a photo to the blog later. Excellent day yesterday doing 3 schools and covering nearly 30 miles on our trusty bikes. We are gradually adjusting to riding in the capital and being more assertive in our riding. Almost one mishap when I nearly ploughed into Brian. A few navigational issues when we went North of the river!

Lovely to see old friends who had visited the farm the especially the children. They had obviously had a super time at Wick Court. We are learning much about the schools as well.

Finally the performance has gone up a notch. We added quite a bit of extras during the day. More hopefully later and photo.

Well the Blunderbirds started their London Tour with two gigs one in Dulwich and one in Vauxhall. We cycled without getting lost and using the Super Cycle Highway. Brian’s reckie a week ago paid off so we arrived at our first Gig early. Bikes were taken through the school to the bike shed! It was interesting when we left having to negotiate our bikes through the hall past the Infant lunch time. Lucky that we avoided getting any spaghetti on our bikes and no child got an oily chain in their lunch!

Performance wise we are getting better although we probably need to get slicker on timings. We both learnt much about the schools and their catchment area. Vauxhall Primary we found out had won the TES award for national school of the year. We were both impressed by the enthusiasm and dedication of our contact teachers in both schools.

3 schools tomorrow!

No, not Brian and I  on our bikes! Watched Mark Knopfler on the T.V. last night so hence today’s title! We are off to London tomorrow, driving up but taking the bikes so we will pedal to all our Gigs next week. So tomorrow I will be able to say Blunderbirds are go!

I had a lovely Story Telling with Cofton school on Thursday, first Telling with a school in the new Round House and with my wonderful Story Teller’s Chair! I did stick to some old favourites but had new variations for each of the three stories.

I collected some smart new t-shirts/polo shirts for performing. They look wonderful and also had logos printed on some cycling tops as well.

With luck I will blog each weekday next week -the pictures may have to be added later.

Short blog with no song title-might be the same title over the next week with part 2, 3, 4 etc to follow. I may add some photos to today’s  blog later when they arrive so please look again.

Today the “Blunderbirds” (Brain and I) set off for our first Gig to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the charity. We set off on a celebration tour that will include some fund raising -anyone who we are visiting you are welcome to make a donation to the charity!

Today we set off on our bikes to catch the train to Redland School Chippenham. I forgot to turn off my bike computer off on the train so the data on Strava looks like I possess super powers! Despite one navigational hiccup we arrived in good time. Lovely greeting from old friends on the staff who visit Wick Court regularly.

Our audience was to younger children than the material is really designed for and I think we learnt some lessons today on adapting our material. Looking forward to London next week I hope to blog daily and with pictures.

Book Club meal tonight at my house. I have suggested as the antidote to Brexit that our meal should celebrate European food! That gives us plenty of options to be creative.

I wanted to chose a record that epitomises Britain for my title today and apologies if it seems more English than British! One of my all time favourite songs as well! This is to celebrate the Tour of Britain passes through our part of the world. I cycled to the top of Selsey Common to watch with some pals. It was a wonderful carnival occasion. Although it was mayhem afterwards with a mass of bikes and cars! I then went down to Dursley to meet Clare at Edwina’s house for a lovely lunch.

Last night’s gig at Wick Court went well. I told my Mollie story for the first time (I don’t count when I was persuaded to tell it for a group of adults when the Round House was built). I am never sure how the story will go and I certainly had some ideas to develop it. I was with Brian singing his song about Wick Court and his poem about the bees. It will be the format of our London tour in ten days time.

An action packed week for me! I had two meetings on Monday afternoon/evening so had a good pedal to both. The second one was a positive one for the charity “Hill, Valley and Vale” that runs the Children’s Centres in Stroud . Really good to see Staff and Trustees coming up with ideas for the future which is uncertain because of events out of control. Would be good to see a stronger commitment to Children’s Centres from government rather than their outdated fixation with grammar schools..

It was back at Wick Court yesterday to do bird watching with the children. Sadly not many birds around! I am back there tonight to tell stories with Brian as a rehearsal for upcoming London tour.

Tomorrow  the Tour of Britain is coming through the area so we are cycling up to Selsley Common to watch it come through.

I have a busy period of Story telling coming up over the next 6 weeks and it will be a diverse range of stories to perform. Had an email today asking me if I can do Kingsholm Rugby ground for World Book Day. We be good to say I’ve played at Kingsholm!