Well this week is all go! Just blogging before tonight’s football-COME ON ENGLAND!!!! It has been a full and busy week.

I am easing back on the miles on the bike because I am doing the Dartmoor Classic on Sunday 67 miles up and down Dartmoor – wish me luck!  I did try out the new tyres on my bike climbing Frocester and Stouts Hill and I have also got a bigger ring on the chain to help me climb. It did make a difference! I did take my time climbing up to Nailsworth for today’s Story Telling Gig on my steel framed bike Shadowfax!

I visited my lovely friends at Thrupp Primary school yesterday to promote the book with a Story Writing Workshop. We had a lovely hour working together. Afterwards Clare picked me up and we went to Asthall Manor to walk amongst the sculptures, it was delightful.

Today  I had two Story Telling Sessions in two contrasting venues with very different audiences.

Finally last week Dan the wonderful guitarist I have mentioned before when we have worked together and I had a meeting to plan future work together, we have come up with an exciting and ambitious project. As it develops I will let you know.

A short sporting blog! Just back from a superb game of cricket at Old Trafford. The game ebbed and flowed with England just getting over the line thanks to the amazing Jos Butler. The atmosphere was wonderful,  I didn’t see the football but heard the cheers from the back of the stand, I will watch on Thursday!

A delightful day yesterday. Started with our monthly Bird Survey in Frampton. Highlight being a couple of Great White Egrets, a Green Sandpiper and a Marsh Harrier.

I then spent the morning supporting Clare getting ready for their Patchwork and Quilting Exhibition, I put up many stands!

The afternoon was Wick Court’s 20th birthday party -well since it became a Farm for City Children! Michael Murpurgo and Adam Henson were special guests. It was lovely to see all the people connected with the farm over those 20 years. Brilliant

It was rounded off with a superb performance by the cycling Handlebards doing a wonderful anarchicTwelfth Night-hilarious! Picture below of their slap stick humour. There are certainly talented actors.

I did do two Story Telling sessions today-one in Nailsworth to young children and followed this up with my residency at Wick Court. Normally this is on a Thursday but we have a special birthday celebration tomorrow at the farm with some special guests will blog about afterwards.

I also pedalled to both gigs today! A little tired now after all that!

Quick blog about sport before I shoot off to do this morning’s Story Telling.

What a superb performance by England yesterday scoring a world record 481 in 50 overs -amazing!! Football wasn’t too bad either on Monday! While that was happening yours truly was playing in a more sedate fashion for the Gloucestershire Oldies, I scored much more slowly -no sixes! However by shepherding the tall we eventually got to a total (small one to defend) that proved decisive. Great fielding and bowling saw us home. Brilliant!

Classic Moody Blues title for today because the last few days has seen time shift. We had a delightful weekend near Colchester with many long standing and dear friends. We managed to fit in a walk round a nature reserve. We  briefly called on youngest son Peter on the way to some emergency gardening! We also visited my home town Hitchin to check on my parent’s grave which felt very raw with our Liz’s recent passing.

Yesterday saw me visit my old school to do a Story Telling workshop. So the old friends theme continued. It is a wonderful school!

The rest of the week is busy so will blog when I get the chance!

Exciting times in our garden. We have several nests in and around the garden. Plenty of young in and around the feeders. Baby Blackbirds, Blue Tits, Goldfinches, Robins and Wrens in evidence. Also got Great Spotted Woodpeckers that nested close by so we are now regularly seeing the parents feeding the young Woodpeckers. Looking forward to doing my Bird Watching with young people from London tomorrow at Wick Court

Stories have been going well, certainly diverse audiences in ages! Today I cycled up Frocester Hill with plenty of props to Nailsworth for a Gig which was hard work on a warm day!

Came up with some new ideas for the current story I’m writing based on a Gloucestershire Legend.

Brilliant news from Wick Court today. Sam (who does some wild life work with the children) had put a camera trap on the nesting box we put up last year for the Little Owl. The results were superb, and we are now fairly certain we have young Little Owls in the box because the adult birds are regularly in and out of the box carrying food. I may add a picture to the blog later when I get it. We are hoping to ring the birds next weekend. I’m over the moon!!!!!

In the middle of a busy spell of Story Telling so this will be a fairly brief blog. Saturday I did two sessions in Kingsholm Gloucester not the rugby ground! It was at the wonderful Roots Café. I did a sparsely attended session for families in the middle of the day followed by an adult session in the evening which was great fun. Today I performed in Swindon for the National Literacy Trust and I am there again tomorrow. I have two sessions on Thursday, one is a book promotion followed by residency at Wick Court.

Had another game of cricket yesterday for my club and enjoyed captaining a mixture of old men and young boys. I even managed to take three wickets which would surprise any of you who have ever seen me bowl!

Why Sock in title? On Friday we went to see the album launch of my nephew’s band Sock. A very proud uncle watching this talented band fronted by Jake my nephew!