Well despite the sunshine it still seemed cold today! Had a lovely walk by the River Frome looking for Dippers. No Dippers but plenty of perky Wrens and a Chiffchaff. Chiffchaffs are migrants although some stay here for the winter so maybe a migrant also heard one singing!

Yesterday’s Quiz on Herbs and Spices

a) Paprika  is the national spice of Hungary   b) Parsley is a biennial plant  c) Rosemary is the herb Shakespeare had for remembrance in Hamlet  d) sage used  for medicinal purposes  in the Middle Ages  e) The curry plant’s flower is yellow

The title is because I spent time today getting an old woody rosemary bush out. As I was grabbling with the branches I was covered in the needles so had that lovely distinctive rosemary smell wafting all around.

I mentioned earlier in the week we were seeing the female Blackcap in the garden. Well all week we have had regular sightings of both the male and female. So we are keeping our fingers crossed that we may get a nest nearby. We have only had Blackcaps in the garden in Winter!

My Quiz team had a narrow win on Thursday! Like my football team we are in mid table! I am setting the questions for next Thursday’s quiz.

Today’s Quiz is on Herbs and Spices

a) What is the national spice of Hungary?   b) Is parsley an annual, biennial  or perennial plant?   c) In Shakespeare’s Hamlet which herb is  said to be “for remembrance?”  d) Sage is now a familiar herb in the kitchen. What was its main purpose in the Middle Ages? e) The curry plant has a very spicy aroma and silvery leaves. What colour are the flowers of the plant?

Pictures below I took yesterday. It is the female Blackcap on the feeder, Song Thrush in the grass and a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the tree.

Today I have been working on relearning stories and writing a new one for next week’s gig. I am enjoying the stimulus of having something booked again and being given a theme for a story request!

Have to spend some of tomorrow checking through Style Proofs of my book. It is all very exciting! Didn’t know about having input on style!

Cricket was intriguing until the last hour or so!

Have been entertained by videos and photos of our grandson . I just look forward to be able to see him soon.

Yesterday’s answers on the Wales quiz.

a) The village of course was Under Milk Wood   b) The Stereophonics sang The Bartender and the Thief  c) Jones the Steam drove Ivor the Engine  d) St Davids is the smallest city  e) Charlotte Church was the soprano – my brother often tells people she is a relation!!!

Well I saw a host of golden daffodils today on my pedal across the Cotswold Hills so not the Lake District that Wordsworth saw! Lovely flowers and always cheer me up. At this time of the year if I had a bad day at work I would go home a different way where I knew there was a bank of dancing daffs!

Busy at the moment on relearning stories for next week.

Quiz today following on from daffodil thoughts and the fact it was St David’s Day at the beginning of the week is on Wales!

a) Which Dylan Thomas book describes a day in the life of a Welsh fishing village?   b) Which Welsh group had a hit with the song “Bartender and the Thief”?  c) Who drove Ivor the Engine?  d) Which Welsh city is the smallest in Britain?  e) Who was the teenage soprano with, according to her album, “The voice of an Angel”?

We knew rain was forecast this afternoon so it was a morning spent in the garden redoing a flower bed. Body is feeling it now!

Busy on learning and writing stories as suddenly it all seems to be taking off again. You don’t realise what you forget with what is really a year off! I know I have had some sporadic moments and I have recorded a few stories for libraries and schools. I also did a couple of outdoor gigs in August standing a long way from a socially distanced audience. I do have a good resource of stories that I tell so it has been enjoyable being reacquainted with them! I worry that my vocabulary has diminished with lack of use! I am currently writing a new story for young children for one of the schools who asked for a story on a specific theme. Fingers crossed I can still do it! Watch this space!

Yesterday’s answers to the Quiz on Canals.

a) The canals in Cambridge are called The Backs (technically they are not canals but rivers or branches of rivers with the flow slowed by weirs etc. They are at the back of some of the colleges- hence the name!)   b) Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal is the longest in England and is 3.24 miles long   c) The Duke of Bridgewater is known as “The Father of Canals”.  d)  The Panama Canal is 82km or 51 miles long   e) Ferdinand de Lesseps is associated with the building of the Suez Canal

Will try and do another quiz tomorrow back to my writing now!

Yes believe it or not I am visiting a school next week and also doing a virtual gig. So that is a big change for me! Still working on developing a couple of stories for next week’s virtual.

Had a chilly ride today with a friend and used my super duper summer bike. It makes a big difference when climbing because it has a carbon frame. Ended up coming back along the canal I was hoping I might see Common Cranes in the field alongside but no luck. We are lucky with the fields between the canal and the River Severn – it is a real haven for wild life.

Just watched the football. Brilliant we are now nearer to the Play Offs than the Relegation Zone! Not bad for a team with one of the smallest budgets! Up the Hatters! 

A quiz on Canals today.

a) What are canals in Cambridge called?   b) Where is the longest canal tunnel in England and how long is it?  c) Which English nobleman is called the “Father of canals”?  d) How long is the Panama Canal?  e) Who is the man famously associated with building the Suez Canal?

Apologies for going on and on about birds but had some positive moments today. I have mentioned that we have had a male Blackcap in our garden most of the winter and I have posted a couple of pictures. Well today we had a female Blackcap in the garden so fingers crossed we may get a nest nearby! My second piece of bird news was when on my walk today I saw two Spoonbills on the scrapes near Splatt Bridge – it was a recent quiz question. After I identified them they flew off in the Slimbridge direction; a quick fumble with my camera and I got a distant shot of them flying South. ( murky picture below).

Started playing with the idea of a short story for younger children today for a Telling soon.

Rather than a quiz today a couple of quirky bird facts.

The USA has about 200 million Starlings and it is all because of Shakespeare! a gentleman called Eugene Schieffelin thought it would be a good idea to introduce as many of the birds mentioned by Shakespeare’s works into the USA. In 1890 he released two flocks of 60 Starlings into New York’s Central Park!

Legend has it that Ian Fleming named James Bond after a neighbour and close friend of his who was the author of Birds of the West Indies when he glanced at his book.