I was supposed to play my last game of cricket for the season today and although both teams assembled the rain sadly didn’t relent! We were cheered with  a cracking tea that the Gloucestershire lads  had all contributed offerings! I have now packed away all my cricket kit for the winter, always a sad moment. A thoroughly enjoyable season, with a trophy to boot!

I have realised I have quite a few bookings for the late Autumn/ early Winter on the Story Telling front to a wide range of audiences. Some of those will be me as a solo performer and some will be the Two Severn Bores.

Now cricket has finished I can devote time to developing new material. That will be both researching stories and writing some!

Pleased to see this visitor to the garden today. Sad that these creatures have declined in numbers significantly over recent years so it is to be celebrated when they turn up! We had quite bit of bits of branches on the grass so there must of been plenty of insects for the Hog to feed on!

Now back in sweltering Frampton after a wonderful few days with my Book Club pals following in the footsteps of Dylan Thomas. We managed to get in several swims, cycles and epic walks. Like the whole country is was hot! Nearly all our cycles apart from into Swansea to the Dylan Thomas Centre involved some real steep ramps! Was really impressed by the Dylan Thomas Centre and well worth a visit if you are in Swansea. Talking of Book Club we have a meeting coming up on Wednesday.

Following on from our triumphant cricket there is a video of your truly collecting the trophy (click on the link) and a distant picture of me holding the vase..

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The four intrepid cyclists had a wonderful day yesterday but a tiring one! We started with an early morning swim that certainly woke us up. Followed that with a post breakfast cycle to the sand dunes, a long walk along Rhossilli Beach to the pub for lunch. Long trek back to our bikes. A long grinding climb was part of our cycle back. Finishing with four over cooked old men having another swim! So we reckoned it was an Old Man’s Triathlon and a double because we did each part twice!!!

Picture above shows the beach we walked along we reckoned we walked about 6 plus miles.

Yesterday my boys won the Vase see the pictures above. It was sweltering in the heat. Currently away on a cycling trip in the Gower with my pals – we aiming to cycle, walk and swim on Thursday.

What a scorcher it has been today! The weather looks set fair for a while. It is bad luck on young people going back to school that we get the good weather now. Talking of schools I am glad I am not a Headteacher dealing with the current concrete difficulties. I once had to deal with an asbestos scare which was traumatic enough!!!

Off to the cricket final tomorrow- do I bat if we win the toss? Might be one of those days when I would be happy to lose it!

The rest of this week I am cycling with friends in the Gower and then we have a Book Club Weekend following in the footsteps of Dylan Thomas.

Until this season hadn’t worried about VAR decisions in football. There is a perception it favours the big teams and certainly one or two decisions in recent weeks certainly have gone that way. I was at a raucous Kenilworth Road on Friday watching the Mighty Hatters lose to West Ham – there was a blatant handball near the end of the game which wasn’t picked up. However. if you give away soft goals and miss chances you deserve to lose! On to the next game!

Now beginning to think about our cricket final on Tuesday the weather looks good for it which will be a relief!

Currently we have a four legged friend with us – “Jake” my friend Terry’s Jack Russell. So it means you go out at different times so saw a Hobby when out with him yesterday and 50+ Linnets this morning.

Off later to the Theatre of Tattered Dreams for my first home game of the season. Looking forward to seeing what the stadium looks like after £13 million spent on getting it up Premier League standard. As always feeling very apprehensive about the game. West Ham have made a good start to the season and look really impressive on the counter attack. So I will be biting my nails tonight!!!