A lovely Gloucestershire  morning. I pedalled up Frocester Hill to meet Clare and her friends for a wild flower walk on the top. Some pictures from this morning below. Also managed to see a lesser whitethroat.

I was miffed to see house martins building a nest on my neighbours house- I have had a house martin nest box on almost exactly the same place on our house for a few years and the martin’s have never shown any interest! So I am jealous!

Our walk was rounded off with a splendid pub lunch!

Last Thursday of the month is the time of our bird survey out by the river. We saw plenty of different species although nothing unexpected. We thought the lapwings and the redshank had young the way they kept flying up when other birds were over. We didn’t want to disturb the birds and steered well clear of that area. A couple of swifts flew low over our heads. The skylarks were busy and again we thought we had located a nest. I think skylarks trilling epitomise spring and summer.  The pictures below apart from the swift are what I took this morning all a bit distant- a reed bunting, greenfinch, a goldfinch, and a deer!

A busy day here in Frampton. The day started with four Great Tits at the feeders while eating breakfast. Two youngsters being fed by two diligent parents. Positive news on our weekly bird count we have already had 15 different species since Sunday.

A lovely ride with Clare down to beyond Arlingham to the river. We had a profitable time in the garden afterwards.

Well my travel plans for cricket ended in a damp squid! Thank goodness we didn’t set off for Carmarthen in all that rain! A group us went down to Bristol to play padel a racket game. It was a first for me and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience! I am now absolutely tired out tonight there was a lot of running about (I was the oldest player!) It would be good to have a spell of decent weather and we can play cricket on decent pitches!

Just had a super weekend with our Exeter family. On the way down we stopped off at RSPB Ham Walls. A fantastic reserve with several booming bitterns– never heard so many booms! Only managed to catch sight of one briefly. We saw a large grass snake sunning itself, marsh harriers aplenty and several great white egrets. A few pictures below.

My cricket tomorrow was called off when Staffordshire were unable to raise a team. I nearly went with the 4th team to Essex but I am now going even further with the 2nds to Carmarthen! Weather looks dodgy so may not get far!

I even managed a ride this afternoon without getting wet!!! Hoping to get some rides in this week but forecast isn’t great.

You probably wondered where I have been! My week started with the Story Telling on Monday and has finished with another Story Telling tonight at Wick Court. In between it has been cricket and DIY! I told a couple of old favourites tonight.

I played against Wales on Tuesday and sadly the game was decided by the toss – the only time batting became easy was when it started to rain and we had to bowl with a wet ball- we had been slightly ahead at this point.

I managed my only ride of the week this morning.

We are hoping to do some birdwatching in Somerset= so watch this space!

A real varied day that started with Story Telling at Bromsberrow Primary School in the North of the county. I had a  lovely time and I had super responsive audience.

I followed up with some hacking back of a tall bush in the garden that even with a long pole was awkward . Arms were aching afterwards!

Tonight at Splatt Bridge I heard and then saw my first cuckoo of the year (picture of one below – not mine!) Also saw a Cetti’s Warbler you normally only hear them! Finally there was a lot of Redshank activity over at the scrapes (another picture that isn’t mine below!)

Cricket for me tomorrow against a strong Wales team!

For those of you who having been reading this book for some time will remember we did a book for our grandson Owen called the “The Magic Blue Tractor”. It was a picture book with pictures of him with his small toy tractor that turned into the tractor above! Yesterday he met the above tractor and was in 7th heaven! Later when playing the usual refrain of “Come on Gramps!” echoed around our house! We had a our own “magical” day with our two grandsons (and their parents!)

I had a super ride up Frocester Hill in the sunshine on Friday!

Later on I am off to watch the last game of the football season and give The Mighty Hatters a good send off – hoping for a 12-0 win!

Story telling tomorrow up near the Malverns.  

An old picture I took of the Ross’s Goose that has been turning up regularly in Frampton. I have seen it the last few days while looking for Hobbies. The good news is I have had some good views of Hobbies but not taken any photos of them (not an easy to photo some poor attempts below from previous years.)

I have had a busy day in the garden today and doing a few odd jobs.

Off later to watch a streaming of Nye from the National Theatre with Michael Sheen in the lead role.

Short post tonight as we are currently babysitting our two grandsons.
Yesterday I managed to get in a game of cricket all the other 5 Gloucestershire Seniors teams had their games cancelled due to Monday night heavy rain. My bowlers were superb and we won the game comfortably. I had one my best days ever in the field with diving stops and to cap it all I took a memorable catch. I was in close trying to stop a single when the batsman launched a fierce drive, I threw myself at the ball sticking out my left hand in hope. Somehow to everyone’s surprise including my own the ball ended up in my hand. Afterwards I was dreaming I was a young cricketer again until I felt my aches and pains!