Wonderful evening at the Seth Lakeman concert in Stroud. This time it was a trio playing not the full band. The grainy pictures below is Seth has just finished the atmospheric Kitty Jay (he always does this one on his own). The bottom picture is the trio. Always good to hear live music!

Tired out from story telling today (it was an early start and and a long drive). What a lovely festival had been taking place and what a place to tell stories! The picture below is the Great Barn where I performed. You do occasionally get some good atmospheric places for a gig! You might remember in December The Two Severn Bores performed in the Great Hall of Berkeley Castle and we have also performed on a boat in Bristol Harbour!

Really chuffed that my team the Mighty Hatters actually managed their first win of the season which was a relief! ironically it was probably our worst performance of the season! It was certainly a scrappy game. Now sitting waiting for the T20 cricket final that Super Glos have managed to get to the final! So a sporting feast for me!

Missed the osprey last night by 5 minutes!

Off to The Great Barn tomorrow for Story Telling!

At this time of the year we occasionally get ospreys calling in on their migration. I saw one on Tuesday night being mobbed by a raven. I was hoping to get a photo but had no luck. Two have been spotted over the last couple of days but I just missed seeing one tonight. A picture below not mine but maybe I can get one in the next few days if it stays for a while. I did see a kingfisher and a heron ( a slightly fuzzy picture below).

Thoroughly enjoyed being back at Wick Court on Wednesday and we were treated to plenty of migrating swallows and house martins overhead.

I made my debut for the Gloucestershire Over 70s yesterday- I am their youth policy! My highlight was diving to haul back the ball right at the boundary edge- so I did look like the youth policy!

The title might give a false impression that it is calm here at the moment. Spent this morning helping with cutting back our magnificent walnut tree. Needed doing otherwise we would have disgruntled neighbours with their light being blocked!

I am off to Wick Court tomorrow after the summer break to take young people birding.

Looking forward to Book Club tomorrow night- it is my choice “The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster. A book I remember reading to my class as a young primary teacher. I often recommended it as book for young people (or not so young people to read. Juster was obviously influenced by Alice in Wonderland with a similar off the wall humour and imagination. Re-reading after many years was a real treat and left me with a lovely warm glow! Will be interesting to see what my fellow bookies think!

Not only have I quite a bit of Story telling coming up but we also have Gloucester History Festival to look forward to and a Seth Lakeman gig on Sunday.

We had a stroll to Splatt Bridge today. I was hoping to take some pictures of birds. I saw a lovely long-tailed tit on the wire with perfect light but as soon as I got my camera out it flew off! Still a lovely robin singing instead (see below)! A not so good picture of a starling in the garden as well!

I am enjoying watching this Test Match which is a decent contest!

My goodness it has rained the last couple of days or so! I had cleared out quite a bit of stuff from our pond and with the heavy rain it has just about full again! Our garden is full of birds at the moment – charms of goldfinches, and trembling of finches, plenty of great tits and blue tits and many others!

I had to alter my bike ride this morning because the tops were surprisingly foggy and I didn’t have my lights!

My ego was boosted no end on Sunday when Clare and I had a cycle ride and had stopped for coffee at a farm in Arlingham. When I was at the till the young girl serving asked me the question for today’s title! “Are you a writer?“ It almost up there with the time in a London restaurant I was asked “Are you Bill Church?” (that was teacher who had visited Wick Court with his school) You can tell these moments are rarities!

I am only commenting on this now because the other side of this has occurred this week. The publisher of Pig the Legend has sent me back the remaining copies! So I have quite a few books here now. So anyone who wants a copy (if you haven’t got one) can contact me-PLEASE!!!!! On the positive side I only have two copies of Don’t Look At Me Like That!” (there are still 20 + copies of this book at Wick Court)

Well my boys (picture above) lost yesterday in our semi-final. I of course lost a vital toss and we had to bat in difficult conditions. Surrey’s fielding was excellent and they had us in all kinds of trouble. When we came to bowl conditions were very different but we dropped four catches. having said that the best team won. It was my last game as captain.

I was surprised at the end when I was presented by my team mates with a framed photo – it is from last year’s Vase win. I was very touched. Pictures below. (note my muddy whites- I do still dive all over the place)

With that title I am not talking about meteorite showers but the grey skies we have had on and off over the last few hours! Tomorrow is our cricket cup semi-final and we don’t want our opponents from Surrey to have a wasted journey. I think the forecast is beginning to be more optimistic. Up the Glos!

My Story Telling picks up next week. I am at the Great Barn Festival near Faringdon next weekend and I have my usual gigs at Wick Court starting. Later in September I am Story Telling at a Care Home in Cheltenham.