The Days They Are A'Shortening

This time of year my working day gets shorter and shorter. I am back working on a wall I have been restoring intermittently since 2006. It snakes for 940m across some of the highest ground in the Cotswolds, so is always windy, but remote enough that I can safely keep working until it is too dark to do so. Sunsets like the one above can extend the day by 20 minutes or so. And apart from picking my way through the odd sheep - is there any other type? - I can usually drive secretly back across the fields without having to use headlamps.

There is something very special knowing that I will avoid the endless strings of car lights I see streaming along the A40 across the far side of the valley as I ghost my own way home.

Luckily, I am not halfway along this wall as yet, so I am hopeful of many more of these journeys home, after days spent working with only the company of sheep, horses,occasional walker and, apparently, spotted this week - an otter.

Summer of 2012 (Part Two)

Sorry - my plan didn't work. Olympics were great though !

Cheltenham Literary Festival 2012

For one reason or another, I hadn't booked any events at this year's Festival. But today I found myself with a few hours to use up in Cheltenham, so whilst wandering about the Festival area seeing who I might bump into, realised there were still tickets to see the filming of a Sky Arts programme - namely Mariella Fostrup's Book Show. And very interesting it was too. Not only to see how an hour's worth of recording is put together, but to be close up to the guests that included the perfect gentleman that was Sir Roger Moore. A timely appearance given the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film.

Enjoyed it so much, that I then returned for a second recording an hour later, sitting on the front row to see Rupert Everett, Mary Robinson and Jack Straw be interviewed about their own books and about those that influenced them.

All this for a fiver per ticket. Shame I haven't got Sky to watch the finished output in November. Oh, and I did bump into two celebs - Kirsty Young and Where's Wally.

Stealth Stone

Had a very good day at Fairford Air Tattoo recently. Particularly enjoyed seeing the Lancaster take off and hearing the roar of the Vulcan taking to the skies. But the star of the show had to be the very sinister B2 Stealth bomber. Sadly didn't see it in the air though. A very strange machine indeed.

Almost as strange as the stone I found the very next day ...

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Summer of 2012 (Part One)

It is not clear from this picture quite how wet it is - though the horse's stance, and the fact that my customer has provided a shelter for me, do provide some clues. It is June, it is England, and it is wet. Very wet. And cold. OK, a good week in March, and a couple of so-so May weeks have been OK, but now we all remember this. Rain, floods, three days out of a five day Test match lost to rain. And we have a hose-pipe ban still in place. That's the UK for you. 

So this is my plan. Post this info now, so that later this summer, after the glorious Olympics and a winning Test series against South Africa on rock hard dry pitches, I can post the Summer of 2012 (Part Two) and reflect on a totally different climatic scenario. With a hosepipe ban, of course.

Football's Coming Home

This weekend started at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, with a second chance to see C W Stoneking performing. First seen at Womad last year, I feared my enthusiasm for his authentic 20's American bluesy sounds were perhaps fuelled by the lateness of his gig on the first night of my first ever festival. But once again I was blown away by his music on Friday - see him live if you ever get the chance. Jamie Cullum's a fan too! 

Then today Swindon celebrated their League 2 Championship with a Party on The Pitch. A great afternoon seeing all the players and listening to sets from Toploader and The Lightning Seeds, who finished their performance with 'Three Lions'. Football's coming home . . .

Cirencester 12 Burnham 14

A rare visit for me to Cirencester RFC today - invited by a good friend to watch the game against his home town of Burnham on Sea. A rare visit these days, but the pitches and clubhouse there were as good as home for me through the 80's. A regular player on the wing - I was faster than the larger chaps in those days - I enjoyed many seasons for the Thirds and Seconds, before establishing a firm place in the Firsts. This was when the league structures were started, and we played in the the Western Counties, travelling from Gloucestershire down to Cornwall. We also travelled further afield, and my own memorable tour was to Berlin - guests of the British Army - where we were fortunate to see the divided Berlin just six months before the wall came down.

It was great to see the grounds again, and sample the hospitality of the bar after - even if it was only a black coffee. A long way from the guiness and beer that was previously consumed. And fortunately there was no sign of the 'Dick Drink' concocted from various forms of alcohol that was always presented, to be downed in one, by the nominated 'dick' of the match.

Sadly the likely recipient of the game today would have been the ref - I have never seen a player penalised for time wasting in rugby before. But even with that and other strange official decisions, Burnham spent more time than Ciren in the attacking 22, and on balance deserved the win with a converted penalty in the last minutes of a tightly fought game.

So I caught up with a few old teammates today, and reminisced about the good old days. Makes me sound old - which is odd, because given my current running fitness and now-diagnosed Coeliac condition, I actually suspect that I am a lot fitter now than I was back in my Rugby playing days. But you won't be seeing me on the the field again - the game is too quick now and too physical.

So there won't be another chance for a photo opportunity such as the one below - me crossing the line for a try back in the season 1987/89.

Advent 2011

This period of Advent has been busier than usual for me this year. Instead of the more usual one window per day, I have had to make at least six openings each day of the month. Otherwise I would not have completed my task on the 24th.

Well, its Christmas Eve today - and I have finished it!!


So here it is, for all to see ...

Yep - I have completed my Advent Colander . . .

Should It Stay Or Should It Go Now

Before ...

.. the end of November, a month's growth looked like this. Having decided to grow something for Movember, this is what was left having removed most of the white stuff. So should it stay or should it go?

Generally the reaction was favourable. It was said to be one of the better Movember efforts. I liked it - but with two reservations. Firstly - I knew someone sometime would stop me for directory enquiries - and secondly I was reminded of a schoolday's biology experiment involving a swab, a petrie dish and a teacher's moustache.

So, I made my decision. And I offer you the following photo so that you can decide if I made the correct one.

... and after ...

It Ain't Half Hot Mum

October seems to be the month of half marathons. It is a good time of year to push those extra miles after a summer of racing, and sets you up well for the winter months of preparation for a spring marathon such as London, Paris or Brighton. Locally, there is always a good choice - Cricklade, Swindon and Stroud - but this year I chose an event a few hours down the M5. And the start and finish was only 15 minutes from good friends of ours, so we were able to make a weekend of it.

Though it was the first weekend of October, it turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year, which meant a very tough 13 miles indeed on the Sunday morning. Many runners simply gave up, and some of the fastest sprints seen around the finishing area were by the medical staff rushing to help those who simply couldn't stagger the last few hundred yards around the outside of the playing field. I felt rough from about 8 miles and slowed - along with many others - to a finish time well outside my best, but in a good 13th position. And I did recover surprisingly well.

But I shouldn't really have been surprised about the heat - it was the Burnham Half Marathon!

Things I have to cope with ...

Must be rough at the seaside - today, some VW campervans turned up, surfboards on the roof, and inflatables jutting through the windows. Out jumped a group of surf dudes, who gathered around, putting up windbreaks, nicking my shovels to build sandcastles, and running in slow motion back and forth. In the end, I just had to give in, but before I left for home I managed to sneak a photo of them sunbathing all over my wall.

As you can see, on my current project, I have been overrun by beach nuts ....

My First Festival

It has only taken forty eight years and a very keen daughter for me to finally attend my first ever festival - and it won't be my last. Why I have never tried it before I don't know. Milly and I had a great time. Weather was perfect, of course, which helped, but WOMAD, even though it offered a range of lesser known bands drawn from all parts of the world, was as friendly, trouble free and well organised you could hope a festival to be. There were stars I did know - Booker T Jones with Green Onions and that cricket theme, I Am Kloot, Rodriga and Gabrielle who stole the show - and stars I know now. The standout performance was CW Stoneking, and if you don't know him then check out the link top right. I have had to have a musical fix of him every day since. Other bands who stood out were Penguin Cafe, Brassroots, Pacific Curls and The Savoy Family Cajun Band. We only saw about 25 of the live acts, so no doubt we have missed some other good performances. Perhaps we can catch up with them next year, where the 30th Anniversary promises to be an unforgettable festival. Maybe I will see you there .

Who Are Ya

Saw my first ever Twenty20 game last night. I have played in many over the years, but I suppose that various rounds of The Oaksey Bowl or local evening league never had the same attraction as seeing Muralitharan and Pieterson ply their trade at Gloucester. Surrey were beaten by a tight Gloucestershire outfit with both sides beating the rain that threatened all evening.

Apart from those two big names, there were other players that were worthy of watching - if only I had known that from the start. It was only after, that I had realised that we had been watching - as per the Dad's Army closing caption - the fastest world cup century scorer, the most recent call up to the England test squad, the England Ashes back-up wicket keeper, two other former England players and an Aussie international. Perhaps next time I should do some match preparation.

I recognised the umpire Peter Willey. No sign of Michael Holding though . . .

DIY SOS

There is only one thing I hate more than decorating - and that is paying someone else to do it. So it was with some trepidation that I took the opportunity of a son's school trip to Barcelona, to rid his walls of painted trains and overpaint with teenage greys and turquoises.

It turned out to be a memorable event - not for the reasonably tidy outcome and not for the 13 hours spent painting on the Sunday alone. It was the fact that I had to wear glasses throughout for first time. So it is official - I am turning into my late father. Appropriate, really, as the Sunday would have been his birthday. Somewhere in the loft I still have his paint speckled glasses.

We also have in common, the fact that we shut ourselves away in the room with only sounds for company using the latest technology. For me, it was itunes on shuffle on the laptop. For my father, I recall, it was a stack of birdsong LP's, probably on self loading, using a Morphy Richards mono record player.

I expect mother was listening to the Music with Pleasure boxset downstairs.

I Think That These Really Are Red Kites

For many years, I haven't quite grasped the difference between Red Kites and Buzzards. It is the same for Rooks and Crows - though someone once said that if you see lots of crows then they are rooks; or if you see a single rook then it is a crow. Or is it the other way round?
The Red Kite dilemma hasn't been helped by the absence of the bird from the Cotswold area for most of my life. Until last year, when I think I saw just the one. And now this year, I think I have seen four so far.
Probably good news for the Cotswold Red Kite population, which does appear to be on the increase.

Watching Swindon Go Down

It was all going so well when this picture was taken ( thanks to the official Swindon photographer for this great picture). This cross led to a Matt Ritchie goal, and the first 30 minutes of Saturday's game against fellow strugglers Notts County was all Swindon. And if only Douglas' thundering volley had not come off the crossbar, I guess the good fortune would have continued. But the 30 yard effort, direct from a corner, blasted back off the woodwork and with it fell away the Swindon composure. Time and time again they lost the ball yards outside their own penalty area, and after Lee Hughes equaliser within 15 mins of full time, a mistake by Cuthbert in the same area gifted the former prison-mate Hughes with his second and eventual game winner. The ups and downs of football lost on the desperate Swindon fans. It must be all over now, with only an outside mathematical chance of survival. I think I have seen 6 or 7 home games with no victory and little passion for winning, so it is no surprise Swindon are where they are.
Saying that, next season could be fun. Lots of potential local derbies with Cheltenham, Oxford, Hereford and Bristol Rovers. Just not sure if I will be seeing any of them.

Weekday Afternoon Radio

I have tried so very hard to like Richard Bacon - 5live weekday afternoons - but I just don't. He is no replacement for the professional and quite brilliant Simon Mayo. My super little solar powered DAB radio provides many alternative stations - Absolute 80's being one of the better options - but I still hadn't quite found what I was looking for. Until Radcliffe and Maconie moved from Radio 2 to 1pm on BBC 6Music.

A week into their new show, and I am starting to get hooked. And already I have discovered some new music. The best of which - so far - has to be the not-quite-irritatingly catchy 'The Look' from a band called Metronomy. I expect I am the last person to find out about them, but if I am not, I present a performance of the very same song top right of this blog.

For One Night Only . . .

I may look like someone belting out the last bars of My Way, but this is me, last night, having my first go at stand-up. And I had just the best time. I was kindly asked by a friend to entertain at his wife's 40th party, and buoyed by the promise that others would do their bit too, I agreed. Of course, everyone else bar their daughter, Hannah - who sang beautifully - pulled out, but I actually relished the prospect and surprised myself how enjoyable it was. I suppose that performing to friends three hours into a party, at a pub, isn't the hardest gig ever, but I still had to get up and remember, and deliver, the material I had been writing over the previous weeks. And make people laugh.

And as for one night only? No, thank you, but can I have another go, sometime, please?

The Best Ironman Ever

When training is tough, or you are down or you think that life is just a struggle - watch the link top right. Your money back if you don't have a tear or two

A Day In The Life

My working day is no different to that of any dry stone waller from the last few hundred years – apart from my truck, radio and mobile phone of course. This traditional skill requires no modern interventions, and the walls and their construction are timeless features of the Cotswolds.

With over 6000 miles of Cotswold walls to work on, no day is the same, and the English weather provides plenty of variety too. I can be on one wall for a day – a simple collapse caused by tree roots perhaps – or maybe a longer stretch of decayed wall for a few months at a time. Each stone is different, picked out from the remnants of the existing wall, or from fresh bright stone heaps delivered from the quarry.

There is always somebody or something about – walkers always ready for a chat, or horse riders trotting along. I see stoats, kingfishers, red kite, toads ( always nestling deep within the base of old walls) and lizards sunning themselves, mice and lots and lots of spiders. And nearly always there is a robin, searching for food when I am digging the ground.

Sometimes I get cold, sometimes wet and, very occasionally, hot. But always I feel satisfaction and great pleasure from my own small contributions to the Heritage of the Cotswolds.