Doing the best that I can, at writing, running and living
I finally saw the kite on Sunday – I have decided it’s the same one that has been popping up in the sky for Angela and Anne to gawp at each day, as we always see it around five miles out from Hay. Its silhouetted shape considerately soared above the car’s right side this time… Continue reading Hay Festival – Part Three
Obviously, because we were here on a Saturday, I looked for the nearest Parkrun. ‘There’s one in Hay-on-Wye’ itself! You two can have a pootle around the town while I go run.’ Angela, our friend and instigator of this trip, did not look as excited as me, about leaving the house at 8.20am on her… Continue reading Hay Festival 2024 – Part Two
On Monday evening we managed to book a place to stay in Hay-on-Wye for a whole week next year. It was hours after we’d returned from the little town on the southeast borders of Wales, and it is a testament to the festival’s popularity that our booking was the last affordable (just about) place available… Continue reading Hay Festival 2024 – Part One
Moving moments: a gentle breeze brushes my face as my bike moves effortlessly along the back roads surrounded by the rolling farmlands of Shropshire. White cow parsley grows high along the verges and the sun beams down while the twittering of birds, and the rustling of leaves is all I hear ... I did get… Continue reading Cycling To Shrewsbury But Not Back
The one good thing about living in a very small three-bed semi, is the fact that you can heat it up really quickly after being away for several days. Our drive home, which took most of the day was happily uneventful, and by the time we reached the house, it was cold, dark and a… Continue reading Burgh Island III
You couldn’t have written the script any more neatly. I didn’t read Anne’s message as I was finally getting my s**t together after feeling somewhat worse for wear from the night before. We had finally had our meal in the grand ballroom, after missing it the previous evening, and had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves dressing up… Continue reading Burgh Island II
It’s the middle of the afternoon and I’ve just had a bath. Not just any bath, but a bath in a room, in a hotel on Burgh (pronounced ‘Burr’) Island. The same hotel that acts as a backdrop for one of Agatha Christie’s crime novels, ‘Evil Under the Sun’. Possibly in the same bathroom used… Continue reading Burgh Island I
I’m just having a moment to sit down after mowing the lawn. Having got home yesterday afternoon, we’ve come back to quite a wild garden because, apparently, the Wirral has had a lot of rain last week. It just shows how lucky we were on our trip down south that, aside from a little sprinkling… Continue reading Cornwall – Tintagel (on the way home)
St Ives St Ives is one of the bigger towns in West Cornwall, but even here the roads next to the coast, where everybody gravitates towards, are still as tiny and windy as the bendy, narrow numbers of Newlyn and Mousehole (pronounced ‘mouzal’). We popped in to those two places with the car on Monday… Continue reading Cornwall – The Rest of our Visit
Yesterday inadvertently turned into History Corner with a couple of trips to sites bearing witness to Cornwall’s past. Having now purchased some milk the night before, we could relax and take our morning cups in the jovial Port Meirion 'Crazy Daisy' crockery that the house contained. It was a Sunday after all and neither of… Continue reading Cornwall – Carn Euny and Botallack
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