Tuesday 21 August 2012

Monday (maybe ) 20.08.2012

Losing track of time which is one of best things about sitting in a field for five days on Planet Festival.

Usual mix of (a bit of) mud and rain but then sunshine, music, fun and frolics at Beautiful Days.

Being part of the Oxfam stewarding squad* gives added oomph to the experience: when you've done three long eight hour shifts you feel you've earned the right to enjoy the rest of it.

Even managed a walk round the narrow Devonshire lanes:



a mystery tour - not sure where I was going but followed my nose and an intriguing sign for 'Sherwood' and ended back where I started from - a perfect five miles or so to bring me back to base though no sign of Robin Hood.


Amazing music (Frank Turner, Katzenjammer and the Levellers to name the highlights), fireworks and dancing.What better way to spend some time.

And, moving on, today, the quite fabulous Giffords Circus** in a small village in Gloucestershire.

*Oxfam raised £30,000 just at this one festival due to our efforts: see www.oxfam.org.uk/Stewarding if the idea appeals

**www.giffordscircus.com

Meanwhile onwards and upwards to the next field.

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Wednesday 15.08.2012

On train heading south for summer adventures and learning how to blog from new fancy phone.

Friday 10 August 2012

Friday 10.08.2012



Suddenly back to high summer. Stunning in the woods on the way up to Oxen Crag; on the tops a fresh breeze and, thankfully, water.


Don`t often sit and take it in but did today: regretted not being able to stay up there all night - an,as yet,unfulfilled ambition.


Wednesday 8 August 2012

Wednesday 08.08.2012

Back home, enough of the grass has been cut in the woods to give Dogs and I bouncy hay-strewn thoroughfares between the trees:








Bit "back-endish" on this grey, cool afternoon - an impression only exacerbated by the appearance of some interesting looking fungi:






Olympics still on though, festivals still to come...summer`s not over yet.

Friday 3 August 2012

Friday 03.08.2012

Never going to work up a head of steam with these little dogs so simply ambled at lunchtime on this quite perfect early August day: warm sun, refreshing breeze, blue sky, fluffy white clouds - the whole enchilada, not forgetting the wide and mighty River Don.



Eton Dorney? Who needs it?

Indeed, I could have won gold today, for walking: no doubt there`s a scientific reason why some days the legs are leaden and the next, on a day like today, you could walk to the moon - if only the dogs could keep up........
Instead we strolled back through the woods, breathing in all the pungent scents of a summer`s day, listening to a yellowhammer demanding its bread and cheese and staring up into the tops of some of these magnificent trees.



Oh and btw, finally finished what I declare to be the best book I`ve read for many a year especially if you relish the sheer absurdity of ....actually nearly everything. Took me a while, partly because it`s a long book but also because I was rationing myself.
The Independent review, calling it a "bleakly humorous futuristic vision" said, amongst other things,
"There are profound meditations on war, commercialism and the nature of humanity, and there are also hugely entertaining passages featuring pirate monks, ninjas, mime artists, ridiculous military escapades and much more. It should be made clear that it is also very often arse-kickingly funny. Throw in some perfectly plotted revelations, an unforgettable finale and a life-affirming and thought-provoking denouement, and you've got a tale which will live long in the memory, and a writer destined for great things, famous dad or not." (NB famous dad - John le Carre)

For me it fell in to the punch-the-air-and-cry-yes-as-well-as-laugh-out-loud-in-public category and there`s not many on that shelf.