Keeping going in March

so I have come back and am writing something on a Saturday. Everyone else has gone to bed and there is just me and a bottle of wine to keep me company. I could try and describe it to you but I have It is, if you are interested, from Portugal and is called Duque De Viseu 2007 and it is one of my occasional treats for myself. I do wonder given Portugal's current economic woes if they will want to sell more of it. I did get it from my favourite wine shop Connolly's in Birmingham. Circumstances mean that I am severely limited in my chances of getting there, which in many ways is personally disappointing as I do like to experiment in new types of wine and occasional spirits, but it also means I don't spend much money in there.

OK on to other things, we are still in March, but this week has been the best weather wise this year. I would like to point out that it was my wife who had the week off, not me. Today, Saturday, has been overcast , cold and generally not very pleasant. Tomorrow they say will be much the same. Meanwhile the raised tempuratures of the last week have had an effect on the on set of Spring around here.

I was able to walk around without a coat at lunch time for the first time this year. These pictures of blossom and of a leaf bursting out were taken earlier on this week. Although the days have continued to lengthen it has been the warmth that has increased the pace. I suppose today has reminded me that it is still March and we have along way to go before it is summer again.

Back to the subject of Wine as it is where I started tonight. Although on the whole I like wine especially red, white has taken a little longer to get to know. I also know my limitations, my palette just cannot differentiate between all the subtleties that I am told exist in a glass. I cannot for the life of me really tell the difference between Merlot and Cabernet. I know there is a difference, others tell me and I could probably tell you there was a difference in taste. What that difference is totally escapes me (maybe I need an intensive training course). I will of course continue to keep drinking and for the most part enjoying and may be even learn something.

OK enough tonight

another day in March

Another day another sit down and try and work out what I am going to write. I have been to work and that has been much the same as yesterday and the week before. Where I go for my walks is much the same, I think I have said this before.

I have dipped into other people's blogs my favourite at the moment is Gia Milinovich's blog. I first really paid attention to her when I read an article of hers explaining how her life and her perception of herself changed as her husband Prof. Brian Cox became more famous. I am not sure how I would cope with her position. Though if either of my two daughter's ambitions are realised I may well have little choice. The options seem to range from investigative journalist through to pop star, though it may now look as though the movie's are gaining the upper hand. I did originally have a no real preference, but it does strike me that I should look favourably on those areas that would allow them to earn lots of money early on and help them pay their own way through university. However, given the oldest is mid way through her 1st year at senior school I should have a few years to prepare myself.


I have been sitting here for a couple of mins trying to think about what I should write next and I have come to the conclusion that now would be a good time to call it a day and say goodnight

So goodnight

Equinox and spring and Sleep

I was going to sit an write something I really was but I was sitting there and I was warm and cosy with my wife and the television was on. I fell asleep and then woke up and I was still warm and sleepy so I went back to sleep. I would like to blame a host of other things, but I cannot. so it is now just about the 22nd March and I have decided that I should sit here and put something down as I spent along time wishing for Spring and now I suppose it is here. Yesterday was the equinox and winter is well on its way out.

Over the last few days it has begun to warm up and the sun has come out. We have had a couple of really good days. These have coincided with days in the office and not weekends or even last weekend circumstances meant me spending time waiting around for children.

I have been walking during lunch most days. It has been cool if not cold until recently and this has put a dampener on growth. In the last few weeks there have been more sighs of growth and Spring may not have sprung but is definitely beginning to wind up.

The willow on the canal is now in leaf with some spring flowers over and above the Daffodils, Crocuses and Snowdrops. Come to think of it I have yet to see a single Tulip. I am sure tomorrow will change things.

OK so now I will go to bed and sleep

another month another entry

So it is March and I am writing something. so it is a while since I last got around to putting fingers to keyboard as it were. Not much has changed or happened even.

The year progresses on, the weather has remained overcast and occasionally wet. OK so today the sun came out around lunch time and it was quite bright when I went wandering around my bit of Telford. I can see the signs that Spring is winding itself up. Willows have the beginnings of this year's new leaves pushing through and one or to other bushes and shrubs have the first growth of green. The Snowdrops are on their way out along with the crocuses and the green stalks of sprouting daffodils are apparent with the increasing flash of yellow as flower buds bulge.

OK that is enough of waxing lyrical tonight

Bedtime

Another Sunday in February

Yesterday I got to walk on Bournemouth Beach and generally be calm and take a few pictures. It was therapeutic and even if it was only for an hour or so good for my soul. I drove down on Friday night following my wife and children down the M40 and then the A34 to the south on our way to visit my brother in law who lives just outside the seaside town.

In the morning, we looked at the cold wet grey overcast day that presented itself and decided that some sort of indoor activity would be a good idea. After a quick Internet search based on "things to do on a wet day in Dorset", we settled on visit to Wimbourne and a visit to The Coffee Pots Ceramic Cafe. The key selling point to two underwhelmed children was the opportunity to decorate their own pottery.

To be honest as the family member with minimal artistic talent I found the prospect fairly daunting, I would have to design and paint something. To be honest I had a great time I got to choose a mug and after a some consideration painted it green with a red stripe on the outside and red on the inside. The coffee was good as well. the staff were really helpful and we all had really good time. I look forward to seeing the results once they have been fired and cooled down.


Then we went on to Bournemouth itself. Having parked in the town, the rest of the family wanted to explore the shops, I decided to walk down to the beach take some pictures.
So this is it looking back at the town on the left with the pier running to the right and a fair amount of sand in the middle. It is the middle of February and it does look rather bleak.

Rather than walk on the beach I walked along the between the bottom of the the hillside and the beach itself The beach huts at the base of the hill create the boundary line between sea and land. The great majority are locked up waiting for spring and the return of the sun. a few hardy souls had opened theirs up as bases for the days operations, for me it was too cold. I kept moving.

To west the day was finally begining to brighten up and holes in the cloud sheet let through some light. Enough to know it was coming our way. This did however encourage the very brave to venture to the waters edge. Well OK there were some surfers in water itself, enjoying the swell, but they must be crazy, it is February and cold.

Looking down on all this was a true master of his art. trying to work out what all the fuss was about.

So it is time for bed

Goodnight

February halfway

So I made it to the middle of the month, not a great achievement I know but its still going. Not much has happened over the last few days, well I have been to work and come home again. It has been a slow deflation, that is possibly the best word for it since the fun of the weekend. I enjoyed myself at the travel Writers workshop and although I wrote something up, a piece about Mount Etna, it sort of sits there on the computer and I have not shown it to anyone, OK so i need to let some one else read it.

I drive along the M54 towards Telford, and as I drive into the west I can now make out clumps of and patches of white flowers, snowdrops or even white crocuses. I the Gardens around my house there are crocuses, bright yellow on the whole adorning many of the gardens.

I took this picture last week in on one of the small woods that lie between my office and St Georges a small area of the sprawl that is Telford.

So that's all for today sorry it has been a bit short but I don't really have that much to write tonight

So I have be dragging out starting this for what seems like hours. I had better get down to it I suppose.

Today was/is a good day. I enjoyed myself. I went down to the ITV studios in London( Its the building in the picture) to attend a Travel writers Workshop run by Dea Birkett.

It was my Christmas present from my wife and it ranks as one of the best I have ever had.

So what did I get out of it, to be honest at this moment I don't know, it will take me a while to think it through, but initially has given me a belief that I can write stuff that people want to read or at least share.

Originally I had thought I would drive down to London and park somewhere cheap and get the tube into the centre and then reality and common sense ambushed me. I got the train and had a calm and relaxing journey.

There were 15 of us around a table. I did feel very sedentary when compared with some of the others, tales of overland expeditions across continents, writing stories of wild west adventures and proposals of voyages to far flung mid ocean island outposts. Mexico was mentioned more than once. Then Brighton and Eastbourne came into view and to my ssurprise and to an extent bewilderment, Birmingham, that's me I know about that place why do you want to go there. Maybe I should do something I know, that's a thought.

The view, across the Thames, was to say the least in this context, quite inspiring. As the day wore on the morning cloud cover broke up and more and more direct sunlight hit the city lighting it up. Spring is not far away. The churches with their spires reaching to heaven joined and to a great extent crowded out by the high rise blocks .


Finally, because I am running out of steam and it is quite late, for me anyway. I could see the London Eye from out vantage point, but got no good pictures . this was taken from the ground at the end of the day on the way home.

I like it anyway

I enjoyed myself and will probably refer back to this lots.

good night