Alice is one year old

Alice should have been celebrating her first birthday on Sunday 19 Dec at Matlock with her parents. Together with Jon and Rae, Sélène and Neil, we had planned to have a pre-Xmas get-together in Derbyshire this weekend, but the snowy and cold weather put paid to that. Instead, Sylvie and I dropped off at Didcot on our way to Portsmouth, where we are due to catch a boat on Tueday evening to St Malo. Here are no videos of Alice trying to stand and of her opening some presents.

Baby Alice returns from Paris 4 June 2010

Alice, now 5 and a half months old, seen here with her adoring Mamie on the boat from Boulogne to Dover, while returning from Paris to Didcot.

Baby Alice arrives!

I became a grandad on 19 December 2009. Baby Alice was born at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford at 01:05, weighing 3.156 kg.Elle est mignonne, n'est-ce pas? Bravo, Tom et Lucie!

A sad day

Today I got rid of my K-reg Fiat Uno. This was my trusty get-to-work vehicle when I was last working at Portland College but I took it off the road after I retired in 2007, since which time it has stood on the drive, rusting and gathering green mould. Tony, from Simms Metals at Somercotes, gave me 20 quid, which was more or less what I expected for it - to think it cost me the princely sum of £350 in 2005! In the picture you see him start to lift the old banger towards the lorry. Unfortunately, I could not complete the filming as I was overcome with grief. No, sorry, let me rephrase this. The director Claudio Intoni applied his usual 'cock-up' technique: elsewhere you can see wonderful shots of the ground, and hear the director chuckling inanely to himself.

Hemiptera

... or bugs, to you! I saw these little beauties in the Périgord recently. The lower picture is some sort of bug which I found crawling on the patio at Issigeac. The upper pic shows a cluster of what I believe are called Gendarmes Suisses on a lime tree near Grignols. Aren't they lovely?

Brinsley 16 Oct 2009

Don't these cows cast long shadows this time of year?

Abbot's Bromley 7 Sep 2009

Hi readers! Am yo all roight?

This is my first post in ages. Today I rode to Abbot's Bromley in darkest Staffordshire, for today was the day of the Horn Dance, a traditional dance enacted here since the 13th century. I have been intending to see this event ever since I we have lived in the Midlands and at last I was able to. I was not disappointed: neither the dancing nor the playing were particularly memorable, but it was impossible not to feel a sense of tradition going back centuries. Everyone, performers and onlookers alike, were having a good time. I used National Cycle Route 54 from Derby to get as far as Dunstall, then quiet country lanes. Total distance: 130 km