I wasn’t working this weekend! For the first time in several weeks I had a whole weekend to play with :D:D So I’d planned a weekend in Bristol with Chris, with no plans! And it was mostly sunny as well, anyone would think it was summer

I got down to Bristol Parkway (my favouritest station in the world ) later than I would have liked on Friday evening, but with no major delays, spent a nice evening doing not a lot, eating dinner and chatting about life the universe and everything. On Saturday, after a lazy morning we headed out to Cheddar for a lovely walk along the gorge with a stop off in Cheddar itself in the middle for (late) lunch in a nice pub. Then up the other side to complete the circle, although whoever thought lunch should be at the *bottom* of the hill was slightly misguided. And though a short ramble along either side of Cheddar Gorge can’t really be called a walk, it was nice to be outdoors again. And it meant I managed to educate/scare/bore/amuse Chris with my botanical geekery.. I think he’s learnt his lesson about taking me near anything plant-shaped for a while!

That evening was a birthday celebration, which involved a meal we didn’t know about till that afternoon, but which was nicely veggie friendly and rather yummy (with chopsticks a-plenty but no moving food this time!), and then drinking in various locations which meant I ended the evening completely knackered and quite a bit less sober than I’ve been in a while… but it was good fun, and nice to just relax for an evening. And we still managed to be up for church in the morning Church was followed by a nice relaxed sunday lunch, sitting in the garden enjoying the sun, and flopping in front of a film before having to catch the train home.

All in all, a rather wonderful weekend, with some good quality ‘us’ time, spending time with the family and with friends, and just chilling out and enjoying the weather. But now I don’t want to have to go back to the ‘normal’ routine of things.. bring on the holidays!!!

Well I was out on Gower again surveying bracken (and some other stuff) today- I’ve been doing some voluntary work with the National Trust on the Gower commons, helping out with surveying the sites that are being managed. Tis interesting stuff. Well, to me anyway, I won’t bore the general readership with the details of Gower heathland management, that would probably scare off both my readers at once!

Last week I was out there in what can only be described as foul weather. You know that rain that once it starts you just *know* its in for the day. Well it was like that… when it eased between the heavier downpours! This week, complete opposite- bright, hot sunshine, surprisingly so even at 8.40am this morning when we got out to Clyne common and started work. And it got hotter, surprisingly enough. Much sun cream later, and I’m still a little pink round the edges!

So, a vast improvement you might say? Well yes, in some ways.

We had a scary moment today when we discovered there were rather a few ticks around, and picked a few off that were happily walking up our arms and trousers. No big deal, just a little odd when you think ‘hang on, why is that freckle moving?!’. So I come home, happy after a good days work, and discover a little friend happily attached to my skin. Hmm. All the advice I’d been given in the past involved things like suffocating them with vaseline, pouring alcohol onto them, or burning them off. At least two of which must look very odd at the time, and the third is actually rather painful! When those wise people say to burn them off, do they ever tell you how you do that without burning yourself?? No, I think not. In the end, with the help of the wonders of the internet, I worked out that the best solution is just to pull them off with tweasers. Which worked. All done, just like that. Amazing.

So there you go, if you’re ever (un)lucky enough to acquire a small passenger, you know what to do. Happy to be of service! (Note: this is not to be taken as medical fact. Ramblin’ folkie accepts no responsibility for actions taken based on the above advice).