What was on my mind this morning as I walked the riverbank along the fairly fast flowing Dee . It had been a wet night with heavy rain which meant that the grass was dripping and my shoes would be wet by the end of the walk . A misty, moisty day. The sort that comes along mid to late September. The mornings are taking a longer time to lighten up. The sun no longer streams through the bedroom windows. It feels colder . A slight chill that ripples through your clothes as you walk . To wear a coat or not to wear a coat is the question that first has to be addressed . The temperature last week was up in the muggy high 30's. T-shirt and shorts weather . The sort of weather ... read more

We are in Wales but only just . A few hundred yards down the road is the border . The medieval bridge spanning the River Dee . One side Wales . The other England. From where we were standing we could see England. We also could see the medieval church of St Chads on the other side . It seemed as if each church watched each other from a distance . What history they both told . We had visited St Chads on the English side . Now it was the turn of St Chads on the Welsh side . St Chad was awfully popular on both sides of the river or the congregation of the two churches had not got the imagination to find two different saints to name their churches after. St Chad is ... read more

Well the day had arrived and it was raining . Why does it always rain on us when we have to stand outside ? We had booked tickets for a tour of the Stok Racecourse Ground for the princely sum of £10 each. These were taster tours around the ground and we were on the last week of them . Two every week - all booked up . We were guinea pigs apparently on the new initiative of stadium tours . Issued with our lanyards our names were ticked off the list . Even though we visited the Racecourse ground every other week in the season we hoped that we would learn something new today. We got there early and wandered around around the club shop which was selling the new home shirts. They were selling ... read more

The mornings are starting to take a little longer for daybreak to arrive . The nights are starting to get darker and the lights go on sooner. It feels like Autumn rather than high summer. The flowers in the borders are being lashed by the heavy rain. It fills the waterbutts but they don't empty as the rain falling does the job for me. I swim when I can but walking along the river bank has become difficult with the muddy paths making life it hard to walk . The sky is leaden grey. Not a cloud to be seen. The sun some days cannot be bothered to make an appearance . Friends tell me that they are eating stews the staple meal for the colder northern winter months. They cook sausage and mash . Comfort ... read more

"Derwen is the welsh word for oak trees " I said . There must have been many oak trees here in the past . The driver in the car with no name was not really giving his attention to my utterings. He was negotiating the road . Well road was perhaps exaggerating. We may well have been driving Clint down a road according to the inbuilt BMW sat nav system but what we were on was clearly not really a road . Calling it a lane would be nearer the truth but still a long way from being the truth. In the end we thought path might be the best option . There was just enough room for the car with no name to pass along although the mirrors sticking out could cause problems here and ... read more