May.....

On the 3rd May I booked to see the Bay City Rollers in September. Always one of Mir's favorites she's been keen to see them for a long time.
Friday the 9th was the Perry Street Club skittle dinner and presentation evening. The hustlers were quite successful winning the League and coming runners up in the Nomination and Handicap Cups. We also had the first and third highest average players in our team so our prize money was substantial. It all goes into the pot for our trip out in the summer, This year its dog racing at Poole.

On Sunday the 11th myself, Andy and Nick headed up to Bristol to see the Prog Rock Leviathans YES. We had a drink or two in the White Hart opposite the Hippodrome first and settled down for an evening of great progressive rock. They were performing three complete albums in their entirity starting with Close to the Edge, then Going for the One and lastly The Yes Album.
There are three of the classic line up left, Alan White, Steve Howe and founder member Chris Squire. We were worried that the vocalist would not be able to match Jon Anderson's unique vocals but Jon Davidson (even the name was close) was a very good substitute. A very good three hours entertainment.

April......

On the 2nd the Hustlers were confirmed as League Champions in the Perry Street Club skittle league, our 4th win in 5 seasons.
On the 11th Mir again went out with Libertas, so having the afternoon to myself I headed over to the Somerset Levels. I went to Ham Wall where I saw Bittern,Cetti's Warbler, my first Willow Warblers of the year, Lesser Redpoll, Marsh Harrier and Garganey. Then over to Meare Heath where I picked up Green Sandpiper for the year list.
After I had finished the Pub display box I started on a pet shop for Mir's great niece.

We were meeting her and her family for lunch on Saturday 12th so I took it with me to give to her, She was delighted with it.
On the 14th I got back from skittles in the evening to find that Mir had been having breathing problems and pains in her chest, so I called an ambulance. Around 1:30am they arrived and took her off to Musgrove, I couldnt follow as I'd been drinking all evening so I went back to bed and next morning headed over to see her. She was fine next morning but they kept her in all day to run tests and I picked her up again in the evening around 7pm.
On friday 18th, Mir again went out with Libertas, I headed over to a site near Taunton to see if any Nightingales were singing but all was quiet so I went into Taunton to do some shopping. In the evening I headed over to the playing fields pavilion behind my house for the 3rd annual Tatworth Beer Festival.

There were seven beers on offer and during the evening, interspersed with going back home to check on Mir, I managed to try 6 of them. Favorites were the Bristol Beer Factory Bitter Kiwi and the Sadlers Mud City Stout.
The next evening I was back again, this time though with Mir and our Daughter Lydia. This time I tried the beer that I'd missed the previous evening, Stonehenge's Sign of Spring, which is light green in colour. I then just stuck with my favourites until they ran out.
On Easter Monday, Mir and I went out to the levels for the afternoon and Ham Wall. As Mir was with me I could drive out along the track and park in the disabled car park. During the afternoon we saw Great White Egret,Marsh Harrier,Hobby, Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler before heading home around 4pm.

March......

Due to the fact that I cant get out as much as I used to, I came up with the idea of holding a beer fest at my house with bottled beers. On the 9th I held the first of these, using  England's rugby match against Wales and the Man City/Wigan FA Cup tie as a focus. I'd been to Darts Farm near Exeter to stock up with a few bottles that would be of interest to everybody including a mystery beer for them to try.
The other guys around 2:30pm bringing bottles with them until the table heaved with 41 bottles of ales and stouts.

The five of us managed to get through 26 of them during the afternoon and early evening and the rest are now held over for the next occasion. The mystery beer was voted the 'best of the fest', unsurprisingly as it was Moor Brewery's Fusion which costs £11.00 a bottle. Don't think your getting that every time guys !

On the 14th I managed an afternoons birding as Mir was taken out by Libertas, the care company that provide respite trips. I headed off to Beer Head to see if there were any early migrants about. It was reasonably successful as I saw my first Wheatear of the year as well as a few Chiffchaffs. There were a pair of Peregrines on the stacks and several meadow and rock pipts about.

After I had finished the shop dolls house I was encouraged to try another project and wanted to do a pub. As space is becoming an issue with complete houses I decided to do a small display box. I bought a pack of two and when they arrived got on with a pub bar display. It took me two weeks and I was very pleased with the result.

On the 21st of March came the Mega announcement that Kate Bush would be performing a series of concerts in August and September at the Hammersmith Apollo, her first live concerts for 35 years. The would be on sale on the 28th and I would be attempting to get them.

On the 22nd Mir and I headed off to Plymouth as we were staying over and seeing Clannad and Mary Black at the Pavilion's. We checked into the Best Western hotel opposite the venue and then wandered around the shops. In the evening we went across the road to see the gig.

It was a great evening with starting with Mary Black and then Clannad giving a great show singing many of their best known songs and Mary Black also joining them late on.

On the 28th I prepared myself for the task of getting Kate Bush tickets. As we need wheelchair access I have to ring the venue rather that book on line so at 10:00am when the venue opened I was ringing constantly with my mobile and the land line. I had no luck and at midday had to give up as I was due to go into work. Whilst there however I tried again and managed to get into a queue with a looped message telling me to hang on. I was on the phone for half an hour, I'd driven to the town with the message on speaker and done my shopping and was in the bank when all of a sudden it started ringing and I was through to the box office. I tentatively asked if there were any tickets left for the wheelchair platform and couldn't believe it when she said of course, when for ! I booked for September 3rd and then spent the rest of the day with a stupid grin on my face as I couldn't believe my luck especially as I'm the carer and get my ticket for free !!!!

February......

On the 6th myself and the usual suspects were all off to London for the 24th Battersea Beer Festival. It had been a worrying couple of days as the trains had been disrupted by the awful weather but fortunately on the day the system was up and running again.
We were picked up by our Minibus at 8:45am for the short trip to Crewkerne station and our train departure at 9:20am. We arrived at Clapham Junction and took up our places in the queue around 11:45am. Another good fest although as usual it was hard to find my first choices. Tried 9 beers and settled on Triple fff's brewery Moondance as my beer of the fest.
On the way back to the station we called into the Falcon for food and a few more beers before catching the train home at 7.30pm.
On the 21st I finished the Dolls House Shop and put it in position in the living room.

January..

2014 started with me suffering with a bad back that went on for nearly a month. Miriam's continued mobility issues meant my opportunities for getting out were pretty limited.
A couple of years ago I bought Mir a Dolls House in kit form which I then built and decorated. Whilst at a dolls house fair in Exeter I saw a kit for a shop which bore a striking resemblance to the shop I grew up in Woolwich, South London.

This is the only existing photo that I have of the shop but it was enough to help me with the decoration and to jog my memories from over 50 years ago. As I was suffering with my back It seemed a good time to get the kit out of the box and start construction. I spent most evenings working on the shop trying to recreate it as it would have been in the early 1960's when I lived there.
I also enquired from my Social case worker whether I could be granted some respite this year and was told that this  would be the case. To this end I started researching birding trips to the USA and eventually plumped for a nine day trip to Cape May in New Jersey in September during the prime autumn migration. I've paid the deposit and am now waiting for confirmation that the trip will get enough punters to go ahead.
Something to look forward to.....

New Start......

Its been a while since my last blog posting. It was very easy to get out of the habit of posting and all of a sudden six months have gone by.
To rectify this I'll bring it up to date month by month.