Cowbridge and Llanwit Major

Had a good day today visiting libraries in the Vale Of Glamorgan - this morning I was at Cowbridge Library where I met the excellent pupils from year five and year six of Y Bont Faen Primary School, and this afternoon I was at Llantwit Major Library with the brilliant year four from Eagleswell Primary School - thanks to everyone for coming along and big thanks to everyone that dressed up as FUNGUS - you know who you are but I don't want to embarrass you here :-) 

I will pop a couple of posters in the post to you as soon as I can and I look forward to putting some of your work on my website...

At lunchtime I managed to have a quick walk around Cowbridge and I took a few photographs on my way... Cowbridge's Welsh name Y Bont Faen means 'The Stone Bridge' - it's a medieval walled town (although not all of the walls are still standing). There are lots of interesting things to see in the town though that date back to Roman and Medieval times...

It's never easy travelling from one place to another - even though I use my SATNAV as it doesn't always take you to exactly the right place - I found that out today as Cowbridge Library was hidden off the main street and Llantwit Major Library wasn't easily noticeable until I'd driven past it a couple of times... Luckily I have Boofle on board to help with directions... 

St Aubin's

A quick diary entry before I set off for today's library visits...

I had a great time yesterday at St Aubyn's School, Woodford Green where I got to meet all the wonderful children in Nursery, Reception, Year one and Year two (and their equally wonderful teachers of course). I even managed to meet people form some of the the other years at the end of the day in the book fair - thanks for stopping by.

A big thank you to Mrs Scott, the school librarian (also known as the Bookette - take a look at her excellent book review blog) for looking after me all day and for organising the days sessions. 

Whizzing off to Cowbridge Library in the Vale of Glamorgan now - and Llantwit Major Library this afternoon. See you soon.

St Aubyn's School

Next week is Book Week and I will be driving around England and Wales visiting schools and libraries.

On Monday morning I'll be kicking things off by visiting St Aubyn's School in Woodford Green, Essex, so here's a BIG HELLO to everyone at St Aubyn's - I'm very much looking forward to meeting you all.

I will be spending Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday visiting libraries around Wales - more about that next week, and on Friday I will be in Warrington visiting Birchwood CE Primary School... Phew!!! it's going to be a busy week.

Hopefully I will be able to take a few photographs while I'm travelling around so watch this space...

School Visits - Cambridge Road Primary School

Yesterday I spent the day at Cambridge Road Primary School in Ellesmere Port (and very nice it was too) sharing stories, poems and talking about writing and being a writer. After starting with a whole school assembly and silly story I thought I was going to lose my voice. I croaked my way through the second session with Nursery and Reception but thankfully, after a break, everything was back to normal - Phew!!!

This willow elephant stands at the front of the school and I couldn't resist taking a picture of it as I left. Big thanks to everyone for all their questions and even bigger thanks to everyone that helped out with the stories by dressing up as Pirates and Cavemen...

Next week I'm visiting Ysgol Llanbedr in Denbighshire - so here's a BIG HELLO to everyone there, and also a BIG HELLO to all the ladies in Flint Library who I know come and read my diary from time to time.

Our wedding plans and preparations are coming along nicely - a good job too as there are only 36 days to go. On Wednesday of this week it was Rachel's turn to come down for her bridesmaid dress fitting... she looked absolutely lovely but you will have to wait until after the wedding to see pictures. Over the weekend we are getting shoes for the two youngest bridesmaids and next week we go to see the photographer... not many things left to arrange now... Very exciting.

Red Arrows, Back to Chester and Southport Airshow

Over the past couple of weeks I've been busy working on a couple of short, humorous plays which will hopefully be published together in one book. I can't tell you much about them at the moment though because it's  Top Secret... But I'm happy to say that I sent the plays off to my editor this morning and she loves them PHEW! 

We've been busy making arrangements of our wedding on 27th October - very excited and can't wait. On Monday, Laura came to see us and to have her dress fitting. she looks lovely in her dress, as Deanna did when she came the week before. I still can't show any pictures yet - you will have to wait for the wedding photographs...

Before trying her dress on we had a wander through the park and shared some nuts with the local squirrels... 

Saturday was spent in Liverpool getting bridesmaid dresses for the youngest two bridesmaids and on Sunday we went to Southport to watch the 21st Airshow. 

The beach was full by about half ten and there were queues of traffic while everyone else tried to get to the car parks... Amazing how many people were there over 100 000 over the two days according to the newspaper.  

Out and About in Chester

Deanna came to visit for the day yesterday so that she could be fitted for her bridesmaid dress - she looked lovely. I can't let you see pictures of her bridesmaid dress yet - you'll have to wait until after the wedding in October...

It was nice and sunny in the morning so while she was here we had a wander round the lovely city of Chester. After a look round a few shops we walked along the old city walls as we made our way to the bridal shop.  Here's a picture of Vicky and Deanna taken on the city wall at the back of the Cathedral, 

and another of Vicky and myself taken a little further along the wall. 

After being fitted for her dress we had a little drive to Flint to see the post box that has been painted gold to celebrate Jade Jones winning a gold medal in Tae Kwon Do. There were banners everywhere welcoming Jade home... a good idea painting a postbox gold in each of the medal winners home towns I think.  

On Holiday

The weather hasn't been great over the summer holidays but that hasn't stopped us having a nice time. I've not had chance to write in my diary so there's quite a few things to tell you about - a few days out, news about what I'm working on and lots of other things.

In August we spent a lovely week in Tenby, a small walled town with beautiful beaches in Pembrokeshire, on the south coast of Wales. We had some lovely sunny days and a couple of wet days but we still managed to get out and about, visit a few places and have a nice time.

Here's a view of Tenby harbour and one of the beaches...

It's quite a long drive to Tenby so we didn't do a lot on the first day other than unpack and have a walk into the town for a nice refreshing glass of er... lemonade.

On one of the nice days we travelled down the road to visit The Manor House Wildlife Park (you might have seen this on television, but if you haven't you can click on the link above and it will take you straight to their website). The Manor House Wildlife Park is dedication to conservation and it was interesting to see the work they are doing to conserve animals and plants in the wildlife park. As well as seeing some of the animals in their large enclosures there's also chance to walk among some of the animals and feed them... Manor House Wildlife Park isn't a big as zoos like Chester Zoo, however, it's well worth a visit to see what they're doing there.

Here's Vicky feeding one of the wallabies with a special food pellet that are especially for them to eat - you can't just give them a piece of your sandwich or a packet of crisps.

We were very lucky to be able to see some baby meerkats whilst we were there too. The babys are normally kept hidden away in their nest as they can't see but the mother was letting them have a bit of sunshine. You can see one of them here with dad staying close and keeping guard.

We drove across Pembrokeshire to visit St Davids - the smallest city in Great Britain. Here's a picture of St Davids Cathedral which dates back to the 12th century, and behind it you can see the ruins of the Bishops Palace.

  

While we were in Tenby we read about the Cwm Deri Vineyard which was nearby so we couldn't resist going along for a visit. It was a bit of a damp day but we really enjoyed walking through the vineyard and sampling a little bit of wine and cheese - Yum!

The grapes on the vines were only tiny as they won't be harvested until October - it's also been a very wet year (you might have noticed) and that hasn't helped much. We brought a few bottles of wine home with us and are saving them for a special occasion...