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Westbroke Gardens Folk Session

We had a music session with the Hetheringtons today; "Sally Gardens", "Father O'Flynn" and "Big Sam Thompson". Hannah on Bodhran, me on low-D whistle, Janice on flute, Andy on guitar, and Cleo on Mandolin. Music, interspersed with tea and lemon cake. Very nice. ...

Last Archery Lesson

Sam and I went to our last archery lesson today. We've both decided that we like it enough to join the club.

Archery progress

Sam and I had a very satisfying evening at the archery club. This is the fifth of the lessons, but only the third that I've been able to attend. We turned up in time to help set up the targets. I graduated to using the sight on the bow, which I think will help a lot in the long run. Sam put in a storming performance, improving his accuracy a great deal even from last week. We had a little competition for the very first time, 3 set of three arrows each. Sam was beating me for the first two rounds, but I managed to pull ahead with the last three. Given that Sam's bow doesn't have a sight, I think he's going to be beating me soon. For the first part of the evening, I shot on the 'near' target with Sam, but towards the end of the evening, I had a go at the more distant of the 'beginners' targets (the experienced people are shooting at much smaller target than us). The main thing I discovered is that I had to move the sight down a fair bit to compensate for the distance (because moving the sight down means that you end up pointing the bow higher...). This meant that my first two arrows went right under the target... Both Sam and I are both pretty keen to join the club at the end of the beginners' course. Looks like around £70 a year for me and about half that for Sam, plus £3 a week to come along.

Rochester Fun

Spent a fun week in Rochester. Flying in to Rochester was the first time I've seen a landscape in the USA that looks even slightly like England; rolling landscape and farms dotted around. It was a bit disconcerting to find that the main tourist attraction in Rochester is ... a hospital. The Mayo Clinic takes up what seems like ninety percent of the centre of town. Found an excellent restaurant, the Broad Street Cafe and Bar

Windy walk around Swanage

We took the Sandbanks Ferry to Swanage today, and went for a walk; first to Old Harry Rocks, then along the Coast and up to the ridge that joins with the Obelisk above the Ulwell Campsite. A wonderful windy walk, with views of the coast and of passing boats.

First hut - in the morning 

A beautiful, possibly even a little too hot, day in Wimborne, culminating in an excellent set from 'Lady Winwood's Maggot' Lady Winwood's Maggot at the Wimborne Folk Festival

Sunset over the mountains

I just managed to capture the red glow of the sun at sunset - it lasted only a minute or two. Pictures from the pyrenees