• I’m staying across the valley from Aberdere in Cwmbach. This late afternoon I went for a walk up the mountainside following a trail made very muddy by horses, crossing streams by stepping stones and taking care not to slip and hurt myself so far away from civilisation!

    At the start of the footpath the hedge is made entirely of Japanese Knotweed! According to the news this morning, they have found a weevil that can get rid of it. It will probably move on to eat something else and devastate another area of wildlife if they release it.

    I’m very attracted to lichens at the moment. They seem very fractal in their design. maybe that’s what I like. I came across a dead sheep too. I’m not sure if I’m meant to report it or who to.

    turning back into the lane from the footpath I noticed the woodpecker on the telegraph pole. It turned out to be plastic! What a wonderful bit of street art!

    A lovely walk on a lovely mountainside. I don’t suppose this area is high on the tourist trail ratings, but it certainly has a lot to offer.


  • Last time Paddington Bear appeared on an advert it was for Marmite. What was that all about? everyone knows that Paddington likes marmalade sandwiches. The advert wasn’t even ironic – it wasn’t even post-ironic!

    Paddington is now to promote Robertson’s Golden Shred Marmalade. Hooray! This is as it should be. I felt it was almost sacrilegious making him eat Marmite, when there was lovely marmalade out there to be eaten.

    Personally I like home made marmalade. My lovely wife and I share the job each year. I love chopping and she hates it. One year she put all the peel in the food processor and whizzed it to little bits. That was a sad year. Every year since, we have about three sessions at marmalade making in which I slightly obsessively, cut the rind nice and thin in longs slivery slices. Mmmm! delicious. There is nothing quite like it.

    My Mum wouldn’t let me come away without a little jar of her own home-made seville.

    I still have a golly badge somewhere and I think we have a golly teaspoon and a toast rack somewhere too. Politically incorrect but very collectible. I believe you will be able to collect Paddington badges. Great idea. I think most Gloden Shred marmalade used to be eaten so the eatrs could collect the gollys.

  • I had a great day at Cefn Primary School today. I’m there as part of the RAISE project, improving writing skills though oracy. I’m staying the whole week here visiting a different school each day. In all, I’m visiting 17 schools in Rhondda, Cynon, Taf.

    Where am I? I’m staying just outside Aberdere, which is in the Cynon Valley in South Wales. There’s a pretty view of the lights at night at the cottage I’m staying in. It’s lovely and warm, I’ve got tv and internet so I’m happy. There’s a mountain right above me, so I’ll probably have a walk up it tomorrow.

    I’ve been reading my stories and explaining where the ideas come from. Then I ask the children for their own ideas for the characters. I’m amazed how every group comes up with completely different ideas. I do a lot of pulling and pushing, once a direction appears, in the hope of coming up with a basic plot that the children can then work on themselves.

    The project is helping me too, actually. Talking about the ideas from a writing point of view clarifies my ideas about the stories and characters. Talking about them, I’ve come up with a few ideas myself, and have to try and remember them and get them written down after school, before I forget.