• In case you missed it, you can still see Around the World by Zeppelin a fabulous film about a 21 day round the world voyage by the Graf Zeppelin in 1929.

    The story is told from the viewpoint of the young journalist Lady Grace Drummond-Hay, reporting for the Hearst media empire. The film is based upon her letters and diaries and told exclusively through archival and newsreel film from the time, this film relives the incredible voyage.

    It is told in a wonderfully slow and graceful way and has some astonishingly ephemeral moments that must have seemed trivial at the time, but are now a fascinating insight into the times. You can see it on BBC iplayer here

  • The trouble with going downhill is that you have to go all the way back up again. I was determined to find where two paths meet, so I carried on downhill until I got to the bottom of the valley. The circular route back up was very steep, but at least it opened out into this view across the forest.

    I think my favourite tree is the Beech. I love their root systems, they way they twist and turn, making little caves and hollows. The bark has a metal quality, it looks as strong as iron. When I was a boy we woulld make little villages in the caves and garages for dinky cars at the bottom of a huge beech tree.

    The edge of the forest is often used as a garden rubbish dump by locals. I came across this cyclamen, which must have been dumped there at some point. It’s not a wild variety.

    Walking down the hill, I came across the barred up mine entrance in the picture. The Forest is riddled with mineshafts and quarries. This quarry will eventually break through to another, massive quarry behind it. A lot of the landscape is made from quarry and. Watch where you are going!

  • British Gas are advertising price cuts at the moment. A concerned voice says, “We understand how difficult things have been, so we are making things easier for you by cutting our prices.”

    This is not quite true. What they mean is that the price of Gas has come dow to the point where they ca’t justify passing on the savings anymore. Do I want to change to British Gas – I don’t think so.

    We had a leaflet through the door for Harry Tuffins, who are taking over the local Somerfield Store. The first hundred shoppers will receive a tin of Cadbury’s Roses for only £1.

    Huh!? What they mean is the first hundred shoppers will have the opportunity of purchasing a tin of Roses for only £1 – that is quite different to what is suggested and actually shows a very mean spirit. Many of that 100 may well decide not to take up the offer and so less than 100 tins will be sold for £1.

    It doesn’t make me want to pop in and see what they are like. I know already – tricky deals.