Skye Singing Holiday April 2011

We’ve recently returned from an awesome week’s holiday on the Isle of Skye, made new friends, enjoyed some singing, and marvelled at amazing Scottish scenery on Skye and on the journey. Interesting detours included the Fallso of Falloch just north of Loch Lomond, and Glen Orchy with more stunning waterfalls!

Find my photos here: http://www.dawntreaderblog.com/category/photos/skye-singing-april-2011

The holiday was led by Candy Verney http://www.candyverney.co.uk/ who runs singing holidays, choirs, and workshops including Singing in the Round which I am part of.

More great photos on Candy’s blog http://candyverney.blogspot.com/2011/05/skye-singing-holiday-april-2011.html

First butterfly

In today's Wiltshire sunshine, I've just seen the first butterfly of 2011 in our garden: a Peacock Butterfly!

Impressed by Lacock Canal

We went for a walk around Lacock today – a walk we had not done for about a year. We enjoyed the sunshine and part of the route was along the Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal. This has been derelict for nearly a century and is being restored by volunteers. It was impressive to see a continuous waterway in this area where last year there had just been occasional stagnant pools in an uneven trench. When complete, the canal will again connect the River Thames at Abingdon and Cricklade with the Kennet and Avon Canal at Melksham on a route through Swindon and passing near Chippenham. Impressive!

Moving and entertaining videos

More from my YouTube.

Late Christmas joy

Before Christmas Toni and I joined in with some carolling in pubs in Bradord on Avon. Here's a link to some photos and recordings. I think I'm just about visible in one of the photos (is that really me?).

Travel Insurance and medical information

It seems to me that when you find yourself over 50 years old you realise that you are likely to have medical conditions that you need to tell travel insurance companies about when requesting quotes.

I don't want to talk to telephone operators about my medical history: I like anonymous online questionnaires. A few years ago these did not seem to be available, now they seem to be commonplace.

I compared Saga, Age UK, Axa, and Columbus for a single trip policy for Nepal and was pleasantly surprised to find that Columbus (who I have used before) came out best in terms of useability of web site; consistency of wording of questions on web site with declarations that the policy requires you to make, and price. I choose them again.

Happy Christmas!

Listen, enjoy, and watch the spectators' faces!

An excellent read – Sebastian Faulks “A Week in December”

You need to add this to your Christmas reading list. Sebastian Faulks is a skilled author and I have enjoyed most of the novels of his that I have read.

This one describes a collection of intersecting lives in London that paint a rich, intriguing, and insightful picture of the medley of personalities and cultures that make up our society today. These range from obsessive financiers to suicide bombers. Just read it…

Thames and Severn Canal walk

Toni and I did a walk near Stroud and Cirencester today. It was 11 miles, which was longer than usual for us – perhaps in training for our upcoming trip to Nepal! It's been a dry sunny day, which was great for walking, and part of our route was along the derelict Thames and Severn Canal which I'd never heard of before. It opened in 1789 and closed in 1911 as costs of maintenance outweighed income. We started our walk in Sapperton, where the canal enters a 3109 metre tunnel – one of the longest in the country.

Steph Hovey Clifford Village Band

Over the August Bank holiday we enjoyed a trip to the Limetree Festival (of music) near Leeds, where the highlight was Steph performing with the Clifford Village Band.

They expected to perform one set, but were asked to perform another. I recorded five videos of the band and here's one of them (it's on Facebook too).

To see them all, go to my YouTube site http://www.youtube.com/user/richardmhovey. (Look at my uploads, or the Clifford Village Band playlist.)