Latest News 2023
16th – 17th September
Working on an ongoing writing project.
13th September
Booking the ferry for motorcycling Iceland in the Summer of 2024. To go there, we need to ride to Hirtshals in northern Denmark. We’re also planning to hop off in the Faroe Islands for a quick ride around for 3 days.
Next, we’ve got to start working on our route and ideas for the trip.
12th September
A small time window of working on the new website.
11th – 12th September
A remote working start to the week using trains and coffee shops, with evening at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in London to see John Etheridge perform with his Zappatistas ensemble.
8th – 9th September
An overnighter in South Wales, near Bridgend ahead of Zac’s Club 100 Karting series meeting at Llandow. He secured his first pole position and raced to joint third overall, unfortunately losing out on the podium by a tie-breaker based on race lap time. The margin was about a tenth of a second.
2nd – 3rd September
Stints of working on a writing project, and other forward planning stuff.
29th – 30th August
An overnighter in London to see Goldie perform with his band at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. A very enjoyable gig, and a very unusual one for the venue.
25th – 29th August
A Bank Holiday weekend stay in the New Forest based at a nice apartment in Lymington. We had a bit of a recharge, and on one of the days went over to the Isle of Wight, to the small historic town of Yarmouth.
19th – 20th August
Working on website related items, and also on a writing project.
6th August
A few hours getting into a new writing project, sat a Coffee One in Warminster.
4th – 5th August
A trip down to Romney Marsh, staying overnight in the historic town of Rye. Zac was competing in his Club 100 Kart series at (a very wet) Lydd.
27th – 30th July
Working sporadically on a writing project and website content.
29th July
Return ride to Alton to collect my R1200 GS Adventure – an expensive day. Home via the West Meon crossroads, onto the A272 to Winchester, then Stockbridge, Amesbury, Larkhill, Orcheston and Tilshead.
27th July
A ride to Alton from MOT, Servicing and Repair work on the R1200 GS Adventure. Went home on a courtesy bike – an 850 GS.
23rd July
Butterfly Conservation use Jeremy’s image to promote Duke of Burgundy conservation work.
17th – 23rd July
Working on our new “Diving Dreams” and “Butterfly Effect” Calendars for 2024, and also aspect of our new website.
15th – 16th July
A visit to the Clay Pigeon Kart Circuit near Yeovil for Zac’s Club 100 series, followed by a visit to London to catch Lakecia Benjamin perform at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London.
6th – 10th July
Our annual pilgrimage to Silverstone, for the Formula One Grand Prix.
29th June – 2nd July
A remote working day based at Petworth in the South Downs, followed by two days in the Knepp Wildlands.
Still lots of Purple Emperor action, but nothing like the week before.
25th June
A day trip with Fuzz on the bikes to the Knepp Wildlands.
We saw umpteen Purple Emperors – at least 50, but probably more – perhaps more like 70 or so.
A special experience.
23rd – 24th June
An overnight in Harlow (Essex) with Zac, for a round of his Club 100 Kart Series.
25th May – 11th June
Motorcycling in Europe with Fuzz.
Our trip took us under the English Channel to Calais where our journey started in earnest.
We travelled first into Belgium (stopping briefly at Bruges) and into Holland where we stayed at Almere, our base for visiting the excellent Oostvardplassen re-wilding project.
Our onward journey took us across Germany, staying at Cologne, Rothenburg ob der Tauber (a fantastically preserved medieval town) and Regensburg.
From Regensburg, we took a convoluted and interesting route to base ourselves for a night at Cesky Krumlov, a historic riverside town, where we spent rather too much time in a friendly bar that we stumbled upon.
Next was an overnighter in Salzburg (Austria), and then into the Alps for the day, including a ride up and over the Grossglockner High Alpine Road.
We then headed back out of the Alps to Munich, to visit Fuzz’s son Sam and his wife Anna, who’d recently moved there.
Then it was back into the Alps, culminating in a stays in Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Mountain passes included the iconic Furka and Grimsel, as well as some lesser known ones.
Our stay in Switzerland was in the area of the Entlebuch Biosphere Reserve area, based at the village of Menzburg.
The long ride home was via the Black Forest (where we stopped a night), then Reims, and finally Calais. We covered more than 3200 miles.
21st May
Packing and sorting for our European motorcycle trip.
20th May
A ride to Bristol to collect an intercom system for Fuzz and I, for our European motorcycling trip.
I then rode down to Devon to see him, to test it out. We took a ride to Lyme Regis from where I travelled home, via Bridport, Dorchester, Blandford and Shaftesbury.
14th May
A walk up Cotley Hill, not much butterfly action considering the weather and the time of year. A strange Spring.
7th May
Researching routes and booking stops along the way for our motorcycle tour in Europe.
6th May
A ride to Devon to see Fuzz and discuss our upcoming European motorcycle tour. Whilst there, we rode to the Dunsford Wood nature reserve on the edge of Dartmoor, and also continued from there to Morehampstead and Bovey Tracey, which was a nice stint of road.
3rd May
Working from home in the afternoon, but grabbed an interlude walk up to Battlesbury Hill as the sun was shining. Some Spring butterfly species on the wing such as Brimstone, Green Hairstreak, Orange Tip, Holly Blue and Dingy Skipper, but no sign of the Duke of Burgundies or Marsh Fritillary as yet.
26th April – 2nd May
A really enjoyable and interesting few days in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. A chance to grab a few “snaps”.
Great to see Sergio Perez (“Checo”) defeat reigning World Champion Max Verstappen.
22nd – 23rd April
Some bits of time writing, in amongst other tasks.
18th – 19th April
An overnighter in London to catch Shri Sriram perform with his quartet at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club.
16th April
A day for a spot of writing.
14th – 15th April
An overnighter at Weedon Bec near Northampton, for a round of Zac’s Club 100 Series at nearby Whilton Mill.
7th – 10th April
An Easter visit to Cambridge, stopping en route at Wantage and Fermyn Wood on the way up, and Bicester on the return leg.
We enjoyed great weather, and explored the historic (and academic) central area which included visiting an exhibition of the work of Lucie Rie.
We also enjoyed a walk across the meadows to Grantchester where we stopped at the long-established Orchard Tea Garden.
31st March – 2nd April
A solo weekend motorcycle trip to London, to grab a bit of “writing time”, and to catch the Californian jazz-fusion guitarist Lee Ritenour perform at Ronnie Scott’s with his band.
Rode home via Stockbridge for brunch.
25th – 26th March
A visit to Butterfly Conservation’s Butterfly Recorders Event with Fuzz in central Birmingham. The last “physical” version of this interesting gathering was in 2019 thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
We met some interesting people and heard some excellent presentations about many aspects of butterfly recording, conservation, science and photography.
The ride home was down the M5, and a detour through Stroud and down the western side of the Cotswolds.
22nd March
The second part of a feature for Butterfly Conservation’s Cumbria branch is published in their twice-yearly newsletter and update.
18th – 19th March
A mixture of writing, website work, and a ride to Devon to visit the Yarner Wood National Nature Reserve with Fuzz on the edge of Dartmoor near Bovey Tracey.
11th – 12th March
A weekend of collating images, writing and updating content for this website, and also bits of time on other writing related projects.
7th – 8th March
An overnighter in London, to catch the Australian jazz-fusion guitarist Frank Gambale perform with his band at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club. A fabulous performance was witnessed! Also, I had bit of time to hone a bit of content for this website.
5th March
A few hours organising, planning and doing a bit of writing.
16th – 28th February
A long awaited (Covid delayed) visit to the Bahamas in search of the Great Hammerhead and other sharks at the remote Tiger Beach site off Grand Bahama with Epic Diving.
Unfortunately, we didn’t see any Great Hammerheads, but we did get to dive with the incredible Tiger Sharks, some as large as 15ft long. It was an inspiring and humbling experience. Other sharks encountered were of the Lemon, Caribbean Reef and Bull variety.
On Grand Bahama, we stayed at the very good Blue Marlin Cove Resort, and “topped and tailed” it with short stays in Nassau at the beginning and end of the trip.
We hope to return to the Bahamas in a couple of years to try again for the Great Hammerhead, perhaps visiting Bimini instead.
12th February
Website work, writing, testing underwater photography equipment and packing for the Bahamas
10th – 11th February
An overnight stay in Lyndhurst with Fuzz, who also wanted a chance to see the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. We diligently searched the Clay Hill Heath area (site of my previous week’s success), but it produced no sightings. I don’t know if it was the weather conditions (mild, but overcast), but the bird action in general seemed muted compared to the previous week, and we heard no drumming at all. It was a good thing to do nonetheless.
3rd – 5th February
A return visit to the New Forest, again staying at Lyndhurst in search of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. And on the third attempt in 2023, on Sunday 5th February at 9.52am…..I found it! It was in the Clay Hill Heath area. I was very happy – a “bucket list” species ticked off. I had a good view of it, but not for long (which was the only pity).
28th – 29th January
An overnight stay at Lyndhurst in the New Forest followed by a search for the elusive Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the Clay Hill Heath and Rushpole Wood areas – a “bucket list” species for me. I didn’t find it, but I’m intending to keep going until I find it.
27th – 28th January
An overnighter at Chatham, ahead of the season Club 100 karting season opener at Buckmore Parkin which Zac competes.
20th – 22nd January
A weekend visit to Manchester by train, to catch the band It Bites. Whilst en-route and in town, there was a chance for a bit of writing.
13th – 15th January
A visit to Saundersfoot on the Pembrokeshire Coast of Wales. On the “home day” we had a quick visit to Tenby.
A couple of bits of time working on writings whilst there.
13th January
A dash to Alton to replace a tyre on the R1200 GS Adventure.
7th – 8th January
Website content work and other writings, dodging between Coffee One branches in Warminster and Shaftesbury.
2nd January
Making plans for the year of 2023