Every evening is a struggle to write this thing. I try to keep an hour aside to put fingers to keyboard; always in the back of my mind is where i’m going to sit, where will I get the best reception, where will WiFi overcome the thick walls and god awfully sketchy 3 or 4G connection. These are thoughts not conducive to any sort off creative writing, a  Zen like situation would be good.

But… Deep Breaths, try and pretend you’re on holiday and it doesn’t matter. You know what I need to ask the folk at WordPress, can I post off line and then publish when I have a decent connection? Please friends let me know.

Once again my job got in the way of what looked to be a beautiful walk this morning. I was up early and the sun was bright in a powder blue sky, swept with whisky clouds, the mist was hanging over the trees and, I knew would be rising above the river at this time of the day. There is a massive pub in the village called the Lenchford, its hardly intimate but is right next to the River Severn and only a 40 minute walk through the woods and across the fields. I have done this walk many times but today as I had to set off early I thought I’d stop by to have a look. This you’ve got to see, an etherial feel to the river as it slowly and silently slid past from and back into the mist towards the sun, just like some sort of mythical fairy land, the silence peppered by Bicep sounding from my car  as I stopped to take the shots, I felt it complemented the view. Cocteau Twins would have been better had I been sat under a rug on the jetty with a coffee and no where else better to go.

No filters here, B-E-A-utiful. Looking south with the flow

Looking upstream, north towards Stourport

South again, Isn’t nature wonderful? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

With work to go to I left the river fulfilled, knowing the meeting wasn’t going to be a bad one as my boss is on a cruise (in a massive shopping centre in the sea somewhere). Items of importance gained from the meeting today were, in no particular order:

a) We’ve got a really good bunch of folks in our group with one common aim; to keep our lives as stress free as is possible.

b) It was in Monmouth, the north eastern side is fancy pants, south west of the river seems slightly less salubrious.

c) We had a buffet lunch, the highlight of which was cheese cubes and pineapple chunks on a cocktail stick, not served with a hint of irony. God I miss the 70’s.

d) Is it too late for me to try and remember stuff discussed at these meetings or should I just continue as I have been for the last few years? I say last few years because I’m sure I used to remember stuff, maybe I just don’t feel it relevant in the grand scheme any more.

e) Some people have different times at which they find it acceptable to engage in conversation, 10am being a watershed.

f) After lunch, we walked it off down the river, a new development in work meetings, walking is good, fresh air too and when the sun is out no one wants to be stuck behind a desk.

This could be in France N’est pas? It is intact a fortified river bridge over the River Monnow built on the old town walls back in 1270, the only one of its kind still remaining in the British isles. This is proper living happening history, Americans!

Da Hood South-West side Monmouth.