And relax.....

After packing this morning, I got on the road to Wales (we are staying just over the border) by 10.15am and had a marvellous run which took just under three hours. Much quicker than I'd expected. The countryside got more interesting at Worcester with the sight of the Malvern Hills and improved with each further mile.

Our barn faces the Black Mountains (in particular Lord of Hereford's Knob) and the view is stunning. The barn itself is spacious, well appointed and I think we'll be just fine with plenty of room to spread out.

I was a couple of hours early so did a mini scenic tour of the narrowest and steepest roads in the local area both by car and a little on foot, once I'd got up high, with the camera. I drove over the narrowest of road bridges over the Wye, which was a little unnerving given its noisy ricketiness. Having driven up a long single track road, I arrived in a dead end farm yard so I asked the friendly chap, who seemed to be whittling, for some tips for good local spots and he pointed me towards a high natural pool so off I went. It was a good call and the drive was well rewarded with views of lots of sheep and the distant Sugar Loaf and Pen Y Fan mountains. On the way back down, between taking photos of the beautiful wild flowers banks (bluebells and ragged robin) and the valley views, I came across a fox with a dead pheasant in its mouth, which it promptly dropped and disappeared into the undergrowth.

Having settled into the barn, I waited in the sun (though a rather fresh westerly wind) in the large open garden and contemplated the views, studied the local map and spotted some birds (see blip). Just so relaxing. RadioGirl arrived and we met in real life for the first time. (What a cool thing. Another example of blip bringing people together for real.) Once the other two arrived we went to The Old Barn pub in Three Cocks for a reasonable dinner.

We certainly haven't lacked for conversation tonight and we've ranged from the Apple watch to politics to child abuse to W1A to dogs to careers to the Beeb to Generation Z... Phew.

Rather unusually for me I got to bed at 1am and will need a decent lie in I reckon.