Back in action

A long gap since the last post - largely as life (and the minutiae accompanying it!) got the better of me for a couple of weeks. But I have just returned, refreshed, from a fantasic week on home territory again, South Wales this time, in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The week was a mixture of coastal path walking, in beautiful sunshine, and pursuing family history - very successfully - "up the Valleys". But I couldn't miss out on the obligatory pilgrimage to Laugharne in this centenary year of Dylan Thomas - to the Boathouse, his writing shed, his usual watering hole, his graveside.... Not my first visit to the town by any means but a fascinating day. On October 29th I shall be reading at a Dylan Thomas tribute evening at the Playhouse here in Cheltenham and it was good to get my shot in the arm in readiness!

         

"Do not go gentle into that good night ..."

       

The Boathouse and the bay

As always, there's no end to catch up on after getting back from time away but the first thing on the agenda is the Poetry Cafe at Smokey Joes in Bennington Street in Cheltenham tomorrow, 5 -7pm, at which I'll be the guest poet. The Cafe takes place once a month and is a pleasant, relaxed setting in which to hear other's poetry and to read your own - if you're free, do come and join us.