FREE HUGS

Dear Bloggers all

I found this profoundly moving:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4

watch it to the end, with your sound on.

the world needs more of this!

Watch the sunset at Red Bluff ( In Western Australia), with the Bear and a hip-flask full of good Malt whisky.

These photos are for HHnB (Secret Hill) who mentions in her latest blog that one of the things she would like to do again was....(see title). So here they are doing just that together with her Ma and Pa, with a panorama and sunset from Red Bluff.

Romans Invade Germany

No - this is not a self portrait, but another member of The Ermine Street Guard in "marching order". This seems appropriate as we are off again next week to the German city of Aalen (see:http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9003199) to give displays over two days at the major Roman Festival they hold each year (20,000 people there last year). All the kit (armour, artillery weapons, leather tents, etc.) go by lorry in the early hours of next Thursday and we fly out in the evening.

Looks like a good gig. Billetted in a "Youth Hotel"nearby, with a beer garden attached (which I suppose we shall have to sample, just for politeness, you understand).

This is my 20th year of "Roman Soldiering". Sometimes think I am getting too old for all this (67) - but, hey!, what an antidote to the stresses and strains of modern life in UK.

LOOK BOTH WAYS

My daughter took us to see this film when visiting her in W. Australia. I did not quite know what to make of it then, but it stayed with me. I recently bought the DVD and have viewed it twice since. It is a film that needed quiet reflection from me. It is now one of my favourites. Totally life affirming.

HADRIAN'S WALL

We were worried that it would be wet for the Roman Army displays up in the North of England at Hadrian's Wall - the forecast was not good. However we had brilliant weather. It was not all playing Roman soldiers though - on our "off days" we (my wife and the dog) went walking along the famous Wall. It is spectacular countryside with wide panoramas over the moors. To have it as clear as this during August is quite unusual. You are high and wide above England, the air is clear and breezy and is a tonic for the soul.