Tag Archives: Golf

Paint your Dragon

artist painting a Welsh dragon

Watching this young artist putting the finishing touches to a Welsh dragon  was one of the unexpected bonuses of visiting Celtic Manor Wales Open on the day before the main competition was due to start.  (Health warning. This post may contain references to golf!)

With a very small crowd of spectators watching the preliminary Pro-Am we also saw some more of the behind the scenes work: like the cameramen practising their moves,

cameraman

and the Chief Marshall  determined to mark the occasion with his very best sheriff’s hat  (better than anything we saw at last year’s Badminton). 

Yes, we also watched golf, and found all of the pro’s in a very laid back mood with even the famously grumpy Monty  handing out jokes and autographs.  For anyone interested in the players or the course (home of this year’s Ryder Cup)  take a look here. Okay, that probably rules out most of you.

But we  writers  have to get out sometimes.  And it was my birthday.

View of 2010 course

A good blog spoiled?

Anyone interested in my golfing exploits can read about some of the highs and lows (mainly lows!) on the Golf Monthly Forum blog here.

 

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New Year’s Greetings

A recent feature in the Telegraph suggested that September, the start of the new school year, makes a better season of renewal than the more conventional January celebration. It’s  a good point, and one I think I’d sign up to. Even if it’s proving difficult this September to find the surge of energy that a good summer might have provided, January is much more suited to hiding under the blankets than to starting that diet or looking for a new job.

Around here, this New September is more about endings than beginnings, but perhaps one will lead to the other. Last week a dear friend died after a long illness, but we decided to celebrate his birthday (Saturday) in style,  with fireworks and a chocolate cake. The fireworks weren’t quite as grand as those in the picture but still good fun on one of the warmest evenings of the year, with just a touch of drama when a rocket decided to explode on the ground! Chris certainly would have loved it. Thanks to a fellow blogger for an excellent cake recipe perfected by DD (who also took the firework picture).

On the reading front, I’ve slogged through The Map of Love, which I enjoyed for the love story and the insight into Egyptian history, but found rather lacking in overall structure or ‘message’. Unusually, I found it better in the middle than at the beginning or the end. It’s also distinctly lacking in references to any particular map of love, which seems odd, in view of the title! 

On a more trivial note. I stopped updating my golf blog some time ago and handed it over to its original owners. Now I see new posts are appearing, and as they’re clearly commercial in intent, it’s time to withdraw entirely from that scenario. So it’s also farewell to the Green Goddess (at least until the next hole in one!)

And a Happy New Year to you all!