Highway Cello

Next to Her Majesty I had to get up early after the Jubilee Madeira.  Rutherfords Punting had heard about my river adventure, and wanted to offer me a photoshoot on quieter water. That meant being punt and performance ready, on the other side of town, at 8.30.  It was worth it, though.  The river was […]

There are ups and downs on this journey – though not of course on the roads and paths here in Cambridge, where the biggest hill is Garrett Hostel Lane – and that’s only a bridge over the river. Everyone comes to Cambridge to see the river, and the Collge Backs, which back onto it.  It’s

I upset a speed camera today.  Being told off by a speed camera when you’re on a bicycle is a matter for wild celebration.  I admit, it was a 20mph zone, but still, over the limit is over the limit. And the satnav, which sulked all day yesterday, and just refused to download the agreed

So this is what a Roman road looks like?  “What have the Romans ever done for us?” seems like a very reasonable question just now.  Ermine Street Roman Road, as Google Maps calls it, is a muddy and wet dirt track between two fields. Where it’s not rutted so deep that you couldn’t possibly pedal

I was brought up not to wear a hat in church, so wheeling a bicycle across the beautifully tiled floor of All Saints Gainsborough felt like a step too far. But it’s part of the show – the audience have to see how we got here. All Saints is a lovely Regency building, light and

I’m playing my cello in an occasionally sunny spot in York.  When the sun comes out it’s warm and lovely.  The rest of the time it’s neither.  There’s no room for cars here, but the streets are full of people wandering.  A lot of ice cream is being eaten. Within the crowd, and usually more

Yesterday was a day of mistakes and failures, and general panic.  But with a wonderfully restorative ending. I planned a short ride to Ripon, where my originally planned concert had been displaced by a massed choir serenading Her Majesty.  There’s a beautiful square, near the cathedral, with a bit of a market, a huge monument,

Blown away Literally.  I was blown off the bike.  Over the top of the Yorkshire Dales the wind was – I’m guessing – 60mph.  Later, off the tops, I met several people who said places had closed everywhere because they weren’t safe. It was a spectacular ride though, 70 miles to Masham (which I now

In this part of Cumbria you see lots of little roads with warning signs like “Lorries: do not follow satnav”.  Well, I was caught out myself today.  Someone lent me a cycling GPS – you link it up to an app, tell the app where you want to go, and it selects a good biking

Meet my friend Steve.  I met him at the very beginning of this adventure, and he has an adventure of his own to tell. When I first thought I might undertake this mad journey, I got the old rusty bike out of the shed, and pedalled up Hartside.  It was a winter afternoon, cold and damp and