In case anyone is in need of a refreshing cool-down...

TUNE! Made my night @maryannehobbs.bsky.social

Lovely night out at a wedding of some friends of ours. Always a pleasure to see Hazaar - they were on fire tonight... hazaar.co.uk/home

A brand new entry into my personal Top 10 of Weird Shit Observed on a Mountain Bike Ride. It gave me a bit of a start... East Dartmoor Badlands.

Latest acquisition. Ridiculous name, the aesthetics of a tank, and roughly the same weight, and it looks like it's had the life, but it actually sounds pretty decent, is loud enough to worry the foundations and it was only £60.

God, I remember those days... <knees audibly creak>

The dog chewed the filter on our vacuum cleaner so had to borrow our neighbour's Dyson. My current hot take is that the UK celebration of James Dyson as a genius of product design entirely explains why Brexit happened...

Anyone of my SW music pals on here looking to sell a bass amp? Looking for something fairly compact and light but with enough oomph for small gigs and ideally with XLR out - thinking Fender Rumble, Ampeg RB etc

Saturday tickets booked for Boia in St Davids. Already looking like a great festival - we had a fab time there last year. Weekend tickets are now sold out but they've just released some day tickets if you're quick... and the Trail gigs are all free over the weekend. www.boiafestival.co.uk

The start of Ten Tors 2026 early yesterday morning. What a weekend... genuinely quite sad and emotional that this will be our boy's last year taking part... there's genuinely not another event like it.

Incredible effort from our lad's Explorers Ten Tors 55 mile team, rolling in just before 2pm with huge smiles on their faces - the second fastest team on their route. So incredibly proud of them - they've worked so hard training over the winter for this. #Dartmoor

....and they're off! Another brilliant start to #TenTors this morning. Perfect conditions today on the moor. Our lad's 55 mile team making good progress so far on the tracker - hopefully on track to hit their target checkpoint this evening.

The Management...

Ten Tors routes for this weekend are up. H is doing the 55 mile route Y which looks like a full on perambulation of the North Moor from west to east to west and back again... #Dartmoor #TenTors www.tentors.org.uk/page/locations

Once again I have been paid for informal IT support in cake.

Wonderful evening, and yes, I got home with a craving for cheese...

Busy setting up for Mini Music Day this morning... A dreich day of Dartmoor mizzle this bank holiday Sunday - if you're in need of respite come along to a fab day of live music from young performers - and it's free!

Happy May Day everyone.

Our lad's first gig with So Goes The Nation - he and the rest of the band smashed it tonight. Big City Blues is out now. linktr.ee/SoGoesTheNat...

Looking forward to this tonight at Exeter Phoenix. Our boy's first gig playing bass with So Goes The Nation (he's normally on guitar with his other band). Should be a good night. exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/captu...

Really looking forward to seeing @gwennosaunders.bsky.social solo show at the Dartmoor Tors festival in Ashburton on Saturday night. There are still some tickets left if you're quick: wegottickets.com/f/16602#tick...

Queensferry Crossing. #Alphabetchallenge #WeekQForQueens 📷 #ClassicMono

Got a busy week of parent / roadie duties coming up.... first up our Harry has his first gig on bass for So Goes The Nation at Exeter Phoenix on Wednesday as part of their Capture The Moment night. exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/captu...

I did this playlist a while back - partly inspired by a period of my life when I was still dressed head to toe in black but also going clubbing at the weekend. Anyway, if you like music with one foot in the grave and the other on the dance-floor, you might enjoy it... tidal.com/playlist/15f...

I’ll be showing some of my monotypes and drawings in this excellent exhibition in Plymouth next weekend. If you’re in the area please pop in and say hello. I’ll be there every day and will be happy to show you around. Hyde Park Social Club, Plymouth. Sat 2nd, Sun 3rd, Mon 4th May. #plymouthuk

This is such a great piece on how local action can make a difference. But also... the patina on Cecil the bus is just insane. #kernow www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Proud to present No. 1 in an occasional series entitled "Random Household Items Repurposed as Mailboxes in Rural Devon"...

Trying to remember who it was I saw recently saying that one of the best advances on social media would be to make it so people had to read the link in a post before replying or quoting it, and wow does that sound like a good plan.

Evening Walk: 1

Back in the saddle. #MondayMorningBikeClub

Puppy update. Unbelievably, at 5 months, Dash is now almost the same size as Lucas... and still hasn't quite grown into his paws or tail.

Last light over Row Tor. Night all...

Looking towards Steeperton from Winter Tor on yesterdays evening walk.

I somehow seem to have ended up running an ad-hoc bike maintenance clinic for the kids in our close. This has firmed my belief that cheap supermarket BSOs (Bicycle Shaped Objects) are the works of the devil, and, I suspect, the reason most people don't cycle into adulthood...

Is Keir Starmer saying it's staggering and unforgivable that he wasn't told Peter Mandelson was Peter Mandelson?

Does anyone know the story behind the dilapidated, overgrown house alongside the track up to the moor at Watchet Gate, Belstone? It's been getting steadily more decrepit and overgrown over the last few years, but was starting to show faint signs of life when we walked past last night. #Dartmoor

Visited the entrance to the underworld on this evening's stroll on the North Moor with @notquitelight.bsky.social Sadly, the portal is now closed to visitors...

If you're in need of a lift from the unremitting grimness of the times we currently find ourselves in then I very much recommend going to see @joshuaidehen.bsky.social live. Wonderfully uplifting, joyous and fun gig at the Phoenix in Exeter tonight. Great support set from Kate Ireland too.

Struck this morning by how the remarkable can become mundane. I walk here most days. Rarely visited by anyone but locals, the remains of the largest stone circle on Dartmoor, bisected by a Bronze Age reave, with a WW2 mortar pit dug into it. Layers of human history overlapping in one thin place.

Cui bono? www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Had a bit of a challenging day... but much improved just now by receiving payment for some ad-hoc IT support in the form of a home-made Victoria sponge.

I'm helping out at this again this year, and our son's band The Juliettes are playing in the evening. It's a fab event - always well-attended with a great atmosphere- showcasing local bands and musicians up to 18 years of age. Sunday 3rd of May, The Horse, Moretonhamstead. #Dartmoor

Parked up at Lydford, waiting for our lad to come in from this weekends 90km Ten Tors training walk. Currently being pelted by the biggest hailstones I think I've ever seen. #Dartmoor

Devon meal deal.

👀

Anyway, on that note, I still remember the huge impact first seeing / hearing this had on me. Probably one of the best and most beautifully shot music videos ever, recorded as a single continuous Steadicam shot on 400 feet of film - just astonishing work from Baillie Walsh youtu.be/ZWmrfgj0MZI?...

6Music are celebrating 1991 today. My main memories of that year are listening to a lot of dark, heavy beats and worrying about war in the Middle East. Honestly, it seems like yesterday...

Happy Temu victory day everyone.

First proper off-road ride for quite a while today, on a favourite local loop.