Well, there you go, be amazed, doesn’t seem like a month has passed since we last put pen to tip tap pad. By the time this gets finished though it probably will be! Seager mentioned, the other day, that, we don’t use enough commas so, best I use a pile up early on, just to keep him happy. Jolly January came and went and now fantastic February has passed into recent history and we are facing Marvellous March. My resolve in this being a fine year remains undimished, or undiminished, whatever. For those turning up for the first time, you are most welcome and we hope you have a pleasant and hopefully cheery visit (forgot the commas there then!). On the left are the pages with all the bits and bobs relating to airworthiness, about us, balloon meets and other steady influences. Elsewhere are a host of articles on stuff strange, technical and general nonsense that some may find useful or even vaguely humorous. We recently heard of the sad and sudden death of Tony Faulkner, which came as a bit of a shock. Tony is probably best remembered for the National Express, unintentional, Bendy Bus that he flew with a fair degree of courage and luck! There is a nice obit in the News courtesy of Kevin Meehan. Our sympathies go out to his family and friends.
Not a great deal to report news-wise this time around. Mainly the time of the year but balloons have been spotted now’n again, here and there, like. Pink Russell managed to get his herd airborne in February and kindly sent us a couple of picks including the one left of his shiny Ultramagic jobbie, more on that in the news. We’ve had a few interesting balloon meet notes come including one for the competitive hopper pilot but I fail to see how you can take that seriously. There’s bound to be something more fun to do during the flight! Still, worth a look as long as they promise to stick to no electronics!!! The Events page has been updated accordingly. The bit on Thermals should be up shortly and possibly something else I dare say. I’m trying to sort the Emergency Procedure talk we did for the Inspector Days into an article but so far its not making a lot of sense without a re-write. Never mind we’ll get there I dare say. Plans for our Ridgeway Walk are going quite unplanned and for a little while we even thought we wouldn’t be camping at all. One night may be becoming two now! I’m having a caravan. Bazzer and my ‘We are on the train’ day has been thwarted by engineering works so a bit of plea bargaining to extend our passes is called for otherwise it will have to be next Saturday as Sunday sees a day at the BBAC Instructor Day. We’ve updated the Events page again and if you know of any meets that we have missed please drop us a line. Don’t forget, they don’t necessarily have to be balloon related!
The Dark Barn has been pretty dormant on account that walking has to be underway most evenings by about half three but with the evenings starting to draw out a bit we can leave it until half four five o’clock so Polly and I along with the occasional guest can get a good hour and a half in. We did go walking in Storm Norah or whatever it was called and I have to say it was pretty magical with leaf drifts that chased us. They evacuated the Café in the Woods so no coffee! Got distracted there for a moment. 
I still haven’t managed to get the old Sunbeam out and our Trevor has somewhat blocked the barrow way round the back with some rather large double glazed windows he ‘rescued’ from the tip so it will have to stay where it is for a bit. I am seriously thinking about trying to sort out the forklifts’ brakes before the season gets going which will make things a bit less crunchy for the gearbox! Right that’s enough of that. Main piccie is a bit out of focus as it was getting dark but its loads of wagtails in the puddles up the Hale where we go walking. Quite astonishing, never seen so many in one place. The ‘and finally’ is young grand daughter Whizzy Izzy demonstrating that three years is fine for going solo on a horse and clearing up the prizes. She ended up reserve champion for Leighton Buzzard and District Show and came out Champion for her age group for the Winter series. I expect she’ll be wanting a new pony now!!!! Keep happy and thanks for calling by. All me best Chris, John, Jane and Polly.