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Next task we head for Oxwich Bay in the Gower to do some rock pooling.

This is my sort of thing. As a kid I would fish for crabs. I even went out in the Oxwich area many moons ago with a crab hook - which sounds as nasty as it was - but we were eating the crabs.

Sadly this is more of my iffy childhood victimisation of the wildlife of Wales :0(

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The night before this trip we sat and watched ourselves in Episode 1 of Not In My Nature and while eating a meal I lifted a chair, twisted a knee and was in various degrees of pain from then on. But nothing would stop me playing my part in whatever was ahead.

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Abul is such a character, our Muslim magic man.
As long as you're not a hedgehog, he will join in any plan.
We abseiled down as brothers, you should have seen him smile.
But to camp again with midges, Abul would run a mile.

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So we gather in Cardiff keen to hit the road. Horses on the Gower. It must be between 20-25 years since I last sat on a horse. Previous to this, at 12 years of age, I was a jockey in a Donkey Derby - and I fell off.

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I`m in total shock! Alaw, my 7 year old daughter, has just had her first horse riding lesson. We're both so excited and she absolutely loved it. She didn`t want to come off the horse and can`t wait until her lesson next week.

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Well that's it! The filming's all over and it's rather sad I must say. Just arrived back from Aberaeron after our last day of filming was cancelled due to poor weather conditions. I've been home for approximately 4 hours and I'm feeling totally lost. It feels so very strange that we've finally finished after 7 weeks of intense filming. I really don't know how my life is going to get 'back to normal' ever again!

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So, we had been naughty. The bird watching - or the almost total inability to bird watch - had a consequence - IOLO'S REVENGE.

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Just popped to take my daughter to tap dancing lessons and then decided to go to town for a quick coffee with my sister-in-law Nicola. We like to catch up every Saturday morning and reflect on the past week and have an occasional moan. This week, we haven't! Every time we got into a conversation, someone would comment. "Is it you I'm seeing on the telly?" or "I've seen you on the advert!".

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It's sometimes difficult to keep the demands of filming and work in balance. On Wednesday after the badgers it became clear that the ball had been dropped. At Newport Wetlands on Monday I was told that our Thursday shoot was cancelled due to the poor weather forecast. So I contacted the resource managers at work to cancel the day off. Everything going well ;0)

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This was such a change. Yesterday Anarchy in the UK at Newport Wetlands. Today Silence is Golden at the badgers.

Carly & Kate & little olde me under the expert guidance of Iolo saw badgers. REAL LIVING wild badgers at a set.

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Just a 20 minute journey this time and we get to the location. What luxury :0)
Home turf for me - but as expected I have never been to Newport Wetlands before. Soon after chat and chomp we hit the reserve and it becomes clear this is going to be a tough session.

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Well, surprise, surprise, my filming schedule has been changed! I was meant to be catching the train in an hour to travel to Aberaeron for filming, but now it's been cancelled due to the weather.

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Just received my filming schedule for the next couple of weeks and `wow` what a schedule it is! Thought all of the hard filming had finished - but apparently not. I`m also a little bit gutted as I was meant to be playing the harp for the Ian McMillan Orchestra in Denbigh`s midsummer festival but had to cancel due to filming for Not In My Nature.

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Just got back from having my `roots` done in a lovely hair salon in Chester. I must admit, this is a monthly ritual for me and I thoroughly enjoy the experience.

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Popped to town this morning to try and buy some local honey. What turned to be a 20 minute job actually took about an hour and a half.

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I'm not sure if I quite believe my eyes, but I think I've just seen Iolo on the telly, doing country dancing. Reading those words back, it just can't be true.

I've just finished work for the day. In the summer we open the garden by arrangement - not to the public generally - but to local garden clubs and other interested groups in aid of the National Garden Scheme charity.

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I just wanted to write this down before I forgot. On the day we went up Snowdon, there had been a bit of tension between Iolo and the crew, because he was adamant that we all should walk the whole way up and not go half way by train. They disagreed (with hindsight, thank god they did - I wouldn't have made it).

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I sadly write to inform everyone in blogland that Scooby our 'old faithful' cat has died.

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Yet again another truly eventful week of activities that I would probably never have experienced had it not been for this programme.

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The last few days have been tremendous and I really mean that (most sincerely folks). I am burnt to a frazzle, eyes out on stalks because of hayfever, my thighs are burning (not in a good way), my hair is like straw, my right arm looks like raw steak and my feet don't know what's hit them.

On reflection, two remarkable things have happened to me this week (well kinda three but one not in a good way!).

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I must admit that as we travelled past the Snowdonia range on the way to Caernarfon I was struck by the size and great beauty of the scene. I'd only seen Snowdon twice previously, once returning from a trip to Portmeirion and once while travelling on a gig with the band.

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We arrive at the foot of Snowndon with waterproofs on. I manage to perfect my Michelin Man look & off we go.

We were joined by our expert, ranger Hywel, and we were soon climbing. My breathing was that of a 100 year old man - I'M SO UNFIT. But onward and upward - and soon we began to see the point of this task.

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I opened one eye in the hotel this morning and got that sinking feeling - the one that I used to get a lot in my younger days, but haven't felt for some time now and especially not in the last 3 months - 3 months spent in abstinence on my very strict diet. It was the kind of feeling you get when you have got hopelessly drunk at a work do and tried to get your very married co-worker into the stationery cupboard (oh come on, don't tell me I'm the only one?).

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Last week was not a good trip. We were told that we were camping and doing a night shoot which sounded fine in principle.

I arrived in Dolgellau full of beans and looking forward to it all - duvet, pillows, thermos, thermal pyjamas etc all safely stashed in my faithful jalopy. As it wasn't far from home I thought that at worst I could always get up and bugger off in the middle of the night! Little did I know what was to come...

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Well, that`s it! The website has finally gone live! And, wow, it is rather impressive, I must say. It`s quite nice to see that all of this hard work is now being put into action.

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