Reproduction (TT column 28.05.13)

I always knew that the May is a sensible month for animals to be born, on the whole the weather is improving, the daylight hours are long and there is plenty of nutrition in the land.  I have started to think that we as humans must feel the same - or otherwise there is really not much else going on in August - as this month has been full of births or thirtieth birthday parties.
There must be a lot of bonuses to having a birthday now but I had forgotten the inconvenience of turning eighteen or maybe twenty one for many of my friends, May is slap bang in the middle of exams. I remember always procrastinating over my revision as I would do anything to be outdoors during the day light hours, at this time of year that doesn't leave much time for studying. It is a recent deadline I've had myself that reminded me of the stresses of exams. As an athlete I am not used to having deadlines as such so the last couple of weeks having to spend all my daylight hours indoors has been a challenge. This was all in aid of a radio Devon documentary I have been producing, you not might not have heard that I was a trained producer, that would be because I am far from it. This experience has been a steep learning curve and I am now waiting to hear if it is anything along the lines of what the editor was hoping for, if you hear my voice on the radio sometime in the near future then you know I have succeeded.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com Heather Fell

Cake (TT column 20.05.13)

Chocolate, ginger, fruit, lemon, coffee and carrot; I have recently sampled them all in abundance, in the form of cake. I've been brought up on the stuff - no that sounds a little extreme - i mean I've been brought up in a house that always has a home made cake "on the go". Some might say the Brits' are known for drinking tea, the Fells' however are known for eating cake. Growing up not even liking tea i didn't have much choice, although thankfully I was also encouraged to do plenty of sport.
This weekend I managed to combine the two perfectly, whilst also raising money for charity by hosting the coffee break for the Tavistock Wheelers Sunday morning ride. I do still have a challenge; in just over two weeks time I need to have raised several more pounds but also be fit enough to cycle one hundred and six miles a day for nine days straight. Cake might be the solution for the financial aspect but I think I might need to refrain from joining in on the sampling as instead of fuelling me up the hills it could well end up weighing me down.
I was amazed at how much a bit of cake can make for charity but it is not a touch on football it seems. I was honoured to be asked to present the highly competitive Sonrise cup to the winning team of Tavistock Tyres. That was just the finale of a huge fundraising effort for the local charity, it is just a shame I wasn't brought up on football.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com Heather Fell