A couple of weeks ago Nottingham Castle hosted the Big Wheel, a free festival celebrating Nottingham’s public transport initiative designed to raise awareness of buses, trams, cycles and cycle routes and, of course, feet.

 There were loads of stalls, attractions and displays on show, including book sharing, recycling, food and a medieval village recreated by the Dogs of War.

I was there as Robin Hood, and this time I bought a couple of friends, both of whom you can see in the photo – Felicity the Falcon, perched carefully on my arm and Barry the Hedgehog, who you might just be able to make out sitting on my right shoulder.

They were both a great hit with all the visitors (and the Castle says there were about 20,000 of them), especially the younger ones, and were thankfully very well behaved, partially due to my intensive training techniques, but also because they’re both stuffed toys!

The day afterwards was a lot calmer, still spent up at the Castle practising sword-fighting and learning a lot (including how much I need to practice more) from Adam, my old friend from live-roleplaying and banquet days who now runs KDF, a group dedicated to researching and teaching genuine medieval combat techniques, something very different from what I do.

The photo is one of many excellent pics taken by (and used with kind permission of) the lovely Julie from DesignCat, thanks very much Jules!