10th January 2022

I had a lovely day yesterday, Tom, my grandson and his girlfriend came in the afternoon.  And they are so in love it is  sweet.  Presents they bought as did Andrew (the handsome male guest becoming permanent) he bought two bunches of white roses.  Tom brought a book on landscapes and Ellie, his love, a jigsaw.

There was a hitch with the bus, it got cancelled, so we walked home and had lunch, then caught the next one.  Trouble with me I write what I see, and there was definitely a load of tat around under the enormous, sheds of Gordon Rigg I think.  Christmas still sparkled in a million coloured tree decorations and lights flicking on and off.  Gosh how we keep the horrors of an English winter at bay with flashing tiny lights.  But I thoroughly enjoyed this outing, for it unravelled another side of Yorkshire.

A Barnhaven primrose.  Its lusciousness almost rivals a rose.

Artificial flowers blended with enormous house plants, all expensive it was almost like a zoo, but a zoo of exotic plant, throw in a few jungle sounds and you could have been transported. I came back with what I wanted which was primroses and viola, and a pretty little ivy.  The plants are to go in a small bed in the back yard, but yesterday I was told to be wary of the old cat's skeleton buried there - a bit late in the day!

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Tom Stephenson asked me what would I do about a  statue erected to Tony Blair the other day, I did not answer but then through social media this gem came through.  Though I am not going to enter the Inuit/Eskimo debate, for reasons of keeping my head below the parapet.  I would argue that indigenous tribes have a right to use their  tribal names  and we should respect that.  So what made me laugh was this............................... I quote from unnamed source, believe it or not.

"On a recent trip to the United States , Tony Blair, Ex. Prime Minister of the UK and now U.N. Middle East Peace Envoy, addressed a major gathering of Native American Indians.

He spoke for almost two hours on his success in bringing about a lasting peace settlement amongst the warring nations of the Middle East, likening it to the way that the U.S. Government found a suitable agreement with the North American tribes.

At the conclusion of his speech, the crowd presented him with a plaque inscribed with his new Indian name - Walking Eagle.

A very chuffed Tony then departed in his motorcade, waving to the crowds..

A news reporter later asked one of the Indians how they came to select the new name given to Tony Blair They explained that Walking Eagle is the name given to a bird so full of shit that it can no longer fly."

There be dragons