Vigilamus - We are Watching

What is it? It is called 'Google Assistant'.  A great deal of fun for the girls over the weekend.  It was Paul's Xmas present from my daughter but of course we could not make it work on our basic phones.  So it was left to Lillie to load it from their Apple phone this weekend.  They played music quizzes and other general knowledge games.  But walk into the room tell it to play 'Classic' radio it will.  IT doesn't understand sometimes what you are talking about, but ask it questions and it resorts to Wiki.

Do we need it? probably not, a clever technological gizmo, is it better than Siria or Alexia, that I do not know.  Paul is a bit wary of all this technology coming into the house, do they have 'ears'? are they eavesdropping on our conversations? calculating what we are going to buy next.  Of course if you are really up to date, you have a system in your house that connects to this voice technology, but our television will still be switched on manually!

And of course, though tv adverts tell us that when kids spill the cornflakes you just tell Siria you need more, it hardly goes down to the shop to get them;)

How did the dogs get on? Lucy bullies Teddy the whippet very quietly turning him into a nervous wreck.  A curl of the lip, a low growl and Teddy will be upstairs in a shot unsure of what to do.

The Listening Ear

Fylingsdale on the North York Moors. It is a radar base and is also part of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System

And something else, spalted wood..... this was in our latest batch of logs, beautiful, I think oak logs, they burn fiercely and clean.  Thank you Jennie for giving me the clue, it is a virus that attacks living or dead trees, sad but it makes good woodworking material.

Friday 4th January

When will we learn, see the Guardian article on how the British mythical company for ferrying goods across the Channel wrote it's terms  taken from a Pizza site!  Did Grayling actually check anything?

Enough, surely the good people of this country will take note and vote for 'no politicians', especially conservatives to run the show.

So what has happened this week of note, nothing much, went to a mulled wine and mincemeat gathering at a friends house, and then last night I went to Jo and David's cottage for tea and a game of the Beetle Drive.

Beetle drives were very popular as Church fund-raising events, especially amongst Non-conformist churches, and the tradition continues to the present. These are often accompanied by a Pie and Pea Supper, particularly in the North East of England

Well, the tea was good and so was the game, it has been years since I played any game and drawing bits of the beetle was a new experience, I won as well.  Which reminded me of going to my first WI meeting and winning the prizes there and getting some funny looks;)

Their cottage is a delight.  The walls are plastered with paintings and David's prowess as a Town Crier for which they go all round the country for events.  Do I think it will work, well first of all getting people to events is sometimes difficult, and the game very old fashioned. But it just might!

The family comes down again tomorrow for the weekend, two grand daughters this time and I shall do a traditional roast with Yorkshire pudding as it always goes down well with the children, one of whom will be an adult this year...

Wednesday 2nd January 2019

I came across this wonderful video of Bartlow Mounds this morning, Iron Age burial mounds in the Roman period in Essex.  The two guys made me laugh, it was like being transported back to the duo of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, but after I had got over that, I realised that the chap talking was intellectually superior to many of the archaeologists we find today, and he wasn't even an archaeologist.  The video is 25 minutes long and probably not of interest too many, but I liked his concluding analysis of the reason for such lavish burial mounds they are the biggest in the country.  Simply put the hierarchical nature of society, through the Iron, Bronze and Neolithic has put us where we are today with the terrible class system, that some still adhere to.

But I also wrote of this place and for sheer sunshine on the day, and photos of this typical Essex village see this blog, and wonder at the 'Pyramids of Essex;

And now to find the classic 'class' sketch of Moor and Cook, this time in a 'Gourmet' mood, Giles Coren eat your heart out.  It is a bit fuzzy and the language is going south, but if you ask what made my sense of humour, it was this pair.

Tuesday 1st January 2019

New Years Eve;

It was quiet.  But I got up at 12 midnight to the sound of bells ringing in the church, Jo and David had braved the cold and rang them joyously for 5 minutes.  This was followed by fireworks next door for another 5 minutes and I just hoped the two little bantams managed to hold onto their hearts. By the way I have ordered two more from Bedale, not yet born probably ;)

Paul was sitting by a blazing log fire downstairs when I came down, he is an owl to my lark nature.  Now it is morning, Lucy is still snoring away downstairs and when I came into the kitchen noticed that the calender had been changed for 2019.  The Japanese proverb on it says "Life begins the day you start a garden" how apt as always my thoughts turn to what to grow in the New Year.

We discussed, quite seriously yesterday, food to be stored 'in case', even Paul has been, or at least feels, 'shafted' by the government and has no confidence whatsoever!

We must have all watched in amazement and sheer disbelief, money awarded (is it a shell company?) for transporting goods across the Channel, a company that owns no boats and will use a harbour that needs dredging, all this with only three months to go...... And then there is Javid flying home from his holidays (poor Lad) to  sort out the few dozen immigrants making it to our shores.  When literally millions roam around homeless in other countries.

I may come back to write but light is returning to this small corner and I need to go and reassure Fay and Lady Gray that their peaceful world still exists.

Happy New Year

May the New Year bring Happiness, joy and humour.  Music to calm the nerves through the tumultous world we live in.  Greensleeves played on the flute and harp.  

And the artist I would pick today is Elizabeth Blackadder for her paintings of flowers.  The blue meconopsis, such a fragile flower, reminds me of an Abbey garden visited in Devon.  Acid soil must have reigned in this garden amongst the rhododendrons and other shrubs, but the candelabra primroses (and I shall find the name eventually in my head!) Bulleyna and the blue of the poppy will leave a forever memory ;)

Grabbing memories for 2019

Wandering through one's photos catching the dying embers of the year.  The stone circle in Scotland, the warm sun, The summer flowers that appeared in the garden, already spurring me on to buy more.  You would never guess what I have ordered already?  Potatoes, goodness know where they are going to go except in pots or the  bags that I have ordered.  Yes, Brexit has finally got to me as well, provisions in case of shortage, though to be honest potatoes are easily grown.  My daughter is already stocking her cupboard, or under the beds of her children, dried stuff such as pasta, rice, flour for breadmaking, tins of stuff - can you believe it ;)

Too late to plant tulips, but the catalogues have come with eye catching dahlias, another late flower that reminds me of my childhood.  They were planted in the end lawn of the garden in Willenhall, bright twirls of colour with their funny twilled petals, cactus types and there is the 'Bishop of Llandaff' to collect!

Eskdalemuir stone circle

Rosea mundi a favourite rose. Has the following legend

Grown from seed an exotique mallow

Lilies, not in love with this colour

pale pink better

but this year yellow has been a favourite

fell in love with this rudbeckia, deep bronze petals

palest pink tulips, sad that a lot of tulips disappear from the garden, can I blame the squirrels?

a lank rose

Evergreen honeysuckle, bee and bird friendly (very)

Jam and Jerusalam, always flowering but starting to show signs of  black spot

Mark on the moors looking slightly uncomfortable away from his computer!

The moors a backdrop to our lives

but so invigorating

sunsets

storms

Unknown Region

Yes that is what appears on the geographical statistics in my stats.  So who are you 'unknown region'. maybe aliens from outer space, not Russia because that country is already mentioned, or does it come from the great out banks of Russia's unexplored Siberian territory.  Could it comes from the steppes of Asia, maybe Tibet?

Maybe you are hunting for any mention of money, no luck there I am afraid, maybe I have become a person of interest living in the backwaters of Yorkshire, representative of a malcontented nation fed up with our government? Intriguing anyway and welcome if you have good intentions, but I do note when my stats go up and wonder at the nature of my reader;)

Back to normal life, we went out for a meal yesterday, garlic mushrooms with salad and chips, Paul always has the chili prawns at Wombleton which is under new ownership, though Ben the manager is still there.  Lucy spent all her time under the table pretending that there was not another dog there if she could not see it!

The weather has been lousy, thick dank mist lies over the fields and gets into your lungs, I said jokingly to Paul it is because we live in/on a long gone paleolithic lake, in fact down the road near Scarborough we have the most famous Mesolithic archaeological site of Starr Carr.  True there is not much to see but much has been dredged from the field of the settlement.  Such as the deer antlers probably worn as a headdress...

Representation of Starr Carr settlement

And then there is the Rudston monolith, I note from this blog, that this was creating a 'memory' visit on Valentine's Day, one of the largest tall prehistoric stones in England.

See how this old pagan stone jostles for space in the church yard, it just points to the longevity of religious vitality through the ages.  Once this great stone stood alone above the Gypsey Race a memorial in prehistory.  Then some Saxon monk came along, settled down and created the first church, from then on the ground would always be hallowed as Christian!
I am finished, only to say that I have been thinking of the Rudston, and to give its etymology

The place-name 'Rudston' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, and means 'rood' or 'cross' stone, referring to the monolith.^[3] However, the name 'rud' derives from Old Norse ruð, meaning a clearing or pasture. So the place name could be stone in the clearing, Ruðstane. Nearby Howes of Duggleby and Ba'l (In Ugaritic mythology Baal is the lord of the storm; he bears a mace where Thor will grasp a hammer) also indicate Norse Viking place names rather than Anglo-Saxon origins.

Thursday 27th December

Christmas has come and gone and we had a good time with  my daughter and grandchild over the weekend.  We had a panic moment, as she had to resign from her job, unfortunately her boss lady is not nice.  But it eventually went off fairly well, the resignation letter was sent on its way by Matilda's finger without much ado!

We did not go overboard on the food. I cannot stand a fridge full of bits and pieces, in fact suddenly there was no eggs but my soul says Xmas is but one day and the traditional things had already been made. 

Yesterday someone put on F/B a video of people haranguing a couple in their car outside Tesco, the car was smashed up, but the driver eventually drove away.  Just an incident? well apparently the man had attacked a Tesco employee, and so 'rough justice' was meted out by a crowd of trolley weapons and wheel jacks, no one was hurt, except the car, but it does not bode well for the future.

Christmas also shows the good side of this festivity, as people go out and help those less fortunate, toys are brought for children, meals are cooked and that is what gives us that warm and fuzzy feeling inside but of course the calamity of homelessness and children in B&Bs is there all the year and that is the subject that really needs tackling.  Looking at the Trussell Trust site and I see that the politicians have been using the foodbanks as photo opportunities according to stories abounding in the media.  What do we make of this country?

On Christmas day we went next door to the pub for our 'free' drink, which Harriet and Lucy always do on this date,  There was a couple down from Cornwall staying in one of the holiday cottages and as we chatted and bemoaned the fact that the holiday cottage scenario was as bad in Cornwall as it is in other parts of the country.  The fact of the matter is that many of the young are priced out of the villages they were brought up in by people who want to retire to that 'roses round the door' cottage, and I give no excuse for us either.  We were intrigued as to why they had resorted to Yorkshire, but the answer is plain and simple, in-laws resided in Scotland, Yorkshire is middle ground.

Caught 'A Week with Marilyn' film which was a triumph of Englishness and actors, gosh we produce films of such lush nature as to the rich middle class lives, that such films must fool American people into thinking that this 1956 England is a true representation.  There is a very old film called 'A Taste of Honey,  around  in the 1960s  with Rita Tushingham that captured the bleakness of poverty then, sometimes it is wise to revisit the past and compare with the present.

Presents include books of Susan Cooper, and a rather interesting one with patterns of simple dresses by a Japanese designer and some perfume, we, Paul and I, were unsure of presents for each other, or whether we needed them.  A call in to Bils and Rye gallery is on the menu, and maybe a DVD player as well.

Christmas Greetings

And a Happy and Healthy New Year to everyone.  Keep blogging people. xxx


"Shall we liken Christmas to the web in a loom?  There are many weavers, who work into the pattern the experience of their lives. When one generation goes, another comes to take up the weft where it has been dropped. The pattern changes as the mind changes, yet never begins quite anew. At first, we are not sure that we discern the pattern, but at last we see that, unknown to the weavers themselves, something has taken shape before our eyes, and that they have made something

very beautiful, something which compels our understanding."-   Earl W. Count, 4,000 Years of Christmas

Sunday thought

"When Natives People  come into their own, on the basis of their own cultures and traditions, then there will a fourth world" a quote by Milando, Tanzanian commisioner.

Do you ever wonder how some expressions come into being?  Well there I was in front of our 'first world' dishwasher, something inherited when we bought the house but hardly ever used unless we have visitors. It is that early morning thought as I wander round looking for the plates for breakfast.  So my mind questions, there is a first world and a third world but what happened to the second world.  Ask Wiki and apparently the terminology stems from the 1970s when the second world represented the communist bloc.  Now the world has moved on, communism has slowly fallen off the side of the planet, we live in a Western first world 'paradise'? Won't go there! Except to say that it is getting a bit crowded and very destructive to the environment.  The third world perhaps represents in our minds the poor countries, though this is not necessarily true, it represents a bloc of countries that don't belong to the Western world or the communist (turning) world such as China.

Of course the chess pieces on the board are already changing, as the Asian world turns itself into a replica of the European countries, some of which are on the poverty line because of the European Community? Again not going there.

What sparked this thought was witnessing my daughter and Paul arguing about the dress of Muslim woman in Britain.  France has banned niqabs and burqas in 2011, so has Belgium, the reason I believe is because hiding the face is worrying to our eyes, actually I agree with this, but banning the dress (as an aside Lillie has appeared at the table with a back to front hoodie over her face!) to me seems somewhat over thetop.  What about banishing girls with skirts up to their behinds;)  Think I am saying making judgements are impossible and very subjective.

Which brings me to Yorkshire Puddings post, which struck me as very apposite to what we are already having to cope with... and so I close

Something funny

Been up most of the night with Lucy who has had one of her 'turns!  Our Christmas tree sits on the desk out of her way.

Solstice

"At Christmas I no more desire a rose

Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth; 

But like of each thing that in season grows."

-   William Shakespeare

 "Yule, is when the dark half of the year relinquishes to the light half.   Starting the next morning at sunrise, the sun climbs just a little higher and stays a little longer in the sky each day.  Known as Solstice Night, or the longest night of the year, much celebration was to be had as the ancestors awaited the rebirth of the Oak King, the Sun King, the Giver of Life that warmed the frozen Earth and made her to bear forth from seeds protected through the fall and winter in her womb.  Bonfires were lit in the fields, and crops and trees were "wassailed" with toasts of spiced cider."

  
  

"That's no December sky!

Surely 'tis June

Holds now her state on high

Queen of the noon.

Only the tree-tops bare

Crowning the hill,

Clear-cut in perfect air,

Warn us that still

Winter, the aged chief,

Mighty in power,

Exiles the tender leaf,

Exiles the flower."

-   Robert Fuller Murray (1863-1894), A December Day

Wednesday, 19th December

Yesterday, which was Paul's birthday, but we did not do anything because of the weather, he helped John put up a couple of floodlights for the church, it wasn't particularly difficult we have an outside socket on that side of the house.  The church looked lovely in the evening, especially as there was a carol service at 7 o clock.

I decided to go having been assured it was only carols to be sung, but add in the nine lessons and it turns into a service.... Not only a service but there was a bishop as well, luckily our village produced at least 30 people for the congregation.  And so in its icy interior, though Graham said the heaters had been on for a couple of hours, we sang.  Some more heartily than others.

I brooded on the Norman capitals, (forgotten to take my reading glasses) for some of the lesser carols, and listened whilst people I knew so well got up to read stories from the bible.  Well as a convent girl I knew the score...

When I got back to the house, the fire was burning away and there was a programme (BBC4) about carols - The Truth about Christmas Carols by Howard Goodall which was fortuitous and enlightening.  Somehow it brought to mind the 'mummers' in The Woodlanders, or was it Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy, must get these books and read them again, evocative of an era past, I loved their sadness.

Holly decorated the windows, again from our garden, so we have a relationship with this church, a church that has more secular people caring for it than the meagre congregation that can be seen on a Sunday.  It also has a crack on the North wall, the Historic archaeologist was examining it last week, this crack has developed over the years probably due to sitting on clay and the weather which ranges from wet to dry, and of course being medieval, the church has no foundations.

Margaret Wood left £20,000 in her will for this church.  Note, I say this church and not The Church which I believe sits on plenty of money of its own, but demands its due from the congregation.

Beneath the wall you see in the above photo Paul has a Buddha and various bits and pieces of Japanese work; he would argue that the church is open to all denominations.

http://www.mkm-churches.org.uk/churchpage.html?churchid=4

Pure Nostalgia

Happiness was always at the centre of my being when I heard the Victorian Garden music, slow paced and idyllic it represented a lost time.  The music accompanied the series of a walled garden, where once there was pineapples grown, and the whole lazy life of the rich could have grapes on the Xmas table at this festive time of the year. 

Of course we have them already in this modern world, all the year round, but there was a time when such luxuries could only appear on the table of the rich.

For a moment the soft voice of the gardener taking us through his kingdom in this slow moving series was a halt to the more mundane aspects of modern life.  Now to it has grown faded with the passing of time, but I shall watch one or two episodes this month.  It will hide that negative issue that fills our airways all the time!.

Wednesday 13th December

Off With his head!

What has made me giggle.  Well firstly the long thin cartoon caricature of Jacob Rees Mogg being rather spiteful and demanding that the PM goes to see the Queen and offer her resignation.  Sheer Alice in Wonderland, though Hogarth could probably do it better.  Theresa May won the day by a margin, there will more brinkmanship of course, but to see Mogg furious was the icing on the cake. Yes, I find it extraordinary that such an upper class brat is even considered for running this country!

To more gentle happenings, yesterday was the gardening club Xmas lunch, a cold collation.  Here I will do a Pat description of the menu. A good looking ham was the meat side, surrounded by quiches of salmon, chicken and goats cheese/spinach. half a dozen salads, featuring pasta, rice, beans and salad leaves, and of course a couple of bowls of potato mayonnaise.  Then we went on to desserts, creamy and luscious - trifles, meringues glued together with cream, a delicious cheesecake, what looked like a pavlova and Irene's treat plus of course fruit salad, bottles of prosecco and a rather dry wine, which the woman opposite said should not be served with such sweet puddings.

She was charming but typical of her class, and we talked dogs, though I am not au fait with hunting with dogs up on Wheeldale Moor but my stance on shooting never left my lips and I smiled sweetly.

Christina on the way back called her a 'terrible woman' apparently she had been told off for parking her car in front of this person's house.

But anyway it was a lovely do, and I learnt a lot about us older females, there were two men there by the way, Paul was rather upset that I had gone off for a meal so I have said I shall treat us to a meal today.  We are going to collect some coal from Helmsley.

Tuesday 12th December

Well as another crisis looms, Theresa May has said her piece very well, strong and firm is the message.  We will see the results of the vote tonight.  'Et Tu Brute'  Well throwing 48 letters into the ring asking for her resignation may not be as cruel as the end of Caesar but wasn't it rather engineered?

The death of Caesar - Vincenzo Campuccino

And that is all I will say on the subject, except, when are they going to get rid of John Humpreys, he is paid too much and his need to ask irrelevant questions is getting an embarrassment...

No I will continue with my old photos, today the ones from the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, taken by my partner in 2010, gosh does not time fly?  The garden is beautiful but I have one criticism, and that is the lack of flowers for insects, especially the bee.  I can see 'cloud' trees as well, the bonsai nature of the trees reflects the rather beautiful growth of the trunks.

Something from 1976

Slightly early, because Solstice is not to the 21st but looney enough to make you smile. Jethro Tull - Ring out the Solstice Bells

monday 10th December

It has been a busy day with people calling to sign a card after the death of our youngish window cleaner, so terribly sad for his widow who accompanied him on his rounds..  We keep up with the news, neighbours want holly tree trimmings from our tree, the pigeons are starting to eat the berries.

This morning I went to the craft club, total relaxation making things - not brilliant - but I enjoyed it.

Wednesday is the gardening club Xmas dinner. the food sounds good.  The radio is blasting out parliament and Mrs. May, has she delayed the vote? not really interested. the saga still has another three months to go. 

My sewing machine has been busy making cushion covers and bags to hold things being made.  The morning started with Matilda's birthday, now 17 years old. I remember her as a small toddler, always bent on getting her own way, strong willed never giving in.  Having to make her little patchwork dolls which she would never be without, so if one got lost another had to replace it.  She is still strongminded, but maybe she will mellow;).  She works at her schoolwork, works at the weekend in the shop and helps out at fetes.

Musings - 8th December

                                                

St. Augustine's Church, Kilburn, London

@ By Diliff - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38346535

Slight moan here.  Have watched part of a programme about St.Augustine's church in Kilburn, Westminster.  Gorgeous revival Gothic architecture during the Victorian period.  It was built for the poor!  Yes all that money that created a beautiful artwork, for that is what it is, went on a building rather than helping the poor.  Well no, it was supposed to bring them to the knees for the sheer beauty of the building and the god who it was dedicated to....
On reflection with my beloved, he says that they were creating a place of beauty as well, and self aggrandisment may have come into play, and yes we have inherited beautiful churches.

It is Anglo-Catholic, up near the top for holiness, but those entrepreneurial Victorians, for whom I have the greatest respect in their ability to fund buildings (sometimes very ugly buildings though).  Were a bit like people who planted trees, they were building for posterity.  If I were to take you to Whitby, I would show you Brunswick Street, it has three churches at the bottom, of different denominations in the Anglican tradition.  One has become a book store for a dealer but cannot hide its late Victorian art work.  Whitby drips churches, turn a corner and there is one, the ultimate of course being St.Mary's next to Whitby Abbey high on the cliffs, though to be honest give them a couple of hundred years and the cliffs will have crumbled and all will be in the sea, including the vast churchyard of  graves of course.

Thinking about St.Mary's at this time of year and I remember we visited to see the collection of Xmas trees decorated by local people.




caedmon's Poem

Look at Whitby

7th December 2018

Yesterday my artificial Xmas tree arrived (I have to decorate on the instructions of my daughter) it came in a large box with a picture of a willow tree on it and as we contemplated the box whilst drinking our coffee, I said even if it is a willow tree I am keeping it.  Can't be a**** to send it back.  The UK Mail driver who had delivered it had called me 'Petal' in a broad Yorkshire accent, which of course I failed to understand that he wanted my signature, so he repeated. Anyway it is a fully paid up member of the plastic Xmas tree brigade, quite realistic, and yes I hate that we must cut down  living trees for this annual event.

I have a very soft spot for trees, funnily enough the tree that got cut down the other week has raised another problem for the boundary line that falls between two neighbours, there is an argument as to what trees belong to each.  Trees planted on boundary lines of course fall into the neighbour's territory and don't behave themselves as to their growing, so at some stage, there is a clash who actually owns the tree?  My simple soul says the tree belongs to itself, and can I even go far enough to say has 'rights'.

This 'Territorial Imperative' of boundaries of course extends through human ownership in all parts of this world, unfortunately nature works differently.  

We, in this instance this village, have collected a certain amount of money for village use, part of this money (a very small amount) is a precept, a portion of our council tax which is given back, so therefore we should be able to use it for what we want.  There is a need for a 100 yards of proper footpath to be put in place between the village pub and the bridge over the river, for the small group of houses that are outlying, especially the children who wait to catch the coach at the Inn. 

Bureaucracy dictates of course, fall on your sword here, there is parish council - no deal; there is county council - injury or death before they even think of doing anything.  So perhaps people in the village can do something? we are still waiting.
I cannot even begin to describe the weather as I look out at almost 8 this morning, still dark, blustery wind and rain of course, i need a cheerful green image....

This and that

This stature depicts politicians discussing global warming, not sure where it is.

Paul said we are balancing on the edge of a precipice last night, as the terminal awful news spat out their findings on the latest from parliament.  So I went to sleep thinking of ravenous hordes and no food ;) yes I have a very vivid imagination!  I listened to David Lammy's speech this morning in The New European, and thought to myself, a fine speech on the Remain argument but looking at the barely dozen politicians sprawled on the green leather seats, listening half-heartedly to him (even on their phones) I realised there is no hope for this country.

So music, art and stories will occupy my world and of course the coming festival of light called Xmas.  I can hear the soft swish of tyres on wet roads outside, the weather is very dismal for this time

of year. We could do with some snow.

 

or

 a summerhouse to enjoy summer

Maybe a trip to see Silbury Hill

Or a wander amongst trees

Sweet williams to remember a welsh terrier that left this Earth two days ago, my favourite flower.

Tuesday 5th Dec.

I bought these four at Morrisons the other day.   They look as if they want a fight! They are waiting for the Xmas tree.  And............................

Well it is starting, this Morrison's Leeds store, I remember the same from about 30 years ago in Bath when the Harvest shop on Walcot Street had similar shelves of things you helped yourself to.

3rd December

Lucy enjoying the summer sun, the little Japanese cushion has since been recovered.

Up early, I make a mug of tea and then settle in front of the computer.  I send a message to Matilda, who has received her birthday money, and has written back to say thank you and she is putting it towards a trip to Paris.  Hmmm says I well wait until this trouble with protestors are over.  Next I go to look at something to order for Paul's birthday, the Kyoto Journal, but they have been having problems with posting magazines because of the typhoons, so much happening in the world.

So I go through some photos, take one of the sunrise and note that the straight line I see is the following farmhouse.....

Bridge Farm, sold for something near a million, the ruined buildings ripe for development, who  knows.

Something very Yorkshireish........

a peaceful setting

Summer seems such a long way off, but there are memories to hold onto to............

cascading crab apples

fat behinds that are rabbit hunting, and yes she can squeeze herself down larger holes than that!

delicate pink