Life of a Fifty-Something Yorkshireman

Is Spring Upon Us?

2012-02-19T17:29:00.001Z

There are no twigs on my grass. That's official. The first day in the garden today for about three months give or take a few bob and the sun was shining but my goodness it was cold. I was shocked at the amount of fallen branches and twigs in the garden, but I have noticed that the crows are very active picking budded twigs off the trees for their new nests which could account for a fair bit.

Neither should I have worried about the spring bulbs coming up, the snowdrops are in flower although they look smaller this year and the daffs are just a few inches tall now although I have seen some flowering nearby. Perhaps the late snow just caused a little bit of a set back. All of the snow has gone now and I've been able to pick up about half a bin's worth of twigs and leaves that have accumulated in nooks and crannies although I thought I had got rid of them last year. They clearly hide and then come out when I'm least expecting them just to create me extra work.

The sunlight brought new life to the garden today with quite a strange and softer light than the usual low harsh light that winter suns bring.

What makes a phenomenal difference to my current well being is that I travel to work in the daylight and come home in the daylight.

Well it's been a busy old week last week, out every night doing this and that and this weekend has given me chance to recharge the batteries a little and I'm really looking for some warmer weather which the BBC has forecast for later in the week. For now the bitterly cold easterly winds have abated which is nice.

I really do need to start to lose some weight again and not sure how to do it really. I think I'm going to try hypnosis because I have no will power, I have decided.

Although I Tweeted it first before the BBC broadcast the news (I cheated - I read the English version of the Swedish newspaper The Local Sweden http://www.thelocal.se/ ) what about the man who survived two months stuck in his car in a snowdrift in Northern Sweden. Although emaciated and hardly able to move, he survived just on snow and the fact that being surrounded by snow kept him insulated. He was found by two snow boarders. Lucky guy, he should buy a lottery ticket.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Be Prepared

2012-02-11T12:45:00.001Z

A picture from the inside of my car window this morning.

If you hail (excuse the pun) from outside the UK, you might notice that us Brits love to talk about the weather. I'm not sure why and I know that when extremes of weather hit, it doesn't matter where in the world you come from, it's a real talking point. Perhaps as a nation of shop-keepers (a disparaging remark - according to the French) and farmers (a proud statement - according to me) the weather is so important. There are a couple of blogging friends who live and work on farms and the weather I guess is crucial to planning, cost and ultimate success and perhaps survival as a business.

We've had our second spell of snowy weather in the last few days and although a lot of the snow has gone, huge blankets of snow still adorn open spaces but the weather is now so cold. Side roads and footpaths remain firmly frozen and covered in packed ice. Friends are blogging and Facebooking that they are experiencing minus 10 and minus 12 degrees Celsius last night as the skies cleared. My car clock showed minus 5 degrees at 10 o'clock this morning.

The weather of course affects our every day life and whether you are in 30 degrees of sun or minus 30 degrees of frost, you adapt everything accordingly. We dress accordingly, we heat or cool our homes accordingly, we make travel plans accordingly and many aspects of our behaviour change when we have an extreme of weather that is unexpected.

For example, just taking a typical day this week:

I get up half an hour earlier to make sure I have time to clean the car of frost and ice and take extra time for my journey to work to get me there safely.
I often wait until I get to work to have breakfast, but this time I made and ate porridge before I left the house.
I look up the weather forecast on the Internet before I leave.
The house heating is adjusted up to make sure there are no problems. The scarf and hat and gloves are dug out of the cupboard and a sturdier pair of shoes are used. Jumpers are worn throughout the day even at work in the office.
A hot meal at lunch and tea for energy and warmth (which I think is probably a myth anyway).
Close the curtains early and close internal doors to maintain warmth.
Extra sheet on the bed, central heating on for an extra couple of hours a day.

Much of this costs more and takes more time and with over one million homes in fuel poverty this year in the UK (low income, high fuel price, poor energy efficiency and low occupancy), my thoughts are very much with those who are struggling to cope with the weather.

So, sorry to rattle on about the weather but keep warm - or cool depending on where you live and ALWAYS be prepared.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Chill Out and Slow Down

2012-02-05T14:26:00.003Z

I guess pictures of snow and tales of how it affects us will be plentiful on the Internet - well this is no different!

Our first substantial snow fall for the winter came overnight last night (Saturday into Sunday) and we had about 4 inches (10cm) give or take a cat's whisker.

I was clearing the driveway with a new snow shovel that we bought a few months ago in the expectation of yet another bad winter and today, it had it's first outing. Lovely neighbours came over and said hello as they headed out for a walk and they had just returned from Spain yesterday, not quite sure which part, but they said the snow was all about them on the hills and mountains and the temperature was minus 1 degree Celsius as they walked along the sea shore in a bitterly cold wind.

Their parting shot as I was leaning on my snow shovel was that they had had an acquaintance a while back who was clearing snow from the drive and he had a heart attack. Just want I wanted to hear! Cheers. I felt like a sit down after that.

Indeed many people have lost their lives after severe and unexpected snow fall in central and eastern Europe with the BBC reporting a loss of over 200 lives. Canals in Venice have begun to freeze over and a town in the Netherlands has had its coldest night for 27 years. Even the sea in southern England had begun to freeze on the shoreline.

And yet we mostly like the snow whilst looking at it through the window. I have a certain attraction to it and I'm not sure why, probably from my childhood when I would spend hours in the snow and not think anything of it until my fingers hurt with the cold through holding onto too many snowballs or building snowmen. But it does cause hardship and disruption; I just wish we were all chilled enough in this country (excuse the pun) to sit back, let life slow down and enjoy it rather than forcing ourselves to travel, to go to work or to the shops or just out for a jolly.

The picture above was taken this morning of my Yew tree and what an unusual shape the snow had moulded the branches into, I've never seen it shaped like that before.

Wrap up warm!

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Romantic Cup

2012-01-29T15:55:00.002Z

I hope this overcast Sunday is treating you all well? As is my usual tradition, welcome new follower Andy Hill who says of himself: "Lifetime career in IT, Had Stroke in November 2010, Now disabled." Read his blog here and I am interested that he's had a Reiki treatment and felt some benefit. Welcome sir.

Now for those of you that know nothing about football and there will be many, in England and Wales - the Football Association Cup (FA Cup) is a special time in sport. I'll explain why its special shortly but did you know (Michael Caine impression) that the FA Cup was first played for in 1871/72 season. The Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1 - 0.

Now the FA Cup is a knock-out competition and pits the giants against the minnows - its an all in competition where all standards of footballing teams from minor leagues and the Premiership come together in sport to put a leather ball in a net. This means of course that like every American has the ability to become President, every club in the country has the ability to get to the cup final and over the years there have been spectacular upsets where giants have been well and truly toppled.

Yesterday, Crawley Town in the second division and 45 places below their rivals, beat Hull City from the Championship 0-1. This is a great achievement for the Crawley Team when the statistics suggested this should never of happened. What this does is give the team and supporters hope and many will remember that great victory for many years and will be subject of much discussion over a pint.

Crawley Town will now play in round five against Premiership team Stoke City with the opportunity for a bit of extra income and a chance to topple another giant in football.

My son Ben is home from University this weekend, celebrating his 21st Birthday a couple of weeks late because on his birthday - he had exams! Lovely to see him and he's got a new pair of glasses and has a Johnny Depp look now. If only he was a few quid behind him.

I went to see the Iron Lady with Meryl Streep playing the eponymous former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher the other night and I'm not sure what I was going to make of it. Politically, I was neutral about it, after all this is a bio-pic about someones life. It was a stunning performance by Streep superbly supported by Jim Broadbent as her husband Dennis.

This was a film done in flashback and was done sympathetically to someone who appears to have the early signs of dementia. I have to say that this is highly recommended although it's leaving the cinemas this week, and a supporting cast to die for. Certificated at 12A, don't bring your kids to see this or buy them the DVD - they'll be bored to tears. This isn't the usual review I'd do I guess because it's not a populist film, but Streep is an Oscar contender for this performance.

It's a very grey day today despite some morning sun and a frost last night and it has a distinctly snowy feel about it.

I hope you have a great week ahead.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Chūn Jié - Happy (Chinese) New Year

2012-01-22T17:03:00.000Z

It's about to become the Chinese New Year and celebrations are going on around the world. Known as the Spring Festival - 春節, the Chinese traditionally spend 15 days seeing in their New Year - what a way to celebrate! There are also many many traditional customs that go on and this is wonderful that such a culture exists.

You can read about the variety of tasks undertaken, beliefs as well as cultural and traditional celebrations on Wikipedia. It seems to give far more meaning than western celebration and much more deep seated in their family, community and social life.

This year, starting 23 January 2012 is the Chinese year of the Dragon. I was born in the year of the Rooster. Some contrast to a Dragon eh?

The Dragon is seen as a force for power and good luck; a divine beast - the very opposite of the nasty animal devouring village maidens and often subject of slaying in spectacular and heroic myth. There is a sense of freedom with the Dragon and a reluctance to live by strict rules.

The BBC has some great and colourful pictures of the preparations for the celebrations here.

Well despite my moaning yesterday about the lack of sight of spring bulbs, one of my perennials in one of the tubs has decided to have a showing of gorgeous purple flower (pictured above) - perhaps as a consolation.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

S'no Show

2012-01-21T13:49:00.000Z

Should I be concerned or not? I don't want to cause alarm or send the balloon up, but...

...none of the daffodils or other spring bulbs are showing above ground yet. Last year, they were peeping through holes in the snow at this time. No snow this year yet no sign of them.

Sunrise

I was pleased to see the success of Bradford born David Hockney in his exhibition which seems to have caused quite a stir. The stir is around the beauty of his chosen home county - East Yorkshire and his representations of our lovely landscape - something which I have often commented upon. A landscape not rugged nor mountainous, but green and rolling with pleasant views - just delightful rather than spectacular.

It's not a well kept secret to those who inhabit the area, particularly in the Wolds around Driffield (just a few miles north of me) and for those who pass through it, but unlike some - I don't worry about it now being overrun with tourists trying to spot Hockney's subjects. There's enough during the summer months, but the rest of the year, the locals have it to themselves; it can be inhospitable when the weather turns bad.

Sunset

I captured a couple of pictures last week (above) of a sunrise from the front door step leaving the house for work and a sunset leaving work for home the same day. Notice the difference in colours which I thought was interesting; the rich deep pink of morning sunlight and the deep yellow brightness of the sunset with a huge sun magnified by the winter moisture in the atmosphere.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Skeleton in the Cupboard or Dark Secret?

2012-01-14T18:22:00.001Z

I've been inspired by inspirational fellow blogger Jarmara to write about a family secret I found a few years ago whilst doing my family history. It doesn't involve millions of pounds in treasure or illicit affairs with princesses, just a very sad secret that prevented a family knowing the simple truth about a loved one.

John William Mayes (pictured above) was my great grandfather. He had eight children including my grandmother, now deceased, Connie. Born in Hull, I've never really found out what John did for a living but when I started my family history many years ago, I asked my grandmother about the family to set me off and she told me that her father John had been killed in an accident on the railway on Hull docks around 1925. He had been hit on the head by something falling off a load being carried by a crane.

Quite specific information about John and when the time came to do some serious research, I started the quest to find out something about him in order to fit him into the tree. No computers to speak of in those days, so letters were written to the docks company and to British Rail and trips to the local history library to check the local newspapers were certain to have covered the bases and information would be forthcoming in short time. Or so I thought. In fact all the enquiries I made drew a blank. The family confirmed the story of a death by accident on the docks.

John's home was on Hessle Road in Hull, in an era which was a difficult time for the country and for the hard working but relatively poor close knit community close to the docks, the heart of the city's enterprise in those days. Many of the husbands and sons were away on trawlers or worked on the docks and the wives ran the home and were the real power in the family if truth were told.

No dole, if you didn't work, you struggled - money was tight but grandmother always said how happy she had been with her brothers and sisters in their two bedroomed terraced house. House's were left unlocked at night because people were trusted and everyone knew each other's business, so not a lot happened without the female population knowing about it.

1925 - a pint of milk cost 3d (about 1.5 new pence today) and King George V was on the throne. The average weekly male wage was £5.

Despite looking at death records and any and all sources that were available in those days, there was no luck in finding John and as a consequence, I could do no more on that side of the family.

Hull had and still has its own register office and registration area known as Kingston upon Hull to use its Sunday name. I was pottering around the Hull City Council archives helping my brother-in-law do his family history when I thought I'd have a look at some index cards during a break from reading old court records.

There was a Mayes - William John - names the wrong way around but it didn't matter. The reference was to a a place called Willerby Asylum which was situated outside of the Hull boundary in the East Riding of Yorkshire which has its own separate registration district. I asked the archivist for the relevant book indicated by the index card.

A large red leather bound book was brought to me with hundreds of entries of deaths. There - in 1925 was the death of William John Mayes - cerebral softening. John had died in a mental asylum, aged 35 with his youngest child just 8 months old at his former home being looked after with all the other children. The registration of his death was in another area and clearly the incident on the docks was a fabrication. Other records indicated that he had been in a workhouse elsewhere in Hull in the months before his death, often doubled as a hospital in those days.

The reason the book was in the Hull City Council archives is because the Council owned the asylum as most of the patients were from Hull even though it was in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

On the one hand, (and family historians will know what I mean) there was a sense of triumph, a sense of achievement in finding this elusive man. On the other hand, an ancestor had died in a mental asylum which, when linked to the status of his family and the economic situation at the time was so desperately sad.

Clearly, the stigma of the workhouse and mental illness was too much to bear for the family and therefore their embarassment or perhaps shame even, was hidden from the world including John's own family.

Here's the thing. My grandmother, his daughter was still alive at the time as was (and still is) many descendents of John. Do I tell them or do I not? My grandmother was elderly and not in good health. What would be the point - what would it achieve? I wasn't a spiritualist in those days, but I do recall thinking that she would find out when she meets him in whatever place dead spirits go to. I didn't tell her and I didn't tell my dad for many years.

Today Willerby Asylum no longer exists in the same guise with all the old buildings gone. What survives is a small church which belonged to the asylum (now the Haltemprice Crematorium) and a tiny overgrown graveyard. A secure centre for the mentally ill is nearby, a modern building of no great architectural value.

Grandmother was brought up without her father as a teenager but she said that her mother made do. She did odd jobs, took in some net mending in the back yard and there was always food on the table.

I hope you found that interesting - it was a long standing and sometimes frustrating search for me, but I'm glad he's now part of the family in the tree.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

To be Classed with Idiots and Children!

2012-01-14T12:04:00.005Z

What a glorious day here in sunny East Yorkshire; bright sunshine, frost all over, no breeze and bracingly cold! Today has started well and yesterday (Friday the 13th) seemed to go without a hitch thank goodness. Where we live in the rise, we seem to attract most of everybody elses leaves as the breeze brings them our way and dumps them on our drive. It's no problem to clear but our brown recycling bin is now full.

The bird feeders are full and I've noticed that this year, the berries from the trees and bushes are nearly exhausted. Now for us, this is a little strange because in previous years, including the last two heavy snow years, there have been plenty of berries left in the spring which eventually rotted away particularly the pyracantha. Even the pigeons have been perching on the very prickly pyracantha eating the gloriously orange coloured berries in the last couple of months. This is slightly odd only because it's been so comparatively mild. Perhaps there's a nature logic I'm missing.

The tragic capsizing of the cruise ship Costa Concordia off the west coast of Italy is bad news and thank goodness only three people lost their lives - bad enough but could have been a huge lot worse. When I looked at the news late last night, the ship was reported to have run aground on a sandbank and only had a 20 degree list. Today's pictures show the ship on its side. BBC News.

In the 1911 Census of England and Wales, Clara Lucas, a lady of private means from Darlington in the north east of England stated in the 'infirmity' column that she was "vote less, therefore classed with idiots and children." This is incredibly bold for the time and needless to say, this straight talking women was born in Yorkshire! You can see this on at FindMyPast

I hope you have a great weekend - stay warm!

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Super-Duper Tram

2012-01-12T17:02:00.001Z

It's been one of those strange weeks in that I've not been in the office nor at home much. During the day, I've been travelling about all over and by the time this week is over, I will have included Wakefield and Sheffield to the list of places visited - and all on business. In fact I have just half of one day sat behind my desk. On a night time, I've been to my normal weekly psychic development circle, a birthday party for a friend in her seventies, a psychic philosophy meeting and a meditation night. I have slept well!

One of my trips, with a colleague to Sheffield was interesting because I had a new experience and that was to travel on a Sheffield Supertram. The roads into Sheffield are a nightmare as usual because of the volume and that was after the normal rush hour and the roads themselves are in a terrible condition and very badly worn out. However once into the city, we parked at a 'park and ride' and we caught a Supertram to the heart of the city where we wanted to be - a place that is both difficult to get around and a nightmare to find a parking space in.

I never had time to walk around the city centre so I have no idea what kind of place Sheffield is although it has a rich history, but I was heartily impressed with the tram. Electrified, running on rails, modern, clean, tidy, with a conductor too collecting what seemed like a modest fare for a ten minute uninterrupted ride. Automated announcements informed the passengers where the next stop is and signs, just like the London underground make it clear what stops are on the journey.

Well done Sheffield - this has to be the way forward to get people out of cars in city centres, reduce carbon emissions and expensive parking costs and not forgetting - city centre driving stress and hassle.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Inspired by Old Street Names

2012-01-09T18:56:00.002Z

I work on the outskirts of Hull, a city I don't live in but have been associated with for all of my life through family history connections and work for the most part. It's a city to either not care much for or to love and there's not a lot in between but it does have history and a culture that's pretty unique like every other town and city that is a few centuries old (thirteenth century or earlier in Hull's case).

I had some meetings in the city centre today and in order to get home, I had to take a short cut through the old town, a place close to my heart and where I worked many years ago. It has been transformed in recent years and the City Council have worked hard at making it cleaner and bringing it up to date, but there are still woeful signs of tiredness. Shops are closing because of new huge shopping malls and only offices are keeping the old town together.

Anyway, I digress. Travelling through the old town along High Street which still retains cobbles in places by the way I witnessed signs for staithes and roads which no longer exist but which the council, wisely retained the street signs for to mark the spots of the original lanes. A staithe by the way comes from the Norse for 'landing stage' and the staithes consisted of many small lanes which led down to the River Hull, at one stage the third busiest port in the UK a couple of centuries ago importing and exporting wool and wine (and other things like whale meat and oil) from the many warehouses along the river.

Today the signs that I saw were Rotenhering Staithe and opposite, Dagger Lane. The history books argue about the etymology of the name and frankly no-one is quite so sure, however there was a John Rotenheryng who was a tenant to the Monks of Meaux Abbey (north of Hull) and had a ship the Goodyear which used to berth on the River Hull in the early 1300s trading wool. However other 'Rotenherings' - name spelt differently - also lived in the old town at the same time. John did give his name to a wharf in the location from which the Barton (North Lincolnshire) ferry used to run from across the mighty Humber.

Street Sign (added 12/01/12)

Fanciful thoughts of and the no doubt disgusting smell of rotten herrings and the connection of fish to the town are too good to be true! I have witnessed first hand the smell of fish dumped on Hull's former fish dock, not good enough for the table but to be made into fish meal. I've seen big hardy lorry drivers being physically sick at the smell - I came close on many occasions!

Dagger Lane is interesting to me, only because as a young child, my wife's grandmother lived or worked down there with her family. It used to be called Hutchinson's Lane in centuries past when Hull was but a new born. Where 'Dagger' comes from may remain perhaps a dark secret of more violent times, although history of churches and meeting rooms in Dagger Lane can be found in the archives.

There are other wonderful street names such as Whitefriargate (the home of White Friars) and Blackfriargate (guess whose home that was) where clothes and food were left for plague victims.

Finally for now, The Land of Green Ginger (pictured left - showing the old and new in the same picture) is a street name that locals know well which today has offices, pubs, estate agents and eating places. According to sources, again the name's origin has disappeared into obscurity but may have simply been a trading place of medieval ginger, or belonged to a Dutch family Lindegreen who lived in the area or perhaps 'Landgrave Granger' meaning a footpath to the property of the Landgrave family. Who knows, it's best left with an air of mystery around it.

Are there any strange road names near you?

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Waspish!

2012-01-02T10:59:00.000Z

It's a Bank Holiday here in the UK because New Years Day, a Bank Holiday fell on a Sunday - so an extra day off. Indeed, looking out of the window this morning, it's a glorious sunny day with just a hint of breeze. Gale force winds and heavy rain tomorrow - joy!

I've been keeping my compost heap going with vegetable peelings from the kitchen and that goes towards making a solid start to get the heap going again when the weather starts to get slightly warmer. Imagine my surprise the other day when I put some peelings in the heap to discover several wasps just sitting there among the peelings, not moving. This is the first time in the many years I've had a heap that I've noticed this.

In fact wasps hibernating was not something I had ever considered before but according to the research I've done that's exactly what some of them do. What's more there are over 100,000 species of wasp. Now I hate wasps. I make no secret of the fact and indeed would admit that I run a mile when one is about. I don't mind bees at all, but wasps - no thanks. I always used to say "What's the point of a wasp?" They are just a blooming nuisance.

Although I've seen this on a few nature programmes over the years, it dawned on me that they do us a small service by laying their eggs inside our insect pests. In turn this kills the pests as the wasp larvae eat their insides or when they emerge. Delightful. So instead of hating wasps 100%, I now only hate them 90%. Nature is wonderful but sometimes can be amazingly nasty.

Its a reading day today - a 'me' day. It's a no chore day, although I have already emptied the dishwasher, made a cup of tea for her indoors who is still in bed (it might prompt her to make me one while I'm in bed now and then); put the rubbish in the recycling bins; fed the fish and fussed the cats. Mind you - I'm half asleep so it might have been fussed the fish and fed the cats.

So have a great day wherever you are - working or resting.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Mission Impossible?

2012-01-01T17:08:00.002Z

As is always my routine, I welcome a new follower, Jonathan from East Yorkshire who is very welcome indeed. In truth I have known Jonathan for many years and he is a wonderful man of dry wit and intelligence. Hopefully, he will be starting his own blog soon.

New Years day - my second post and for a very good reason. A dear friend and I went to the cinema today to see Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol, and I have to say, if it doesn't come close to getting film of the year, I would be very surprised and disappointed.

Rated 12A, this is not a film for young children in my humble view - there are lots of shootings and fighting although no gore or anything but don't let the kids see it. The film was fast and furious from the start to finish with great performances from Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Simon Pegg - his electronic wizard side kick and fellow agents played by Jeremy Renner and Paula Patten.

There is a decent story behind the breathtaking action which at times literally had you holding your breath - it was extraordinarily tense at times. Ethan Hunt is the leader of a small band of unofficial agents sent on missions impossible - "Your mission, should you chose to accept it..." in this case to stop a megalomaniac from destroying the world by starting a nuclear war. No spoilers so you'll have to see it to get the plot, but I thoroughly recommend this one.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

2012 - Happy New Year

2012-01-01T11:04:00.000Z

To all my blogging friends and visitors - from East Yorkshire in the UK.

I hope that your journey through 2012 will be touched by kindness, inspired by wisdom; graced with love and understanding; I hope you are kept safe and secure; I wish you happiness; joy in everything you see and do and experience; I hope you find treasures, peace and good health.

All my love

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Was it a Cracker for You?

2011-12-28T20:33:00.000Z

I hope you have all had a pleasant and relaxing Christmas if you celebrate it and if not - the season's greetings.

The festivities are all but done here bar the shouting for the New Year and that will come and go without celebration as it has done for many a long year in this household. It's just a date. Christmas has been fine, quiet and familified (is there such a word?) Dinner was good and the cracker jokes perennially poor. The fact that they are so groaningly poor is a laugh in itself. Is that irony? The company was excellent and television switched off while we all played card and board games.

I don't watch much television, but those who do watch it have said that the season's offerings have been poor. I was very disappointed in David Jason's new offering The Royal Bodyguard on BBC TV. It was very predictable and the simplistic script was not conducive to showing Jason's talent. Ray's of light came in the guise of Morecambe and Wise Christmas show repeats but, why oh why is it that shows that are 40 years old (1971 and 1976) are providing us with entertainment and a genuine laugh?

I've had a sort of lethargy where the Internet is concerned hence why my blog has been sparsely populated - I'm trying to spend less time on-line (and spend less on line too!) With having just the Bank Holidays off work and working the rest of the time, life has been quiet and routine. The weather has been dull and unimaginative for the time of year. A friend, Bryan Moiser once said as a tag line for his blog (and I paraphrase) "If there ain't anything worth saying, don't say it." So rather than fill this blog with fill-in, I haven't said it. Even the camera has been solemnly resting in its black case - no scene to capture.

I suppose that's left more time for reflection. The BBC, in their usual style look back at the people we have lost in 2011 and their excellent slide show is well worth watching. 9 minutes of education on who has passed this year from the world of entertainment and my God, have we lost some talent:

Singer Amy Winehouse, actor extraordinary Pete Postlethwaite, composer John Barry (007), Sir Jimmy Savile, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, director Ken Russell, writer John Sullivan (Only Fools and Horses), comedy writer David Croft (Hi-de-Hi, Are you Being Served & Dad's Army), Peter Falk (Columbo), forces sweetheart, actress Jane Russell, singer Billie Jo Spears, actress and comedienne Janet Brown, one of my favourite actors Edward Hardwicke (Dr Watson to Jeremy Brett's Sherlock), actress Susannah York and many more.

These people have been, at some stage in our homes through the magic of television or radio and we see or hear them or in some cases see or hear the result of their talents (in the case of the magnificently talented writers). They will be sadly missed not only by their families but by the public. A generation of people slowly disappearing.

I've seen a couple of films lately which were ok too but which I have not felt the energy to review - perhaps I have that SAD (I don't think so) but short days - going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark doesn't help does it? Energy levels are dramatically low.

Sherlock Holmes, A Game of Shadows (12A) was a good piece of escapism and after a slow start, was quite enjoyable. It's difficult not to like Robert Downey Jnr. Antonio Banderas as Puss - in - Boots (put a dramatic pause after 'Puss'), a spin off from Shrek and rated PG, was also fun and undemanding.

Shall I have New Year's resolutions or not? That is the question. Mostly, I've kept to them in the past, most famously for losing weight and for ramping up my spiritual work. Not sure whether or not to go for it this year.

By the way, here's a question for Google. Why doesn't the spell checker for this blog recognise the word 'blog?' More Irony?

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Feeling Christmassy - At Last

2011-12-18T23:16:00.000Z

What a weekend of joy, frivolity and mayhem (of the best sort). The weather has shown it's true winter colour here of white - frost that is, on our cars and gardens and today, where the sun did not reach, the frost lasted all day.

Saturday saw a 50th birthday party for a good friend Linda which was organised for a local pub and the theme of the party was sixties and seventies dress and music and this worked wonderfully well. It was a great night with a great singer, a solo female and lovely company. There were straight laced professional people dressed as hippies, sixties fashion Mary Quant type dressed (some deliciously short) and one extraordinarily huge Afro wig. There were pinks and flower patterns, ban the bomb emblems, dark round John Lennon glasses, jaunty hats and frankly a fantastic time was had by all. I never drank a drop of alcohol and enjoyed it all the more because I was in control and danced the night away (and didn't suffer physically surprisingly), something I haven't done for many years. A night that will live in the memory for a long time.

Sunday was all the more poignant and somewhat emotional as firstly I went with a friend to support her as she laid wreaths of remembrance on her husband's and father's grave. Then on Sunday evening, I went with the same friend to the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at the Holy Trinity Church in Hull - the main church in the old town of Hull. Not the most senior church, but large, expansive and looking much better for renovations internally.

Holy Trinity after the Candlelit Service

Some of my ancestors were baptised and married and dispatched in this church, yet, it was only the second time I've ever been in it and this was the first service in it I had ever attended. The service was by candlelight with just the lights of the Christmas Tree to show there was any electricity in the Church at all. The carols were traditional: Once in Royal David's City, It Came upon the Midnight Clear, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Away in a Manger, Shepherds (wash their socks by night) and Hark the Herald Angels Sing. The nine readings were short but told the Christmas story from the Bible.

The choir rendered some more traditional winter anthems of celebration such as Psallite Unigenito, I Saw a Fair Maiden, In the Bleak Midwinter, Sir Christemas, and the organist finished with the magnificent In Dulce Jubilo by Bach. Tea and mince pies were to be had in the vestry although in this I did not participate. Instead I went for a walk along the dark and chill river Humber at the Horsewash in the old town for a few minutes contemplation. Looking east, the picture below is the famous (locally anyway) The Deep - a huge aquarium, the building of which is shaped like a huge shark.

The Deep - lit against a dark winter's sky

It's many years since I've been to a midnight service - many of them were stopped because of drunks in the nineteen eighties but that means that the services are now more for families and this is a wonderful thing. It was indeed a wonderful atmosphere and thoroughly enjoyable and gave me a chance to exercise the vocal chords.

So two lots of exercise this weekend, dancing and singing. I am now officially in the Christmas mood. I have already finished the the first two parts of Dicken's Christmas Carol, something that I do traditionally and have done for more years than I can recall now; Marley has shown up, rattled his chains and gone to wander the world in torment and the ghost of Christmas past has taken Ebeneezer on the first part of his journey of redemption.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Chilly Day Blues

2011-12-10T12:03:00.001Z

I hope I find everyone well and in the northern hemisphere coping with the colder weather? Hardest frost of the year for us this morning and even now at 12 noon, there is still a lot of frost where the sun hasn't reached. The leaves above are in the road outside the house.

A shopping trip to Sainsburys this morning made me laugh (other supermarkets are available to laugh in). We use Clover 'butter' because it's quite versatile although I prefer real butter. A 1kg tub of Clover (which we normally buy) was marked at £3.70. Buy two 500g tubs for £3.00. I always thought buying bigger saves you money? Now there's no blaming Sainsburys here, it's all clearly marked but it's a good job we check the pricing labels first.

The Christmas tree goes up this afternoon and I'm going to take a time lapse film of the event to astound and astonish you (gives you something to do - don't complain.)

The berries are in abundance this year. Don't forget this is because of a good spring rather than a bad winter predicted but the birds don't care, the blackbirds are eating them like they are going out of fashion.

How's your preparation for Christmas going? Do you celebrate it at all? I've mostly done now (my wife doesn't celebrate Christmas) I just have a few cards to write. Most of the few prezzies I buy are sourced on-line and delivered to the door. The rest I get from the supermarket when I'm doing some shopping. The tree is the only 'decoration' we put up - the good thing is there's less to take down. My mistake this year was not to do some prepared hyacinths because coming down in the morning to the most delicious smell known to man (well this man anyway) is a lovely experience.

On Sunday (11th), I'm taking the Angel goods stall to an 'alternative Christmas gift fair' at the Memorial Hall in Beverley in East Yorkshire. We were pre-warned that the hall does get cold even inside so I'll be wrapping up!

Enjoy your weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Hector Christmas

2011-12-08T16:58:00.001Z

Meet Hector.

He has pride of place in the centre of my meeting table in my office at work. I think I might leave him there all year round. Although a Christmas feeling has yet to emerge, we aren't far away and for the first time since we've been in this house we have a real Christmas tree this year and apparantly the needles do not drop - allegedly. I bought it last weekend and its been stood in a bucket of water for a week and it will be up and dressed on Saturday. Traditionally, one of the lads will dress it (under supervision).

I hope that the people of Northern Ireland and Scotland and northern England remain safe after a report of a gust of wind up to 130 miles per hour in what has been the stormiest day for a long while. Snow and other wintry weather is forecast for the weekend. We've just had gusty winds and a bit of rain here.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Packed Away for the Winter

2011-12-03T15:16:00.001Z

Another busy week this week but less hectic which has been pleasant, a chance to re-charge the batteries. Today has been spent in the garden pruning shrubs, cutting back and giving it a final clean up before the winter finally comes to us. With moving leaves from the borders, I was revealing ground not seen for a few weeks and hiding places for bugs, the wild birds have come flocking back into the garden. Just today sat having a sandwich for lunch, in half an hour I saw: blackbird, thrush, collared dove, blue tit, coal tit, wren (x2), robin, crow, wood pigeon, dunnock and goldfinch.

I have mostly emptied the compost bin and as I was emptying it, I noticed lots of tiny yellow maggots in one place in the compost. I stopped to have the obligatory break and a robin who had been watching me closely, swooped down and helped him/herself to an unexpected but I guess welcome meal. The compost was full of works which are now hopefully working on the borders with the new compost.

The grass has had its winter treatment, the buddleia davidii has been pruned to stop damage from wind rock and the roses have had the same. Leaves have been cleaned from the gutters and ponds and the pond pumps have had their last clean of the year. I keep the water falls running all winter to provide running water, surface movement and oxygen for the fish. It also makes sure there is a hole in any ice that forms. We've just started to have one or two light frosts, enough to ensure I have to clean the car windscreen in the mornings.

The advent calendars are now being used with 3 choccies eaten. I bought my lads one each as I try to most years and this year a friend bought me one too with a Thomas the Tank Engine theme. I have to say I was tickled by this choice of calendar theme because once as a parent of young children, we used to watch Thomas and his friends on television and on video every day. I could once name all the engines - not now I don't suppose.

Advent calendars come from the nineteenth century in Germany when Lutherans would count the days down to Christmas Day by chalking off the days on the door beginning on the 1st December. The first printed advent calendar hails from Germany in the first years of the twentieth century.

Whilst the calendars are largely made for children these days (including the odd adult like me), advent events including the lighting of candles can still be found in some churches.

I've already been on one Christmas evening dinner with my lovely psychic/philosophy group at a Chinese restaurant. We had a banquet, something I've never done before and tasted a wide variety of foods and I was quite brave and mostly used chopsticks although in the end, the fork became handy.

I see that the snows have already been causing some problems in Scotland, last year, we had widespread snow which caused us a lot of disruption. We are now, at last beginning to see more traditional cold weather with daytime temperatures tomorrow predicted at 5 degrees Celsius - this follows the second mildest British autumn on record (MET Office: September to November).

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Chatsworth Weekend

2011-11-27T20:42:00.001Z

Chatsworth House

It's nine days since my last blog and a good blogging friend even e-mailed me to see if I was okay. That is very kind sir, a considerate thing to do. Life has been hairily busy and every night out doing something or other, my weekends a slave to domesticity and hobby. Well this weekend 26/27th I was away on a coach trip weekend to get away; to declare a break from my world. I went to Derby, stayed overnight between Derby and Nottingham and spent Sunday at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, the ancestral home of the Earls and Dukes of Devonshire.

I have noticed however, despite the mildest November since records began, it was desperately cold in the chill wind this weekend.

River Derwent, Derby

It's one of the few cities I can't recall visiting in my life and although I've been to Derbyshire many times, Derby has eluded me - until now. It was a pleasant place and a straight forward city centre with old and new mixed. The new is an eclectic mix of steel and concrete and some of it jars because as you drive to the city centre, it is rather more modern than old on the outskirts. We passed the twisted spire of Chesterfield during the weekend and frankly I am amazed it still stands.

Eagle Indoor Market, Derby

Derby has a large and pleasant shopping centre next to the new bus station and a covered indoor market which was less impressive. Lunch was at a national franchise food outlet in the shopping centre which was adequate and afternoon tea was in a lovely cafe on a city centre street. The hotel was perfectly adequate and actually very good value for money - the meals were very good both on Saturday evening and breakfast Sunday morning. The hotel was the Novotel between Nottingham and Derby.

Newly Christmas Decorated Great Dining Room

Sunday saw us visit Chatsworth House and we got there early after getting up at stupid o'clock because the coach driver said that there was a Christmas Market at Chatsworth and the previous week had seen traffic from hell. There was no market and we were first there having arrived through glorious Peak District countryside bathed in misty morning sunlight. The advantage was we were first through the gate. Disappointingly, some of the house was closed because they were putting Christmas decorations up in the upper floors so we were confined to the ground floor. In addition, because of work to the masonry, half the house was shuttered off on the outside with safety sheeting while the stone work is subject to acid treatment to clean it. We never saw the famous violin.

Great Chamber

What we saw however was magnificent. Exceptional paintings both in frams and on walls and ceilings including a Leonardo Davinci which looked as fresh as if it had just been painted and classical sculptures abounded. The decor was magnificent, opulent and very well cared for. The house was themed and each room had different and magnificent Christmas decorations and a carol playing. Local schools had provided some of the decorations which was a lovely touch. It provided much atmosphere.

Marble Bust in the Sculpture Gallery with Christmas Decorations

The funny thing was that the grounds were so large and extensive, we would never have had time to walk round them, so we took a buggy tour for three quid (£3.00 or 3.5 Euros or $4.63) for half an hour. We were sat on the back seat looking rearward and therefore everything the guide who was driving said "...and look to your right and you will see..." was actually to our left. How confusing and sadly we missed some of the sights. But it was funny remembering his left was our right.

Part of the intricate garden displays

There is much to see and do at this magnificent house and grounds - there is no other word for it - magnificent and beautiful too. However, if I have just one negative observation, unlike the less famous Sledmere House we visited which I mentioned in the blog a few months ago which was a family home and adored clearly as a home - you could tell, Chatsworth just lacked that personal touch of a 'home' that it clearly still is with the 12th Duke still living there. It is a national treasure and all very professional but not 'lived in.' Does that make sense?

The Cascade

I would heartily recommend a visit. I did this tour by National Express holidays and it was £60 (69.95 Euros or $92.62) for Saturday in Derby and Sunday at Chatsworth. It included bed, breakfast and evening meal and the ticket into Chatsworth. This was good value for money. Other tour operators are available.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

To Early for Christmas?

2011-11-18T15:29:00.001Z

Well, I've gone and done it now. No return from the brink. Precedents set, people surprised and amazed. What on earth am I talking about? My colleague Ellie and I have put our office Christmas decorations up! Here's the proof. We both sit in an alcove at the back of a larger office so we decided just to decorate the alcove where we sit.

I went to see The Adventures of TinTin (The Secret of the Unicorn) the other night and what a thoroughly enjoyable piece of animated nonsense this is. This is Spielberg at his adventurous best with a good story, rollicking adventure - Indiana Jones style and animation to marvel at. This movie is an adaptation of the Belgian comic book series The Adventures of Tintin created by the Belgian artist Georges Rémi, who wrote under the pen name of Hergé. Who remembers the TV series that always started with a man's rather strained, dramatic and excited voice at the beginning announcing: "Hergé's... Adventures... of TinTin?"

The film, quite rightly is rated PG for some violence (nothing graphic), the drunkenness of Captain Haddock and someone lighting a cigarette. This is thoroughly recommended and the whole show was stolen by the wonderful animation and character of Captain Haddock superbly voiced by Andy Serkis. Daniel Craig (007) is excellent and nasty as the villain Ivanovich Sakharine.

My weekend is partly planned because with my 'business' partner Linda, we have our second Angel gift ware stall 'Touched by Angels', this time at the Royal Station Hotel in Hull on Saturday in support of Dove House Hospice, a wonderful organisation.

Have a great weekend

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Grey Weekend

2011-11-13T19:51:00.001Z

It's been one of those grey raw days today - sky never clears, no sun but no rain either.

Never-the-less, it's been a busy day considering I was intending to rest and do not a great deal. I did the paper review on BBC Radio Humberside Andy Comfort's Sunday Brunch (this link lasts seven days only) between 10.00 and 12 noon today. This is just relaxed fun and a chat using the papers as a prompt. I got three out of five in the weekly news quiz he gives all his Sunday guests and despite some real technical problems the station was having, the programme went ahead using old fashioned DJ skills rather than the electronic all singing all dancing technical approach to modern broadcasting.

The BBC have an initiative called Britain in a Day. I've submitted a time lapse video to them (above), no doubt one of many thousands using a snapshot of my day. Have a look at the site, the result should be very interesting.

Have a great week ahead.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

It's all Context

2011-11-12T11:58:00.001Z

It's the 12th November 2011 and it's only my second blog of the month - not good enough. Mind you it has been been busy and I had to take time off in the middle of the week because I wasn't well but all is back on track. So much to tell so I'll try to do it chronological order.

After my arrival back from my Mediumship course on Saturday last week, I went to the pictures on Sunday night to see Paranormal Activity 3, the prequel to the first two films. I'm not going to do a review because unless you've seen the films or are interested in the genre, it would be fairly meaningless, but if you have, it's worth seeing.

I don't like first day back at work on Monday after time off - I never have although rather surprisingly I only had 50 e-mails which is good and no surprises which is also good. I had a memory flashback on Tuesday at work. Although I was starting to feel the first inklings of unwellness, sore throat, spinning head and can't concentrate on anything, like a martyr, I stayed at work. I made a cup of tea for my colleague Ellie and I and I opened a fresh tinfoil pack of tea bags and the smell that came out of them immediately reminded me of opening quarter pound (100g) packs of loose Brook Bond PG Tips tea at home when I was a kid looking for the collectors cards that sat within them. Great memories.

Wednesday came the crunch do I go to work or not? I guess it was all decided when I couldn't get out of bed because my head was spinning like a top. I took a day off. This was not what I am used to. My sickness record is excellent but when it comes to not being able to physically sit up - there's no choice. Anyway, my sickness record is intact because I took a day's leave instead which is ridiculous, but there you go. I cancelled my dental appointment for Thursday because I couldn't face having my loose crown stuck back, not because it's painful, because there isn't any pain, but the keeping open of the mouth with a rasping sore throat and a cough wasn't something I thought I could cope with.

Finally, my son John and I have a photographic exhibition at the Hull History Centre entitled - Kingston-upon-Hull: History in Context

This exhibition presents a series of photographs which combine original black and white photographs from Hull’s past and modern digital images taken from the same vantage point as the original photographer. This was one of the most challenging and enjoyable aspects to this project in finding the original location upon which the photographers of yesteryear stood in order to make it possible for the photographs to be combined.

The photographs taken in 2011 by me were manipulated by John using Photoshop to show elements of what remains of the old city of Hull and combined them with today’s more familiar images. It looks really good and today there are a couple of examples which, if you click on them, will expand for a better view.

It lasts all of November and if you are around Hull - pop in and have a look.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Gunpowder Treason and Plot

2011-11-05T18:48:00.001Z

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November, Gunpowder Treason and Plot." If you've had a bonfire party or been to a display - hope you had a great time.

I'm back home from my Mediumship, Training and Development course at the Arthur Findlay College in Stansted, Essex refreshed and educated having met and enjoyed the company of some wonderful people from around the world.

Just a couple of pictures for you for the time being as I have some catching up to do. The top one is the imposing south facade of the college, Stansted Hall and the one below is just a view of a fraction of the grounds in glorious autumn colour taken this morning before our departure.

I can hear fireworks going off continually outside but our two cats don't seem in the slightest bit bothered. Good to be home.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

I May be Some Time...

2011-10-28T15:13:00.003+01:00

This will be my last post for a while. I'm going away to the Arthur Findlay College in Stansted in Essex for a week on a Mediumship, Training and Development 2 course and as I haven't mastered the art of blogging from my mobile phone, if that's possible (I've only just learned to Tweet and upload pictures to Facebook for goodness sake) I'm having a break from the Internet for a whole week.

It is amazing how I've become to rely on the Internet for news, catching up with friends catching the occasional programme on the iPlayer on some of the BBC TV's more obscure channels and blogging of course. I now bank on line and order most of non food shopping things on-line too. But there'll be a week without it. I'll listen to the radio, BBC Radio 2 in a morning and on tea time to catch snippets of news and life in general. I'll text family and friends but other than that, I'm on my own with my own thoughts and oodles of reading (including a Tommy Cooper joke book, bought for me by a dear friend which is hilarious) to catch up on.

As always, I'll blog you with the adventures once I surface at home.

Catch you in a week - have a good one.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Blank Canvas

2011-10-22T16:21:00.001+01:00

What a lovely pleasant day today. It's been sunny and, for the time of year, quite warm. I managed to have lunch with an old friend, Ian, at a local Italian restaurant and it's great to catch up. Friends are so important.

Today is the first time I've had a look at the new fence because when it was finished yesterday, I arrived home after dark and couldn't see much. It looks good but there will be a lot of work in the spring to start to build up colour and life to work with the new fence. After a request - here's a pic of just part of the new fence.

The flowers are now in the compost after being bitten by the frost and are now contributing towards making the soil rich for next year's flowers and plants.

Thank you to all those fellow bloggers who made some comments on yesterday's blog on the issue of Gaddafi.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Garden in Need of TLC

2011-10-21T20:17:00.003+01:00

I hope you've all had a good week. Work is busy as always and plenty happening to interest the brain. On a night time my interests have kept me busy with a psychic circle on Tuesday which I ran on behalf of my tutor who was visiting relatives and had a lovely annual dinner on Thursday for the East Riding County FA of which I am one of their directors (of marketing and communication.)

Now my poor garden has been in disarray all week. The longest fence which abuts the road was just about knackered. It consisted of wooden panelling, most of which has been there at least 20 years and although I've replaced a couple of panels, the wooden posts were becoming rotten and it was only the extensive ivy that was keeping it up. We employed a local man and his two worker to rip the old out and replace the new with concrete posts and tanalised wooden planks. They worked very hard indeed all week in very cold conditions.

The new fence has a ten year guarantee and next spring, I'll be able to paint it with wood preservative before I pick plants to trail along it. Perhaps some roses, clematis and other climbers - any suggestions (no ivy allowed)?

Now this isn't particularly a subject for a light hearted ordinary man's blog but I have been witnessing, along with the rest of the world, an endless showing of the bloody body of Muammar Gaddafi being towed around Libya. Now between you and I, I have had the dubious role of having seen and witnessed some of the most unpleasant things mankind could imagine over the last 36 years in my former life in public service. Most people wouldn't see it once in a lifetime.

However there is need for debate over the graphic and gratuitous showing of these distressing images. For example, my son was at work eating his lunch when the images were broadcast at lunchtime. He found them distressing and highly unpleasant. He's 24. How many children and other sensitive vulnerable people will have witnessed these images which, in truth, could have been shown (if it were necessary) with great discretion and only very late at night to an adult audience.

The ordinary Joe doesn't need to see graphic photo of a mutilated and bloody body to a) prove Gaddafi is dead - because the Libyan NTC have said so b) to understand the message that dictators will end up summarily executed as he clearly was and c) to underpin the joy of most (but not all) Libyans at the news.

I'm just pleased they can start to rebuild and hope that tribal differences don't get in the way of what will be a difficult few years for Libya.

Times move on - I know. But we, the public, have always relied on the media to be self censors. In my former life as a press officer, I was never worried about the media taking photographs of bodies being recovered or scenes of carnage or road accidents where there were still people trapped or the like because I had faith that no news editor of any pedigree would ever show them to the public - they never did on my watch. It's insensitive, undignified and unnecessary and the public would rail against it. It satisfies of course morbid curiosity and a minority who revel in seeing such images, but they are the tiny minority in truth.

I had written a little more on the subject but I've deleted it because it is too deep politically and this is not the forum. Suffice to say that the west should now be happy that as Libya produces 2% of all the worlds oil output, the capacity is rising now to a quarter of former production levels and the oil industry infrastructure there is barely damaged by the troubles.

Plenty on this weekend - shopping, lunch with an old friend and garden restoration and winter preparation for the rest of it. Enjoy yours whatever you are doing.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Three Musketeers

2011-10-16T21:37:00.000+01:00

The Three Musketeers, from the book by Alexandre Dumas has a rare pedigree in the world of film. So far there have been 23 film versions (including the latest) and seven animated film versions. This doesn't include TV series and sequels. You don't make that many films if there isn't a good story to back it up.

I went to see the latest offering at Hull Vue cinema on Friday night (14th October.) It had a big act and big actors to follow. It succeeded in some ways and failed miserably in others.How do directors bring something new into the story to keep it fresh? This director brought old fashioned air ships. Air ships!

The design for an airship was stolen by the three musketeers from the Italians. Lord Buckingham in turn stole it from them. Lord Buckingham comes to France in the airship to negotiate peace. The Musketeers, this time with D'Artagnan on board steal back Queen Ann's jewels from Buckingham and steal his airship to get back to France in time for the ball at which Ann must produce the jewels. I won't spoil the story but this part of the film spoilt it for me. It was made in 3D for 3D rather than the story in places I suspect.

Firstly, the acting was okay. D'Artagnan (with American accent) is credibly played by Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief) and the lead as Athos was the excellent Matthew Macfadyen. Milla Jovovich was Milady and whilst a beautiful woman - was a little too much Ninja/Bond in some of her dark and mysterious double spying adventures. The surprise was the Planchet character (the Musketeers servant) originally played by the brilliant late Roy Kinnear and this time played well by comedian James Corden and not overplayed either.

The disappointment was Christoph Waltz who I admire tremendously. His Cardinal Richelieu lacked the spark of deceit and power that had been given it in previous versions, most notably by Charlton Heston. His quiet threat was more of a grumble than a poisonous bite. The other actors were credible enough but Orlando Bloom, someone else I admire was out of his depth as Lord Buckingham. He lacked charm and statesmanship and quintessential English upper class presence.

My final disappointment was at the point in the film where Athos realises Milady is a double agent and decides to finish her off. The scene between the two (former lovers remember) lacked any sort of emotion or depth whatsoever - a huge opportunity missed.

The sets were lavish and the special effects were okay even though I didn't like the airship bits. The fencing was very good in parts and the choreography in the big fight scenes was superb. The director kept the movie moving along nicely and on the whole was faithful(ish) to the plot. At 12A the film was appropriately certificated and the 3D was good on the whole although some scenes lingered just to show 3D effects.

Verdict - wait for the DVD.

Just part of the stall (I couldn't get it all in the picture!)

Another milestone in my life appeared on Saturday (15th) in the form of running a stall with my good friend Linda Lee at the Hessle Town Hall Spirit, Body and Mind Fair. We sold Angel related goods and trinkets and it was a hugely successful day on our first and certainly not last attempt. Thank you Linda and a mention for Helen and Phil who dipped in and helped. This was a nervous time in the run up to this - would it work, would it bomb? The signs were good, the planning careful and it worked. Plenty of interest and plenty sold.

Have a great week ahead of you...

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Law of Attraction

2011-10-12T17:17:00.001+01:00

How's the World Treating You? Not only a polite enquiry but a very funny play by Roger Milner (as well as a song I think.)

I have a friend who has been in some dark places in life and has pretty much taken a lot of hell from life. At the moment, life is a fairly level playing field with some consistency. However, the friend also has some faith. This faith is held in the care of angels and spirituality, but more in the way of angels. My friend has the odd dip and frankly is entitled to have, and despite not feeling well and going for some tests, my friend is coping well and improving all the time. My friend does not, thankfully, hold back on the detail.

So. Your response to my question might be, "I'm bloody awful thanks." Or it might be (my favourite phrase,) "Absolutely average thanks," or it could be, "Smashing thanks, can't complain." I appreciate honesty and I guess I would rather I know you are not right than go on in ignorance and not being able to offer to help.

It's nigh on impossible for most of us to feel positive in such circumstances. A blogger friend has had an issue which is whistling round the mind and is causing stress for my blogger friend for example. Understandable. Completely. But again, there has been the courage to come out and say so.

That give me the opportunity to support where I can within the limitations of my life, time and knowledge about the human condition. I'll be honest and say I've been there and done that and although I haven't suffered dreadful traumas some have in their lives, I've seen so much and felt the tremors in the aftermath. Because I haven't felt it and experienced it directly involving me personally, it doesn't stop me from helping. What I can't do is offer any clinical advice or highly technical advice using psychology because I don't know anything about those things. But I can listen and murmur words of encouragement and love for my fellow human being.

I generally use the basic Law of Attraction. That's not about how good your make up is or how good you look to a potential partner, it's about mindset. Like attracts like - what you wish for, you get.

For example, if you constantly say to yourself and to others, "I really don't want to be ill," then the word that sticks in the mind is "ill." This is what you think about and concentrate on. "I'm fed up with being poor," is another example. "Poor" is the driver to how you are feeling. "I really want to well again" and "I would love to have a bit of spare cash," might be better ways of thinking and so it goes on.

This is, albeit just a couple of words, much more positive and forward looking - looking to the day when you are "well" or have a "bit of spare cash" and the fact that if that is your mindset, you might think about doing something about it. You've set yourself a goal without realising it.

Easy to say and difficult to do. I know.

Anyway - I hope you are keeping dry. It's rained very heavily here today - all day. 'Sprinkles' the forecast on the Internet said. Slightly understated. This is a view probably familiar to you of the Humber Bridge which I use as my banner picture at the top of the blog - today at 3.45 pm, it looked like this:

Enjoy the second half of the week - only two days to the weekend!

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Weekend in Liverpool

2011-10-09T19:52:00.001+01:00

Liverpool Pier Head (left) with the Liver Building to the right and a murky River Mersey to the far left. Taken from the 2nd floor Museum of Liverpool.

I hope the weekend has treated you favourably?

I've just come back from Liverpool having visited my son Ben at University in his final year. I was with my parents and my wife and had a pleasant weekend in a lovely city. I've waxed lyrical about Liverpool before, so don't intent to again, but the place is so full of life. It did rain and drizzle a lot which made it not so comfortable walking around which was a shame.

The rain followed us home along the motorway making for hairy driving.

M62 near Manchester, Sunday afternoon

We had to visit Albert Dock again and we bought a painting for our newly decorated front room called Triptych Wave by L Mace. A black and white painting of a beautiful seascape. We also visited the brand new Museum of Liverpool which was under construction when we last visited and it's just adjacent to Albert Dock next to the Liver Building. Just to emphasise, all the museums in Liverpool are free and they are both modern, expansive and highly informative being visitor-friendly in every way.

The modern (and delightful) Museum of Liverpool building with one of many Super Lambananas that you can find in this city (all decorated differently).

We visited one or two other spots we'd been to before but which mum and dad have never seen (they've never been to Liverpool in all their years) including the statue of Ken Dodd recently unveiled at Liverpool Lime Street railway station and had a night in playing cards at the very nice hotel which was, in part, a converted water mill.

This morning (Sunday) we went to the Williamson Heritage Centre which is one of the strangest things I think I've ever seen as an attraction and forgive me if I spend a couple of paragraphs explaining. Joseph Williamson Born in 1769 was a self made man in the Liverpool area in the tobacco industry. I think it's fair to say he was a philanthropist but also highly eccentric. In the 1820s and 1830s he had built a series of extensive huge underground tunnels (many hundreds of metres long) underneath the Edge Hill area of Liverpool that exist to this day. Some of the tunnels have been recently reopened and are maintained by a local society.

One of the shorter tunnels, with Keith our guide in the forefront showing the selection of crockery discovered in the spoil of rubbish exacvated from the tunnels.

Most of the tunnel system has yet to be rediscovered because after his death, the tunnels were filled in with the area's rubbish. The huge mystery is - why did he have them built. He employed men who were previously unemployed, some recently returned from war, along with their families to excavate the tunnels and make bricks for the vaulted ceilings. We had a guided tour with 'Keith' accompanied with hard hats through the tunnels looking at some of the items that have been discovered from the rubbish they've taken out from their excavations. Well worth a visit to this place maintained by volunteers. However it is neither safe nor accessible to wheelchair users.

Just a picture for fun with some more Super Lambananas

For our last meal of the visit together, we went to the Philharmonic Dining Rooms in Hope Street for lunch. This building is the height of Victorian opulence and extravagance. Built in the style of a gentleman's club with panelling throughout, it was used as a meeting place for and complimentary to the Royal Philharmonic Hall just opposite.

The main dining room which once held billard tables

I hope my photographs do it justice and the men's toilet is a sight to behold, never seen anything like it! I don't normally take pictures in men's loos, but this had to be the exception!

Have a great week ahead!

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Reviewing the Papers

2011-10-06T21:44:00.001+01:00

Today I went on one of my quarterly jaunts to the local radio station BBC Radio Humberside to review the papers for the breakfast show hosted by the experienced and long serving senior broadcast journalist Andy Comfort. The atmosphere is relaxed and it ends up a bit of a natter really and very enjoyable.

I stayed away from the main story of the Conservative party conference - too much rhetoric, not enough substance for me so I reviewed and said a few words about the following stories:

I started at 07.21 with The Sun: The front page had a story about the arrest of a Coronation Street actor for an alleged serious offence. He has not been charged but when he was arrested, the case became 'active' in the eyes of the law and to protect a miscarriage of justice and to prevent him not having a fair trial, the media is very restricted as to what it can say at this stage. This, in my view was the paper committing contempt of court and said so in no uncertain terms. Only a matter of opinion of course, but it was there to be said.

My second story in the second slot after the news at 07.41 from the Independent: TUC urges the Government to be flexible over the pension cuts. Listed was a huge number of public sector professionals who are going to go on strike on 30 November and I made comment about the story and the fact that I could remember the winter of discontent of the early 1970s and how uncomfortable a time was that.

The third story from the Yorkshire Post revolved around the Football League Chairman's view that football was about to go bankrupt if it wasn't careful. I agree and commented that perhaps wages and the recent court case over satellite fees for football were a serious issue for the game.

The next story was from The Times about the pending announcement about BBC cuts and stated that BBC were planning repeat programmes and cuts including selling off buildings and making staff redundant. How right they were. I discussed, among other things that I wondered (although I don't like it) whether or not the BBC should consider advertising.

The final story is always a light one from me and as reported in the Daily Telegraph, it concerns a group of motorists from Cumbria who were in a car park but because of some unknown electrical interference, could not get into their cars because their car key fobs couldn't transmit the signal to unlock their cars. My point of this story was that when I first got a car in the mid seventies, I serviced it myself, changed the plugs, altered the timings and the distributor cap points and changed the oils etc. Just a key in the lock then, not even central locking! Now of course the ability of the ordinary car owner to service their own car is no longer possible because of the car's complex computer driven systems thereby leaving us at the mercy of garages.

I then travelled to Leeds for a meeting and I am now weary at the end of a long day. Going to see my son in Liverpool this weekend. I'll report on the trip.

Have a great weekend

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Brantingham Village

2011-10-02T21:27:00.000+01:00

It looks like today, in East Yorkshire, the last sunny day of this glorious Indian summer draws to a close with increasing cloud and although it's still warm, it is now raining.

However this afternoon, with friends, I managed a last foray into the beautiful gentle green countryside that surrounds the Humber basin before the autumn proper arrives and walking becomes too difficult in this rural setting of hills and small forests.

The village of Brantingham lies on the north bank of the Humber west of the City of Kingston upon Hull but far enough away to have its own uniqueness. This is almost a picturesque chocolate box village at the foot of the rising Wolds with its own dale and church, its own village hall and pub and a pond.

It's popular with walkers because its surrounded by woods and farmland rising steeply on each side of the dale. There are panoramic views of the Humber basin nearby and today Red Kites were circling in the air, often harried and harassed by smaller Kestrels. Rooks in flocks were flying hither and thither among the abundance of trees.

The Brantingham church, dedicated to All Saints is a delicate Norman and Perpendicular revival church last rebuilt in the late 1870s but there have been vicars and priests recorded in the locale since the thirteenth century. The registers go back to 1690. It is lovingly tended with a neat graveyard just to the north of the village. It was a lovely still place to sit and contemplate for an hour.

You may remember the story of the Sykes family of Sledmere House which I visited a few weeks ago - well the Sykes are here in this village too and have wielded their interests, mainly benevolently.

The pond sadly is in desperate need of water for the few ducks that reside there permanently.

There are lots of circular walks in the area that dissect the village and there is a nice pub which offers good food and hospitality.

Early this morning, before the majority of the citizenry was awake, I was in the City of Hull taking some photographs of the old town with my son John when I happened to notice a huge line of geese flying by, heading west. They were making a hell of a racket which was a rather rural sound for a city still asleep.

By the way, you remember that bug I spotted yetserday and posted? I looked on the blog Donegal Wildlife suggested by fellow blogger Weaver of Grass - an excellent site, and the bug is called a Hawthorn Shield Bug - Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale.

I hope you have a great week ahead.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Warm Again!

2011-10-01T16:18:00.001+01:00

Welcome to October and welcome to the weekend. In the bulk of the UK (I'm in the north east) it's been an unseasonably hot day and Gravesend in the south hit 29.9 Celsius today, an all time record for October.

I said 'white rabbit' three time in the early hours of the morning to greet October and give me luck for the month. The picture on the top is the cat fast asleep on his head in the dappled sunshine.

The picture above is an insect we see quite a lot at this time of the year (about half an inch long) and I have no idea what it is. What is remarkable is when you magnify the head end, blimey what a creature! Anyone know what it is please let me know.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Re-birth

2011-09-27T16:53:00.000+01:00

Ain't nature wonderful. It never ceases to amaze me.

A huge amount of damage was done to shrubs and plants and some trees as a result of prolonged snow and ice last winter, not only because of the cold but because of the weight of the snow. Indeed I had a lovely shrub broken (recovered after some judicious pruning) by weight of snow.

I also thought I'd lost our Cordyline Australis which is a palm-like tree which we kept in a pot. In the UK it's probably better known as the Torbay Palm because of the profusion of these glorious trees in the Torbay area on the south coast. The vast majority of Cordyline's died this winter in the UK, both mature and smaller varieties. All that is left of mine is the rotting bare trunk.

We've had it years and I couldn't bring myself round to throwing it away - stupid or sentimental or both. It's a dead tree for goodness sake.

Well I was watering my plants about an hour ago and as I passed the dead plant in a pot, I noticed something rather miraculous. From the base of the rotting stump is new growth; a new mini Cordyline. I am absolutely amazed and stunned. I will have to look after it better this winter, perhaps wrap it up with a bit of bubble wrap - not pretty, but effective. A re-birth.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Second Flowering

2011-09-25T21:11:00.000+01:00

The spider above seems content to sit on a web in front of the kitchen window making me ever so slightly nervous and it's not even in the house! Have you noticed what hairy legs it's got?

It's been a funny old year weather wise. Hot spring, wet summer which has proved apparently great for the fruit farmers and for the birds because of the berries on the trees and shrubs. Not sure what this has meant for arable farmers but there is something a bit odd I haven't seen before.

There is a second flowering for some of our trees even though they have fruit on and some of the leaves are starting to take on an autumn hue. This includes my brother/sister-in-law's cherry tree next door - and here's a pic taken today to prove it.

My rose trees have got a fresh set of flowers and the geraniums, normally well past their best are producing lovely flowers too!

Can't complain, they do add to the lovely colours around. I'll be taking the flowers out by mid October and by early November, the garden gets a shave with the trimmers.

I hope the week ahead is a good one for you.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

2011-09-24T14:29:00.001+01:00

For a change, quite a bit happening in the last couple of days, nothing earth shattering, but it keeps life moving on.

Welcome to new follower John Gray from Wales. He says about himself "Going on 50 and feeling it. A previous career nurse manager who moved to Wales in 2005. My life now is centred around life in a tiny Welsh village, a field full of animals and a pack of dogs" His blog 'Going Gently' is very entertaining, have a look...

I've been to see another phenomenal move Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Anyone who remembers the exceptional BBC series adaptation of John Le Carre's novel will understand that this movie is different and Gary Oldman's portrayal of George Smiley is equally as different as that by originally played by Alec Guinness (below). However, it is also as good and I never thought I'd say that.

A mole is operating in the highest echelon of British Intelligence and information is leaking to the Russians in this time of the Cold War in Europe. George Smiley was forcibly retired from 'the Circus' but is soon brought back unknown to the management to track down the dastardly spy! It's a complex story brilliantly brought to the big screen in a two hour seven minute film (take a cushion!). 1970s London and Budapest is wonderfully captured and the atmosphere and emotion of dark deeds shines through.

There are no whizz bangs, CGI or anything else in the way of explosive action - this is one you have to listen to and follow meticulously. This will put some people off which is a shame - it is what it is, top quality production. It's rated 15 for a couple of scenes of violence and one sex scene (seen from across the road through a window) but don't be put off by that either, it's not gratuitous.

Some excellent performances from Gary Oldman who had a big act to follow and an unexpected gem from Tom Hardy as Ricky Tar, the man who does the services' dirty deeds. Mark Strong was a very good Jim Prideaux, an agent set up and captured by the Russians and Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC's Sherlock Holmes) was a very credible and wonderfully portrayed Peter Guillam, Smiley's sidekick. My final word for John Hurt who as the dying 'Control,' head of the service, suspects a mole, but is marginalised and forced out when his fears are dismissed as nonsense. This was the sort of performance that makes you shiver and makes you realise what a superb actor he really is.

This is highly recommended, especially if you like a good story.

There are dozens of variations of "Tinker, Tailor..."

The modern version is

Tinker, Tailor,

Soldier, Sailor,

Rich Man, Poor Man,

Beggar Man, Thief

In 1475, William Caxton used a variation of the above using other 'professions,' and AA Milne in 1927 wrote:

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief,

Or Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, doctor, lawyer, Indian chief.

Or what about a cowboy, policeman, jailer, engine driver, or a pirate chief?

Or what about a ploughman or a keeper at the zoo,

Or what about a circus man who lets the people through?

Or the man who takes the pennies on the roundabouts and swings,

Or the man who plays the organ or the other man who sings?

Or What about the rabbit man with rabbits in his pockets

And what about a rocket man who's always making rockets?

Oh it's such a lot of things there are and such a lot to be

That there's always lots of cherries on my little cherry tree

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Sailor, Rich man Poor man, Ploughman (not Beggar man), Thief also features in a poem by Jan Struther in a book "A Pocketful of Pebbles."

Our new carpet is down and looking good. My other half is just making the curtains which will just about round it all off. We are starting to return to some semblance of normality.

My eldest has just returned from a weeks holiday with his friends and has come back to a warm balmy day and after watching the BBC weather forecast, it seems we are in for an Indian Summer with warm air coming from the southern European continent for at least most of next week when we all get back to work! Shame we didn't have this during the summer.

Writing this, I am having a rest having spent four lovely hours in the garden tidying, cutting the grass and sweeping up the first of the autumns leaves.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Thanks to Wikipedia for some of the sources.

Junction Boxes

2011-09-21T17:16:00.000+01:00

Apart from the television ("you can't touch the television - there's programmes recording") the lounge is empty and a lonely bin and side table remain as we wait for the new carpet to arrive in the morning. I'll be sorry to see the old one go, it has done sterling service and deserves better retirement than the tip, but the council are collecting it tomorrow, for a fee of course.

The bare boards are not good enough for sanding and varnishing so we had no choice really and I wasn't keen on laminate flooring although I admit, generally it looks quite good and is cheaper.

The fish have a temporary new home in our 'back room,' and the budgies will have to sleep in my computer room for the night until the carpet is down. The cats are just not sure. Curiosity was the order of the day while we were moving the furniture, but now they are fast asleep. I wish I was.

Now please, someone tell me I am imagining things. I don't take drugs, drink rarely but I think I must have been hallucinating when several different people told me that they had heard a news item on the radio saying we were going to have snow in October. This is not funny. I know snow of a decent quality came very early last year in November, but October? The sun tan lotion has hardly dried off!

I hope you celebrated 'International Talk Like a Pirate Day' yesterday? Of course you did!

I hope you've had a great week so far, I am hoping to pick up a few bob on the roll-over lotto tonight.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Mixed September

2011-09-18T19:37:00.000+01:00

We've nearly finished decorating. The carpet is being delivered on Thursday and we are nearly all prepared. We just have to shift the furniture ready for them to put the carpet down and then we have to put it all back again. I'll be glad when things are back in place; I hate untidy, not that I'm the tidiest person on earth, but I like some assemblance of order.

What an odd day weather wise today. I went to see my son play football this morning and take a team picture for them so they could give a copy to their sponsor. I stayed a little while and I had other things to do, but his team won 5 - 0. The weather was glorious - sunny and warm with no breeze, good enough for shirt sleeves. He plays in goal so he was happy keeping a 'clean sheet'.

In contrast this afternoon saw black skies bubble up with heavy rain showers and the occasional rumble of thunder. It looked spectacular, but felt sorry for the many cyclists who had clearly gone for rides to enjoy the weather who ended up battling through rain.

The next phase of my son John's photographic hobby has arrived. We've obtained some copyright free photographs from the local history library in Hull of historical photographs of Hull and we are going to take some modern pics from where the original photographer stood and then meld the two together to show old and new. I'll take the modern pictures but the genius is in the photographic manipulation. We are putting the photographs on exhibition in the Hull History Centre in November.

Hull has much history to it. The town as is stands goes back as far as 1215 when salt was carried to the river for transport abroad. Over the years the town expanded and because of its proximity to the Humber became an internationally important port in centuries past. Fishing was the important most recent trade, all but gone now, but it shaped the culture of the town and it remains even now fiercly proud of its history earned in the most part by the hardship of trawling the sea for our food.

The very successful docks east of the city are now handed over to freight, timber, coal, passenger ferries, petrochemicals - a place which wouldn't be recognised by the trawlermen of yesteryear.

I don't live in Hull, I live outside it in the East Riding of Yorkshire, but most of my working life has been in and around Hull and you either love it or hate it. It has its good points and bad like any city. Its been badly in need of high quality investment, but its like being in a town at the end of a cul-de-sac (M62). Hopefully, if the contractors for new wind farm equipment come here to one of the underused docks in the town, it will give it a massive boost which, to be fair, for the people of Hull, it deserves.

I hope you have a great week ahead of you as nights close in and as I finish this blog (7.30 pm ish) it's dark outside already and the street lights are on.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Jane Eyre - Cinematic Surprise of the Year

2011-09-16T17:42:00.000+01:00

It's a woman thing. Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice. Love, romance; the dominant male to be won over by the affectionate charms of the wily attractive younger woman. I've never truly watched any of the many TV programmes with these period dramas with well known characters nor have I read the books which I know are classics and it is remiss of me.

But I relented and I went to watch Jane Eyre at Cineworld in Hull last night and I am a convert. Not necessarily to the author or the story which in truth was fairly simple but for the sheer stunning brilliance of this production. I kid you not, I was blown away by this BBC produced film with truly exceptional acting, incredible sets and atmosphere you could cut with a knife. How many more positive adjectives can I use with this.

Jane Eyre, a young girl cast aside by her adoptive parents is brought up in the school of hard knocks - her "tale of woe," to come out of the other side as a governess in the household of Mr Rochester. The scenes as a young girl are truly harrowing without in any way being graphic.

You would expect a BBC production to have good values and this indeed did, but I have to admit, it is undoubtedly better on the big screen and that's where the atmosphere comes from - the richness of the colours, even in the darkness of the stately home and the subtle sound effects which gave it a rather supernatural feel at times is second to none.

The locations were excellent, bleak and beautiful, rural and isolated.

The part of Jane Eyre as a young girl was played by Amelia Clarkson - look out for this one - she was excellent but the Jane Eyre young woman was Mia Wasikowska - this was an Oscar performance from her.

Michael Fassbender, who some might remember from X-Men as the young Magneto was a ruggedly handsome Rochester who is living, unbeknown to everyone, through a dark secret. His performance was also absolutely riveting. The cast was ably supported by Dame Judi Dench, the housekeeper who as an actress I find underplays everything and comes out much the stronger for it.

I can't say enough good things about this film; my plea to you is to go and see it before it leaves the cinema. Two hours long and rated PG (for a nude painting on the wall) this is a must see film.

Just as an aside and not as exciting, I did my second mediumship demonstration at John Street Spiritualist Church in Hull on Thursday afternoon at their service with my good friend Shirley Ann Chessman and it went so very, very well.

I hope you have a good weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Good to be Around

2011-09-11T10:37:00.002+01:00

What a glorious morning. Warm, wall to wall sunshine with damp on the ground from last night's rain. One of those mornings that make you glad to be around really. I took some leisurely photographs around the garden (including the two on todays blog) before everyone else got up accompanied by two cats who were full of energy and mischief. The morning sun really lit the place up with plants glittering with the sparkle of sun through raindrops balancing precariously in the gentle breeze.

Of course it's the tenth anniversary of a great atrocity against humanity in the US. Can you remember what you were doing on that day when you heard the news? I was stood in my office when someone ran in and said I had better switch the TV on. Outside my office building it was usually bustling with students in the city centre park. It was a lovely sunny day, but the world was quiet. Even the traffic seemed to stand still. I hope those that were/are affected by those dreadful events will find peace.

But today? My thoughts are closer to home, for my family and friends for their health and well being, for the repair of our environment, for peace in the world and my best wishes to you all on this wonderful day.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Sweet Dreams

2011-09-10T16:18:00.001+01:00

We're decorating. More accurately - my other half is decorating. We've decided to move away from traditional patterned wall paper and moved forward with plain wallpaper painted with lovely colours - Sweet Dreams* for the chimney breast (a delicate light plum) and Alfie (a rich light grey). This looks really good in contrast to the white glossed paintwork and brilliant white emulsion ceiling.

Today more money spent and savings depleted with a new carpet bought - a lovely aubergine colour; new curtains and matching cushions for the settees. This will be so much easier to maintain in the future.

In many ways, when we moved into this house 16 years ago, we were very lucky that the previous owner wasn't short of a few bob and the quality of the carpets was superb. The carpet we are replacing in the living room is the last carpet we inherited to go. It is light blue and considering we've had three kids, dogs and cats, it has kept wonderfully bright and clean.

I was tidying the garden this afternoon and cutting the grass, but moving those things that could be blown over by the potential arrival of the aftermath to Hurricane Katia on Sunday night. The Met office have given a yellow weather warning which is 'beware,' but they are starting to play it down today saying that we should just expect gusty conditions.

I was sitting in the garden this afternoon with a cuppa after cutting the grass and relaxing in some rare warm sunny weather when I was moved to notice how many shapes there are in the garden. Just the variety of leaves, hundreds of different shaped beautifully designed leaves on trees, shrubs and flowers. All the berries are different shapes, some pear shaped, some perfectly round and some heart shaped. The garden furniture and the borders are angular as is the house which contrast wonderfully against the green unique shapes of nature.

That doesn't take into account the thousands of different colours to delight the eye as autumnal colours start to emerge in the trees and some of the flowers as they reach the time where they have become past their best. There are still plenty of colourful flowers which stand out in the sunlight (when we get it) which hopefully should last until early to mid October

I hope you are enjoying your weekend so far.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

*From B and Q on their colour card 'Colours.'

Lovely Long Weekend

2011-09-05T11:52:00.002+01:00

I have the luxury of a Monday off. Not that this ends up being leisure time, jobs seem to appear from behind the woodwork - "could you just..." take this to the tip, cut the grass, clear the kitchen, go to the shop etc etc.

So I am taking a few minutes to catch up on Facebook and my faithful blog. The reason I took Monday off was as a relaxer after a wonderful but very intensive weekend in the fabulous Peak District on the edge of Lyme Park at a spiritual development course.

About 40 people attend from all over the UK to work with three nationally recognised mediums, Tony Stockwell, Mavis Pittilla and Janet Parker. The weekend gave us the opportunity to network with like minded people who have a love of spirit, gain new experiences with some tools given to us in workshops and a chance to demonstrate as mediums in front of others.

The bonus is that the hotel was in some of the most beautiful scenery in this country in the Peak District. My photos didn't capture the beauty of it, but the hotel you can see above is nested in an isolated spot, but nevertheless was packed to the gunnels with visitors all weekend.

Click on the picture to enlarge it to appreciate the full glory of the location.

So I'm back at home feeling good, refreshed and enlightened.

If there was a downside to it, there was a Christmas tree in the foyer of the hotel. This isn't a good photograph, forgive me, it was taken on my mobile, but my goodness, it's the first week of bloody September.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Spider with Saddle

2011-09-01T17:02:00.000+01:00

White rabbit, white rabbit, white rabbit.

I'm not a coward really; well not much. I don't run at the sight of spiders for example. I can tolerate them crawling on the bedroom ceiling in autumn (even though they reckon you eat 14 spiders when you are asleep in your lifetime); I don't even mind if they unexpectedly scuttle across the floor in front of me when I'm in the living room.

The cowardice comes when it comes to handling them. I can't. My other half will handle small and medium sized spiders and throw them out of the window. Yesterday, however I saw a spider in the computer room that was even too big for her to handle. It had a saddle on its back and had just unseated its jockey!

The result is the picture above. It is now safely deposited in the garden to play with its friends of which there seem to be plenty - especially in my greenhouse.

I was reminded by a work colleague that the kids are back at school next week. It's so quiet when they're on holiday. The roads are empty in a morning and coming home at night. The car park at work has loads of space and there's no litter in the street behind my house which is on the route to school just a few yards away.

My youngest is ensconced in his new student house with his colleagues with whom he gets on really well. It's better than his last one, just across the road from ASDA and he has a study as well as a bedroom.

I'm not sure I like the new Blogger interface yet, I haven't got myself around it yet although there seems at first glance less functionality, especially for editing. The old interface that I use isn't perfect, but it's okay for a free service.

I'm going away for the weekend to a mediumship development course in sunny Manchester, so my next blog will be next week and I'll let you know how I got on.

Have a great weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Autumn's Too Soon

2011-08-29T20:06:00.000+01:00

I love autumn, for many reasons; it's a lovely time of the year. But it's still summer. Someone should tell Mother Nature because last night was bitterly cold with a chill wind and today, the lawn was full of leaves - at least a month early by my reckoning.

Looking down the street at the hundreds of trees, there's a distinct tinge of orange to the green here and there. There are a couple of beeches that are turning in their lower branches, a sycamore that is nearly empty of leaves and the chestnuts are definitely turning and looking threadbare.

While the rest of the world is working and beavering away on the dreadful Monday, today in England, it's a Bank Holiday. It feels of course like a Sunday. It'll put me out for the rest of the week, believe you me. I'm only at work for three days, then I'm away in Manchester for a long weekend on a psychic development course. So I'm looking forward to a three day working week.

My thoughts are with the ordinary people of Libya this last couple of days and I've been sending distance healing to the country to protect the innocent and I hope that a peaceful conclusion comes to this awful conflict at the earliest opportunity. My thoughts are also with the people on the eastern seaboard of the United States of America who have suffered from the after effects of tropical storm 'Irene'. The loss of life is shocking. I experienced a tropical storm when I was in America, 'Ernesto' a few years ago, but that was mainly torrential heavy rain and the most amazing thunderstorms. And we whinge about a bit of a chilly breeze!

Chat soon

Ta ra

400 Not Out - Celebration at Sledmere

2011-08-25T22:51:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my 400th blog. I never knew if I had enough stamina to keep it going, I mean how much can one write about your life or how many opinions can you express? I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing life with bloggers far and wide.

As a fitting subject, today I visited another country house in our fair and green land. Sledmere House is situated in the north of the East Riding of Yorkshire in beautiful rolling hills. This Georgian house, partly destroyed by fire in 1911 was rebuilt sympathetically between 1912 and 1917 and it is a magnificent edifice, the home of the Sykes family, more accurately Sir Tatton Sykes, 8th Baronet. Regrettably, there was no photography allowed in the house so forgive the photograph overload.

The day started badly in that the rain forecast duly arrived in the early hours of the morning and the journey up there was through heavy persistent rain. On arrival, as if by an order, the rain stopped and the sun started to peep through. The house is in a lovely little village, mostly estate houses belonging to the Sledmere estate and is approached along a long high brick wall adjoining the main road.

Even before we got there, you can see the most wonderful war memorial for the village on the road side - the detail is phenomenal.

The car park is under trees and the house is approached through the shop which charges £8 for full access to the house and gardens for an adult. Family and child tickets as well as concessions are cheaper. The grounds are extensive wide open spaces and immaculately kept.

Walking past the imposing house along the pea gravel drive among huge mature trees, the walled garden was the first port of call.

This is a superb garden full of colour from the moment you walk through the gate. Every imaginable cottage and flower garden species graced long paths, intermixed with a large variety of fruit trees. The second part of the walled garden is a more formal garden including vegetables. This was a real pleasure and I could have spent all day in there.

Back to the house and we were welcomed by a guide and throughout the house there were several guides, 'older' ladies who were very helpful and hugely knowledgeable. I estimate you can see around half of the house in total - the family live in another part of the house; none-the-less, it is a lived in house and is very much loved. There were many rooms to visit on the ground floor, paintings from the 16th century through to modern day, exciting furniture and there is nothing old or decrepit about it, neither is it jaded or faded. Floor coverings, beautifully decorated ceilings; it is a joy to see. This is the view out of the living room window - deer graze peacefully on the far field!

The guide book is very helpful (£4) and takes you through the house giving history and stories of reconstruction in some places. The first floor however is an absolutely shockingly and unexpectedly marvelous place. The bedrooms are wonderful and the bathroom quaint. Here's the thing, the library is the best room I've been in in my whole life. It has a hugely high vaulted ceiling lined with books, a parquet floor and sensational to see extending the full length of the house . I can't adequately describe it and it's a shame I couldn't bring you a photograph, but I am going to cheat - here's a scan from the guide book, courtesy of Sledmere House:

After the house, a short walk led us to the church within the grounds; St Mary's a lovely smallish church used by the family and the estate. It was dark inside but a half hours meditation was lovely, the silence was deafening.

This is a house I would heartily recommend and I will go so far as to say that this is definitely worth travelling to even a good old distance, you will not be disappointed.

On the way back home, you pass the Gothic style Sir Tatton Sykes (the 4th Baronet) Memorial Monument by the road side on Garton Hill. This can be seen for many miles around, like a beacon, even from the Humber Bridge on a good day. Built in 1865, it is over 100 feet high and at one time you could climb up inside it to give unparallelled views of the country, but it is no longer open to the public.

The weekend beckons and for us in the UK, it's a Bank Holiday on Monday giving us an extra day at home. The last Bank Holiday of the year before Christmas.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

2011-08-21T19:33:00.001+01:00

I thought I'd share this picture with you. The label comes from my underpants (photographed when clean of course), sold by Sainsburys under their TU label. Good advice Mr Sainsbury, particularly when I'm in them.

Decorating starts today in our main living room. Now I can hear some moans and normally I would moan too except I don't decorate. This is done by my other half who is an expert decorator. I leave her with it. Now here's the thing: some 30 odd years ago when we moved into our then new house, my wife was putting up wallpaper having been taught by my uncle Les who is also an exceptionally talented decorator. I walked in to the room with a cup of tea admiring her work when I noticed that there was something not quite right somehow.

I couldn't work it out. The wallpaper was patterned, small roses if I remember and eventually I worked it out: in the corner, she had put a piece upside down. I complimented her on her work and told her that she'd put a piece upside down. I never thought about it. Needless to say, following her reaction, since that day when she decorates, I make my self scarce.

Should I have not said anything and wait for her to find out herself? Then she would have accused me of being blind and not admiring her work! Looking back, it was one of those situations where (I was) damned if I did and damned if I didn't.

Anyway, talking about domestic things which I know is dreadfully exciting, our washing machine has packed up and of course, Sod's Law, it was full of water and washing. We managed to get the door open and retrieve the clothes which consisted of a few items belonging to her ladyship. Wringing them out in the garden before putting them on the line to dry out brought back some memories of when I was at home with my parents, wringing out clothes after they'd come out of the tub.

My new mobile phone is really good. It even makes phone calls! There's so much else it does apart from making a phone call and it's so clever, it's frightening. I can use hip new language like 'Apps' (applications). As soon as the youngsters know us older ones can use their language, they'll change it again.

I do hope you've had a great weekend, wherever you are.

Chat soon

Ta-ra!

Night at the Pictures - Planet of the Apes

2011-08-20T19:49:00.000+01:00

I can't get the photographs back for the blog, they seemed to have disappeared for good. I'm manually putting the pictures back and I've done 75 out of nearly 400 blogs by re-posting them from my computer files. What a pain in the neck!

I'm pretty good at deciding which film to go and see, a) because it's expensive; and b) I like to be entertained. I went to see The Rise of the Planet of the Apes last night (Friday) and frankly I was a little disappointed. I'm not sure what I was going to see on this occasion because I had only seen a couple of brief trailers and they looked okay and indeed the hype seemed pretty positive.

The storyline was okay although it did move along quite slowly in the early stages. The CGI animated chimpanzees is what let it down for me. Ironically, the rubber masks the actors wore in the 'Planet of the Apes' television series and films years ago were more convincing!

If ever there was a film which sets the scene for subsequent sequels, this was it. It sets the scene for future films; the end of this film was very much left 'in the air.'

The acting was fine and most of the special effects were fine too - except some of the animals. Harry Potter star Tom Feltham (Draco Malfoy) is very good as the sadistic keeper of chimpanzees - I really liked his performance and American star John Lithgow was superb as the father of the main character who is suffering from debilitating Alzheimer's - a brave and moving performance. It is good to see British stars appearing in the film which was set in San Francisco - Feltham, Brian Cox and David Oyelowo.

The Internet Movie Database shows the rating for the film from fans as 8 out of 10 which is quite high. The age rating is an appropriate 12A and I saw it in 2D (normal!)

I'm afraid I can't recommend this one as a top film and I'm not sure it was worth £7.30.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

What, no Pictures?

2011-08-20T12:41:00.001+01:00

I don't know if you've noticed, but all my pictures on my blog have disappeared. Slowly but surely over the last week, now to be left with large black squares where pictures should be. I have no idea why this has happened, so forgive me for the time being while I try to work out why and hopefully I will be able to restore them.

I do back up all my blog pages and perhaps it might be something to do with a new mobile phone which seems to be bringing information in from all over the place by itself.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Hugs or Handshake?

2011-08-13T18:16:00.001+01:00

I was having an interesting conversation with a good friend the other day and we were talking about hugging and kissing between friends when you first greet them or to say goodbye. I need hugging. I enjoy hugging. Hugging is a very important part of my relationship with friends. A peck on the cheek normally to accompany the hug is quite usual.

Even at work, if I meet someone of the opposite gender whom I know very well indeed and I haven't seen them for a long time, I greet them with a kiss on the cheek. Men - I shake hands - no discrimination. This is accepted practice - no-one cares or wonders; that's what (some) friends do.

I'm not sure what it is about a hug without over analysing, but I guess it's a sense of sealing and recognising a friendship at a step up from being an acquaintance. I hug and kiss my mother and my mother-in-law when we meet as well as assorted aunties and cousins. That's what we do as a family - always have done.

Now this wasn't part of the conversation at all, but by sheer co-incidence did you read the article about kissing in the workplace in Germany? The Knigge Society wants workplace kissing to be banned. Of course we must understand that culture is different in every country and it may be that kissing is not the done thing in some sections of the community in Germany. They say it's an import practice from other countries.

In some countries they don't like shaking hands for instance. However the weird thing is that the Knigge Society (named after a manual of good manners) spoke to the BBC and admitted that they couldn't ban it from the work place but people who don't mind being kissed should "...announce it with a little paper message placed on their desk." Right. They say it's just an excuse for men to get close to women.

What do you do to greet an old friend?

For the first time in three weeks, I've managed to get into the garden and cut the grass this afternoon, the rain has been fairly persistent in the form of heavy summer showers and longer spells of unseasonable wet weather. Some of the grass hasn't grown at all, other sections of grass were quite long. What is truly amazing is the number of berries that are already out; in my garden alone there are red berries on the cotoneaster, hypericum, early and late honeysuckle, pyracantha (two varieties), rose hips, mountain ash berries, yew and holly.

The day today is cloudy but quite hot and humid so the insects are having a feast on the flowers and the amazing number of different varieties of flying things is stunning.

There haven't been many butterflies for us this year since the hot spring, but today a magnificent and large Red Admiral has been fluttering around the garden. I just couldn't get a picture of it before it fluttered to the next bush.

I was sorry to read today of the death of Robert Robinson, former BBC Broadcaster. His CV included Ask the Family, Stop the Week, Brain of Britain and Call My Bluff. He also had a stint presenting BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Although he was 83 when he died, he was working until last year. When I was younger and there was only three channels on the television, for me, he was the man firmly in charge of quiz programmes.

Tonight, I'm hoping for clear skies to watch the Perseids meteor showers. Although the full moon was peeking mysteriously through the scudding clouds last night, the cloud was too thick and I didn't see anything. We can see the meteors right through until the 22nd August although the peak was last night.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Berry Picking Already

2011-08-06T13:08:00.003+01:00

Two out of three projects went to the wall today.

Firstly I got up unreasonably early today, on my day off (Saturday) and trundled into town to upgrade my mobile phone as it is now within three months of the contract coming to an end. Or so I thought.

My other half and I have renewed our contract for many years at the same time, together and in the same shop. We've stuck to our provider because I've never had cause to complain either about prices or signal coverage and the choice of phones are okay.

However whilst hers indoors was due for renewal, mine wasn't until next month. Apparently years ago, when we changed our mobiles, I had an extra month left on my contract, so that carried forward and has done for a long time. So no new phones today which is a shame for the company because I am going to pay more for the contract. Just seems overly bureaucratic and stands in the way of progress and moreover, them gaining extra income. 'Because the computer says so, I can't do it Sir.'

The second project that went belly up is that I've had a panoramic picture I took in San Francisco in 2010 waiting the be framed. My middle son wanted a picture framing and I had another photograph of his I've had blown up and I wanted framing. The shop only works nine to five, Monday to Friday so that will now have to wait a little longer.

The third project went without a hitch. Shopping. Oh joy.

I don't know if you've noticed, but all the berries are out already. I passed a couple yesterday picking brambles from a hedgerow and they had ice cream boxes full of berries. The elderberries have turned and my honeysuckle and pyracantha are jammed with berries.

I know I've exploded the myth already in a past blog that an abundance of berries mean a bad winter to come (it actually means we had a good spring past,) but I believe that they are about a month early. My benchmark is that I used to pick elderberries with my kids to make wine in the first week of September before they went back to school and even then, some weren't ready.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Lucy Locket

2011-08-01T19:36:00.000+01:00

Now here's a story and a half.

Part of my Reiki exam for my third Master's degree yesterday (Sunday) was to do a heart attunement for someone, in this case, a friend who gave up her Sunday afternoon to help me out as a 'client.' I don't know her very well, but we meet at groups and she is a lovely, lovely person. I won't identify her of course; she's been going through a fairly rough time at home through one thing and another so when I asked her if she would be a client for my exam which is mainly practical based, she agreed readily.

I gave her a 'heart attunement.' Fellow blogger MorningAJ asked what on earth that is, it sounds terrifying. Yes it does but in truth using the power of Reiki healing energy I used the Reiki symbols during a meditation to give her a healing boost. No surgery, just me channeling Universal Life Force energy. Now this lady is a big believer in angels. She needed a boost remember because of the things she's been experiencing.

Now, the story she told my other friend who also volunteered to help me in my exam by phone last night is that she went home and yesterday afternoon, refreshed by the heart attunement and feeling a reconnection to the angels, she started to read about an archangel called Chamuel. In a meditation, she asked Chamuel to help her find a lost rose gold locket her husband had bought her. It had cost a lot of money and losing it had devastated her. In the past, despite looking everywhere she had failed to find it.

Half way through her meditation, she rushed up (never a good idea to do that during a meditation - can make you dizzy) and found a screwdriver and went into her bedroom which has bedside cabinets fitted and screwed to the wall.

She pulled the cabinet to pieces and there, behind the cabinet, covered in dust but nevertheless undamaged was the locket.

What a wonderful true story I thought I'd share with you. Thanks to the three special ladies who helped out at the exam yesterday - they know who they are.

Lucy Locket lost her pocket,

Kitty Fisher found it;

Not a penny was there in it,

Only ribbon round it.

Well what a warm, close day today, really stuffy and hot. We are lucky to have air conditioning in our office because the hot water pipes go through the office and although they are lagged it makes it unbearably hot, even in a winter. The humidity has returned and I think they've forecast some thunderstorms tomorrow. The forecasts have not been so good at predicting them lately, so I'll believe it when I see it.

Did you say your lucky 'white rabbit, white rabbit, white rabbit' this morning as good luck for the month? You can still say it - go on, give it a go.

Congratulations this afternoon to England for winning the second test match at Trent Bridge. Magnificent achievement.

Have a great week

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Glorious Petunias

2011-07-31T23:15:00.001+01:00

The weekend has left us and with a legacy of fine Sunday weather in the east of the UK with lovely sunshine, 24 degrees during the late afternoon and even after the sun had gone down, it was still 21 degrees Celsius at 9 pm. Have you noticed how the nights are drawing in?

Our tidying out at home is all but complete with just a few odds and ends to sort out, but the volume of stuff we've shredded, taken to the tip for recycling or the Hospice charity shop is truly amazing.

My Reiki exam for the third degree (Masters) went well and I have passed subject to keeping a diary of related healing activities for 21 days. The exam was mainly practical with theory tagged on. I learned the Masters Reiki symbol and its meaning, I completed a full Reiki treatment and did a temporary heart attunement.

The picture above is the petunias in the fountain that I planted in the spring. Whilst the 'busy lizzies' (Impatiens) have been very disappointing as have the begonias; the petunias, the geraniums and the lobelia have been magnificent.

I hope you have a good week - onwards and upwards.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Garage Floor Mystery Revealed

2011-07-29T20:24:00.003+01:00

It's twelve days since my last blog and life has been so hectic but so mind numbingly routine and unexciting. I haven't even taken any photographs which is not like me. I hope you are all keeping well. I've not been too good, a really bad sore throat which has gone with the help of antibiotics has left me tired and lethargic and none too interested in much. So my trip to the doctors for a fasting blood test should tell me if there's anything wrong or it may be that I'm just overweight and under exercised which is more likely to be closer to the truth (the doctor hinted at it!) A couple of friends think I'm anaemic.

My house at the moment is like a tip. We don't often throw too many things away; like everyone else we'll go through a splurge every now and then and have a good clear out but this time, the garage has been emptied and the house is full of plastic stacker boxes full of stuff going back 30+ years!

This does a number of negative things:

Makes a temporary bloody mess of the house!
Frustration that the thing I thought I'd lost and for which I bought a replacement is in the bottom of a box containing knitting patterns;
Typed notes from courses in 1991 (literally typed and xeroxed copied) speak in a language barely understood these days;
Creates unnecessary nostalgia;
Wastes hours looking at photographs, some from 25 years ago which have never seen the light of day since that time;
Fills recycling bins leaving no room for domestic rubbish for a week;
Creates arguments with the children (all grown up and long left school) over toys they haven't touched since they were ten years old but which they feel they need to keep;
Makes me ask myself why we keep this stuff, (just in case.)

It also does a number of positive things:

Creates a garage floor I don't think any of us have ever seen - it's quite pretty as floors go;
Creates a mountain of empty boxes ready to be filled - again;
Earns me £22 for two old mobile phones which some firm on the Internet will pay me to hand over (several others have no value at all!)
Finds a software box with a family history disc which I thought I'd lost and which I can now reload on my PC and start with my family history again.

So, there we go, domestic bliss - NOT.

Hasn't the weather been so unseasonal here is the eastern UK? The BBC weather website calls the weather 'autumnal.' Actually apart from yesterday which was quite balmy, it's been damnably cold. Someone has hidden summer as a joke.

Still, in my moments of lethargy, I managed to see England beat India in a superb first test at Lords last week and listen to the stunning news of the massacre in Norway which just simply beggars belief - I still can't comprehend it.

I've told my boss that I will be applying to go part time in June next year unless I win the lottery in which case I may go altogether, but I'm not holding my breath.

I have a Reiki exam for my third degree on Sunday so wish me well. It's quite a practical exam really, so I'm looking forward to it.

So that's it for the time being, sorry not to have been in touch, but will be reading all the back issues of my blogging friends blogs to catch up with news shortly.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

It All Ends - Now

2011-07-17T12:15:00.001+01:00

Dramatic headline which consciously or subconsciously we've all been looking at for weeks now on billboards, on the Internet, in the papers and on television. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 has reached our screens at the cinemas and the climax of this extraordinary story, in cinematic terms anyway has blasted our senses at all levels.

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but JK Rowling has been pilloried by literary critics for her banal language and plots with loads of holes in them. Really? Well I guess the statistic speak for themselves. In the UK alone, the seven books have sold 27,602,725* and global box office takings EXCLUDING this latest film is (US Dollars) 6,372,000,000.

Well done JK Rowling, you deserve everything you get from this. Your ideas, your work, your effort and time, your determination in sending it to more than 12 publishers who declined the manuscripts. I know at least two writers read this blog and they too will succeed because they have determination and the will to have their work published - to do what? Entertain, mystify, make us laugh, make us cry, stir the emotions and when we finish the book say - wow, that was a really good read.

I went to see the film at Cineworld, Hull last night with friends. The film was exceptional and lived up to the publicity. It had everything you would want in terms of emotions, action, special effects, great plot, extraordinary acting from many characters by a lot of superb world renown actors who gave every effort to make it what it should have been - a spectacle.

I shed tears on a number of occasions, fortunately behind my dark 3D glasses, but after the film, my friends confessed they had done the same.

The 3D effects were not distracting either - a pet hate of mine. You concentrated on the film, not looking for the 3D so well done director David Yates. If I have a concern about the film, I would have said its 12A rating was right on the cusp and I believe that anyone under 12 (who could have gone with parental supervision) would have been affected perhaps by at least two of the scenes. But on the plus side there is no gratuitous showing of violence and no swearing, even from Ronald Weasley who often slips in "bloody hell!"

I will miss Harry Potter, the actors, the stories, the now familiar plots, the magic, the fun, seeing familiar faces grow up into adults over the last ten years of the most brilliant franchise films which, apart from a couple of blips, held the imagination and left you desperately wanting the next film.

Recommended? Hell yes!

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

*Source Neilson BookScan

My Valued Friends

2011-07-14T22:21:00.006+01:00

Where has the week gone? It's Thursday and I haven't caught my breath yet! The weekend is however forecast torrential rain for most of the UK on Saturday and residual showers on Sunday so a couple of good books might have to come off the shelf.

Indeed my fellow blogger Magnumlady has sent me a beautiful book of photographs to which she is a contributor and I look forward to reading that and taking in good quality photography. It's called 'Quoted Moments' compiled by Joanne Malony with proceeds going to the Irish Cancer Society; with the most delicious photographs accompanying some famous and lovely well chosen quotes.

Now, nine years ago give or take a few months, I met for the first time Shirley Ann Summerwill and her partner Barry Chessman. They are mediums who I approached after an Internet search for a local medium to help me with a project which they did gladly and voluntarily. We have been firm friends ever since and they are now married having been partners for nearly twenty years.

I have been going along to a development circle run by Shirley Ann for nine years without missing hardly a week, it means a great deal to me. After nine years of keeping the faith with me, this afternoon, I accompanied Shirley Ann to a Spiritualist Church in Hull (John Street) and together we provided mediumship from the platform during their lovely service.

This is a milestone in my spiritual life and my life in general.

It went well and feedback I've had is very positive. I don't want to shout about this because it's about giving others a service of messages of compassion, love, hope and truth from their loved ones now departed, but I do owe a debt of gratitude to a few people who have supported me and have put faith in me and I am so grateful. To Shirley and Barry who are simply stars - I can't say enough in their praise. To two Lindas who are both really good friends - Linda the Back who has encouraged and supported me and given sage advice over the years (as well as mending my back) and to Linda the Healer, who, although only coming into my life relatively recently has pointed me in new directions with the spiritual and angelic worlds, she is a great teacher and so enthusiastic about Archangels and their undoubted influence in our lives. To the lovely Tammy who started this journey with me at the same time and became a good friend, I thank her for sticking with me and believing in me - she is much more sensitive than I and would make an excellent medium/psychic.

To Su from the Midlands who gave me so much practical advice as a tutor through her class on the Spirit and the Artist course at the Arthur Findlay College; to fun Margot who guides us on a special philosophy circle who has broadened my horizons immeasurably. Maureen is my Reiki Master and who is never short of wise practical advice both spiritually and in Reiki terms. To Sharla Rae from across the pond in Illinois who was so encouraging and supporting and with whom I would love to work again one day.

There you are. I am quite emotional writing this so if I have missed anyone, I am so sorry. There are many other friends I now have that I met along the way directly as a result of Spiritualism of whom I dearly love and are a part of my life now. Sounds like someone accepting an Academy Award.

I can't share this with my wife because she doesn't believe in it, so I share it with you, being a believer or not, it doesn't matter, I just need people to know how important friends are.

I hope you have a great weekend when it arrives and hope the weather doesn't curtail your enjoyment of it.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

East Yorkshire's Finest House

2011-07-10T19:40:00.003+01:00

I hope you've had a great weekend and managed, like I have, to dodge the showers. I apologise in advance, a bit of picture overload today.

Today I've been into the heart of the Yorkshire Wolds, more to the east closer to the coast but none the less in some of the prettiest land in this fair isle. In fact I've briefly visited the lovely picturesque village of Rudston in East Yorkshire and Burton Agnes Hall just four miles away.

The day started fair and sunny - balmy. Rudston is a small village but its history goes back many centuries. Of particular interest is Rudston Monolith which stands in All Saints Rudston Parish Churchyard next to the small attractive church.

This peculiar stone stands 26 feet high from the ground and was bought to the site around 4000 years ago toward the end of the Neolithic Period (c. 4000 - 2000 B.C.) a full 2000 years before the birth of Christ. The rock is the sort that comes from the Cleveland area of the UK, many, many miles north of this hilly location.

This tallest single standing monolith in the UK is made of moor grit conglomerate but was bought here by who and for what purpose, I guess we'll never know. However an excavation in the 18th century to discover how much of the stone was underground found many skulls suggesting it might have been a sacrificial site.

I took this picture of this bee on a roadside thistle on one of the many single track roads in the area which are quite high up offering magnificent views of the base of the Wolds looking south and to the east where today, you could see the coast and the North Sea.

Burton Agnes Hall is the most attractive of buildings and is allegedly one of the top twenty country houses in the UK according to Simon Jenkins in 'Englands Thousand Top Homes,' ranking alongside Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Chatsworth House - high praise indeed.

Originally there was a Norman manor house on this site built, staggeringly as far back as 1175, the lower chamber of which amazingly still survives. The 'modern' Elizabethan building was built between 1598 and 1610 by Sir Henry Griffith, the house has been in the same current family for fifteen generations. Although I didn't go in the house today, the weather was too nice, it is thoroughly recommended. The brochure shows its magnificence and today, it is still a family home. It cost me a fiver to get in and stay from 11am to 5 pm.

The grounds are most beautiful with an award winning walled garden and trimmed yew trees bordering a lovely fountain. Today, I spent most of the time in the walled garden.

Each of the many dozens and dozens of borders and secret gardens carries flowers of every shade, size and colour. Labels abound giving you the chance to identify the plant, many of which are for sale in the courtyard shop next to the excellent and reasonably priced cafe. There's a maze, a huge chequers board and a chess board hidden in secret gardens which abound everywhere to explore, each themed.

The garden also holds vegetables of many different varieties which feed the house, so very practical use of the garden. In total, the garden carries apparantly over 4000 different varieties of plants including a national collection of campanulas. Close to the fountain area is a woodland walk and the last time I went, which was many years ago, in spring it was full of rhododendron flowers.

Although I didn't watch it today, this weekend has been a Civil War re-enactment going on with lots of beautifully dressed men (soldiers) women and children dressed in Civil War period costume. I managed to capture them on the main drive to the house from the gatehouse (in the background) getting ready to march into battle, presumably for the last time this weekend.

Finally, here is the lovely fountain which has a few lillies and a few gold fish in it. You can just see the first of many manicured yew trees on the far right in the background which line this well kept garden.

By the way, this wire sculptured gardener provides light entertainment in the border of the wall garden quietly tending the veg.

Burton Agnes Hall is the home of the Cunliffe-Listers and their web site is very informative. Thoroughly recommended for a vist and even if you have to drive a fair way to get there, I guess it's worth the effort. I'll visit the house next time and there's even a room haunted apparantly by a Katharine Griffith who died in the house in 1620. The story of her untimely death is very sad indeed. Right up my street.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

Chat Soon

Ta-ra.

Comedy and Tragedy

2011-07-07T16:05:00.001+01:00

This week has been very busy indeed coupled with the fact that I've been ill meant that this blog, which was mostly written last Monday, but never finished is four days late!

The first day back at work (Monday) was fine. I was warmly greeted by the Branch head and my former line manager Phill and my colleagues Ellie, Caroline, Tammy, Gemma and Kirsty and a couple of other good colleagues and it sort of gives one a glow that people still care about each other. In difficult and demanding times, it's good not to lose a sense of courtesy and friendliness. Without looking after your people, what would you have left?

I only had 85 e-mails which was a bit of a surprise. About half were for my information, about fifteen needed some sort of action and the rest were just administrative thingybobs.

I'm on a diet again and to be fair, I have been throughout my holiday and the last three days, I've felt rubbish and in fact I think I've actually had a reaction to the stuff. They are sort of milk shakes with one decent meal a day. Bearing in mind that although I drank milk for England when I was younger, I haven't drunk milk except in tea for the last two years. I am now paying the price and I am starting a bit of a detox which leaves me with temporary inertia and slight dizziness which always happens when I cut down on food intake. My stomach is as solid as a rock. (Update - this was written on Monday - and apart from a sore throat - back up and running!)

But enough about that. The last week and a half has been pretty good weather wise so I've been lucky with my UK holiday in sunny East Yorkshire, however, my grass is starting to look brown again. I noticed that the forecast is for rain, some heavy, on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning so perhaps a bit of respite, I don't want to waste good tap water on the sprinklers.

To bring me down to earth, fellow blogger Weaver mentions in her blog the plight of women and children, the infirm and elderly in the Horn of Africa, East Africa and parts of other countries local to this area. This is indeed a distressing sight. I am so sad that the lack of meaningful Government in Somalia has meant that tens of thousands are marching simply to get basic minimal food and water. I am delighted however that the Muslim based self styled Government is now sufficiently embarrassed to allowed western aid agencies in to the country PROVIDING they abide by strict conditions and report to their committee first for permission. Their arrogance is staggering. What about their people? Don't they come first?

The News of the World are indeed in deep do-do. I am delighted that at last tabloid journalism is coming under very deep and close scrutiny. Whilst sympathising with today's NoW journalists and editorial team who had nothing to do with the early to mid 2000s scandals, I hope that this bites at the very heart of the empire that runs the paper that thinks it's invincible. Excellent coverage in the Daily Telegraph shows live daily news on the subject as it happens.

To create balance, I was also disappointed to read that Police Officers were paid for information and I hope this doesn't detract from investigating and getting to the bottom of the evil that was going on at the time in the dark, dingy, back offices of NoW, but none the less also needs to be addressed urgently.

I hope this is a wake up call for all tabloid editors that public opinion and big business (by withdrawing advertising revenue) can and do make a difference to you if you screw up - oh how the tables have turned. It's about time the papers and editors started to treat the public with respect.

Finally, if you are in the UK and want a huge laugh, listen to a programme on BBC iPlayer (this is time limited) from a BBC Radio 2 boraodcast on Tuesday night, hosted by Barbara Windsor about the history of female comedians that shaped today's comedians. The subject on Tuesday night was the extraordinary character actress and comedian Hilda Baker. She was a northern lass who often got her words mixed up and in the first ten minutes of this programme, I was nearly wetting myself whilst driving home in my car listening to her repartee. He comic timing was brilliant.

So, some serious stuff and not so serious stuff today and looking forward to the weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Wave Goodbye to This Year's Holiday

2011-07-02T16:00:00.001+01:00

Well the holiday is nearly over for another year. I've had a lazy time, a time for thinking, a time for dieting and a time where I haven't done what I intended to do. I didn't cut the hedge; I didn't clear the garage out; I didn't read as much as I wanted to. But I've also had an unexpected trip to Scarborough, a trip to York and met up with some old friends, the garden is in good trim and the weather is warm and balmy. I've even done three Reiki treatments. What more could a man from 'up north' want?

By the way, I washed the car too. Well strictly speaking I didn't actually wash the car, I paid someone else to do it for me but it looks good and he did it better than I would have done. A worthy £8 in Sainsbury's car park while I did the family shopping on my own this morning. I was exhausted at the thought of him doing it while I was rummaging through the melons - does that count?

A tribute of thanks to a fellow blogger today MorningAJ - her very entertaining blog is here. She gave me an award. MorningAJ lives in the Midlands and describes herself as an ordinary person with a story to tell. Let me tell you she is not an ordinary person, none of us are and blimey does she tell a good story of her day to day life. Congratulations on your award and and many thanks for passing it on!

She is also very naughty because she is a temptress with a superbly mouth-watering blog entitled Auntie Anne's Extremely Useful Stuff with tons of recipes, experiments with food and hot tips!

So what am I doing on my last day tomorrow? Well I normally always get fed up with myself at the thought of going back to work, but I ain't bothered. Hair cut with a number 3 attachment on the end of a home hairdressing kit; watch England's third one day cricket international against Sri Lanka at Lords on the television; unless the day is hot, then I'll be fairly lazy sitting in the garden - again; and no matter what the temperature, roast pork and vegetables with crackling of course! We are making up with a salad for tea today.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and as always:

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Virus Wiped Out

2011-06-28T13:58:00.002+01:00

I'm a fairly comptetent user of a computer at home and at work. I'm not sure what goes on inside it, but then I don't need to to use it. Like my mobile phone - I have no idea how it works, but I can use it well enough. My other half tried to log on to our internet banking to see if we'd earned any interest on our 37 pence savings this morning and a strange pop-up box came up which asked us for our account number and our security number. Whoops, never seen that before - my computer had got a virus.

This is despite the fact that we have the full monty protecting the machine, virus thingy, firewall whatsit etc etc. I even did a full scan of the computer yesterday for some reason which took 24 hours to complete and it never found anything.

Anyway, the nice man at McAfee took over my computer and found the little tinker, a new Trojan which had got in somehow, probably with something we've downloaded. It recognises the banking home page, turns it off and provides a little pop up box. It's all gone now, so all is well and my 37 pence is safe.

What a difference in the weather today, yesterday basking in 32 degrees C of sunshine, today 17 degrees of greyness with a chill breeze. No shorts for me today! Even the cats are are in and Jack cat is laid on my desk next to my keyboard fast asleep. Look at the cat hairs on my keyboard, good job I'm not allergic to them. No thunderstorms last night despite the forecast - I had my camera and tripod ready!

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Sun at the Seaside

2011-06-25T21:06:00.001+01:00

Today started with dark skies, persistent rain and a decided chill. We set off, a group of friends and I to Scarborough in North Yorkshire for an 'Air Show.'

We got there just after 9.30am and the place was deserted with parking spots freely available but the weather had started to turn for the better and although the cloud persisted for a while, it turned progressively warmer and brighter as the morning wore on until a full blazing sun appeared late morning.

We did a bit of shopping and stopped off for lunch as the air show was to begin around 12.30 and go on to 5 o'clock. My chicken salad meant that we missed the first air display by a squadron of four planes doing things over the bay.

We caught the next display which was an Air Sea Rescue helicopter from RAF Leconfield in east Yorkshire doing a practice rescue in the Bay of a man thrown overboard from a inshore lifeboat. They are my heroes. Whilst today was calm, imagine sending a winch man down in force 8 gales, mountainous seas and driving rain?

Finally, the afternoon was supposed to be capped off by a fly past of a WW2 Lancaster Bomber. It never arrived - it had broken down.

Whilst mildly disappointed, it was still a pleasant relaxed day with armed services displays along the seafront, lots of brave people in the sea - actually swimming in the sea and warm balmy sunshine.

I hope you enjoy these few pictures.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

My Second Living Room

2011-06-24T15:54:00.001+01:00

Today I've risen to the challenge set to me by reader and correspondent Donna OShaughnessy from Illinois in the big US of A, (hello Donna.) Please visit her highly informative and entertaining blog about her life as a "Midlife Farmwife" on a Certified Organic dairy, beef and pork ranch called South Pork!

The challenge was for me to stop teasing with pictures of flowers and show the garden as it is. Well, that's a bit difficult because it's in an L shape, so I thought we'd have a walk around instead and took a few pics as I went along. I think you can click on them to enlarge them.

The first pic shows the back of the house - quite narrow; there's a road on the left hand side behind the hedge. A small fish pond with a waterfall is directly in front of you and I am standing under an old cherry tree. It's quite shady here, but the trees are protected under a preservation order, so I can't touch them although the the Local Authority does look kindly on me trimming them but I still have to apply to lop the branches.

So I've reached the far corner of the house and just take half a turn to my right, the start of the L shape. There's a larger 1000 litre fish pond to the left with a waterfall, raised and surrounded by a wooden clad wall. In the middle is a pergola, covered in clematis Montana and honeysuckle through which we can walk in to the back of the garden. An old bird bath sits lonely in the grass and a green border with ferns, hostas, rhododendron and robina sits nicely to the right giving shade and a playground for the birds.

As we reach the back of the garden near the greenhouse, we can look back toward the house. Behind me is the greenhouse and shed and to the left a hedge of prickly pyracantha (deadly stuff, rips me to shreds) and you can just see the birdbath in the distance. My fountain is in the centre the base of which is filled with bedding plants and although you can't see them (just one peeping round the bottom left hand side), there are six pots of different varieties of lavender on the other side of the fountain base enjoying the sun and is home to visiting bees and butterflies.

You can see the shadow of trees on the lawn and I have a huge lime tree in the right hand corner out of shot and behind me is a large sycamore and two decorative silver birch trees. It's not too difficult to keep on top of, most of the borders in the shade are covered in a protective layers and bark chippings. The shrubs get a shave from the hedge trimmer in late autumn and the lawn gets cut once a week.

Today I planted about ten perennial plants I bought from Brigg yesterday to fill the gaps in the borders and above is an old much loved tub with a lovely lilac osteospermum 'stardust' and two different cupheas which also came from the garden centre to add a bit of colour to the patio. The front garden is a triangular paved drive with a few pots of bits and pieces just to break up the monotony.

I hope you enjoyed the journey in my second living room - the garden.

Tomorrow it's a trip to Scarborough, a seaside town in North Yorkshire and about an hour and a half's drive away with friends to see an Air Show (I've never been to one) which is in the afternoon, so praying for decent weather.

Enjoy your weekend

Ta-ra.

Shower Dodging

2011-06-23T15:16:00.001+01:00

Today, with a couple of elderly friends, we crossed the mighty River Humber (£2.70 each way for the privilege) and visited a large and grand garden centre in Brigg in North Lincolnshire. I'm not going to give them free advertising, but it's a great place to go, hundreds of thousands of plants, equipment, household stuff and fancies and a very good restaurant/cafe which seats hundreds of people - a measure of their popularity.

Brigg is a small village although it's spread out a bit. The name came from the bridge that once stood across the nearby River Ancholme. Famous for its markets and a horse fair, its a very successful market town, a pleasant place to visit.

We bought a few perennial plants to fill some gaps; plants that will come back year ofter year and chosen not only for how they look but that they attract bees and butterflies etc.

Just as we left the garden centre, you have to cross a railway line and guarding the crossing is a majestic signal box, now a very rare sight indeed where I live, save to say there are some remote rural crossings in the East Yorkshire countryside where boxes survive but which few people see. Indeed the level crossing gates themselves are what I remember as a child, not the modern rise and fall barrier types that always get stuck.

I felt tempted to wave to the signalman as we left, but I resisted.

The day has once again been a case of shower dodging and there have been some cracking black clouds about. This picture was taken by my other half while we crossed the Humber Bridge and this view was looking east toward the North Sea.

Hope you are well and enjoying the week. The weekend is due very soon.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Messing About Near the River

2011-06-22T22:16:00.001+01:00

Day three of the holiday and although I'm not going away or doing interesting things every day, I'll post when I go somewhere different locally.

There seems to be an increase in the spiritual things in life too for some reason. For example, I've done a Reiki treatment today in Tickton, a small village just north east of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Tickton, a small one horse town, used to be on a main road from Beverley toward Bridlington on the A1035 but many years ago, the bridge over the River Hull in the village could never cope with the increase in modern traffic, so they cut the village off with a bypass, demolished the road bridge and today the two halves of the village are now communicable by a foot bridge.

I took some pictures of the River Hull for you looking toward Beverley from the footbridge over the river.

Because I was early for my appointment, I also had a twenty minute wander through the graveyard of the delightful but tiny St Paul's Church in the village. Interestingly, it hosts both the Church of England (it's a daughter church to Beverley Minster) and the Methodists. The graveyard was full of deliciously scented roses and old as well as new gravestones as tributes to the departed. There were a few gargoyles on the windows to guard the church, but sadly most of them were worn with the ravages of weather over the ages. One did stand out, and here it is.

The Reiki went well and over the last few days I've also participated in my weekly psychic development circle, done a Tarot reading, done a past life regression, done a clearing of karmic debt through meditation, done work on an Archangel, researched Archangels and tonight gave a mixture of Reiki and Angelic healing to a man who desperately needed it both mentally and physically.

I thought I was supposed to be on holiday!

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Designed Day Out

2011-06-21T17:40:00.002+01:00

A lovely day today spent with parents just south of York at a designer outlet McArthur Glen which is located just south of York on the main A64. The weather was typical summer showers, brief heavy downpours and hot sunshine. Even though I'm on a holiday, I don't mind the rain and showers so much, because a) we need the rain; and b) this is Britain and there's nothing we can do about it so why worry; if I'd wanted sun, I'd have gone abroad.

The designer outlet sounds posher than it is. It is indeed fairly modern, immaculately clean and bright and airy. Allegedly, you can get bargains and we saw some supposed knock down prices. Most of the top names are there for clothes and the food outlets on the first floor tend to be a bit too 'convenience food' style for me, non-the-less, very pleasant. There are loads of parking facilities and you can get a 'park and ride' to York city itself which is about three miles away.

I noticed today, the grass verges are full of white, yellow and red flowers (poppies); forgive me, I don't know what the others are, the white ones are like tall daisies. They gave a brightness to the drudgery of the journey.

I hope you are enjoying your week so far?

The picture above is a flower from my trailing Ivy-Leafed Pelargonium.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Mysterious Eclipse of the Moon

2011-06-17T16:35:00.002+01:00

I missed the eclipse of the moon on Wednesday night (15th) due to heavy cloud and rain showers, however, the sunset was a bonus. Here is the first one looking to the east, away from the sunset.

The second was looking into the sunset through some trees.

The weekend is here - enjoy!

Chat soon

Ta ra.

First Class Film

2011-06-15T19:42:00.002+01:00

Time for another film review and this time for 'X-Men - First Class'. Thanks to work colleague and good egg Nick (Hi Nick!) who recommended this one. I went to see this at Cineworld in Hull on Monday night.

Now this film is what's known as a prequel, a sort of beginning or the origins of a well established film series - in this case X-Men starring Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman and many other good actors. The X-Men series of films were very good but prequels in my experience tend not to be so good although there are a couple of notable exceptions including the Star Trek prequel released a couple of years ago. Some bad prequels involved the Star Wars series which were not very good.

This prequel however was very good. Here's the thing - I like quality acting, characters that are built during a film, a good story and as few special effects that is possible before the film gets spoiled. This had all the decent qualities of a film which appeals to a big audience with only one swear word (from a cameo role part played by Hugh Jackman.)

This is about the discovery of a whole species of near human beings called mutants who are scattered throughout the world. Beings who have special gifts, powers but who are clearly different from human beings although to all intents and purposes they look the same. Mutants hide their 'powers' or gifts for fear of being branded 'different'. There are many analogies to modern day issues.

Charles Xavier himself a mutant with mind reading powers and played well by James McAvoy helps the CIA to combat the threat of nuclear war in the 1960s using the real Bay of Pigs incident by providing assistance from mutants with special powers. He meets and enlists Erik Lehnsherr played by accomplished actor Michael Fassbender, also a mutant but he is someone who is hell bent on revenge against a Nazi, Sebastian Shaw who murdered his mother in a concentration camp played by the deliciously evil Kevin Bacon who himself is trying to encourage the nuclear war between super powers Russia and the USA.

The main characters are ably supported by a good quality cast.

No spoilers here, so you'll have to watch the film to find out how the plot unfolds, but the story moves along apace with good special effects which don't overwhelm the film and this 2D production is rated at 12A.

Recommended with 7.5/10 for good entertainment for 2 hours and 12 minutes which fly by (providing your bum doesn't go numb like mine did!)

I hope you are enjoying your week, more than half way to the weekend!

Looking forward to seeing the full moon eclipse tonight - weather permitting - lots of cloud about right now; if I get any pictures, I'll post them.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

(Thanks to the IMDB for the picture)

Fun on the Slope

2011-06-12T18:56:00.001+01:00

I set off this morning to visit my parents in Cottingham in East Yorkshire, about seven miles away to take a few pictures of the village bathed in sunlight accompanied by my son. We set off in glorious hot sunshine with clear skies quite early on, but with the threat of rain forecast later in the day around 1 pm.

As I sit here and write this as tea is cooking in the kitchen next door, it is literally chucking it down. God is throwing water down in bucket loads! The cats, sensibly, are curled up indoors.

Now what does the above picture mean to you? It is slightly confusing because it on an incline downwards away from me although this isn't clear on the picture. In some places it's called a 'service road' behind some houses; some call it a ten-foot (because it's ten foot wide) or an eight-foot (same theory) or a snicket.

It's a slope. It's the 'slope.' That's what we called it when I was a kid. It's a path from Exeter Street in Cottingham towards a footpath that leads you either to the railway station nearby or towards Hull. The Hull University grounds are on the other side of the wall at the bottom which carries a lovely lake, woods and botanical grounds.

Where it leads to is not so important as what that 'slope' meant to me and my childhood friends. My grandparents lived in a house to the left of the picture at the top and I spent a huge amount of time there during my childhood and formative years. The 'slope' was a race track, for running competitions, for barrow racing (a plank of wood with old pram wheels), for rolling pennies and marbles down. You could watch the trains pass just thirty or forty yards away across the gardens on the right hand side of the 'slope,' (and yes I can remember steam trains!)

You could hide in the hedges either side of the 'slope' while playing hide and seek, and we built dens in the overgrown gardens (where there is now wooden fencing.) We drew hopscotch grids with chalk and used stones from the gardens for our throws, we drew faces and wrote funny things. You could reach through a gap underneath the concrete panelled fence at the bottom of the 'slope' and catch tiddlers in the stream that fed the lake in the University grounds.

Ah, joyous and innocent years.

31 years ago in a couple of weeks time, I moved into my first marital house in Exeter Street, just thirty yards from my beloved 'slope.'

Below is just a quick picture of St Mary's church in Cottingham where I got married, and it looked lovely in the sun this morning with the flag of St George flying aloft, probably still acknowledging the official birthday of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth ll.

Hope you have enjoyed the weekend, Monday beckons! My last week at work before a fortnight off.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Be Careful What you Wish for...

2011-06-11T14:22:00.001+01:00

...you might just get it.

An English proverb and very apt because the other day in the blog I was talking about the need for rain. The last couple of days we have had sunshine and showers, almost April like; dark clouds and heavy short showers. My fellow blogger Magnumlady posted a picture from Northern Ireland where there had been hail storms and it looked like a snow scene except the trees were in leaf!

I love the garden after a rain storm; the sun glistening in the drops of rain left on the leaves and flowers, the smell of the dampness being sucked into the dry earth; the dark threatening skies in the background while you are bathed in sunlight.

I sat in the conservatory today making a phone call and I had to stop for a few seconds because of the noise of the rain on the roof and the unexpected clap of thunder - just one, before the stormy clouds scudded away to the east.

Two young lads, who were not the brightest tools in the box were stood at the top of the ski slope. The first one said, "Ok are we ready to zig-zag down the hill then?"

"Zig-zag?" He replied, "Don't you mean zag-zig?"

The first said, "Well I thought it was zig-zag, but I'm not so sure now. Let's ask that bloke over there."

"Excuse me," said the first man to the bloke stood nearby. "My friend and I are having a disagreement whether or not we should zig-zag or zag-zig down the hill."

"It's no good asking me," the man replied, "I'm a tobogganist."

"That's good," says the first man, "I'll have a packet of Marlborough and a box of matches."

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Put Your Hosepipes Away!

2011-06-08T20:40:00.000+01:00

I was delighted to see my cousin Lynda and her husband Chris over the weekend; they had travelled up from Leicestershire to see my mum and dad and we went out for a lovely tea at a local Italian restaurant in Cottingham East Yorkshire. Also with us was Lynda's daughter Suzanne and her partner Hedley who live in London. We don't see them often and it was a pleasure to chat and spend time with them.

The weather has been okay these past few days with a little more in the way of showers which are much needed and surprisingly chilly nights which are not. No ground frosts thank goodness but the breezes do persist, knocking a few degrees off the temperature. Some really dark clouds and heavy summer showers this afternoon.

Now I'm not a tennis fan particularly, I'll watch it if I have to, you know, but unlike cricket which I could waste my life away watching, tennis does not have the same appeal. Imagine my surprise when I walk in and my other half has Eurosport on the satellite watching tennis at Queens, the forerunner to Wimbledon and Andy Murry is on (he won by the way.) What amuses me is that when he wins, he's British and when he loses, he's Scottish. Bizarre.

I notice once more the stories of potential hosepipe bans are hitting the news. Normally this is annual British Sport: three weeks without significant rain and the hosepipe ban looms. It seems on this occasion, it looks more likely this year. Spring rainfall in the UK was only 86.9mm, the lowest since 1893 apparently. Our friends in Ireland and Western England and Scotland might not agree however, they seem to have had a lot of rain recently.

Here are some tips from the BBC about gardeners coping with the dry weather (click on the link for more info):

Scrape back the surface to make sure water goes to the roots
Re-use house water, collect rain water
For vegetables, step up watering two weeks before eating
Water late at night so it's absorbed before evaporating
Add a layer of mulch to keep moisture in
Don't cut the lawn too short in the summer
Put soaked newspaper under crops that need lots of water
Use screens or windbreaks to reduce effects of drying winds

Seems to be a lot of work?

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Liverpool One Shines Brightly in the Sun

2011-06-04T21:58:00.001+01:00

I've just arrived home after an overnight visit to Liverpool to see my youngest son who is at the University of Liverpool and it was fantastic to see him again after what seems like ages!

Liverpool is a fantastic city and thoroughly recommended for a visit. The last time we were there, we concentrated on the Albert Dock area which has seen a fabulous refurbishment and on it's own took a full two days top visit. This time, we were walking around the extensive 'Liverpool One' which I think is what you and I would call the city centre. A memorial to John Lennon is on the left.

Liverpool One is extensive, safe, clean, tidy colourful, vibrant and a pleasure to be in. The variety of things to do is good as you might expect and what is a bonus is the architecture. I guess from the revenue from successful commerce over the centuries, there are some massive buildings, gorgeous edifices of different style, variety, size and age.

I did visit a lovely spiritual resource centre on Renshaw Street and it is packed with spiritual goodies of all kinds!

The most impressive I guess is the opera house, vast sandstone building with massive columns at the front guarded by lions. But that's not alone, there are many mini grand buildings like this one, the Adelphi Hotel is unique, square and almost white, there are churches everywhere, some in good repair, some not so good like St Lukes, damaged during WW2 but still performing a function to attract visitors despite there being no roof. As you walk further afield, there are some empty shops and buildings like everywhere else, and I've put a picture of one of them here, the picture house, which must have been very impressive in its heyday.

Nevertheless, there were many city centre staff to keep the place clean, help visitors and despite it being packed to the gunnel's on this lovely day (26 degrees and wall to wall sun) I never saw a police officer or PCSO and frankly there was no wonder because the atmosphere was so positive and the people so friendly.

We paid a visit to the World Museum which was okay and mostly shopped for bits and pieces for the boy. I can now boast I have been in Primark in Oxford Street, London, Carr Lane in Hull and in Liverpool One! I know how to party!

Below is a picture of leaf cutter ants in the 'insect' section of the museum carrying some cut leaves to their nest along a piece of rope kindly provided by the staff for the entertainment of visitors!

I like the Liverpool sense of humour, dry and self-critical usually, but there was a sign in a cafe which cheekily read, "A balanced diet is a piece of cake in each hand!" How true! (I was very good, I only had a croissant and a coffee.)

We had a couple of meals at the Childwall Abbey Hotel, a converted Abbey house would you believe, in Liverpool 16, and the food was excellent.

Well I'm home now to be greeted by a gale force wind, 13 degrees and drizzle! How can two halves of the country be so blooming different and only two hours apart.

Enjoy the second half of your weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Who Did the Rain Dance?

2011-05-30T20:21:00.001+01:00

Despite a very wet and rainy day in God's own county (Yorkshire) this Bank Holiday Monday, it didn't stop me venturing around and about...

Above is a picture taken from the South Bank of the River Humber (which is in North Lincolnshire but looks toward East Yorkshire on the North Bank) as a rain storm is approaching from the west this afternoon around 4 pm.

Just a few yards behind me at the Barton upon Humber - Humber Bridge Viewing Site is one of the many small ponds varying in size which offer a haven for wildlife and leisure facilities for fresh water fishing. (Picture below.) A lovely place to walk with the family.

For once, I've no complaints about the weather and a days rain is very welcome indeed. My friend Barry stated on his Twitter account today that the place smells different after a rain storm, the colours are different and indeed he is right - it is a unique smell. Wherever in the world you are, I hope you enjoyed your Monday. Back to work tomorrow.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

And Now for Something Completely Different

2011-05-29T00:05:00.001+01:00

Tonight I have spent the evening with my middle son John and we visited York, principally to see John Cleese in his Alimony Tour 2011 at the Grand Opera House York and have tea in that famous old city at the Ate O'Clock restaurant.

John Cleese is very funny indeed. I have always liked his slightly irascible character and tonight in two 50 minute slots, he merely skimmed the surface of his long and brilliant career. This is called his Alimony Tour because his ex-wife has stung him for $20,000,000 alimony in a court in California, $15 million up front and a million a year for five years. He admits he is doing the tour for the money! This accounted for the first ten minutes of the show and was hilarious in its bitter commentary.

Cleese talked about his early life, his being brought up in Weston Super Mare (bombed by the Germans, he says, to prove they had a sense of humour and where the bomb cost more to produce than the damage it caused) and his mother who lived to be 101. His life in the Cambridge Footlights and the people he met to his being discovered effectively by David Frost who invited him to the BBC for a comedy current affairs sketch show and the rest, they say, is history.

Cleese was/is a complex character no doubt, but a comic genius who wrote some of the best radio and television comedy this country has ever seen and went on to write and appear in many films. He was generous about his fellow stars he met over the years including Graham Chapman, Connie Booth, the Two Ronnies (Barker and Corbet), many of the Pythons and his dear mother a source of much inspiration to his love of psychology and comic material.

He discussed black humour and why we love it and hate it, and chose clips from his favourite moments in his life from his early TV, film career with A Fish Called Wanda and later television with Monty Python's Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers. He explained comedy and what made audiences laugh and the science behind how you produced comedy that people want.

As an added bonus, Prunella Scales (who played Sybil Fawlty) and her husband Timothy West and their actor son Samuel were in the audience and again Cleese was generous enough to acknowledge her and bade the audience to applaud her which they did warmly.

If I had a criticism, it was the fact that he didn't really talk about his radio career in which he was a prolific writer and performer, but then what can you fit into two 50 minute slots when you have had a rich, busy and varied life.

Worth every penny to watch this comedy genius.

Tea was at Ate O'clock in High Ousegate in York situated down an alley so nearly missed it. The food was good and because we booked a table for when it opened to get in early, we were offered a complimentary bottle of wine. As I was driving and my lad doesn't drink wine, we had to decline and I was heart-broken.

By the way, the Grand Opera House in York (originally the Grand Theatre and Opera) was built in 1902 having been converted from a warehouse and a corn exchange. Small and intimate, strangely, the seats are small but the leg room is brilliant. Closed for just four years from 1989 with debts, this art deco decorated theatre is a pleasant surprise, comfortable and gentle on the eye.

I hope you are enjoying this Bank Holiday (in the UK) weekend so far.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Impossible Forecasting

2011-05-27T16:16:00.001+01:00

What a busy week. Not much time for 'me' this week but there have been some interesting bits and pieces going on not least of which was a great thunderstorm and rain yesterday (Thursday).

It has been very entertaining watching some dramatically dark and stormy skies. Sorry about the boring photo.

This provided very welcome water to the ground here and although my grass was just fractionally turning more orange than green, the natural colour seems to have reappeared, well at least for the time being anyway.

The local BBC TV forecaster has a blog through which he has looked at some of the more influential weather forecasters in the world to look at what they predict for the UK summer and predictably (excuse the pun) they are all different. He did this in response to typical uniformed tabloid reports of extremes of weather on their way - a summer to rival 1976, which I remember with fondness for a number of reasons and that included a long hot dry fabulous summer.

I've often why editors choose this type of headline on a subject which is notoriously unreliable and impossible to predict with any real accuracy because there are literally millions if not billions of local variables which means showers do or don't appear where and when predicted, snow does or doesn't arrive and gale force winds do or do not blow tiles off the roof.

Indeed, why would we want perfect weather forecasting? What would we Brits have to talk about? Okay, I guess if you have a fete planned or a wedding marquee to look after you would want to know what's going to happen, but even if you did, what could you do about it in reality?

There's a bit planned for the weekend and the main task is to get all my plants out of the greenhouse and into the ground. It's the end of May and while frost is not entirely unheard of at this time of year, it's a rare as hens teeth (they don't have any by the way - an American phrase from colonial days.)

It's Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK and sadly the weather for the north east of the UK is not good, cloudy with rain showers - ah well. I don't feel so bad, a colleague has just returned from Greece and they've had a lot of rain and last Thursday they were sat in their apartment with the heating on!

Have a great weekend

Chat soon

Ta-ra.