SkyWatch Friday Season 4 Episode 29

 

We have had many grey skies recently but it has been dry if a little chilly. Last Sunday there were some clouds hanging in the sky.

A little later the sun broke through and transformed the mood of the late afternoon.

The sun gilded the tops of the Scots pines and enhanced the pink buds of the Silver Birches. Since this photograph was taken the plantsmen from the Forestry Commission have planted Scots pine saplings in the furrows.  These replaced the earlier little trees that disappeared without trace. Inevitably some have already been uprooted.

Two days later the sky was afire as the sun set. Poplars and oaks stood starkly skeletal in the wonderful light. 

Thank you to the SkyWatch team for all their efforts in hosting this lovely meme. If you would like to see more skies please click here.

A bouquet of flowers

It is always delightful to receive flowers. When we were courting (I love the romanticism of that old expression!) Barry sometimes greeted me with a beautiful bouquet. Ours was a long-distance romance as he was in the army and I was at college so our times together were infrequent and marked by long separations. Though naturally I couldn't have foreseen it this pattern was a sound preparation for our marriage as Barry spent much time away from home, either because he was working long hours late into the night in various UK locations or was physically in another country – this continued and became more evident after he retired from the army at the grand old age of 32!
I know of husbands who give their wives flowers on a regular basis – Friday evenings, for example, as well as the more usual birthdays and wedding anniversaries. It's a charming idea but I wonder if it becomes a habit that is barely noticed and perhaps not fully appreciated. I love to receive flowers but for me they are all the more special when they are given spontaneously. Even so, the traditional floral gifts marking a baby's birth were wholly acceptable. I know of one husband (not mine) who realised that it was customary to give something to a newly-delivered mother. He decided he wanted to find something different to the usual posy, thought long and hard and proudly presented his wife, the exhausted mother of his first child, with a set of saucepans! If she had been less weary she might well have set about him with them.
Barry frequently came home from long days in London on the last train. (Occasionally, he fell asleep and missed his stop!) He would pass the flower sellers near the railway station and often bought flowers from them. One night he arrived home happily bearing a large bunch. It had been a miserably dark and rainy evening and he felt sorry for the flower seller who simply wanted to rid himself of his stock and go home. Barry gave him all his loose change. They were lovely flowers though I cannot now recall what they were. I unwrapped them to arrange them in a vase and as I did so all the heads fell off! However, it was the thought that counted and made me smile – and not the thought that I might be pleased but that the flower seller had had a happy ending to his day thanks to my husband's kind heart.

ABC Wednesday Round 6 B

This is our second BaBy with our first dog. He is holding an ABC rattle! This BaBy is now the father of three BaBies of his own.

Bethan and Barry

Biddy, our first Parson Jack Russell. Two of her puppies are in the photograph aBove.

Buddy Liver Spots

Binoculars, useful for watching Birds like . . .

BlackBird . . .

. . . and BramBling

Books

noteBooks

 Ball with which to play footBall

Thank you to the ABC Wednesday team for hosting this meme. See what others have chosen by clicking here.

Microfiction Monday #15

'The ceremony started without me,' she wailed. 'I can't find a thing to wear. If only I could reach the top drawer.'
Thank you to Susan at Stony River for originating and hosting this meme. To read more Microfiction please click here

Winston’s late January blog 2010

Winston here . . . p'rrrrr, p'rrrrr . . .

First of all I must wish you all a Happy New Year though it's not so very new now. It was very busy in the house at Christmas with lots of people coming and going and SIX dogs again. Still, they all entertained each other so that was all right. There was some nice bits and pieces of food and me and Monty got to try some. YUM!

Gus is ever so big now and me and Monty have to look twice to see which black dog we're staring at. The Humans keep saying he's going to be bigger than Jenna. I hope he don't get as big as Frodo and Buddy 'coz two big dogs in the house is quite enough, don'tcha know. We did have three for a while but Dominie didn't get in the way like they do.

You know, I often wonder about Humans. I mean, I know they can't see or hear as well as us cats – and dogs, too, I s'pose. They can't smell things like we can and they can't taste the air and they certainly can't leap as high as us or do yoga without lots of
years of practice. When you think about it the only bits us cats can't wash are the backs of our heads, under our chins and between our shoulder blades. (That's why it's good to have a cat friend.) Anyway, even though they're really quite backward compared to us cats, you'd think they'd do the simple things right, right?

Well, the other day, just after breakfast (raw chicken wings, yummy!) Mrs Human got out the tablets for the dogs. She does it every morning, has done for years. Frodo has to have special medicine to stop him falling down – he's got ecstasy, don'tcha know, that's why the Humans call him Frodo the Faller – and all the dogs have vitta mints to stop their legs and backs wearing out. Anyhow, she puts all Frodo's pills in an egg-cup and when there aren't none left at bedtime she can go to bed and so can we all 'coz Frodo don't need no more for that day. So, she got them all out, counted them like what she does every day and set out the three piles. Then she got out the peanut butter 'coz that's where she hides the pills – stoopid dogs don't know that but us cats can't be tricked like that. She always gives F t F his dose first, always, then it's Buddy's turn, then Jenna's and last of all Gus gets to lick the spoon. At any rate, she doled out the first pills and then said, 'OH' 'coz who was looking at her but Buddy. Now she was really defused and couldn't work out what had happened. Mr H wasn't no help - he just laughed but Mrs H said, 'I daren't give Frodo another dose in case he's already had his.' I thought, 'WHAT?' Still, there was a lot of dogs milling around 'coz Tia and Foxy was visiting for the weekend and Foxy's really greedy and quick so she has to be careful. The Humans decided to 'WAIT AND SEE' – humans do a lot of that, don'tcha know. It was soon ovbious that Buddy had had F t F's medicine 'coz he couldn't control his legs. Monty and me giggled but I don't think the dogs realised. Did you know that when cats sneeze they're really laughing? We sneezed quite a lot that day. Buddy slept a lot! We felt a bit bad though when F t F had a fit later on but it was very short and he was all right. Mrs H was a bit very cross with herself 'coz Frodo had gone NINE WEEKS without one and she said he might have gone longer if she hadn't mixed up the pills.

The next day Mr H kindly reminded Mrs H which dog was which but she wasn't very at all amused by his helpfulness. I must say, though, it was a bit very odd 'coz Buddy and Frodo look quite different. I mean, they've both got spots (should use 'Clearasil' like the younger Humans) but Buddy's are brown – what? Oh, all right, they're liver – and his eyes are blue now 'coz of his uveitis and Frodo's are brown and his spots are black, plus he's got a huge spot over his eye like a pirate's patch (I've heard the Humans say that about the pirate's patch – don't know what they mean, really, but I 'spect they do) She said the dogs usually always wait their turn and they know the routine and for some reason Buddy decided to go first but me and Monty think she's losing it (whatever it is) I mean, she's really old. Even her children are old. Even her grandchildren are old. They're all older than me and Monty so they must be old.

I think that's it for now. I'll see you again in a little while – I'd say a month but I don't know what months are. The Humans aren't all that good at time either – they're always saying they don't know where the time goes. You'd think they'd look after it when they keep saying they mustn't waste it.

TTFN

Rickets

Rickets is a condition associated with poverty and poor diet. Children's bones soften and do not grow properly and the most obvious consequence is that the legs become bowed and painful. Dental deformities and muscle weakness are also common. It was prevalent among the poor of nineteenth century Great Britain and is one of the diseases most frequently seen in children in developing countries.

It arises from a lack of Vitamin D, most easily obtained from ultraviolet in sunlight but also present in oily fish, eggs, margarine, butter and fish liver oils. Vitamin D is essential for the absorption of calcium.

The shocking news is that doctors in GB are seeing a rise in cases of rickets. Medical experts believe that modern diets often lack Vitamin D and this, coupled with many children's more sedentary lifestyles, is contributing to an increase in this condition. (Another disease linked to poverty and poor nutrition and believed to have been almost eradicated is tuberculosis.)

It is hard to believe that this is happening in this affluent 21^st century western country.

Further to ‘Threat levels’ re: TEA

Barry replied to the original email:

As a point of historical fact, the British Government was so alarmed about the risk to morale over a lack of tea available to its Armed Forces at the outbreak of WW2 that it purchased the entire worldwide stock of tea.  It is also worth pointing out is that at its height the British, Empire and Commonwealth forces numbered twelve million  - perhaps it built to that strength to justify the tea purchase.

Barry's respondent replied: Also worthy of note is the service once offered (and maybe continues to be) by the India Tea Council advising on the best way to prepare tea. I contacted them some time ago to answer a dispute I was having with some northerner who reckoned that 'mashing' tea i.e. stirring it was the way to make the best cuppa. Now having been taught by a good naval man (my Dad) I wasn't having that and the ITC were able to confirm that you must never stir tea as it bruises the leaves! 1 - 0 to the good guys!!

Janice's input: tea leaves produce an infinitely superior pot of tea but I like my tea unstrained – the leaves are good to chew on! . . . and Earl Grey is very refreshing . . . especially with lemon! It's the bergamot that enhances and perfumes it so delicately.

ABC Wednesday Round 6 A

A is for Agapanthus, known also as 'The Lily of the Nile'. It is a perennial herbaceous plant native to South Africa. I have grown them in tubs in our garden for many years and love them for their colour and form. The one in the photo below is 'ripening' - the flowers take a long time to open and then reward patience with a beautiful display for many weeks. Sadly, last summer's display was most disappointing, with just one bloom. Usually, there are 10 to 12 stems, 2' in height.

There are many shades of blue.This flower head is 'ripening'.

There are white forms too. The flowers on this stem are beginning to open.

Our white Agapanthus didn't appear at all!

I understand that these wonderful flowers are considered invasive pests in Australasia - oh, that it were so in our garden!

Thank you to the ABC team for hosting this fascinating meme. To see more illustrations for A please click here.

Cadbury

So it has been decided. Kraft is to take over Cadbury. Does this make sense?

Cadbury was founded in 1824 in Birmingham by John Cadbury, a Quaker who sold tea, coffee and cocoa as alternatives to alcohol. Later he formed a partnership with his brother Benjamin. Chocolate was very expensive at that time but thirty years later import tax on cocoa was reduced, thus making it more affordable for more people.

By 1873 Cadbury chocolate products were so popular and profitable that the brothers decided to stop trading in tea and concentrate solely on chocolate.

John Cadbury retired in 1861 and the business was taken over by his sons Richard and George who bought the 14½ acres of the Bournbrook estate in 1878, renamed it Bournville and opened a factory there. In 1893, George Cadbury bought another 120 acres close to the factory and designed a model village to 'alleviate the evils of modern more cramped living conditions.' Eventually the estate covered 330 acres with 313 cottages to house the Cadbury employees. Further houses were built later on in the 20^th century. All the properties were notable for their modern interiors and large gardens which enabled residents to grow much of their own food. The philanthropic Cadburys believed that their workforce should be encouraged to be healthy and fit and incorporated free sporting facilities and later medical and dental care. No public houses (inns) have ever been built in Bournville.

My parents and I are 5th, 6th and 7th from the right  in the front row. It was my 20th birthday nine days later.
In 1964 my parents and I travelled by specially commissioned train to Bournville. My parents were successful small-business owners and had a large order book with Cadbury and had been invited to spend a day at Bournville with other business people from south-east England. We toured the factory and had a group photograph taken. My parents were directed to sit in the front row, as they were considered to be significant customers of the company.
My major recollection of the trip is of the smell. It was overwhelming and very sickly. The employees wore protective clothing, including gloves, but even so finger-marks could be discerned on some of the items. For a short while I didn't want to eat chocolate and although this phase didn't last (unfortunately) thereafter during many months that followed I inspected every piece of chocolate before it went into my mouth. I'm sure every process is completely automated now.

Astonishingly the sale of Cadbury to Kraft for £11.5 billion has been the second biggest news story this week in Great Britain. We have little left to sell. We are Little Britain – no longer Great because of the unique loss of our engineering, technology and other national assets to overseas interests. In effect we have become economic satellites to other countries. We were in the forefront of so many industries and technologies but they have been sold, asset-stripped. The only significant growth has been in banking and government employment, both with enormous liabilities now and in the long term.

Over the past few decades my husband has travelled the globe on business and learned that many nations could not understand why we in the UK seemed only too willing virtually to give away our national industrial and scientific treasures to the rest of the world. A sure sign of our failure to address this was today's televised Parliamentary Commons Business Select Committee at which Peter Mandelson completely failed to address the issue of longer term interests against near term hedge fund profits. Amid the unbelievable waffle of his answer was the statement that he had had 'a good meeting' the previous week about the subject which had brought about recognition of the need to promote the benefits of ethos. This must revive the 'Great' even if it is followed by BS.

So to return to Cadburys – near term benefits (cost cutting) will undoubtedly be necessary given the HUGE price paid. Investment will be difficult – the rest we know well given our 2020 vision of UK industrial decline over the past few decades.

Consider the following short list:-

Aircraft industry – owned by France, Italy, Germany

Defence industry – sold to France, Germany, Italy

Electronics companies – most of our companies, Decca, Ferranti, GEC, Plessey have gone to France, Germany, USA - in reality even British Aerospace is a US company

Motor industry - Aston Martin, Leyland, Bentley, Daimler, Jaguar, Rolls Royce - sold to China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Kuwait

Nuclear energy – sold to France

IT industry – France, Japan, Germany

Space technology – France, Italy

Even our basic need for water is provided by France

(I think France is taking revenge for her defeat at Trafalgar!)

Our leaders proudly proclaim that we have an open economy. Why is this considered such an important attribute? Other countries are not so open. Asian countries including China and Japan are closed. Are we right? Is everyone else wrong?

So what is left? We are one of the leading financial centres of the world. There has been a huge increase in the number of government employees during the last ten years with the attendant requirement for index-linked pensions to which all tax-payers contribute.

Oh yes, we 'do' ceremonial and tradition better than anyone else in the world.

Today's Flowers #75

Tulips are Barry's favourite Spring flowers so when I saw these I had to buy them. The tulips in our garden are showing their stems and leaves but the buds aren't visible yet. These flowers are reliable and cheering perennials and come in many different guises but we both really like the simplest blooms though the multi-flowered tulips are beautiful too.

I would try to claim that my photographs are 'artistic renditions' but the truth is that I was impatient and didn't take enough time - tut, tut!

Thank you to the Today's Flowers team for organising and hosting this meme. Please click here to see beautiful flowers from around the world.

Pet Pride Poetry in Motion

Frodo the Faller, eight years old, January 2010

Thank you to Bozo and his human for hosting this lovely meme every week.
Please click here to see more beautiful pets.

Shadow Shot Sunday #87 Blue shadows

Snow, icicles and catkins on Corylus avellana contorta

Blue shadows in the snow. We are now in the middle of a thaw and everything is slushy and grubby - and flooding!

Thank you to Tracy from 'Hey Harriet' for organising and hosting this meme.
To follow more shadowy paths please click here.

The Fourth Blog of Augustus Lazarus Cooke (Gus)

                          Here I am before Christmas, still wearing my puppy collar.

Hello everyone!
I see I wrote my last blog exactly four weeks ago today back in 2009. Happy New Year by the way. (I don't know what that means but I keep hearing all sorts of humans saying it and it seems to please them.)
Well, Christmas came and so did lots of visitors. I met four new people. First there was Susannah, one of my Humans' daughters – they've got three, you know, as well as a son, but they didn't have them all in one litter like me and my siblings. Susannah brought Nick along with her but they didn't try to sleep in the house which was just as well 'coz all the beds – and the caravan – were taken and there was only floor left! Bethan came to stay with Rob – his family's got a black Labrador as well, called Fidget. Then there was Dorothy, who is Mr Human's mother. He's ever so old so she must be ancient! The Humans were expecting Mr Human's brother and sister-in-law to come but they were late getting back from Ethiopia so I haven't met them yet. Anyway, on the busiest day there were seventeen humans, six of them quite young, six of us dogs and Monty and Winston Ocicats. There was LOTS of food but we weren't allowed in the dining room though we managed to sneak in a few times.
 

We've had OODLES of snow and it's ever such fun playing in it but I do get tired quite quickly 'coz it's difficult to run when your legs keep disappearing up to the knees and sometimes the shoulders! I don't know whether it's because it's been really cold or whether it's my age but my coat is changing. It used to be very soft and velvety all over but now I've got a strip down the middle of my back that's quite coarse, just like Jenna's. I will be nineteen weeks old on Sunday and my Humans are beginning to have difficulty telling me apart from my sister at first glance. Our eyes are different and of course I've got a white chin.

I've got a new collar! We were going out one day and I got over-excited and pulled so hard on the lead that my puppy collar broke! Mrs Human bought collars for Buddy and me. Buddy didn't break his collar but it kept coming loose and sliding up over his ears so we've both got stripey blue buckle collars. I think we look cool! Frodo's wearing Buddy's old collar and he looks very handsome in it. I really like Frodo – he's awesome. I'm too big to sleep in the same bed as Frodo now. I suppose my Humans might buy us an extra big bed? I heard them saying that I might soon be able to sleep in a bed upstairs, rather than in my night-time pen, but that hasn't happened yet.

I'm wearing my new blue stripey collar.I feel quite grown-up in it and it's just like Buddy's!

I'm very good at stairs now. I can get up them quite quickly but I'm still very careful coming down (Mrs H says I go 'be-dom, be-dom, be-dom') and in the early morning, after I've been out for a breath of air (well, a pee and a pooh, actually . . . ) I hurry back upstairs and try to jump up onto the bed where the Humans sleep with Jenna.

I still like just about everything but there are a couple of things that I'm not keen on. I don't like Mrs H singing or sneezing and I'm afraid of the roaring machine that sucks up dust and dirt. It might get ME one day! The cats and the other dogs don't seem to mind it – well, Buddy can't hear it anyway – but I'm going to carry on keeping out of its way and watching from a safe distance. Luckily Mrs H doesn't use it very often.

I heard the Humans saying that Tia and Foxy are coming for the weekend – ooh GOODY! I hope there'll still be enough snow for us all to enjoy together – they haven't had much in Dorset. I'd better go and push out some zeds so I'm ready to play when they arrive.

Can you see Buddy's collar? Mine matches his though it is a bit smaller. Aren't we smart?

Hwyl fawr am nawr! (That's Welsh for 'Goodbye for now!')

Shadow Shot Sunday #86

A rather grainy shot of a light fitting in our sitting room.
Thank you to Tracy of 'Hey Harriet' for organising and hosting this entertaining meme.
For more shadows please click here.

Camera Critters #92

Monty likes all the dogs but Jenna is his favourite. There's nothing quite like curling up with a warm Labrador when it's cold outside!
Thank you to Misty Dawn for creating and hosting this lovely meme.
To see more Critters, please click here

ABC Wednesday Y

Y is for Yachts and Yachting

Yaffle is an old country name for the Green Woodpecker(Picus viridis) Yaffles sometimes visit our garden but it is more common to see Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Dendrocopus major) on our feeders.

Yellow is the colour commonly used in safety clothing.

Yellow pansies in summer

Fragrant yellow honeysuckle attracts insects.

Thank you to the ABC team for organising and hosting this entertaining meme. To see what others have chosen please click here.

Microfiction Monday #12

She studied Interior Decorating before turning to Fashion and called her design 'Florence'. She wondered if anyone would understand why.
Thank you to Susan at 'Stony River' who hosts this meme. To read more please click here.

Today’s Flowers #73 – Freesias and another Guzmania

I enjoy having flowers in the house but there are few places where they can be safely placed where dogs tails won't knock them over or cats teeth and paws attack them.

So I put them in the kitchen, where I can see them. It's logical since I spend quite a lot of time in this room! Today I bought freesias - I can almost drink the perfume of these beauties - and a yellow Guzmania.

It will be a few days before the freesias open fully but already the  bromeliad complements the colour of the yellow freesias . . .

 . . . and the pink of the pig on the wall tones with the purple of the deeper freesias.

There are some odd angles here to try and hide the less pleasing aspects of my kitchen. (Did I mention that I shall be sacking the housekeeper - such a slovenly slattern she is ;-))

Thank you, as ever, to the industrious TF team for their hard work. To see more blooms from around the world please click here.