Happy New Year

Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to.
Bill Vaughan

I know. I'm lazy. But I made myself a New Years resolution that I would write myself something really special. Which means I have 'til December, right?
Catherine O'Hara

Let our New Year's resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.
Goran Persson

Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.
Cavett Robert

On the Feast of Stephen.

Helen and Ian came on Boxing Day.  We had a lovely day and then they had the long drive back to Exeter. 

We just sat by the fire and watched television.

Bryony and Mark sent us some pine cones that give off coloured flames.  We put a couple on and they were most effective.

On Christmas Day in the morning...

I dreamed of a White Christmas...

And we got one.

Putting the last touches to the tree.  We each have one special ornament that is our own and we add them at the last minute.

Then it is time to open presents

That is, the ones the Royal Mail have managed to deliver by Christmas.

Jo won't pose for me but Richard will.

Then it is time to eat Jo's lovely dinner - it's lamb this year (as usual).

I hope your Christmas Day was as enjoyable as ours...,

Happy Christmas

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day.  Don't clean it up too quickly.  ~ Andy Rooney

Christmas is a necessity.  There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves.  ~Eric Sevareid

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.  ~Harlan Miller

Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts.  ~Janice Maeditere
 
May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through! 

Santa

Samantha

Samantha is not the cleverest of cats. In fact, she is thick as two short planks. Or even three short planks!

On Saturday night she spent the evening on the back of the setee - and falling off at regular intervals. Despite almost constantly watching her (which Jo thought cruel) I managed to miss photographing the actual falls.

When embarrassed by what you have just done (again!) wash yourself.

A well known phrase

Some phrases from literary works that have passed into common usage . Do you know where they came from?

1. 'Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.'

2. 'The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft-a-gley'.

3. 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever'.

4. 'No man is an island'.

5. 'All hope abandon, ye who enter here'.

6. 'All hell broke loose'.

7. 'To err is human, to forgive divine'.

8. 'Heaven has no rage like a love to hate turned, nor hell a fury, like a woman scorned'.

9. 'East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.'

10. 'The female of the species is more deadly than the male'.



Answers
1. 'Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.'
Richard Lovelace (1618–1657) 'To Althea, from Prison'

2. 'The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft-a-gley'.
Robert Burns (1759-1796) 'To a Mouse'

3. 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever'.
John Keats (1795-1821) 'Ode to a Grecian Urn'

4. 'No man is an island'.
John Donne, (1572-1631) 'Devotions'

5. 'All hope abandon, ye who enter here'.
John Milton (1608-1674), 'Paradise Lost'

6. 'All hell broke loose'.
John Milton (1608-1674), 'Paradise Lost'

7. 'To err is human, to forgive divine'.
Alexander Pope, 'An Essay on Confessions'

8. 'Heaven has no rage like a love to hate turned, nor hell a fury, like a woman scorned'.
William Congreve (1670-1729), 'The Mourning Bride'.

9. 'East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.'
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), 'The Ballad of East and West'

10. 'The female of the species is more deadly than the male'.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), 'The Female of the Species'

Why

A thought (apropos of nothing really!) - Why do people on quiz shows clap themselves???

That wasn't the purpose of this post at all!

Overnight the temperature fell to -11ͦC. Despite central heating we had frost oin some of the windows. Takes me back to my childhood. I cannopt recall having seen frost on the windows in many, many years.

Happy Monday - The Christmas Present

Kara and Pamela

Jo and I were unsure who we wanted to win the Strictly Come Dancing Final on Saturday Night. Kara Tointon and Pamela Stephenson have both danced so well and considering Pamela is the same age as me I think she is unbelievably good. In the end Pamela was knocked out half way through the programme - while leading on the judges points scoring - and the final two dances were between Matt Baker and Kara so I was pleased when Kara and Artem lifted the glitter ball (or rather he did - she had injured her hand badly in the show dance).

Their romance - or proespective romance - probably played a part in the voting but they do make a lovely couple and though her performance in the Final was not as good as it could have been she has danced well throughout the series.

The right three ended up in the final but I would have preferred the judges' scores to have had more say throughout the weeks. Anne Widdicombe managing to last ten weeks was a bit of a travesty when it pushed folk like Jimi Mistri out. Nevertheless it has been an excellent series with only the Hallowe'en weekend letting it down.

Who would ever have believed that I could get so involved in a reality show??? And yet I look forward to it every year now. I wonder who will be in next year's. Barbara Windsor perhaps?

Enough to make a snowman

But there aren't any children around to make one!

|it's snowing again...

Friday My Town Shoot-out - Red

This week's subject for the Friday My Town Shoot-out is "Red".  This is a selection from 2010.

A pillar box in Birkenhead.

 A boat on Heswall shore.

Roses in Ashton Park, West Kirby.

And at Errdig Hal.

A Macaw's wing - Colwyn Bay Zoo.

On New Brighton Pier.


Why not check out other people's my town shoot-outs this week.

Did you know?

Did you know mince pies are illegal?

Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell and his parliamentarians, who believed all frivolity was immoral and it was their duty to cleanse the country of decadence, decreed in 1646 that eating a Christmas dinner with more than three courses was illegal and banned the consumption of “abominable and idolatrous” Christmas pudding and mince pies on that day. This has never been repealed so watch out for the Puritan police knocking on the door on Christmas Day!

Migraines - a gripe

Why does December go so much more quickly than any other month?

As yet have hardly got any presents ready. There are no decorations up, not even the tree. And, to cap it all, my migraines are back. I have been fortunate and for the last year I have hardly had one bad migraine. I've had plenty that started but Sumatripan put paid to those within half an hour or so. Now, just when I need to be as fit as possible, I've had seven successive days of blinding, bang-head-against-the-wall type migraines. I haven't been eating chocolate, cheese or any of my other known triggers. I haven't been over-exerting myself - in fact, the opposite. I've even changed my pillow cases and pillows on a daily basis - a useful tip I learned from someone whose main trigger turned out to be dust mites! Today is the first day without one - touch wood. It's not only the debilitating effect of a week of migraines and the frustration of losing a week's work but it's the annoyance of not knowing why they happen. You would think that modern medicine could find a cause for this illness which costs the nation millions of pounds in lost workdays each year.

That's my gripe for the day. Now back to the subject of Christmas...

Hellllllppppp!