Thanks for all those comments!
In fact we were both wrong re blue moons, Marshmarlow! I too thought we had seen a full moon as we headed back from frivolities on New Year's Eve/Hogmanay but presumed it hadn't really been a full moon as H1 told me they were every 28 days and I had googled for the full moon date in January and was told Saturday 30th January and counted back; however I looked up 'blue moon' again and apparently it is the third of 4 full moons in a season (seasons determined by solstices and equinoxes not by months). I prefer the erroneous version of the 2nd full moon in a calendar month even if it is wrong!
Also wrong was the depth of the snow on Friday's overnight fall- it was at least 5 inches not 2!!
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Saturday, 30 January 2010
More of the same!
Last night I looked up at the moon and Mars glinting red beside it in such a clear winter sky; looking at the rings of wonderful haloes around the moon I announced it was going to snow; H1 smiled at such an old wives tale and woke this morning to a good 2 inches of snow! Tonight is a full moon and I suspect ,a blue moon; a blue moon is a full moon that is the second full moon in a calendar month- and there was a full moon 28 days ago in the beginning of January.
'The Woman in Black ' at the Theatre Royal was a scream! Two excellent actors carried the whole play- except of course for glimpses of 'The Woman in Black'.
'The Woman in Black ' at the Theatre Royal was a scream! Two excellent actors carried the whole play- except of course for glimpses of 'The Woman in Black'.
Friday, 29 January 2010
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
I went to the SAGE to see Buffy Sainte Marie; I loved Buffy in my 6th form days of being into folk-and geography days at uni; of course I am with anyone who is into indigenous, badly treated people- and the environment. I think some of my friends think I am daft as I plug away at environmental issues & find a way of recycling any thing which comes near me! Beware H1!!! who was not impressed by the concert. I like the way Buffy (a Cree Indian from Canada) has done so much for her people, never forgets her roots (in fact uses them throughout her concert and her songwriting) and works for PEACE.
Some of my family don't speak to me cos I am into acknowledgement of minority groups- but I ain't ever goin to apologise for having, for example, Irish and Jewish friends- their origin/religion happens to be incidental to our relationship.
I remember not being able to get hold of 'Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee' when it was first published so I asked an American friend L. to send me it; it is definitely & still a book worth reading just as 'Soldier Blue' and 'Dancing with Wolves' are films worth seeing; I remember taking my 6th form to see the latter.
I have decided in the interests of security that I won't blog regularly- Sorry but I am sure you understand why.
I am going to walk the bounds as M says her snowdrops are flowering- already? and after all that snow? of which we have had more flurries today.
Some of my family don't speak to me cos I am into acknowledgement of minority groups- but I ain't ever goin to apologise for having, for example, Irish and Jewish friends- their origin/religion happens to be incidental to our relationship.
I remember not being able to get hold of 'Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee' when it was first published so I asked an American friend L. to send me it; it is definitely & still a book worth reading just as 'Soldier Blue' and 'Dancing with Wolves' are films worth seeing; I remember taking my 6th form to see the latter.
I have decided in the interests of security that I won't blog regularly- Sorry but I am sure you understand why.
I am going to walk the bounds as M says her snowdrops are flowering- already? and after all that snow? of which we have had more flurries today.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Burns, blackbird bath, broth and BabyBio
I love the techniques of English language which are employed in English literature, like alliteration, metaphors, onomatopoeia etc. I admit I find metaphors and personification difficult to use when I am writing..... but I think kids must like the Horrible Histories with the Slimey Stuarts and the Groovey Greeks etc. So exciting!
Monday was one of those days when I did loads of jobs yet looking back I couldn't think of what I'd done. I made a huge pressure cooker full of broth; while dicing vegetables I noticed (heard!) a male blackbird who appeared to be sitting on the edge of the birdbath- was there any water in it I wondered- Yes! water showered over the lavender as he began bathing obviously with great gusto. I composted flowers received for Christmas gifts- lasted well. You don't want to hear about washing, drying etc......... and I don't really want to do it but needs must when the devil drives and you run out of socks.
What have BabyBio done to their new bottle tops which I had to wrestle with for 10minutes? My plants will go increasingly hungry (though such a fight might burn off some Christmas calories!!!) Having said that, my Kew orchid is radiant with flowers for the fifth? time.
I was rescued from chores by walking 3 miles with friends to a fab lunch provided by a fourth friend; we had a great catch up.
Monday was Burns Night so we had tatties and neeps (H1 calls it swede but we all call it turnips) but we forewent the haggis and had mince; why don't WeightWatchers encourage eaters to have dumplings? Presumably cos we'd turn into dumplings but if you are one already, then we should be encouraged to eat them (especially crusty ones done in the oven on the top of the mince.)
After that I went to a really interesting talk at Trinity on the Newcastle-Gateshead Initiative and to see a late showing of 'It's complicated'; lots of people recommended this as funny..... Hmm?
Monday was one of those days when I did loads of jobs yet looking back I couldn't think of what I'd done. I made a huge pressure cooker full of broth; while dicing vegetables I noticed (heard!) a male blackbird who appeared to be sitting on the edge of the birdbath- was there any water in it I wondered- Yes! water showered over the lavender as he began bathing obviously with great gusto. I composted flowers received for Christmas gifts- lasted well. You don't want to hear about washing, drying etc......... and I don't really want to do it but needs must when the devil drives and you run out of socks.
What have BabyBio done to their new bottle tops which I had to wrestle with for 10minutes? My plants will go increasingly hungry (though such a fight might burn off some Christmas calories!!!) Having said that, my Kew orchid is radiant with flowers for the fifth? time.
I was rescued from chores by walking 3 miles with friends to a fab lunch provided by a fourth friend; we had a great catch up.
Monday was Burns Night so we had tatties and neeps (H1 calls it swede but we all call it turnips) but we forewent the haggis and had mince; why don't WeightWatchers encourage eaters to have dumplings? Presumably cos we'd turn into dumplings but if you are one already, then we should be encouraged to eat them (especially crusty ones done in the oven on the top of the mince.)
After that I went to a really interesting talk at Trinity on the Newcastle-Gateshead Initiative and to see a late showing of 'It's complicated'; lots of people recommended this as funny..... Hmm?
Saturday, 23 January 2010
The Pudding Club
Yes Ciao, I agree -eating American chocolate is like eating candle wax.
I have just finished reading Julie Walters's 'That's another Story' which D2 bought me for Christmas- quite interesting because I reckon she is the same era as me so there are lots of childhood memories Julie recorded which are familiar to me; she is very honest and open about things though!!!
Last weekend we had a lovely few days away with the Pudding Club- it was an absolute delight to catch up with this group of friends; the North York Moors were still surprisingly deep in snow and we travelled there in brown-stained, icy fog; the hotel was lovely and we all thought the food was delicious- I particularly liked the small ,modern, well lit chapel which is used for short services three times a week; it is unusual (but appreciated) for a hotel to put a room aside for a chapel. Four brave souls walked in sleet,driving snow and fog to Robin Hood's Bay (the village in which Robin may have had an 'escape' boat ready) on Saturday morning but 4 of us chose the hardship of sitting beside the fire, reading papers and books, before going to meet the others in the pub. Sunday saw us wake to sun and glorious views so we walked all over Whitby on M's memory trail which was really interesting.If I could import photos to this blog (I will learn soon) I would put on S's beautiful picture of the view on Sunday morning right across Robin Hood's Bay from the dining room.
I walked with friends on Wednesday in the shire; over lunch in the woods we talked about a bad accident on the dreaded A69 and the black ice on the Military Road the day before; it was only on Thursday that I discovered that one of my very good friends had been involved in the crash; methinks someone was looking after L.
We have gone through boxes, box by box, all week; it has taken ages because there are so many memories attached to each photo,newspaper cutting etc. but gradually boxes are going back into the wardrobe.
Today a group of us painted backdrops and props for the next drama production; how do I manage to get wet and paint splattered yet I was wearing a white kind of boiler suit over my clothes?
Question- re punctuation and computers- when I type something like a semicolon at the end of a sentence -or a full stop- do I leave a space before the symbol or the space after? (I bet F1,000,000,000 will know.) I have illustrated both in that sentence and the layout after 'stop' looks better but is it? Also do I put the full stop inside or outside the bracket?
I have just finished reading Julie Walters's 'That's another Story' which D2 bought me for Christmas- quite interesting because I reckon she is the same era as me so there are lots of childhood memories Julie recorded which are familiar to me; she is very honest and open about things though!!!
Last weekend we had a lovely few days away with the Pudding Club- it was an absolute delight to catch up with this group of friends; the North York Moors were still surprisingly deep in snow and we travelled there in brown-stained, icy fog; the hotel was lovely and we all thought the food was delicious- I particularly liked the small ,modern, well lit chapel which is used for short services three times a week; it is unusual (but appreciated) for a hotel to put a room aside for a chapel. Four brave souls walked in sleet,driving snow and fog to Robin Hood's Bay (the village in which Robin may have had an 'escape' boat ready) on Saturday morning but 4 of us chose the hardship of sitting beside the fire, reading papers and books, before going to meet the others in the pub. Sunday saw us wake to sun and glorious views so we walked all over Whitby on M's memory trail which was really interesting.If I could import photos to this blog (I will learn soon) I would put on S's beautiful picture of the view on Sunday morning right across Robin Hood's Bay from the dining room.
I walked with friends on Wednesday in the shire; over lunch in the woods we talked about a bad accident on the dreaded A69 and the black ice on the Military Road the day before; it was only on Thursday that I discovered that one of my very good friends had been involved in the crash; methinks someone was looking after L.
We have gone through boxes, box by box, all week; it has taken ages because there are so many memories attached to each photo,newspaper cutting etc. but gradually boxes are going back into the wardrobe.
Today a group of us painted backdrops and props for the next drama production; how do I manage to get wet and paint splattered yet I was wearing a white kind of boiler suit over my clothes?
Question- re punctuation and computers- when I type something like a semicolon at the end of a sentence -or a full stop- do I leave a space before the symbol or the space after? (I bet F1,000,000,000 will know.) I have illustrated both in that sentence and the layout after 'stop' looks better but is it? Also do I put the full stop inside or outside the bracket?
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Chocolate
Oh no! H1 has just shouted upstairs that Kraft has managed to buy Cadbury's- NNNOOO! I am a chocoholic- especially for Cadbury's Dairy Milk (in any shape or form eg the perk when clearing the Christmas decorations is being able to eat the Cadbury's decorations on the Christmas tree!or ending Lent with Cadbury's Easter eggs). I even signed a newspaper 'petition' requesting Cadbury's to stay Cadbury's- not Hersheys or Kraft.
For a big birthday D's 1,2,and 3 sent us off to Cadbury's World; a brilliant visit: I am so into fair trade yet hadn't realised Cadbury's have always been ethical in production so fairly traded long before every other company jumped on the bandwagon.
I am upset; why did the shareholders sell up what is so good and so English?- money and profit probably. What will happen to Bournville 'village' now? and the workers , many of whom have worked for Cadbury's for 5 generations?
For a big birthday D's 1,2,and 3 sent us off to Cadbury's World; a brilliant visit: I am so into fair trade yet hadn't realised Cadbury's have always been ethical in production so fairly traded long before every other company jumped on the bandwagon.
I am upset; why did the shareholders sell up what is so good and so English?- money and profit probably. What will happen to Bournville 'village' now? and the workers , many of whom have worked for Cadbury's for 5 generations?
Monday, 18 January 2010
Time passes....
Yes- I know! Its ages since I have blogged; I am not certain writing a blog isn't a bit self indulgent and arrogant so should I continue?
Wednesday saw me walking in the shire in the snow with friends; it was lovely to see everyone again; we set off from J's house after a lovely breakfast-Northumberland is magnificent at any time but Northumberland in the snow is beautiful.We came back to marshmallow toasting in the fire then a traditional English afternoon tea- egg and cress sandwiches, potato scones,raisin pancakes , sweet mince pies (homemade) and passion cake- mmm!;J spoiled us- where does she get the time to prepare so well?
Wednesday saw me walking in the shire in the snow with friends; it was lovely to see everyone again; we set off from J's house after a lovely breakfast-Northumberland is magnificent at any time but Northumberland in the snow is beautiful.We came back to marshmallow toasting in the fire then a traditional English afternoon tea- egg and cress sandwiches, potato scones,raisin pancakes , sweet mince pies (homemade) and passion cake- mmm!;J spoiled us- where does she get the time to prepare so well?
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