About the last of the Elvaston day that I intend to use and this is completely 'as is' not even cropped.It demonstrates how much the ducks were enjoying the weather and I quite like the effect the rain drops make when falling on water. It is nearly as good as when the rain is so heavy the drops bounce off the pavement. My Dad used to say it was 'raining florins'. For our younger readers - a florin was 2 shillings and roughly the same size as a 50p piece but circular.
Picture 2 is our Henry, bless him. We had to operate him this morning because Karen is still on her holidays and the place was beginning to look a bit untidy. Y did most of it; tree down, cards down; holly off pictures; dusting etc., while I nipped round with Henry. I love his cheerful face and apart from that he is so efficient. Not that we have a dog, but he is excellent with dog-hairs and often, when we have been in hotels, he seems to be the vacuum-cleaner of choice. There are several in the family and everyone speaks highly.It was nice to have a 'comment' from Madeline again and she, Jill, David and Bungus seem in broad agreement over the distastefulness of the news coverage of Saddam's execution. Apparently it got worse today because one of the 'executioners' had a mobile phone and you can hear them taunting their victim. As soon as the broadcasts began I simply switched off. Madeline says it was just as bad on the radio! And, as has been previously pointed out, the pictures one sees when listening to the radio can be even more vivid than the TV. Bungus says they issued a warning, as they do when bad language is forthcoming. But I don't think they did on BBC News 24. David says they often switch the TV News off to shield the children from a diet, of rape, murder and violence which seems much more likely to disturb a child than to accidentally hear the "f'" word. As he says, one wouldn't dream of reading a child a fictional story with such content just before bedtime. Or at any other time come to that. And, as Jill says, when during the day are children not watching television?
On Madeline's other point - I have been a Riverbend reader for almost a year now. She is a legend in the Blog world. This is the address please click if anyone needs it. Unfortunately her last update was 29th December when the execution was still pending. So what her views about the actual act are, we don't yet know. But there will be 'hundreds of thousands' keen to learn.
By the way. I have worked it out with David's video. In the small window I was getting there was a tiny box to tick to "always open with Windows Media etc" I ticked it and tried again and now it opens immediately.
........ Derek and Betty's tonight to see the New Year in. Don't know if we shall still be 'partying' at midnight though.
4 comments:
Could I respond to Jills comment by saying that my children are frequently not watching the TV. And, despite santas best efforts, we again spent several hours drawing and using stickers to invent scenes and stories. We also did several jigsaws, went to Markeaton Park for several hours on one day and Attenborough Nature reserve on another.
Very glad to hear it, David! Your children will have lovely memories of Christmases when they were young. (Idon't know how old your children are...) But so often nowadays the tv is on in homes with no-one actually watching it, it just chunters away. And then of course they get to the stage where they want/get a tv in their bedrooms.....
Riverbend was new to me, thank you for telling me, have read it with interest.
the unedited last of the Elvaston pics is very atmospheric and nicely composed.
I liked your ‘two-bob-bit’ ref but think that even in our childhood ‘florin’, although understood, was somewhat archaic usage.
I have always been somewhat surprised at your enthusiasm for Henry; not because I question his effectiveness but because Sandra finds that using a ‘cylinder’ type cleaner has a very upsetting effect on her back that she does not suffer from ‘uprights’. It seems that you are not affected in this way?
I sympathise with David’s attempt to protect the children (I would empathise but I am probably too old) although, as always, wonder where the line should be drawn. An aunt and uncle of mine even moved from California to Oregon to escape the drug culture in the 60s/70s, I do not know how effectively.
Should one ban newspapers from the house? (the front page of yesterday’s ‘Observer’ had a half page picture of the noose in place, and I remember the very first graphic pictures, in the 'Express', of naked emaciated bodies piled up at Dachau and Belsen).
I fear information tends to percolate through anyway, from friends and associates, and that a Canute approach is likely to be less than 100% effective.
Perhaps we are all creatures of our own age anyway? Unlikely as it may seem, I remember being unable to sleep at night, having been to the cinema to see not only ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ but also ‘The Lady Vanishes’! And, whereas children hid behind the settee to watch the original series of ‘Dr Who’, the recent much more graphic episodes were considered ‘boring’ by at least one 11 year old.
I am pleased that I clicked the link to Riverbend and read the most recent posting. Although one woman’s subjective account, it seemed pretty well balanced to me. I found it very powerful and passed the link on to all my contacts.
As a footnote, I tried to text you a seasonal message from 12.15 to about 12.30 but the lines were jammed. So ‘A phyn wyre ape’ to you all.
PS
(to Jill’s throwaway reference to children always watching TV).
My observation of grandchildren and others of any age up to 18 (or more) is that although the telly always has to be ON, they only actually pay attention when cartoons are showing (the only time they become animated, you might say).
News just plays like background music (or like the weather forecast?) unless it happens to be about a ‘celebrity’.
That, of course, is as much a generalisation as Jill’s remark was.
But I think she is probably right that most children have a TV in their bedroom from the age of about 3.
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