Picture 1 is an attempt to get a decent picture of a Great Tit but I fear that I am never going to make a wildlife photographer. As an avuncular Sergeant said to me long long ago about something I'd made a hash of. "Leave that to them what knows 'ow to do it mi' lad".At least the picture records the bird's visit. But he isn't very sharp and you can't see his eyes.
The radio station OneWord continues to delight. We have at the moment for instance, in episodes, Tim Piggot Smith reading The Brothers Karamazov and there is a series called Poetry's Biggest Hits. The latest featured Kipling - "If", "The Road to Mandalay" and "The Female of The Species", I was supposed to be going to do something else but I felt compelled to sit still till the end. I must find something which contains the station's listings. I know they are in the daily paper, but not in my handy 'week's guide'.
What a poet? Which reminds me that tomorrow starts W.H.Auden's centenary celebrations. He of the extremely wrinkled face, about which I remember Dylan Thomas saying "If that's his face, what must his scrotum be like?" Mind you I can't see that being quoted by the current literati.
Before I leave quotations I would like to share this great Bertrand Russell quote which I came across at the top of a google page this morning -
....."I would not give my life for my beliefs, because I might be mistaken".......
Picture 2 is really for Bungus's Sandra. I know she dislikes purple crocuses (or croci for our resident pedants) and I wondered what her reaction would be to these tricolour jobs !The Magnesium Sulfate has done the trick with my 'whitlow' which is correct according to ManxIslander who kindly included a 'link' in his 'comment' telling me all about them. In my conversation with the pharmacist I mentioned 'Tiger Balm' of which we had a tin for ages and which cured most things. Debra brought it back from her World Tour all those years ago. The pharmacist said that they used to stock it, but sadly no longer.
I think my incorrect 'wicklow' must be confusion with a place in Ireland. North or South I know not, without getting up to look.
When I spoke to David this morning we were talking about books and Libraries and I told him about the brilliant TFC link in WUforum please click here about podcasts etc. He told me that both the girls love the library and are voracious and quick readers. Twelve books a week was mentioned. Something else genetic? No I guess strictly environmental. I told him about Ashbourne Library which was up a little yard at the side of The Town Hall and how small it was. And that when I was 10/11, certainly less than 12, something like that, I semi-panicked with the thought "What shall I read when I have read all these books?" mistakenly thinking that the Ashbourne Library stock was the lot. I also used to get snooty looks for taking books back at lunchtime which I had taken out in the morning, 'cos I'd read 'em. Do you remember those little buff coloured cardboard envelopes, open down two sides, that they used to put the ticket in?
Y's faux-suede box is a success. I quite like the idea - It's like buying something for our new home - incurable romantic that I am.
The stew was even better today - they invariably are. And there are still 2 portions left. OK, I did put a lot of vegetables in it, but I only started with 300grms of beef. Not expensive for 6 portions, and not bad for us either. We are freezing the rest though and will have something different tomorrow.
......I don't think I've forgotten anything....
I appreciate the difficulty of snapping birds. The background is seldom right for a start and you can’t ask them to move a bit to the left.
ReplyDeleteYou say he isn’t very sharp but he looks quite alert and intelligent to me.
I’ve never been a really big fan of Kipling. But I like your Auden/Dylan Thomas story – and the Bertrand Russell quote. Caught a bit of an Auden programme on telly late Sun night – wish I’d taped it.
After recoiling in horror, at first impact, Sandra actually liked the crocuses (NO! it’s not ‘croci’, ‘cos it’s Greek. As is Cos of ‘cos). You say ‘tricolour’ ( I say 'Union Jack'). Is that the white bit?
Glad you have cleared up your Irish problem, begorrah.
“Do you remember those little buff coloured cardboard envelopes, open down two sides, that they used to put the ticket in?” Yes.
When Sandra was absent once (can’t think where she had gone?) I fed the Simon or Dan for a week starting off with a beef stew and gradually adding veg and dried pulses day by day to finish up at the end of the week with a suet crust lid on it. Great!
Out for a (Wootton) family Sunday lunch at Sandra’s sister Jennifer’s. Beef as tough as old boots. I could not chew it at all. Managed to cut one slice into very small strips and swallow them whole but had to leave the rest. (Sandra, of course, with her dietary requirements, had a nice salmon fillet!). But that’s the chance you take with Morrisons’ topside. Decent drop of red though, to compensate (and rest of food very good).