Saturday, January 19, 2008

Welcome lazy Rest Day

Lazy start, lazy middle and no doubt lazy finish. Afternoon nap; the full biz.

Picture 1 is a further pair of my Santa follow up, Rest Day socks. It was difficult for the camera to get the red bright enough. But it's nearly there and gives you an idea. Having had to wear black, navy blue or dark grey socks throughout much of my working life, I always had the urge on rest days to 'live a little'.

Did anyone see the coverage of Roy Wood getting his Hon Doctorate at Derby. Well deserved. He looked great on the telly in his doctoral
bonnet, hair as you would expect, and a tie bless him ! He must have thought it would be expected.

It is difficult to believe that it is witch-hazel time already. Hamamelis but, if you open the link and scroll down to the pictures, I think I prefer mine. Somewhat of a rarity according to Wiki beacause it bears its flowers before its leaves.

Lots of bulbs are well through and I guess it will be snowdrops and aconite in no time. But we once had snowdrops on Jan 7th, so they aren't going to be early. It was noticeable this morning that the birds are singing more. Nowhere near a 'dawn chorus' yet but they obviously think the new year has begun. And I agree with them.

Comments..... A Radiogandy ..To Madeline for getting 'cataloguer' Neither Y not I were anywhere near it. Nor apparently were Jill, Bungus, or any of the others. Thanks Bungus for Flanders and Swan on 'January'. And also for the Harry S Truman anecdote. On the subject of American presidents Y drew this to my attention in yesterday's Daily Mail.

.....Black congressman Charlie Rangel 77, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a decorated Korean War veteran, was asked what he thought about President Bush. He replied "Well, I really think he shatters the myth of white supremacy once and for all."

We can't fault you Charlie. Bush has become a caricature of himself. Mind, he started off like that as I remember.

Quotation ..... An artist one for today:-

"I've never believed in God, but I believe in Picasso"

Diego Rivera

...... You've got to be ready for the sheep/dog. Sleep tight folks. Catch you tomorrow.....




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3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the Radiogandy star; it's many years since I got a star for anything!
I like your red socks, lovely colour.
I haven't looked at our Witch Hazel tree recently, but I'm sure it must have flowers by now, they usually start in December. We've got some snowdrops out and the daffodils are quite tall, but no flowers yet, although I believe there have been very early flowerings elsewhere.
I have saved the quotation by Charlie Rangel to my 'Quotations' Notepad. I agree with him entirely!

Anonymous said...

I hope you were wearing your red scarf too? For a little more excitement.

Like the witch hazel. I think here are others that have flowers first, eg, pussy willow and that other yellow one, forsythia?

Dr Roy Wood, hey? That’s Wizard. I wonder if he would give an opinion on my fried fingers and skinned toes?

Yes, well done, Madeline, with ‘cataloguer’; not a perfect clue in my eyes (if someone would like to explain?) but it surely has to be right.

Why is it that when I first go downstairs (about 8.30 today, Sun) the birds are active and as soon as I put out food for them they disappear. Ungrateful little sods (I don’t mean that).

I like the Charlie Rangel quote, and the Diego Rivera.

Today (Sun), I have to skin and paunch a hare for the freezer. It has been hanging for 12 days which should be enough (ideally it would have been a little longer had the weather remained cold).

Your Friday remark about overgrown schoolboys reminds me that, when in my late teens, I decided, as a pontoon player, to stick on 19. I haven’t changed my mind since.

Friday’s ArtDaily led to 3 excellent videos: 1) 1st Movement of Beethovens Symphony No 5 (the ‘V’ for victory symphony) conducted in beautifully restrained manner by Toscanini who kept up with the orchestra very well; 2) Paderewski giving Hungarian rhapsody No 2 everything; 3) my personal favourite, Dalida performing Besame Mucho (‘Kiss me again’ or, more correctly, ‘Kiss me a lot’). Not only does Dalida sing powerfully but she moves beautifully. Her performance of this song contrasts with the equally impressive, gentler and more romantic interpretation by Andrea Bocelli, a singer of whom I was unaware - but “The Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, 49, is the world’s biggest-selling classical artist, having sold more than 55m albums since Romanza was released in 1996”.
[ Andrea is partially sighted and his brother Alberto writes:
“When Andrea came home for weekends and holidays, we’d get up to all sorts. He was far more outgoing than me. Whereas I was cautious, he was fearless — a real risk-taker. He loved bikes, but with his eyesight deteriorating there was always the worry of an accident. Our father had this brilliant idea of buying us a tandem so we could cycle together. But Andrea would want to sit at the front, with me behind. If I saw an obstacle coming, I’d have to use my body to get him to steer us away. Our worried father would be watching us thinking that instead of having one son at risk, he now had two.
Andrea was definitely the one who’d get his way over things. We had this airgun, and we’d squabble over who’d play with it first. More often than not I’d let him. My mother didn’t like me being so submissive towards him, and one day she got so fed up with telling him to share the gun she got hold of it, broke it in half, and gave one half to him and one half to me. We never argued again. “]

Being no longer able to buy Morrisons’ Gold Label tea, I tried Tesco’s Finest (loose) which we both found disappointing. Last night, however, Sandra bought some (loose) Yorkshire Tea (which we tried years ago and did not care for) and discovered it makes a really good strong cup of what some would describe, not unreasonably, as ‘builder’s tea’.

Anonymous said...

I was nowhere near 'cataloguer' and think it was a rotten clue.....

Somehow I don't fancy your hare, Bungus. Do you 'jug' it?

Watched 'Messiah' - though I think Marc Warren is a good actor I still prefer Ken Stott in the role, and his deaf and dumb partner.

Do you thnk there re any builders anywhere that prefer Earl Grey? Perhaps they are too shy to admit it.