It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Soldier, not the campus organiser
Who has given us freedom to protest.
It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Somewhere over the rainbow goes the song
Yet my heart soars up high beyond even that
To a land I hear of once when my mind cried
For a soft lullaby can go unheard of in the night
But someday I’ll awake and make wish upon a star
Wake forever where the clouds are far behind me
No matter that my troubles melt like lemon drops
As they fall away upon the tall chimney tops
I’ll always be there waiting for you to find me
As bluebirds fly so high over the rainbow in the sky
Why oh why, can’t you fly there and be with me too
Yet my heart soars up high beyond even that
To a land I hear of once when my mind cried
For a soft lullaby can go unheard of in the night
But someday I’ll awake and make wish upon a star
Wake forever where the clouds are far behind me
No matter that my troubles melt like lemon drops
As they fall away upon the tall chimney tops
I’ll always be there waiting for you to find me
As bluebirds fly so high over the rainbow in the sky
Why oh why, can’t you fly there and be with me too
Silvered animate shapes reflect the moons light
Cast long blue shadows that now herald the dawn.
With solid ground underfoot, ethereal musings overhead
The earth lays a path for free, chosen hearts to follow
I follow the path though I do not know the way
I follow the path though I do not know the reason
I follow the path because I must not lose sight of you
For I am destined to follow wherever your wake moves
For I never forget you are ever the last warmth before
The world must awake into the stillness of winter
Cast long blue shadows that now herald the dawn.
With solid ground underfoot, ethereal musings overhead
The earth lays a path for free, chosen hearts to follow
I follow the path though I do not know the way
I follow the path though I do not know the reason
I follow the path because I must not lose sight of you
For I am destined to follow wherever your wake moves
For I never forget you are ever the last warmth before
The world must awake into the stillness of winter
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
24th Nov 2010
Been a busy couple of days at work while BSI were in checking we haven’t been naughty. All about ERICPD and for you that don’t know (which is most I’m guessing,) ERICPD is an acronym and stands for:
Eliminate
Reduce
Isolate
Control
Personal Protective Equipment
Discipline
Or the other acronym
Plan Act Do
PLAN -Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the expected output. By making the expected output the focus, it differs from other techniques in that the completeness and accuracy of the specification is also part of the improvement.
DO - Implement the new processes. Often on a small scale if possible.
CHECK - Measure the new processes and compare the results against the expected results to ascertain any differences.
ACT -Analyze the differences to determine their cause. Each will be part of either one or more of the P-D-C-A steps. Determine where to apply changes that will include improvement. When a pass through these four steps does not result in the need to improve, refine the scope to which PDCA is applied until there is a plan that involves improvement.
See how fabulous my life is...oh well they’re not back till April so let focus on that.
I haven’t done very much on here lately but I haven’t forgotten. Hope you like the picture of Robbie...he's 1 in a week. See how the time flies by
Been a busy couple of days at work while BSI were in checking we haven’t been naughty. All about ERICPD and for you that don’t know (which is most I’m guessing,) ERICPD is an acronym and stands for:
Eliminate
Reduce
Isolate
Control
Personal Protective Equipment
Discipline
Or the other acronym
Plan Act Do
PLAN -Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the expected output. By making the expected output the focus, it differs from other techniques in that the completeness and accuracy of the specification is also part of the improvement.
DO - Implement the new processes. Often on a small scale if possible.
CHECK - Measure the new processes and compare the results against the expected results to ascertain any differences.
ACT -Analyze the differences to determine their cause. Each will be part of either one or more of the P-D-C-A steps. Determine where to apply changes that will include improvement. When a pass through these four steps does not result in the need to improve, refine the scope to which PDCA is applied until there is a plan that involves improvement.
See how fabulous my life is...oh well they’re not back till April so let focus on that.
I haven’t done very much on here lately but I haven’t forgotten. Hope you like the picture of Robbie...he's 1 in a week. See how the time flies by
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
16th Nov 2010
It must be the time of year but it is hard to get motivated in the morning. I don’t have any problems getting up but going to work that’s another issue. It is so tempting to think about putting another 2 crumpets in the toaster and saying ‘the hell with it.’ Well I guess till the bills began to roll in.
I think I’ve begun to hit the wall health wise – you know that time in your life when everything just doesn’t work or behave how it used to. Whether that’s teeth, hearing, sight, aches and pains or a bad back (I got them all now.) I only thought of it because at the weekend I was cutting down the Gunnera and covering the crowns to protect them from the frost. Got a bad back now….should have paid more attention to how I was doing it. But you know we think we can go on the same old way as before however old we get.
I’m still writing my sequel to Lord of the Rings; albeit slowly. But no matter the speed I am enjoying it. Not posting anymore of it...you’ll have to wait for the book. We need hobbies to soothe our thoughts in a world gone mad and getting madder every day...because where’s the pig gone to? Well won’t find one in the Early Learning Centre anymore that’s for sure. You might need to look that up
It must be the time of year but it is hard to get motivated in the morning. I don’t have any problems getting up but going to work that’s another issue. It is so tempting to think about putting another 2 crumpets in the toaster and saying ‘the hell with it.’ Well I guess till the bills began to roll in.
I think I’ve begun to hit the wall health wise – you know that time in your life when everything just doesn’t work or behave how it used to. Whether that’s teeth, hearing, sight, aches and pains or a bad back (I got them all now.) I only thought of it because at the weekend I was cutting down the Gunnera and covering the crowns to protect them from the frost. Got a bad back now….should have paid more attention to how I was doing it. But you know we think we can go on the same old way as before however old we get.
I’m still writing my sequel to Lord of the Rings; albeit slowly. But no matter the speed I am enjoying it. Not posting anymore of it...you’ll have to wait for the book. We need hobbies to soothe our thoughts in a world gone mad and getting madder every day...because where’s the pig gone to? Well won’t find one in the Early Learning Centre anymore that’s for sure. You might need to look that up
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
November 9th 2010
Well here we are in November so soon…the clocks have gone back for winter so it is now dark at around 4.30pm. No more trips to the garden after work. All the little monsters have now hung up their Halloween costumes and bonfire night came and went rather like a damp squib. I heard a few fireworks but nothing like the 1812 overture some years bring. Drove to the Lake District over the weekend and took the road down from Keswick to Windermere. (This is one of my favourite roads in the National Park.) It takes you past Thirlmere, Rydal Water and Windermere The colours this autumn are rich and vibrant with high yellows and polished ochre bronzes. Simply stunning and I got the feeling I might never see it so wonderfully coloured again. I could live here and every day would be another chapter in the continuing episode of Lord of the Rings. The Lake District is a magical place. No more so than the Highlands or mountains of Wales are but they are pretty remote and not easy to get to from here.
Garden is now settling down for the winter. The new pond is full (and overflowing,) I’ve chosen the next trees to trim and got my fleece and hay ready to cover the tender plants against the frost. That’s going to be Sunday work from here on in.
News is mostly the pantomime, cyclical financial stories (it bad, no it’s good, no it’s bad again,) or new lows in violence against people. One gets the feeling that the news misses lots of the grim stories and instead seems obsessed with the endless talent shows and soap operas rather than news. If you ask people they tell you they don’t want doom and gloom all the time but it seems to me that some of the media is pandering to the lowest common denominator all the time. Am I a grumpy old git or what?
Check out these websites
http://www.stevebulman.f9.co.uk/cumbria/keswin_f.html
Alamo Car rental have just voted the route from Keswick to Windermere the 3rd best route in Europe beating the legendary Amalfi drive which only merited 12th place!
http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=A591
Well here we are in November so soon…the clocks have gone back for winter so it is now dark at around 4.30pm. No more trips to the garden after work. All the little monsters have now hung up their Halloween costumes and bonfire night came and went rather like a damp squib. I heard a few fireworks but nothing like the 1812 overture some years bring. Drove to the Lake District over the weekend and took the road down from Keswick to Windermere. (This is one of my favourite roads in the National Park.) It takes you past Thirlmere, Rydal Water and Windermere The colours this autumn are rich and vibrant with high yellows and polished ochre bronzes. Simply stunning and I got the feeling I might never see it so wonderfully coloured again. I could live here and every day would be another chapter in the continuing episode of Lord of the Rings. The Lake District is a magical place. No more so than the Highlands or mountains of Wales are but they are pretty remote and not easy to get to from here.
Garden is now settling down for the winter. The new pond is full (and overflowing,) I’ve chosen the next trees to trim and got my fleece and hay ready to cover the tender plants against the frost. That’s going to be Sunday work from here on in.
News is mostly the pantomime, cyclical financial stories (it bad, no it’s good, no it’s bad again,) or new lows in violence against people. One gets the feeling that the news misses lots of the grim stories and instead seems obsessed with the endless talent shows and soap operas rather than news. If you ask people they tell you they don’t want doom and gloom all the time but it seems to me that some of the media is pandering to the lowest common denominator all the time. Am I a grumpy old git or what?
Check out these websites
http://www.stevebulman.f9.co.uk/cumbria/keswin_f.html
Alamo Car rental have just voted the route from Keswick to Windermere the 3rd best route in Europe beating the legendary Amalfi drive which only merited 12th place!
http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=A591
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
A thousand years passed without note...
Long since did the fellowship of the ring part company in the Grey Havens. Gandalf, Frodo and Bilbo set sail with the high elves unto Valinor whilst the hobbits left behind returned home. Samwise Gamgee and Rosie, Pippin and Merry are now but distant a memory of the hobbit consciousness. The songs sung in the Green Dragon of the heroism and valour that saves Middle Earth from Sauron now long forgotten. Hobbits themselves are a now fading race that inhabits the hostile margins of middle earth shunning contact and readily able to hide from those they are wary of. To you or me they would seem but a rustle in the undergrowth, or a flash of brown akin to a hare that is disturbed in the grass. Yet make no mistake, these reticent creatures suffer no fools. So warned then take note and leave them be; for they are a fading race and will suffer the long road ahead for no-one less than a descendant of the king.
The king had indeed returned at the end of the third age and with him came once again order and a return to the pastoralist notions that Hobbits so welcome. After the world mourned the passing of Aragorn and the noble, beautiful Arwen their half Elven kin took control of middle earth and for the first centuries the world was renewed and all rejoiced in the peace that settled therein. The shadow had failed utterly at the end and it retreated behind the impenetrable passes of the east to gnaw on its defeat and brood for millennia on revenge.
So what now of the Elves and Dwarves, Hobbits and Ents and Men and Orcs? Here is the story of the fall of all to the shadow that ended the fourth age of middle earth...but it is not the part of this story to tell of the intervening years through this age. Of the great, enduring peace and the swift rise of men to now take dominion over all others in middle earth. But in the end men faltered and waned despite the promise shown at the inception of all they created. So it is now as the world changes and once again a dread creeps into the forests and plains that the shadow has again returned does the story begin.
The autumn was advancing borne aloft on the demise of summer. Long shadows crept across shorter days and the Mallorn long bereft of Galadriel’s care cast down their foliage and held up their boughs to the western wind. On such a day came three wanderers from the west and their rainment was of the hues of fall. Long bronzen cloaks swept away the leaves at their feet and their hooded features shrouded old, grey eyes. For once again the Istari had come to middle earth.
Long since did the fellowship of the ring part company in the Grey Havens. Gandalf, Frodo and Bilbo set sail with the high elves unto Valinor whilst the hobbits left behind returned home. Samwise Gamgee and Rosie, Pippin and Merry are now but distant a memory of the hobbit consciousness. The songs sung in the Green Dragon of the heroism and valour that saves Middle Earth from Sauron now long forgotten. Hobbits themselves are a now fading race that inhabits the hostile margins of middle earth shunning contact and readily able to hide from those they are wary of. To you or me they would seem but a rustle in the undergrowth, or a flash of brown akin to a hare that is disturbed in the grass. Yet make no mistake, these reticent creatures suffer no fools. So warned then take note and leave them be; for they are a fading race and will suffer the long road ahead for no-one less than a descendant of the king.
The king had indeed returned at the end of the third age and with him came once again order and a return to the pastoralist notions that Hobbits so welcome. After the world mourned the passing of Aragorn and the noble, beautiful Arwen their half Elven kin took control of middle earth and for the first centuries the world was renewed and all rejoiced in the peace that settled therein. The shadow had failed utterly at the end and it retreated behind the impenetrable passes of the east to gnaw on its defeat and brood for millennia on revenge.
So what now of the Elves and Dwarves, Hobbits and Ents and Men and Orcs? Here is the story of the fall of all to the shadow that ended the fourth age of middle earth...but it is not the part of this story to tell of the intervening years through this age. Of the great, enduring peace and the swift rise of men to now take dominion over all others in middle earth. But in the end men faltered and waned despite the promise shown at the inception of all they created. So it is now as the world changes and once again a dread creeps into the forests and plains that the shadow has again returned does the story begin.
The autumn was advancing borne aloft on the demise of summer. Long shadows crept across shorter days and the Mallorn long bereft of Galadriel’s care cast down their foliage and held up their boughs to the western wind. On such a day came three wanderers from the west and their rainment was of the hues of fall. Long bronzen cloaks swept away the leaves at their feet and their hooded features shrouded old, grey eyes. For once again the Istari had come to middle earth.