The whole week has been like a stroll through Narnia. I almost expect to see a lamppost and a faun if I stay out long enough and I’m almost sure there’s a wicked ice queen somewhere nearby! The snow on the branches is traced along all the contours to a depth of 2 inches and although it looks frozen on the limbs, a gentle prod cascades it airily down to the ground. We have had little wind and it is incredible to see all the trees looking like this. But boy, its cold...officially colder than the south pole on a couple of days! So don’t you worry about the Emperor penguins trying to keep their eggs warm think of us poor northerners trying desperately to keep our pies warm; not easy balancing them on your feet? Which brings me to that old southerners joke? “What is a Lancashire kebab?” the answer is “2 pies on a stick!”
Not that I’m eating many at the minute as I seem to have had a touch of food poisoning which is luckily getting much better now. Not sure what caused it though but suspecting a meat pie from the pie shop near work, but who knows what is floating around at the minute in this frozen ether? I took Thursday and Friday off work

If I could...in this weather I think I should live like a hobbit in a large dwelling cut into a sandy bank overlooking a rural scene. I’d sit by the fire on these freezing days of winter toasting crumpets by a roaring log fire till spring. Ah well; I’m toasting lots of crumpets anyway (hobbit hole or no!) and trowelling on slabs of the best butter in the world. It is Normandy Sea Salted Butter and it is a salted churned butter made from fresh creamy Normandy milk with the added tang of a little rock salt. To a Frenchman, Isigny in Normandy is synonymous with fine butter. It's held in such high regard that gourmets and gastronomes have been singing the praises of Isigny butter since the 15th Century. It isn’t very healthy though so go easy. Remember ‘a little of what you fancy does you good, but a lot will kill you!’ A 10g serving provides...cal 73, fat 8.0g, sat fat 5.4g, salt 0.2g, total sugars 0.1g.

Enjoy the pictures – 1 is of the garden from a distance and I circled the rough outline. Hope you have a good weekend.

5th Jan 2010

Well the New Year has come in on icy wings that have unfolded to hurl torrents of snow downward. I left my car at home and walked to work (3 miles) this morning as I could see the day was not going to improve and it hasn’t. It took 45 minutes and it has been a long time since I walked to work, or remember snow so thick and deep, clinging to the tree branches like a shadowy silhouette in white. It is stunningly beautiful though; in the brief way that urban snow is, till the cold and the damp turn it to grey. I took some photos of the trees as I thought it might be a long time till I see them like this again. I’ll put them on the blog so enjoy the photos of the trees at my work. The heavy snow is passing south this afternoon so hopefully tomorrow everything should have returned back to normal. Mike took some photos also today and I’ll put some of them on too
Hope you are having a good start to the year and at least we can remember that the days are lengthening and soon the cold will pass and spring shall be upon us once again. All my best wishes

1st Jan 2010
Another year and also another decade begin and I wonder what shall they bring? Strangely enough as I grow older the big wishes and drams lessen and much smaller visions suffice. Just yesterday I couldn’t have known that today I would be standing in the centre of my frozen pond during a snow shower. I did have visions of it cracking under the strain but it held. One never knows what tomorrow will bring? The things we experience are not always good things but they are always challenging.

I’ve had10 days off work but it feels like only a weekend has passed. I had loads of plans and projects but they came to nothing in the end. Some because I couldn’t get motivated but all the outdoor jobs were stopped due to frozen or snow covered ground. We had a white (snowy) Christmas and New Year.

Nick got me a higher definition camera for Christmas so maybe you’ll see a difference in the pictures below. I took a picture of a wasp queen nestled in the garden shed doorway. She's got a light sprinkling of snow but I blew it off before I closed the door.

Happy New Year

Had a lovely Christmas morning which started with a walk around the lake in the snow. We have had a white Christmas this year and it was postcard perfect with crunchy white snow and blue skies. I took some pictures on my camera phone (so excuse the lower quality.) See the bacterial ice marks on the lake. We fed the ducks and geese and admired the decorated trees. We stopped for coffee and mince pies halfway round so that was in effect the Christmas day breakfast. Cooked dinner when I got back home. Nick made a delicious parsnip soup and then a lazy day was enjoyed by us watching all the not so funny comedy shows. I made a little snowman for the table but we forgot him and he sadly melted in the heat of the kitchen.

A swirl of robes red and white

To take winter dreams to flight

Santa is coming to visit us all

Young and old, large or small

As Christmas white sweeps in

The merriments can now begin

Warm hearths, food, and hearts

At last the holiday truly starts

Our eyes looking to childhood

See thoughts only ever good

We reveal our happiest faces

We are Christmas saving graces

So take this season and rejoice

Find again within; your inner voice

Friends are presents already open

Take the gift; life’s precious token

The one born this December week

To gather all, the placid the meek

He walks among us in various guises

Always in truth; there are no disguises

No matter the word a religion uses

He loves us all equally; never chooses

So think him often and ask a favour

Of our Lord Jesus Christ the saviour

The merriest of Christmas wished to you

To last another whole year through

Next week we begin yet another year

Until then rejoice, this is no time for a tear

Amy Winehouse faces police probe on alleged abuse at panto
(I think the keyword is alleged and who said panto had got boring)

 Amy Winehouse is facing a police investigation for allegedly lashing out at a theatre manager after subjecting panto actors to a stream of abuse.

The troubled star is said to have disrupted a performance of Cinderella by heckling the cast.

She is later alleged to have launched a physical attack on a member of staff at the theatre in Milton Keynes, Bucks.

The Back To Black singer was said to have shocked children and parents by shouting "He's ****** behind you" during the performance and yelling out "****** Cinders, Prince Charming, marry me".

Refusing to sit down, she also branded the Ugly Sisters "*****", The Sun reported.

According to the paper, she later launched herself at front-of-house manager, Richard Pound, allegedly pulling his hair, punching him and kicking him between the legs.

Her outburst was said to have exasperated stars of the show, including Fairy Godmother Anthea Turner, comedian Bobby Davro, playing Buttons, and actor Mickey Rooney, as Baron Hardup.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: ""No arrests have been made and the incident is being investigated

Clarissa Dickson Wright on Rifling Through my Drawers

Singing Animals

Hope you enjoy this

Inward I can gaze on my life’s works

Surely twas lived in hope and peace

I had brought something to the world

And to those people who intertwined

Around my soul it was a union of joy



Yet outward all I see is an exodus

Slow movements away across time

Into the hush of a quieter tomorrow

For now am I lost to my great works?

And you cannot ever now save me



Clocks stop for I shall never choose

Which lifeline I shall reach out to

So I will tarry a little while longer

Floundering in the blackest of seas

Till time and its fickle tides turn



Sweep me away and out to sleep

Receding the physical into reverie

Yet my memories tarry evergreen

While I still see the lessening shoreline

Yet must fade forever as I sink to oblivion



And my last thought in time shall be

How I wish that I could have let you see

All the dreams and the hopes I had stored

For us, for the world, for all eternity

That every word said and written was true



Even though it never came to fruition still...

I would see you all again one day I pray

A flicker of remembrance lights the end

Of this journey into the unfolding rebirth

It is your gentle faces and it brings me peace

Subject: Postal Scam

As Christmas approaches crime unfortunately usually increases. One initiative by enterprising fraudsters’ has already caught a large number of unsuspecting members of the public. As a result, the Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a Premium rate number).

DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize.

If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £315 for the phone call.

If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 020 7239 6655. Please be on the look out for this scam as the busy Christmas delivery period approaches.

Just in case you have problems with Photosynth

Enjoy this 360 view of the garden...

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=3d1dacaa-0aa4-418d-97d5-fdd39856decd

The sun’s declination nears completion

Soft sunny days lie on watercolour mists

With the low suns and cold days know

The awakening of our world to rebirth

Is closer, yet still long months to come

Thoughts of such a world comforts me

For when can we ever grow if not now?

I grow with every revolution of the earth

My life dances with the cycles of the moon

Slender, slight crescent to full and bright

Radiating my path with a silvered light

Its touch tells me I am alive and full of joy

For only the universe derives my destiny

And that you are part of that destiny is all

That I shall ever need to remind me

That you are so, so very special to me

However long we have been friends

Thank you for the love and attention

You have always given without thought

I love you in all ways that are within me.

Some with my life, some with my very soul

For us special and loved have found each other

To share and grow in joy in a harsh world

My world is yours to take and all my hopes

I Share with you, my friends…it is forever.

And in finding the world, then so it rewards us

With larks, trumpets and peace of the eternal

For we are the blessed, we have the world

In all its sweet scented, glorious greenery

And always at Christmas, we have each other.

The waking world arrives in cooler textures

New days come scented with heavens aroma

Carried by wind through a dappled glade

To whisper…“You shall never be alone”

For December new doors open in the wind

And this day calls softly on misty breaths

I hear its music clearly; it is alive with you

For our humble worlds, whatever the season

Shall always be spoken in perpetual springtime

Your touch on my heart and soul eases the Winter

My new Fat Man valve iPod dock and amp - it took a few days (and a call to the store) to figure out that the remote control switches on the dock but i have been impressed by this. (It was cheap too.) That valve sound is like no other. So a great product and lovely, glowing valves.  Funny how they've made a comeback? What next a revival of the black and white television. Will we say it has a better picture? Funny thing nostalgia and hyperbole

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

This is cool...check out the card.

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=0212320003

Mike forgot to moisturise today

The gang waiting for the return to the cruise ship

The cruise ship food prep area was second to none

Think i'll stop making fun of my relatives now....because despite my humour they are a great nation and such a friendly people. One day I am going there to see where my mum was born.

Truth is we can never square the circle in a lifetime; no matter how we might try!

We are slowly, (some might say rapidly) de-evolving backwards because we have reached a human limit on; not our technology, but the inability to harness it for common good.

In the end it is our fallibility wrought from emotion that will hold us back from enlightenment. We can never attain anything worthwhile while we lust and hunger for wealth and power because in their pursuit, we are all capable of doing such very terrible things to both each other and the natural world.

Currently I am reading the autobiography of Clarissa Dickson Wright. She was a woman with a huge amount of honesty and grace under duress. It is hard to stand up and tell the truth but I guess it is a sign we have made peace with the past and any demons that need exorcising.

If I had 2 people to invite to a dinner party both she and Jennifer Paterson would be at the top of the list but I’d be doing the cooking. They could just relax and tell me lots of stories.