We were at the oriental buffet yesterday because Mary is a fussy eater and the buffet serves up some of the few things she's willing to eat ( Read more... )

I think the word "Solstice" and I hear the breathy, hooty sound of rams horns in my head. They are being blown by white bearded chaps (like me, like me!) wearing white robes of and wreaths of oak leaves- no-  wrong time of year- wearing white robes and wreaths of holly and mistletoe- while the sun rises over a very special stone or between two very ( Read more... )

"One of us," says Ailz- looking at me with a penetrating gaze-  "is going to have to put up the Christmas tree today...."

Yes, well, the front room is mostly clear of clutter now. I just need to vac in there and it'll be back to something like normal. Time to get in the mood....

Edwin Morgan's "The Computer's First Christmas Card" pops into my ( Read more... )

Time was when whistleblowers got called "traitors", had to run for the shelter of some foreign country, did prison time, had car accidents on little travelled country roads- and all that kind of thing. Now they flit from studio to studio- ex-FBI men, goverment insiders, veterans of secret programmes- or so they say- and no man's hand is raised ( Read more... )

I've written before about Mad Jack Fuller (1757-1834)

He was a hard drinking country squire who dotted his estate with follies and had himself buried under a dinky little pyramid in Brightling churchyard.

We were driving round the Sussex Weald the other day and going down one of the few roads we hadn't been down before when I spotted this.


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In the next room Ailz and Damian are talking about scrap metal. Lead, says Damian used to have real value, now, because it's toxic, it has none. This, I suppose,  is good news for churches and other historical buildings with roofs which won't be worth stealing any longer ( Read more... )

Picture Diary 75

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Because of the state of the kitchen- which is just about usable but full of workmen during daylight hours-  we're eating out more than usual and I'm beginning to tire of restaurant food ( Read more... )

Mike and Su and Sej were coming to see us every other week and then things happened and then other things happened and we haven't seen them in ages. Ailz says it's six months; can it really be so long ( Read more... )

I watched Ross Coulthard (who actually knows a great deal about UFOs) talking to a reporter on the ground about how local politicians were going, "We wanna know what this is about" and the alphabet agencies were going, "Haven't a clue, mate" and the big government people were going, "We don't know anything either but trust us there's no danger,' ( Read more... )